Sephora Haul: VIB Sale and Black Friday Discounts

Hello my loves,

I know I haven't been writing that many blog posts lately. I've got a lot of ideas but sometimes my heart is just not in it and I can't make it happen. I do try and post on my Instagram on a regular basis, so follow me there if you're interested in non-beauty updates. I haven't really been buying too many products for a while. Not only am I trying to save money and wearing less makeup on the whole but I've already got a pretty respectable makeup stash. But recent sales have been too good so I've dipped a toe back into the beauty world. There are also products I needed to stock up on (e.g. eyeliner) or add to my routine (e.g. skincare). I might share my other Black Friday hauls in a separate post but for now I wanted to share all the things I picked up at Sephora.

I placed two big orders at Sephora this fall. The first order was using the 20% discount from the VIB sale. The second order was taking advantage of all the sales around Black Friday. Let's start with the VIB 20% off part of the haul.

My skincare routine is basically nonexistent. I have really dry but usually blemish free skin. I've tried exfoliators and moisturizers and cleansers and creams and serums before but basically everything freaks my skin out and provokes breakouts and so I just settle back into having dry skin. Once in a while I do apply sunscreen or moisturizer but I don't do it on a regular basis. This is obviously a problem. I'm getting older and I need to start taking better care of my skin. I've tabled the sunscreen issue until I run out of my current sunscreen (La Roche Posay) but I decided to use the VIB sale as an excuse to try out a ton of products. The saleswoman at Sephora recommended the REN skincare line so on her recommendation, I stocked up on their products.

I picked up the REN Clean Skincare Evercalm Gentle Cleansing Milk for Sensitive Skin, the REN Clean Skincare Flash Hydro-Boost for All Skin Types, the REN Clean Skincare Vita Mineral Daily, the REN Supplement Moisturizing Cream for All Skin Types, and the REN Clean Skincare Micro Polish Cleanser. I'll let you know how I get on with all of them after a month or two. The only difficult thing will be figuring out which products are doing the heavy lifting (or causing any irritation) because I'll be trying them all at the same time.

I also purchased another bottle of my favorite Living Proof Perfect Hair Day Dry Shampoo. It'll be included in a Product Empties or Current Favorites post if I ever get around to writing it.

I got a pack of three Beauty Blenders in bright summery colors but I might return it. It was a decent discount for beauty blenders but I don't really wear foundation and I've heard that the AOA sponge might be a good dupe for a lot cheaper.

As a treat for myself, I got the Smashbox Be Legendary Lipstick and Lip Mattifier Set and the Huda Beauty Smokey Obsessions palette. The lipsticks are tiny but I go through lipsticks really slowly so I don't mind just having more colors to play with.

Sephora Extra20 Sale Haul

Hello my dears,

I am very late with this post but I've been distracted. I spent the holidays baking. I went to see the last matinee of Side Show. I have a new recapping assignment on TrashTalkTV. Most of the rest of my time is spent working and when I do have free time I'm usually dreaming up new projects that I will start and never finish. Oh, and of course my Lenovo adapter malfunctioned and almost electrocuted me on December 20 and I haven't been able to use my laptop since then. Anyway, enough excuses, let's get into the haul.

At the end of December, Sephora had an offer where all of their sale items were an extra 20% off with a discount code. I took the opportunity to try out the L'Occitane Almond Supple Skin Ritual Set which consists of a dry skin oil and an exfoliating soap.

This was the expensive item that convinced me to make this purchase. You know I have to qualify for that free shipping to place an order. I've heard a lot about L'Occitane's almond shower oil, as I'm sure you all have, but not as much about this supple skin oil. I tried the shower oil on the back of my hand in the store, and I think the supple skin oil is definitely thicker and doesn't spread as easily over the skin. I've been trying it fairly consistently so we'll see how it gets me through the winter. The scent is a lot like baby oil with something extra. I'll let you know if it's worth spending this much on.

The other item that really caught my eye online was the Urban Decay Pulp Fiction palette. I'm not a big fan of the movie. Actually, I've never seen it. I know. I'm a terrible person. But I've heard good things about this palette. I just wasn't willing to buy it at full price or at any of the other discounted prices I've seen it selling for since it was released. It's not a bad palette but the colors are pretty standard so I could only justify the expense at this price.

I recently swatched all my brown shadows to get a better feel for my eyeshadow collection and I didn't come across any dupes so I'm pretty happy with this purchase. We'll see if I can incorporate these shadows into any good looks.

My last big item was this Stila Merry and Bright Makeup Set. There was a Stila pop up in the city over the holidays and I think they might have been selling this there. Regardless, there was only one thing that interested me in this set and that is the Stila Convertible Color Blush in Tulip. I don't use cream blushes that often but Stila makes my favorite cream blushes. Also, I swatched Tulip and it's not a match for Stila Poppy. I haven't tried it on my cheeks yet but I'm not touching anything else in the set until I decide whether or not I like it. This one might go back to the store. I mean, it's a good deal at $20 since a regular Convertible Color Blush is already $25 but if I don't like the blush I don't have much use for the rest of the set. 

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.

Feast of San Gennaro Polish Haul

Hello peanuts,

Quick update first. I've been quiet for the last few days as there haven't been any sample sales and I am still struggling to edit photos for polish reviews that are ready to go. It is insanely frustrating sometimes to get the magic box to do what I want it do and give me color accurate photos to post. I am trying my best to get as close as possible to color accurate photos but I may just post the reviews without photos if the editing doesn't work out.

OK, back to business. This is a bit of an unusual haul for me. If you did not know, right now in NY we are celebrating the Feast of San Gennaro. It's an annual event where a bunch of vendors take over a small area in Little Italy/Chinatown. This year the event is taking place from September 11 through September 21. The layout generally doesn't change that much which is why I headed straight for the corner of Hester and Mott to check out the beauty bargains this year. And... I may have gotten a little carried away.

