"Makeup is a supplement, not a requirement"

~missglamorazzi

Haul- MAC, Inglot, Sephora

OK, before I get started, I thought I would let you all know a little about how I shop. I shop mostly online, through recommendations. I watch a lot of videos, and when I see something I like and want to try, I put said item(s) in my basket and wait, usually about a week. That week gives me time to think and consider and decide if the item is really something that I can see myself using. Sometimes I'll see something great in a video and I'll be like "OMG! That's Awesome!" but in reality, it's not something that I would do or wear. My eyebrows are a good example of this. I don't do anything except getting them waxed, pluck the strays, and use my fingers to groom them the direction I want them to go. So while I'll see really great eyebrow tutorials, brow products just aren't something I would sit down and use enough to make the purchase worth it. If, at the end of the week(ish) waiting period, it's still something that I want and will get use out of, I check my budget(which I'm terrible at sticking to, but I do try) and if it fits, I'll purchase it. If it doesn't fit, I'll just wait till the next month.

As with all things, shopping online has its pros and cons:

PROS

• Because I'm usually after specific items, that's all that I grab. I'm saved from seeing and lusting after everything in the store. You know how grocery stores stack like, 50 types of gum right at the register? It's cause they want you to buy some gum. Even if you don't need it, you see it sitting there and you're like "oh, well I might get around to using it" even if you already have a pack in your purse. And so you buy more than you intended.
• I don't spend gas money. My closest Sephora is about 150 miles away. MAC, the same distance. LUSH, about 200 miles. A decent mall, 68 miles. Gas where I am is currently 4.09. I'm saving a ton of gas money. And I don't end up spending that gas money on shipping, because I can usually find sales and coupons online that will eliminate shipping.
• Coupons. retailmenot.com gets a lot of traffic from me. I don't carry coupons in my purse, nor do I go coupon hunting in newspapers or elsewhere. BUT. Before I make every online purchase, I check for coupons. I can usually get free shipping, and sometimes get a certain percentage off of the whole sale.

CONS

• Color swatches aren't as accurate online. They just aren't, and that's all there is to say about that.
• There's not as much people interaction. Sometimes, interaction makes the trip as good as the shopping itself. Not to mention, people watching. So I miss out on a bunch of that.
• Explaining all the packages to my co-workers. A lot of the companies send through UPS or FEDEX, which has to be shipping to my company and signed for at the front desk. I'm usually never there, so one of my co-workers signs for it. And they're always asking whats in the packages. Well.... One time I told them. They just didn't get "it". Now I tell them crazy things like, 'it's porn magazines" or "I'm ordering part to build a bomb" or something else crazy. And you know whats weird? They're way more accepting of those answers than when I told them the truth. Seriously, what is with THAT?! anyways...

So I've decided that the pros outweigh the cons. When I really absolutely must go to a store, I make sure it's in conjunction with a trip that I've already got planned, so as to save fuel. Gas prices are just crazy.

ok! On to the haul! I ordered a bunch stuff and it started arriving today so I figured I would write this as I got the shipments. By the time I publish it, all the shipments will have arrived and been written about.

First up is MAC. I've been buying from MAC for awhile. I just love their packaging and quality. Now, you really do end up paying for that quality. Their prices are crazy! but I really have loved all the purchases that I've made from MAC. Well, most of them anyways. there's a few that I haven't warmed up to and that I just swap away.

