Haulin' It!

 

I recently finished up a few makeup items (an empties post coming soon!) so I treated myself to a little online Sephora order after lusting over some items, and got around to using a gift card Apothica they so kindly sent me!

Sephora:

Tarte Clean Slate Deluxe Primer Trio

$9.00

I've wanted this for SO long but every time I was going to take the plunge and make an online order it was always sold out! I'm on a bit of a primer kick as you'll see and I thought this was a great way to dive into the wonderful world of Tarte makeup without completely committing to a full size product, which can be pricey. I'm very happy with the size of these samples, they will last a while (especially the eye primer)!

Smashbox Master Class Eyeshadow Quad in Hazel
$10.00

Another brand I'm trying out for the first time, I knew I couldn't pass up $10 for a quad filled with nicely sized shadows and really wearable colors for the fall! The packaging is quite annoying though, its rubberized and picks up every little thing left on my vanity, making it quite grime-y.

Smashbox Master Class Eyeshadow Quad in Brown
$10.00

Again, I had to grab both of these since they were such a good value. Unfortunately, mine came completely shattered so I'm awaiting a replacement in the mail along with another item that came ruined.

Fresh Prime & Glow
$10.00

This has been an item I've seen at Sephora for a while so being primer obsessed right now, I added it to my order. I kid you not, these are SO TINY. I went to squeeze the Twilight primer to see how much shimmer was in it, and seriously half the tube is air. Plus I'm not the biggest fain of rose scents, so I don't know what I was thinking, if I wore these I would have a headache within the hour. Definitely returning and getting my $10.00 back, so not worth the money for a tube of freakin' air!

Fresh Happy Birthday Sugar Kisses Mini Lip Duo
FREE

Every year Sephora gives its Beauty Insider members a free birthday gift, and I was so excited to get this year's since it was actually a nice sized sample! Unfortunately mine arrived at my door completely melted, so I have a replacement of that on the way as well (I don't know what I'm going to do if it comes melted again, couldn't they just tell my local store to give me one?!). I will say that these smell exactly the same as the EOS Lemon Drop Lip Balm.

Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow/Liner in Silver Spoon (not available anymore)
FREE with coupon code

Ahh, my favorite part of ordering anything online, COUPON CODES! I wasn't expecting anything other than a little sample, but much to my surprise I discovered a full sized Creaseless Cream Shadow! Cream shadows are my thing, so I'm super excited to try out Benefit's formulation at no cost to me!

Benefit Dr.Feelgood Mini
$9.00

Surprise, surprise, ANOTHER primer! But I did my math with this baby when it arrived to see if I got ripped off since again its tiny. The mini Dr.Feelgood is .28 oz. for $9.00 and the full size is .85 oz. for $29.00. So if you bought three minis it would only cost you $27.00 and you'd have .84 oz. of product, so THANK YOU Benefit for not selling crappy minis. Besides, if I like this I would probably still only buy the mini since its travel friendly and I'm a bit OCD about wanting to replace my products after I've had them for a while! Did I mention the retro packaging is to die for?

Sephora Prisma Chrome Eyeshadow in Moon Beam
$5.00

These are on sale right now, so if you want one go grab it! I figured adding another neutral lid color to my collection couldn't hurt, especially when its only $5.00. The Prisma Chrome Eyeshadows have such a weird wave pattern on them. They swatch beautifully, but I couldn't quite build up the pigmentation to where I wanted it when I used a brush to apply, so I'm still playing around with this! I do wish this came wrapped in plastic or something because the black casing is already completely scratched.

Samples:

Lacoste Eau De Lacoste Blue Eau de Toilette

I think this is marketed towards guys, but it was the only perfume sample available at the time and you can really never go wrong with them since they're great for travel. The smell almost reminds me of when you walk into Hollister? Very strong and manly, but hey I'd still wear it!

Bumble and Bumble Hairdresser's Invisible Oil

I figured this would make a great opportunity for a review, you get a nice sized sample so you can use the oil a couple of times and really get a feel for how it works. Bumble and Bumble has been talked about a lot, I'm pretty excited to try this out!

Cover FX CoverFX Clearprep FX Matte Foundation Primer & Anti-Acne Tretment Gel

As you should know by now in this post, I'm a sucker for a primer ;). This one is interesting because it claims to help with acne as well, I'll have to put it to the test!

Apothica:

Stila All Over Shimmer Liquid Luminizer #1
$21.80

HOLY GRAIL STATUS RIGHT HERE PEOPLE! I am the pickiest person when it comes to highlighters, I can't stand it when they're too pink, too gold, too beige, too stark white, too shimmery, not shimmery enough. Because of that, I have about two highlighters in my collection, both of which I never use as they fall into one of the categories above. I thought I'd get this on a whim because the packaging looked pretty (don't we all fall victim to that...) and literally jumped for joy when I opened this. Its the PERFECT color, not beige, not too white, not too pink, not too gold, perfection in a bottle. Of course there's a catch...this has been discontinued. I looked on Stila's website and only the shade #3 is left in the sale section for $10. I guess they've re-vamped the product (and lowered the price tag?) so its called the same thing, has a different black top, BUT doesn't come in the same shades. I've never felt the pain of a discontinued item before, but then I realized I can just grab it from Apothica! I'm seriously going to buy another bottle, I never ever want to be without this glorious invention.

Stila Custom Color Blush in Self-Adjusting Coral
$20.00

The only way I could convince myself to get another coral blush was because this one claims to adjust to your pH balance, making a shade unique to you. I wasn't expecting this to be full of so much gold shimmer, and I also wasn't expecting it to be so close in color to MAC's Fleet Fast Blush from the Launch Away collection! I'll have to see if the "custom color" claims turn out to be true, otherwise I don't think it makes sense to have this and Fleet Fast!

CARGO Blush in Key Largo
$29.00

I've always been a sucker for bright blushes, and I probably always will be! I usually look over CARGO as a brand, which is funny because they were actually the first high end brand that I ever purchased a product from! Some of their blushes were really calling to me, so I decided to see if they were worth the hefty price tag. Key Largo was naturally my first choice as its a stunning pinkish red matte, and I'm pleasantly surprised with the quality! This blush is incredibly smooth, pigmented, and easy to blend. I've already got a list going of all the blushes I want from CARGO (Catalina, Laguna, and The Big Easy), they are fabulous!

Smith's Rosebud Salve
$7.00

This is probably my 5th little tin of salve, my other ones are from C.O. Bigelow so I needed to try the Smith's version. I'm not crazy about the smell, like I mentioned about the Fresh primers, rose gives me a headache but this is subtle. Unfortunately when this arrived it was completely melted into the cap of the tin, but I was able to save it by re-melting on my straightner!

Samples:

Peter Thomas Roth Max Sheer All Day Moisture Defense Lotion

 Both of the samples I got from Apothica are nice sizes, I always love squeeze tube samples as opposed to the ones in little packets. This is supposed to be your average face lotion with SPF 30 and its packed with vitamins, so I'll have to use it for a while and let you know if it has any benefits for my skin.

NUXE Fondant Body Scrub

I need to do more research on this brand as I've never heard of it before, but you can expect a review. One little note though, this smells a little funky, its supposed to have almost and orange flower petals in it, but it smells like nothing but plastic to me!