Haul Time! Ulta and Walgreens!

So Lovelies, there was a community yard sale this past weekend in my neighborhood! For those of you who don't know what that is, basically the community advertises and if you want to set up shop in your front yard, have at it! There's a lot of traffic that comes through and it's a good time to get rid of unwanted junk stuff!

I set out some jewelry (thanks everyone who gives me earrings as gifts, but MY EARS ARE NOT PIERCED, so I'm trying to make some money on it lol), shoes, nail polish, CDs, DVDs, video games, etc. and actually made a good little bit of cash! So, it was time to boost the American economy and go shopping!:)

First stop was Ulta. Oh, Ulta, how I love thee. I didn't really go for anything specific, just did a little browsing and left with the following:

1.) The China Glaze Magnetix polish in Drawn To You
2.) The Magnetix Magnet (sidenote, really?? $10 for each?! Can't there be some bargain deal or something! I suppose the bright side is, you won't need to buy it again with other magnetic polishes, but still...)
3.) Piggy Polish in Envy (for my Skittles Mani;)
4.) Orly polish in Out of This World (which to me looks slightly similar to Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl. Curious to see how they compare in swatches!)
5.) A new bottle of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (yes, I already have some; but I had the extra money and thought I'd pick up another; this is not something you want to run out of at an inopportune time!)
6.) Revlon Lip Butters in Sugar Plum and Gum Drop. (yes, I tried lip butter before; yes, I really didn't like it. But I've read some other reviews of girls who also didn't like Strawberry Shortcake [the one I had] and tried some other flavors and liked it better. Soooo, Revlon, I'm giving you a second chance. Plus it was buy one get one 50% off!) And I got to use my $3.50 off $10 or more coupon! I think all together I saved $7.25!! Yay! Bargain!:)

Then, I had to run to Walgreens. While there, I wandered through the makeup section (honestly, I could be at Walgreens for ANYTHING, medicine, tampons, a card, whatever; I always have to walk thru their makeup. I think that's why they put it so close to the front door, they know everyone will;)

You may recall during Christmas time I was obsessed with the Sinful Colors Extra Shiny Lipgloss and had to go to a couple different Walgreens to find them. Well! There's a limited edition *new* Sinful Colors lip gloss out there now! Lip Shine Lip Gloss--and they're all super glittery! I picked up the one that looked silvery called Crystallized! I hope when I do my full review I'll be able to get good enough pictures to show all the glitter! This was a dollar more than the regular lip glosses in December, so I'm hoping I'll love it as much or more!:)

Anyway, I picked up that and also got a new Sally Hansen Nail Art pen. My last white one went kinda crazy with my Skittles nails. Started leaking all over the place and whatnot!:( Now, at some point I want to do a whole comparison review of the Sally Hansen pens versus my Migi Nail Art pens... if you have opinions on the two, leave them in the comments!!:)

Have you done any shopping lately?? Picked up any new bargains?? And what do *you* think of Revlon lip butters?? I know they've been released in the UK now, so you British girls should even have an opinion!!:)

Wet 'n Wild Baking a Cake Review and Swatches

My latest obsession has been the Wet 'n Wild's baked eyeshadow in "Baking a Cake" (you'll remember when I bought them and gave a quick comment about them in this post). Anyway, I've been using the palette almost exclusively for the past few weeks and I LOVE THEM!!! Like, I can't even say enough good things about how wonderful they are!! Now, I've mentioned that I'm a fan of baked eyeshadows and I really like Hard Candy's---this selection even far surpasses that!! For instance, even with eye primer, oftentimes I'd have the Hard Candy shadow still crease and fade away on my eyes--Wet 'n Wild? Lasts ALL day. This morning, I forgot to put my primer on (okay, confession, sometimes I do my makeup in the car in the parking lot at work and I'm usually in a rush!) and the Wet 'n Wild shadow stayed perfectly in place all day long!

Now to rewind a bit, these are carried at Walgreens, but not EVERY Walgreens. I'd watched a few YouTube girls before I purchased them who'd said you sometimes have to look around a bit and even visit more than one Walgreens to find them. I figured I'd have to browse a bit, but I nearly missed seeing them altogether!! There wasn't even a display case, the holiday palettes were all just stacked together sideways near a number of other random beauty products! But it was well worth the search!!!

Here's the swatches I did first dry then wet:

The colors are all perfectly blendable, layerable, and usable for every occasion!! They all have a shimmer in them (light glitter/sparkle) which I really like, but may not be for everyone. (however, since it is a holiday palette, everyone can use a little shimmer around the holidays!:) I'll get some pictures of eye looks I've been using lately and will post those for you soon! It came with an eye pencil, which I know some people didn't like a whole lot (saying it was waxy). I think it works just fine--sure, it's not necessarily the quality of a high end eyeshadow, but it works great.

So you may be wondering how do I use the eye shadows wet? Some people use water (using a spray bottle just to moisten them; or dip the applicator in water). I read one time that bacteria can end up in the shadows using regular water (don't know if that's true or not; but I'm not sure I want to take my chance). The article I was reading went on to say that eye drops (like Visine) work perfectly. That's what I've been doing! The plastic lid comes off the shadows, put a couple drops of Visine in the cover, dip the applicator, and away I go! No eye infections ever!

Run to your nearest Walgreens, look around a bit, and pick these up! They're $4.99 and come in three different color combinations (Baking a Cake [pinks], Baked Not Fried [browns], and Bake Off Contest [blues])--get them while you can!! I'm hoping to get back to Walgreens and pick up Baked Not Fried before they're gone! :)

xoxo,

TGIF!

Wow, this has been one of the longest weeks in a while! Even though it's Friday, all day it felt like Thursday--kind of like the week that would never end! Work has been busy and has taken a lot out of me. I laid down for a little nap after work and ended up sleeping for almost three hours! 


I'm very excited about the weekend though! (aside from catching up on some much needed sleep). I'm going to tea with some of my best girl friends tomorrow! Not just regular tea, but actual formal sit down tea with little sandwiches and sweets, etc. SUPER excited!! I hope it's not a letdown:)


In beauty news, there are a few things on my "to buy" list. I've seen several reviews on YouTube now regarding Wet 'n Wild's holiday baked eye palettes! I *love* baked eye shadow--wear them wet or dry! The ones I have in my current rotation are from Hard Candy (surprise, surprise)--their Kal-eye-descope Baked Eye Shadow Duos

Apparently the Wet 'n Wild ones are only at Walgreens and only certain Walgreens. A lot of girls have had to try several stores to find them, and even then some of the stores that were selling it were sold out already. So I'm gonna look around this weekend and see if I can find them:) I think they've got some special holiday nail polishes out as well that I'd like to try.

The other product I'm going to pick up is thanks to Karen at Beauty and Makeup Blog! e.l.f.  has nail polish remover pads for $1!! (sidenote, how wonderful is, like, almost EVERYTHING from e.l.f.) She says they work great on non-glitter polishes. So I'm going to pick some up and see how I like them. Then I'll let you know!