• MAC Prep+Prime Face Protect SPF 50. This is a sunblock, a primer, and a moisturizer(maybe?) all rolled up into one. Normally, I apply Shiseido's Ultimate sun protection lotion SPF60, then juice beauty's oil-free moisturizer and skip primer altogether just because of the weather out here makes me feel so "ick" about putting on a ton of stuff, and usually I don't have the time while getting ready for work. When I do use primer, it's Too Faced Primed and Poreless. So I got MAC's prep+prime to try out and see how well it did at rolling all three steps into one. I almost started writing a whole initial impression on this and then realized I was doing it, so I stopped. I'll do that in like a week or two. The only thing I cringe about with this product is that it's very pricey. It's like... 30.00 for 1 fl oz. If this product turns out to be awesome, I'll have to do some math and see if it's cheaper or more expensive.
• MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in light. I've always been experimenting with foundations cause I haven't found a HG foundation yet. I've tried a few other MAC foundations as well as their tinted moisturizer and just haven't hit on anything that I really like yet.
• MAC Paintpot in rubenesque. I already have one of MAC's paintpots in the color bare study. I just love it. It's really creamy, a lovely sheer wash of color, and it acts as an excellent primer. I grabbed this color after seeing a bunch of tutorials using it. The color is kind of bronzey pink and I am so looking forward to using it.
• MAC CUTiE limited edition 4 eyeshadow pallet. I just really liked the colors. One is a kind of a darker pastel purple, one is a light sheer pastel purple with shimmer, one is a light sheer pastel pink, and the last is a sheer pastel green-white. On swatching, the color payoff isn't as great as I'd hoped, but the colors are very light, airy, spring colors.
• MAC Sheen Supreme lipstick in supremely confidant. I saw this used as the lipstick in a really awesome nude lip video and grabbed it to try out. I really don't like statement lips- I prefer to go with neutrals, so if this color works out for me, I can see myself getting a lot of use out of it.
• MAC Lipglass in C-Thru. A nude gloss to go with the lipstick. I forget if this is the same one used in the video or one I grabbed myself.

Next up is Inglot. I've never ordered from them before, but I've heard so much about them. I'm always seeing them in tutorials, hauls, etc and always, always, Always hearing amazing things about them. They're a Polish brand and they have a really amazing system called the "Freedom System". With the freedom system you can pick out of all these different kinds of pallets- there's different eyeshadow pallets, blush pallets, lipgloss pallets. By different I mean you can get like, two eyeshadows, or four, or five, or ten, or twenty. And you can choose between square or round eyeshadow pans. And in the actual stores you can get a pallet that mixes shadows and blushes and glosses so one pallet will have like, five eyeshadows, two blushes, and two lipglosses. Anyways. So after you choose what pallet you want, you get to go through and select the shades to put in it. They have a HUGE selection of colors and finishes. I think there's five(don't quote me) different eyeshadow finishes, and a couple hundred different colors(again, don't quote me!)

Beyond just having a massive variety, their prices are very affordable, and they go down the more you buy. I know that's just a trick to get you to buy more, but the shadows are seriously inexpensive. One MAC eyeshadow refill costs 11.00 and has 1.5 grams of product in it. One Inglot shadow costs 4.50 and has 2.7 grams of product in it. So you might be thinking that the quality of Inglot sucks to get the prices so low? Not so. The quality is retty awesome. I haven't used them on my eyes yet, but I did go through and swatch a few of the colors I grabbed. The color is really intense and vibrant and gorgeous. So gorgeous. I cannot wait to use them. Oh! And another comparison! A MAC empty 15 pallet will put you back 15.00. The Inglot 20 pallet says it's 25.00 on the store, but once you get all your eyeshadows to fill it, the price drops down to 5.00. I really loved that.

• Inglot 20 square eyeshadow pallet. I kinda needed a spot to put the eyeshadows. The eyeshadow pallet is really unique, too. My MAC pallets feel, honestly, really cheap next to these. The MAC ones are plastic, with a hinge top. they're plain black. These Inglot ones are...wow. Incredibly sturdy. I wouldn't drop them on purpose, but if I did, the shadows might crack, but I have complete confidence that the case wouldn't. the lid is also unique. It's a clear frosted sheet the size of the bottom that has INGLOT printed diagonally across it, and it has four magnets, one on each corner. The magnets are fairly strong and hold the lid in place with no problem. in fact, the way to remove the lid is not to yank it up, because of the magnets, but instead you're supposed to slide the lid off.
• Inglot 10 square eyeshadow pallet. The price on the 10 also dropped to 5.00, so I grabbed one of those as well. It's sitting empty at the back of my nail polish drawer right now, but I'm sure it'll get filled soon enough. I may pull my favorites from the 20 pallet and throw them into the 10.
• 20 square eyeshadows. Normally, when making a first purchase of a new brand, there is no way I would make it such a large purchase. However. Because of all the rave reviews and positive feedback, I was completely confidant in making this purchase. I'm not going to list all the colors right now because... well, there's a lot. I'll be making a review later and I'll talk about all the different colors then. Honestly, based off of just swatches, pricing, and reviews, I can see myself switching from MAC to Inglot for all my future eyeshadow purchases.

