October Favorites!

September flew by, between school with it's commute, fall tv shows coming back, and work I felt like I barely had time to catch my breath. It's only going to get busier from here on out with deadlines coming up for school work, but I'm looking forward to it. Onto the favorites!

Mac Creme Cup lipstick + Mac Pink Lemonade lipglass - this has been a favorite lip colour combination this month, I've basically kept these two in my purse on a permanent basis.

La Vanilla Vanilla Coconut Rollerball - I love this scent, so tasty without smelling too cloyingly sweet. I think this is one guys would like, I tend to wear man-repelling scents (too masculine according to an ex) and this one is girly (or as girly smelling as I get).

Mac All That Glitters Eyeshadow - not pictured because I got tired of trying to wrestle this one out of my palette. I love this colour it's great on it's own for a no-makeup look and  pairs really well with Sable, Patina or Satin Taupe.

Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac - This has become my everyday purse, I love it so much. It's great for school because it's not too bulky to carry with my totes full of books but makes it easy to grab my wallet for coffee.

Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Coffee - In Canada we don't have Dunkin Donuts, which sucks because their coffee is a) Delicious, and b) CHEAP.  Well cheap compared to a pound of coffee at Starbucks anyways. Plus this tastes about a million times better. My mum goes to the states fairly regularly and I always ask for a couple pounds of coffee as payment for looking after the house/dog while she's gone. This time she brought back this new flavor and I'm in love. Honestly this is so good. If you haven't tried it yet, do so now. If you can't get any, I'm really sorry for your loss.

I've been trying to cut back on my spending habits as a) I'm working a lot less because of school so I'm kinda poor and b) I got a little out of hand this summer and need to pay back some credit cards. I'm going to declare October a no beauty buy zone and see if I can't stick with that.

Massive Highend Haul!

So on Tuesday I posted about returning my Sephora + Pantone brushes, and because I was in Toronto I stocked up on a few other products that aren't easily found in my area.

I picked up the Laura Mercier Oil Free Flawless Face Kit ($80CAD) from Sephora. It's a really good deal as you get two brushes to apply product with, the foundation primer, a tinted moisturizer, the undercover pot (two shades of concealer with the translucent powder) and a couple of applicator spounges with this really handy makeup bag. I'm really excited to test these out as I've heard amazing things about the concealer and the translucent powder. Laura Mercier is a rather expensive brand, their translucent powder retails for $45 for a full size one.

I picked up the Nars Laguna/Orgasm bronzer/blush duo which retails for $50. I forgot to take a closer picture of it, but I will post a review + swatches in a month or so once I've given it a thorough test drive. I've been using it for a few days and I have to say I love it so far.

 I also snagged a little travel version of Urban Decay's All Nighter Spray for $14 and cashed in 100 Beauty Insider points for a really nice sized sample of Benifits Watt's Up highlighter.

Unfortunately there is no Chanel counter near me (the nearest one is 45 minutes away) so I took advantage of the fact that I was right by one to pick up the Vitalumiere Aqua foundation in the colour B10. This is a rather expensive foundation at $49, but I've heard such amazing things about it from so many YouTubers I respect (Pixi2woo, Missglamorazzi, FleurDeForce) that I really wanted to try it. I've been using it ever since I got it and I adore it.

I also picked up a Coco Rouge Shine in the colour Boy that my friend Christine of Starry Eyed Beauty told me to buy when we did our shopping day together. I took her advice and bought this super pretty shade but almost had a heart attack when the lady rung me in. It was over $30 for a lipstick! I think MAC lipsticks are expensive at $18 but this was huge sticker shock for me. While I really like this product and packaging I just don't think I can justify spending that kind of money all the time on lipstick.

The bonus of buying my Chanel products at the Bay was that I received a $10 off with $50 spent in the beauty department gift card for my next purchase! I had also been given a $50 gift card for looking after my neighbors pets for a few days for my local mall, which thankfully has a Dior and MAC counter in the Bay.

So I just had to buy the Dior Diorskin Shimmer Star in Amber Diamond which retails for $45. This has been mentioned by just about everyone as an amazing highlighter that you can also use for your eyes and I've been lusting after this for a while. So I was $5 short and while the Dior Lipgloss in Sari Pink is on my wish list I really didn't feel like paying $30+ again for a lip product in a week. So I went over to the MAC counter and picked up the cremesheen in Creme Cup! I haven't purchased a MAC lipstick in so long and while I have a ton of things to depot so I can b2mac them I decided this was one of the least expensive beauty purchases I could make so I could get that $10 off.

