Stila and I.T. Cosmetics Haul

Hello peanuts,

I thought you might like to see some items I recently purchased online. I don't know if it's enough to really call a haul which is why I put two shopping trips together in one post. I wasn't thrilled with the Black Friday deals this year/didn't have the energy to do a ton of research. If you're subscribed to company's email lists you can often find better deals throughout the year and you'll also be able to tell when you're getting a good deal. It's annoying to get those emails all the time but I think it's useful to know that the 30% off deal in the summer is better than the 20% off deal they're trying to push on you for Black Friday. Anyway, I made my purchases online through the Stila website and the I.T. Cosmetics website.

Let's start with Stila. They were offering 25% off and free shipping in the middle of November. Free shipping with no minimum on top of a discount is the kind of thing that gets my attention because it's so frustrating when your purchases don't meet that minimum and you have to weigh the pros and cons of adding more items that you don't necessary want/need or taking the hit by paying for shipping. My favorite Stila items are their blushes. I don't often use cream blush unless my skin is flaky or my makeup brushes are dirty but when I do, I reach for my Stila blushes. They are pigmented but they blend out really nicely. However, I have way too many blushes to test right now and I'm no wear near needing backups yet. I picked up two of their lipsticks in Ruby and Valentina in a recent 6pm.com haul which I am still currently testing so I wasn't feeling like picking up any more and besides they're still kind of expensive even at 25% off. So instead I headed for the eyeliner section. My other weakness! (Though really all makeup is my weakness.) I'm a gel liner girl. It's what I started out with and it's the product I find easiest to apply. But I've been hearing great things about the Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliners and it's difficult to find good colors among gel liners so I decided to treat myself to two of the shades. I picked up Midnight and Moss of course because I'm apparently determined to get green and blue liners from every brand in every formulation.

Stila Stay All Day Eye Liner in Moss

Stila Stay All Day Eye Liner in Midnight

I swatched them both and I've played around with Moss a bit. So far I find them pigmented though I think Moss was slightly irritating my eyelid. We'll see how they work out. I was able to draw a precise line with the sharp felt tip but I think I need more time before I've got really good control of the pen. Also, I'm really hoping this product stays true to the "Stay All Day" claim because lately all my pencil and gel liners are smudging on me.

I.T. Cosmetics was also offering a 25% off discount in mid-late November. By the way, I've stopped doing sale posts because I feel like other websites do a much better job, but let me know in the comments if you'd like me to resume doing small sale posts when I find out about discounts like this. I know everyone doesn't like to subscribe to a bunch of mailing lists. Anyway, it's hard for me to resist 25% off from I.T. Cosmetics when it's not sold at Sephora and doesn't go on sale through other retailers. But I already have enough of their concealer to last me a while, especially since I have so many concealers I need to test, and there's probably going to be another sale by the time I need to think about whether I want to repurchase. I've been on a brush kick lately (more on that in a later haul) so instead I decided to pick up one of their Heavenly Luxe Dual Airbrush Concealer brushes. It's a retractable dual ended concealer brush with one flat side for applying concealer and one fluffy side for blending it out. I often just apply my concealer with my fingers but when I use a brush I use my elf ones, particularly with the I.T. concealer since it's so thick and I wouldn't want to risk it damaging another brush. But given that they're from the same brand, I imagine this concealer brush is designed to work with their concealer so I'm excited to try it out. I know $24 retail is about the price of a M.A.C. brush but for me, this is a splurge when it comes to brushes.

It was very difficult to get into this packaging.

Both sides of the brush have caps covering the bristles. This is great if you're using one side and don't want the other side to get damaged when it's being stored but I think you risk damaging the bristles anyway as it's hard to prevent them from getting caught when you're capping the brush.

Only one side of the brush is retractable. When you extend the brush it covers the fluffy blending end. Of course when you put the cap back on, the brush retracts anyway.

Unlike with Stila I did have to add more to my cart to qualify for free shipping. I decided to go with two mascara minis as I'm still on my hunt for the perfect mascara and I have no opposition to minis because I usually hate the mascaras I try and a small size is fine with me given how little I use mascara before it expires.

Usually I'd open up the mascaras to show you the bristles but I want to be careful to not open these until I'm ready to start testing them.

Well, I hoped you enjoyed seeing this haul. Let me know in the comments if you've made any interesting recent purchases or if you braved Black Friday in store or online. Or just chat. I'm always here to listen.