And last for this haul is Sephora. I usually hit sephora for odds and ends. Various things. They have a huge brand list and consequentially, a huge product list, so I can usually find whatever I'm looking for directly on their page. And they give free samples!

• I grabbed two nail polishes from sephora. First is a deep bright purple with a little bit of an iridescence called Just a Little Dangerous. The second polish is more of a topper. Not a topcoat, but between the second coat of color and the topcoat. It's a clear polish with a TON of different sized copper flakes in it and it's called Traffic-Stopper copper. I cannot WAIT to try it out. I just did my toes yesterday, but I might have to redo them sooner than normal to try out this polish, because it is just so pretty.
• NARS blush in Deep Throat. I got their Orgasm blush awhile ago and loved it, so when I started seeing hot reviews on Deep Throat, I figured I'd grab it as well.
• Benefit 10 box. It's a box that has bronzer and highlighter in it right next to each other. The idea is that you use the brush provided, sweep across both colors, then onto the cheek to contour. I haven't done any contouring, always afraid that I would jack it up. Then Blair did a video guide on it, it seemed pretty foolproof, so I thought I'd pick it up and give it a shot.
• Bobbi Brown Treatment Lip Shine SPF15 in Desert Rose. I saw this in a guide and wanted to try it. I put it on right out of the box and so far, not too bad. I like lip products, I do. I just don't like feeling them on my lips. This is one that I'm not really feeling, but at the same time it gave me some color. We'll see how it goes, and I may be writing a review on this later.
• Benefit BAD Gal Liner in extra black. This is probably one of those products along the line of my brow product rant at the very top. I do use liners, but I use gel liners to tightline, and that right there is my HG of lining my eyes. I'm not sure how I'm going to work this product into some use.
• Samples! I don't normally list my samples, but I'm kind of excited about a couple of them so I thought I would. The Body Shop Mango body butter, Carols Daughter Rosemary Mint purifying shampoo and conditioner, Benefit Girl meets Pearl, and Clinique pore refining solution correcting serum.

And that's it! Really big haul, I know. I'll be writing reviews on a bunch of the products.

Bath Bombs!

So I've never used one before, but I've been liking the rest of LUSH's stuff so far and since they have a really large inventory of bath bombs, and those all seem to get great reviews, I thought I'd try out a couple bath bombs. Now, I gather the concept is to drop the bomb into the bath as it's filling, and it's supposed to disintegrate into the water and make the bath absolutely epic, while at the same time making the skin super soft and yummy smelling. We'll see. I got these all and since they were kinda expensive for one use items, I'm gonna open them all and cut them down.

Initial Impressions!

Mmm Melting Marshmallow Bath Melt -ok. This isn't quite a bomb, it's a melt. Supposed to have oils and moisturizers in it. On opening it, it smells really sweet, like strawberries. And some vanilla. And marshmallows. I put it on my little cutting board and cut it down and... well, the product feels powdery. It cut ok, but it kinda crumbled at the same time. Anywho. It smells fantastic, and left a sugar sweet smell on my hands after handling. In addition to all the tasty smells of strawberry, vanilla, marshmallow, and sugar... I feel like I'm detecting a hint of the Fairy godmother Soap scent. Anywho- Moving on.

Mrs Whippy - Uhm. This is way more powdery than the other one. It's uhm.... Like powdered sugar. very fine powder. It arrived and the outside shell had kindaof already crumbled away pretty badly. In the picture you see a white swirl... well thats just a soft outside shell. Inside is a harder pink Ball. I tried to cut this one down and couldn't the outside just crumbled away, and the inside was incredibly hard. The smell... Sort of a sweet baby powder, with strawberry and a hint of cinnamon. There's kindof a smokey, almost musky scent to it, but not overwhelming like some more mature perfumes.