First let's start with the only non-polish purchase. I know I overpaid for these and I should have just gone to bornpretty. I don't know what I was thinking. 

I picked up a bottle of Essie First Base Base Coat as I've been struggling with staining for a while and I want to see if changing up my base coat will improve things. I used to use Milani's base coat and then I switched to Orly Bonder. All Essie products were $4 or 3 for $10.

I got a bottle of Matte About You because even though I don't do matte nails that much, you can never have enough Matte About You. I'm tempted to go back and get more bottles.

I also got Essie Grow Faster Base Coat to see if using something thicker than First Base would make a difference. There were some other Essie nail treatment products there like the Apricot Cuticle Oil but I didn't want to go crazy. If you have any recommendations for Essie base coats, top coats, or nail treatments though, please leave them in the comments.

Essie Shearling Darling. This polish is darker in person. Yes, we're going to go down the oxblood rabbit hole again.

Essie Blue Rhapsody. I want this to be Confetti Rhapsody in Blue so badly. It's not going to be but I'll be excited to try it out anyway.

290 Maybelline Purple Icon. This is darker in person as well. It's more purple. This photo makes it look like Essie Sure Shot, which I would love because Essie Sure Shot is one of my favorite polishes. 

270 Maybelline Dressed to Kill. Again, this one is darker in person. I couldn't resist the name.

Milani 552 Pink Flare. This polish is absolutely gorgeous in the bottle. I hope it's this beautiful on the nail. I'm very excited about this one. I'm not sure why but I've been drawn to pink, girly glitters lately.

OK, now I'm going to need some help. I have no idea what these Pure Ice polishes are named because the stickers fell off. I bought them anyway. I have a problem. I've never seen these polishes before as they are Walmart exclusive so I'm counting on one of you to know the names so I can do proper reviews.

This is a very pretty shimmery bright pink. I think there might be some duochrome shimmer. I have no idea what it's called. My best guess is Jamaica Me Crazy.

Superstar! You can't have enough white polishes, right? I'm always looking for a good cheap one as right now my favorite (Cult Nails Tempest) is way too expensive to be my go to white nail polish. 

Pure Ice First Love. I feel like this is going to be annoying but sometimes pearlescent polishes just call to me. I want to find that perfect mother of pearl shade.

Chloe + Isabel Sample Sale Haul

Hello bumblebees,

I received a request to do a haul post showing you what I purchased at the Chloe + Isabel sale I attended recently. The sale has unfortunately ended for those of you who might have wanted to shop it but you can still read my report here. 

Anyway, let's begin with the regular items I purchased from the inventory room. When it comes to jewelry, I gravitate towards earrings as I generally don't like wearing bracelets and really don't deviate much from the same styles of necklaces. But earrings are my vice. I did a jewelry collection post a long time ago and if you'd like I can try and film a video but that will probably take some time as my priority when it comes to videos is trying to figure out how to film nail art tutorials. But enough of that. I purchased four pairs of earrings at this sale. They were each priced at $10.

I purchased these large pewter pave hoops which are like a less refined version of my rose gold Alexis Bittar hoops. I kind of like the rougher, more casual look of these earrings. They're a good everyday pair. 

I think I'm also going to get a lot of use out of these adorable starburst earrings. I've been wanting starburst earrings like this for a while so I was so happy to find them at this sale. I think I might remove the pearl to make these look a little more expensive.

One of my favorite finds were these Sunset on the Seine Statement Studs. They normally retail for $34. I think they look so much more expensive than they actually were. It bugs me a little that they're the same earring. That is, instead of purchasing a left earring and a right earring, they seem to have sold me two lefts or two rights. Still, I don't think anyone will really notice and it was a fantastic deal.

I am in love with these Art Deco Trapeze Earrings. They normally cost $42. I think they're so chic as far as costume jewelry goes. I was tempted to get the yellow pair as well but I restrained myself.

I'm not really one for stacking rings or bracelet as I just find wearing a lot of jewelry to be heavy and extraneous but I think I'll be wearing this set of 6 Stackable Rings in one arrangement or another quite often. All six rings only cost me $10.

This Engraved Spinner Pendant Necklace is not just adorable but also lots of fun to play with. I can be a little fidgety and I expect that I won't be able to resist toying with this when I'm nervous. This is normally priced at $38 and only cost $20 at this sale. I think $20 is about the most I'd pay for a necklace of this quality.

Finally, I purchased a Tresors Moon and Star Charm which normally costs $32 for $10. I think the little star really pushes it to a must have item.

Now, for the haul from the damages room. If you'll recall from my review, all of the following items only cost me $10.

Most of the items I found don't seem to be damaged or are barely damaged. This rose gold pave branch bracelet seems to be in perfect condition, as does this tri-tone bangle set and sparkly stretch bracelet.

I also can't find anything wrong with this Tresors Horseshoe Charm or Tresors Birdcage Charm.

This Coral Branch Cuff is in fine condition even if the color is a little off. It isn't terribly tarnished and I'm sure I could polish it or soak it in some solution that would bring it back to its normal gleaming gold state.

The same could be said for this coral necklace which has all its stones but is slightly off-color.

These Nested Bellflower and Pearl Earrings seem to be in perfect condition.

Now I don't mean to suggest that there was nothing damaged in the damages room. This Stone Embellished Collar Necklace which I've actually been coveting for a while was thrown into the damages room simply because it's missing one stone. This is a bit ridiculous as a different version of the same necklace with a more complex pattern of colored stones was being sold for $40 as a statement necklace in the inventory room. I'm not going to complain, though. It shouldn't be too hard to find a rhinestone to fit the setting and until then, I have no problem wearing this necklace as is.