I also ordered online these two palettes from Stila, the Rome and the French Rivera sets. These are an amazing deal as you get 3 full sized Stila eye shadows + a holder for $18CAD when a single eyeshadow retails for $22CAD. Rome is now sold out, but there are still four other sets to get. I'm on the fence as to order the other three sets as these are such a great deal. In the Rome set there is Kitten, Golightly and Java. The French Rivera set has Kitten, Grace and Mahogany. Yes I did end up with two kittens but as my friend A- said you can never have too many kittens. I prefer the French Rivera set to the Rome trio as I find it easier to wear during day (the colours are a bit lighter). Both are great investments though, I can see these becoming my go to palettes for weekends getaways, simple pretty neutrals. I'll post a review and swatches really soon as I've already taken the pictures I just want to wear them a bit before I post a full review.

I had quite a bit of sticker shock while buying some of these items (ahem- I'm looking at you Chanel, Nars and Laura Mercier) but I'm really happy I took the plunge and bought these products. I couldn't wait to try them once I got home and I'm loving every one of them so far. I don't normally spend this much money all at once on makeup, but as I'm planning a purchasing ban from September until IMATS and most of these products had been on my wishlist for months I figured I would get a good back to school shopping haul in.

Haul Post: Shopping with Starry Eyed Beauty!

Topshop necklace and lip glaze

So on Tuesday I went and met my friend Christine aka Starry Eyed Beauty at the mall and we did a big(ish) makeup shop! I kept myself pretty well in check and only bought a few new things to test out. I haven't seen Christine since we wrote our British History exam way back in April, so it was great to catch up!

First up is this adorable necklace from Topshop that we both got for $18. I really love wearing delicate long necklaces and this ones 3D shape makes is really interesting. I also snagged Topshop's lip glaze in bubblegum which was around $11. I've tried it once and it's not too sticky and the colour is really nice, but I thought Topshop was supposed to be cheap? I find their prices to be a bit much considering the quality of the garments... I do really like their accessories though for more trendy pieces.

 

Next up I bought the St. Tropez tanning mouse and mitt from Sephora. I try to avoid tanning in the sun because skin cancer runs in my family and I'm super pale so I burn really easily. I am getting really sick of people telling me I'm pale though, as right now I'm tan for me! I even had a sales girl at Origins scoff at me when I said that.  

Miss Glamourazzi, Fleur de Force and Elle Fowler have all raved about this self tanner and as they're all fair skinned girls I thought I would take the risk and try it. I will report back and fingers crossed I don't turn into anything resembling a member of Jersey Shore! The mouse is rather expensive, at $38 for the smaller bottle, but with recommendations from three of my favorite YouTube beauty gurus I figured I'd take my chances.

That little pink thing is the Sephora Precision Pore Cleansing Pad which retails for $7. It's a cute little exfoliater that works with your cleanser to scrub away dead skins. I've used it already and it's gentle enough for my sensitive skin, plus it feels a bit more sanitary to use than my body shop scrub brush for my face as this dries really quickly. 

Last but not least (and kind of out of focus... oops!) are the three things I bought from MAC! Now I only bought two with Christine because the MAC we went to had terrible service and kept us waiting for forever! I bought the 15 slot palette which I will give you guys progress as I fill it up as well as my first eyeshadow for it, All That Glitters. I've got some MAC eyeshadows to depot and I can't wait until I have this filled! I don't live near a free standing MAC that sells palettes so I've been putting off this purchase for a bit.

The other thing I bought from MAC I picked up on Wednesday which I had meant to buy but was too irritated to wait for them to help me find the product was the Cream Colour Base in Pearl. Amarixe used it in this tutorial and it looked so pretty and I don't currently have a highlighter so I took her suggestion and made the purchase. I can't wait to see how it looks with my daily makeup :)

I felt like I had a lot of bags at the mall, but when I gathered it all together to shoot it for this post I realized I hadn't actually bought that much. I'm really excited/nervous to test out the self tanner and after a couple of uses I'll be sure to post a review up!