Blackberry -Woah. ok. I just opened it and sniffed it... It is a MUCH more masculine scent than the other two. The other two were definitely girl bombs, this one could be marketed to boys. It's not a hardcore male scent, but definitely not as foufou as the other two. And this one, just like the last one, couldn't cut down. It seems the actual "bomb" part is a incredibly hard ball.

Whipstick - Not a bomb or melt. I've been mixing the double choc and honey trap so much and kept thinking how great it'd be if I mixed them. Well whipstick seemed to be pretty much that- a mix. So i got it to try. I applied it and yeah, it's pretty much a mix of the two. A hint of color, and lots of moisture.

 

...ok. Time to go take a bath!

 

LUSH - Continued

ok, so I used everything else (except for the shampoo) this morning and am ready to provide an initial review.

First up-

Buffy

This is an exfoliant and a moisturizer. I used it as the very last item in my shower regime this morning. I started by rubbing it on my skin, then slowed down. When it says it exfoliates, it means it. I doubt there is actual glass in the bar, but wow. It's very rough. I suggest doing a light sweep over limbs, then rubbing the resulting moisturizer and exfoliating goodies all over with your hands. Be... gentle. Moving on. After the shower, I was left very soft. Very, very soft. It's awesome. And my trouble spot with dryness- my tat on my arm, is soft and moisturized. It's awesome. I'll update after work when I see if it lasted.

American Cream

Uhm. Honestly, I'm not too impressed. I'll give this a couple more tries, but like I said- not impressed. My hair is a bit easier to manage, but not by a large amount. There's not as much of a yummy smell as I was expecting- more a dusty vanilla than anything. I'm really just meh about this product.

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I'm gonna take a moment and talk about Ultra Bland some more. I used it again this morning. I had a MASSIVE hormonal acne cyst on my forehead. massive, red, inflamed, GROSS. After using Ultrabland the first time, it went down CONSIDERABLY. I was shocked. I used it again this morning and let me tell you, it's looking even better. Now it's just down to a regular size. Inflammation is completely gone. Redness is down. The only noticeable bit about it now is a little scab where I picked a bit(I know, I know, not supposed to do that)

If this cleanser continues to perform like this, and manages to prevent my from even getting any hormonal acne next time, this is going to become my holy grail product.

LUSH

Ok, This is slightly different than doing a single product review. This is just my (pretty much still initial) review of all of LUSH. At least, everything that I've tried so far. I'll admit, I haven't tried everything. I haven't ventured into the realm of bath bombs yet, so nothing on that end. There are a bunch more products that I haven't tried yet, but I'm not gonna bother listing them. This is about the things that I have tried.

As a side note, one of LUSH' big things is that they're all vegetarian and vegan and whatnot. I really don't care too much about that, I'm just liking the yummy smells and the effectiveness of their products. That said, here's my feedback on the products I've dabbled in.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="My LUSH Collection"][/caption]

1. The Godmother Soap

When I let the sales lady know that I was "a lush virgin" and that I liked fruity smells, she led me to this soap. It smelled absolutely delicious. I was a little torn between the godmother and Honey I Washed The Kids but I settled on this one. I ended up buying a good sized chunk. The whole chunk came wrapped in some paper, like when you buy custom cut meat from the butcher. I purchased a soap tin from them also and cut off a tin sized chunk from the main bar with a knife. I lather it up on a loofah and I end up with a really decent amount of lather. It smells delicious, leaves my skin squeaky clean, and makes my bathroom and room smell awesome.

2. New Shampoo Bar

I'm gonna be totally honest. I was baffled by the idea a solid shampoo. My "wtf" meter was all over the place. But I was hearing good reviews, so I decided to try one. I got this bar because of the awesome cinnamon smell. The first time I used it I was blown away. It just smells amazing. I got my hair wet, ran the bar over my hair a few times (honestly, the first time I did it about 5 or 6 times. Now, only 3 or 4) and lathered up. The lather from it is crazy. Especially considering that it's... a bar. lol. I'm so used to having a blob of liquid shampoo be necessary for a lather that I was shocked by what happened with the solid. But anyways, it makes me hair clean, smell like cinnamon, and makes it really soft when it's dried. The only downside I've got so far with it is that when my hair is still wet and no conditioner has been used it's really... tangle-y. Rough. Difficult to handle. It's fine when it dries, but a conditioner will help with handling when it's still wet.

3. Ultra Bland

Ok, I've only used this once. I got it this afternoon and used it when I got home, so I've only got the one use to go off of. My review for this everything else has been a week or so- this is... just the one time. My initial impression is that it seems greasy and is difficult to spread out on my face. There is no lather from this product. And when trying to rinse my face off, it was really difficult to rinse off, leaving my face feeling like it had a film on it. The up side is that my face is clean and now, a few hours later, my skin feels uber, uber soft and silky. I'm going to try it again tomorrow and see how it goes.

4. Buffy

I haven't used this yet. My skin always seems... ashy. dry. Gross. So I got something that says it will exfoliate and moisturize. I can't wait to try it.

5. American Cream

I got a conditioner to go with the shampoo bar that I got earlier. I haven't been able to use it yet, I'll be trying it for the first time tomorrow and am super excited.

6. I Love Juicy

A bottled shampoo that I haven't tried yet. I got it with my initial purchase because it smelled yummy and fruity, but haven't gotten around to trying it because of how much I've fallen in love with my shampoo bar.

Some new lippies

I ordered a new fragrance, one I've wanted for FOREVER and along with it, I ordered three or four new lippies. I'm so excited to try them all out. I'll be posting reviews on them after I've tried them all out.

Liberty of London

So I got my couple of items from MAC, the liberty of london collection. First item- a really pretty blue grey nail polish. The second item was a highlight- a really pale, good for my skin color, shimmer, without being too shimmery. The third item is a gel eyeliner. I got a brown because black was just too bold. Hopefully it turns out good on testing.

New product, and sunless tanner review

So I tried out the snless tanner. Uhm.... not bad, I guess. The first few things you're gonna notice when you open it is this: it smells, it's REALLY thin and runny, and it's shimmery.

Now, the smell isn't entirely unpleasant. I personally love coconut smell. Anywho. it starts out smelling really yummy and coconutty and whatnot. But I put it on, let it dry, and then went to sleep. When I woke up it did NOT smell coconutty, not at all. It smelled.... kindof like my skin smelt after putting on that tanning stuff and then getting on the tanning bad for 15 minutes. A little like.... well, burnt skin. The thin runny consistency isn't too bad. However, it does sink in a dry like, crazy fast. Way faster than normal drugstore tanning lotions(I'm thinking jergens) It doesn't leave any "lotion" texture, any slickness, any stickiness. None of that nonsense. It sinks in and then the only texture there is, is your natural skin. I love that. Because it sinks in so fast, only work on my section of the body at a time. be sure to spread it out and rub it in quickly. On to... the shimmer. I've never had a shimmer in my sunless tanner before, so seeing it on the palms of my hands was... quite a shock. Rest assured, the shimmer on your body is not as scary as the shimmer on the palms of your hands. On the palms of your hands it's scary and shimmery and really really shimmery. Once you spread it out on your body, the shimmer is noticable only as that "glow" that you see on the tanned legs of Victoria's Secret models. After putting in on everywhere and checking myself out(I did. many times. from different angles) I gotta say that I LOVE the shimmer. It's just... perfect. Longevity of the tan.... uhm. Well. it's a gradual tanner. I only used it for the one day, but I believe I did see a bit of coloration after I had rinsed the product off(about 12 hours later) it didn't really last long, but one application isn't meant to. Will definately be using again. Unknown if I'll purchase again. I'll have to see how the rest of the bottle turns out.

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Ok. As for what I got. I got a blush. I'm not really big on blushes cause to me, some of them are scary. But, I've seen a lot of reviews and heard that this one turns up very nice and natural, especially on fair skinned people, like me. So i got a box of benefit Sugarbomb, and am going to try it out. The box is cute, it comes with a little brush, and has a totally minimal amount of shimmer. It does have a scent, but it smells like.... roses. Not unpleasant.

sephora package

Ok, so my package from sephora finally arrived. They ship by usps and I guess they take longer than normal. Anyways. It arrived!

Inside was the sunscreen, some sunless tanner that had pretty good reveiws, and three samples.
Just as a note- sephora Always sends samples with Every order! They've got a page of like, 15 random samples, and you get to choose 3 of them when you place your order. No extra charge or anything.

I have tested out the sunscreen, and here's my initian review: It comes in a really cute bottle with a snap top. The bottle seems a bit small at first, but once I opened it and saw the texture I realized that this should last me a really long time. The texture is very thin, esp for a spf of 60. The thin texture is pretty nice for spreading. It does feel a little "powdery" as it dries, but not in an unpleasant way. The powder feel does Not turn into a powder look, it just feels a little powdery to my hands. There is absolutely No sheen to this sunscreen, its not shiney or greasy or wet when it dries. It does smell. Not like sunscreen either. Its a lot more of a perfume smell.
Now, I know that shiseido claims that you need to get their special face wash to remove this(it is VERY water resistant) but I didn't order it because I figured it was a gimmick. And I was right. It came off of a test patch on my arm with just my regular face wash.

Next item is the sunless tanner. That I have not tested yet because I had read reviews stating that it had a really string smell and I am at work. I'll be trying it this weekend and I'll put an update here.

MAC package

My mac package arrived today-yay! I tried everything as soon as I opened it and here are my initial opinions:

The lip conditioner is amazing. It makes my lips soft and smells fantastic. The color, which I was a little concerned about, is very sheer and turns out very nice. A light pink nude shade that is a very little bit glossy and enhances my natural color and adds a little bit of shine. Its not thick or heavy and doesn't "run" down onto my skin like some do. My lips are normally very chapped and just using it for the few hours that I have I can tell the difference. A lot of the reviews I read didn't like that it was in a pot- I personally love pots. I like knowing exactly how much I'm putting on, and with my finger I can also feel exactly where its going on.

Next is the suntints liquid lip balm. I tried that right after applying the conditioner and I love that also. Its a very "rich" feeling gloss, not really thick, but definitely more substance to it than the conditioner. I loved how it felt and looked on top of the conditioner. Again- an absolutely amazing smell.

Third is the fix+. I'm not so keep about the smell. Its not a bad smell, but, I dunno. Its not entirely pleasant like a bunch of the reviews raved about. The spray is weird and will take some getting used to, to ensure even application. It does feel nice, like the mist from a sprinkler on a summer day. I'll have to use it longer to be able to provide a review on benefits and this "dewy" look that everyone raves about.

Last is the mascara(zoom lash) I dunno. I wasn't too impressed on my initial use. It seemed a bit difficult to apply and refused to go on even. Whatever. Ill give it a week or so to decide.

Packages enroute

I ordered a few things and they're enroute. The first package is from MAC. I ordered them like, a week and a half to two weeks ago, but because of the storms out there, it's taking them quite a bit to ship me my stuff. The second package is one from sephora.

-MAC-

-Zoom lash in lofty brown

-Tinted lip conditioner spf 15 pot in petting pink

-Suntints spf 20 lip balm in pink tinge

-Fix+

-Sephora-

-Shiseido Ultimate Sun Protection Lotion SPF 60

-Too Faced Tanning Bed In A Tube 

-Samples-

-Zoom Lash in Black

-Peter Thomas Roth Oil-Free Moisturizer

-Lacoste Essential Eau de Toilette

-Zirh Clean

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Those should both be arriving sometime next week. Now, most of the items I have heard and read Great reviews on, specifically the sunscreen, fix+, sunless tanner, and the lip conditioner. A couple of the items I got pretty much to try out, and hope that they work good. I do know that mac always seems to get fantastical reviews, so I always expect really high quality stuff from them. And sephora sends out TONs of free samples and free shipping with their stuff. I'm really excited to get all that stuff and try it out. yay!