A Haul to End All Hauls

This is the most collective of hauls.
Over the course of the summer and fall, I've picked up a couple of new products here and there. There have been many-a-shopping excursion over the past few months aside from my recent Sephora Friends & Family Haul.
I picked up a lot of great stuff that I am absolutely loving, and some other things that I probably could have forgone. 

The product I am loving the most are these MAC Pro Sculpting Creams, part of the Face & Body collection they released this fall. 

Top: Pure Sculpture & Coffee Walnut
Bottom, right: [top] Coffee Walnut, [bottom] Pure Sculpture

I first got the colour "Pure Sculpture" (left) which is the more reddish/orange tone. This product is actually very comparable in colour and texture to my beloved Chanel Soleil Tan de Chanel. However, for sculpting this was not a good colour match for me and I'm a little peeved that the MAC lady sold me on this. That being said, the second colour I picked up, Coffee Walnut (right), is an absolute dream! I also about this particular shade in my most recent Current Product Loves post. Coffee Walnut is a brownish/greenish shade and when applied to the hollows of the cheeks it just gives the most natural looking shadow. It's really a fantastic product and it was well worth all the hunting I did for it.

Another MAC product I've picked up is the 116 brush. 

I was looking for the 109 brush, but they didn't have it in stock and the MAC lady (a different one than the evil lady who sold me pure sculpture) offered up the 116 in replacement. I really like that it's a stiff, domed blush brush and I've gotten a lot of use out of it thus far. Happy purchase!

I had been dying to try the Too Faced Better Than False Lashes system, and in July, I finally picked it up for myself. 

This lash system is a 3 step process: first and third involved using the bigger gold tube of mascara to coat the lashes, and the second step is the "nylon lash extension." The application is simple and not too time consuming, it also doesn't take a lot of effort to get the desired look. My lashes definitely did look longer, so it worked! However, because of the fibres, my top and bottom lashes had a tendency to get stuck together when I blinked. It wasn't uncomfortable, per se, but it was definitely a strange sensation.

Too Faced Better Than False Lashes: this is the wand for the "nylon lash extensions" - you can see the fibres coating the wand

Two random baubles that I picked up were the Wet n' Wild Idol Eyes eye shadow pencil in the shade Pixi and MAC Studio Finish concealer in the shade NC20. 

I like them both, that's all I can really say about these. They're both pretty generic products. The WnW shadow pencil is really easy to apply to the eyes, and it blends easily, although I do recommend using a base and topping it with a shadow because it won't last long on its own. The MAC concealer is also really creamy and easy to blend and I have been using it mostly as an under eye concealer to help preserve the longevity of my beloved Bobbi Brown corrector. 

I've been a slave to my eyebrows lately and I wanted to try some drugstore eyebrow pencils. For days when I don't have time or don't want to spend the time filling in my eyebrows with powder (MAC Omega) I wanted a pencil for quick and easy touch ups. 

I picked the Rimmel professional Eyebrow Pencil in the shade Hazel and the Wet n' Wild Coloricon pencil in the shade Taupe. I won't be getting a lot of use out of the Rimmel pencil because it is way too orange for my brows/complexion. Unfortunately, Hazel is the lightest shade they have and the next shade up is way too dark. I do love the Wet n' Wild pencil though. Taupe is an ashy blonde colour and it works really well with my eyebrows. The texture of the pencil is very creamy/waxy (because these pencils are also meant to be eyeliners) so I find that it tames my brows along with filling them in. I wish that it came with a spooly on the end, but whatever.

I guess you can say I went a little blush crazy over the past few months.

I purchased my first two ever Topshop cosmetic products. I went for two cream blushes because I've heard the best things about those. I picked up the shades Head over Heels, which is a coral shade (definitely super easy to blend it out and make it more muted) and High Five, which is a bright pink shade. Both of these cream blushes are easily blended to create a flawless flush on your cheeks. I also finally caved and bought my first Tarte Amazonian Clay blush in the shade Tipsy. Tipsy is the most orangey/coral shade offered in the range, and I bought it on recommendation from Vivianna Does Makeup (as per usual). These blushes are super pigmented and definitely worth all the hype they get, in my opinion. I don't think I'll be able to get a lot of use out of this blush during the winter months because I get super pale in the winter I don't think I'll be able to pull off such a bright coral. But for summer, this blush was lovely.

REVLON KISSABLE BALM STAINS!!! I know, I'm probably more excited about these than any normal person should be.

bottom swatches: Charms, Honey, Cherish, Rendezvous, Adore

I was so stoked when these finally showed up in Canadian drugstores. Right off the bat, I purchased Charm, Cherish, Honey, and Rendezvous - brighter colours for summer, and Honey and Charm being more neutral/everyday shades that would have the most wear. Most recently, I picked up Adore, a deep red tube but the colour of the product itself is a lot more orangey/red, but still really nice. Here's a picture of me wearing it that I posted to my instagram:

As you can see, it's not the deepest red, but it's still wearable, especially this season.

Last up, L'Oreal Colour Riche by Colour Caresse (unnecessary long name)

The swatches are flipped
swatches [right pic]: Sunset Angora, Pink Cashmere

I picked up two shades: 171 Pink Cashmere and 176 Sunset Angora. I don't get as much use out of these as the Revlon Kissable Balm Stains, but I still do like these lip products. They are very creamy and they have better pigmentation than Revlon Lip Butters. They don't wear too long, maybe only an hour or two before they need reapplication. These are not to be confused with a tinted lip balm because they are not moisturizing nor are they forigiving on dry lips. The square gold packaging is very chic and I want to look into some of the deeper colours from this range for fall/winter.

WHAT A DOOZY

That was a long ass post for a big ass haul.
So that's a pretty good overview of the products that I've purchased throughout the summer, some that I'm loving and some not so much.

xoxoDarlingBuds

Sephora Friends & Family Sale HAUL

In terms of shopping, Sephora Friends & Family Sale is up there in my top 5 favourite shopping excursions. 20% off makeup that never goes on sale any other time...um, YES!
This year, I didn't purchase any of the "typical" products that I would usually go for. I didn't get any eyeshadows. I didn't get any blushes. I didn't get any nail polish. I know, strange. Needless to say, I'm super excited about the products I did get and I'd like to share them with you. 
Firstly, one of the great things about the Sephora Friends & Family Sale is that it occurs so close to the holidays therefore all of the brands' holiday kits are already on the shelves!
From Korres, I saw this unbeatable deal: two full size products for literally $5 more than one of the products would have cost alone. WHAT A DEAL!

This particular gift set is called the "Radiance Revealed Wild Rose Brightening Duo" which sounded right up my alley. It's comes with two full size products: Wild Rose daily brightening & refining buff cleanser (left) and the Wild Rose + vitamin C advanced brightening sleeping facial (right). I've been wanting to try the sleeping facial for a while now, and I almost purchased it on its own but when I saw this duo I just couldn't believe the deal. To put it into context: the moisturizer on its own is $62.50, this packaged deal was $69. AMAZING! I'm so excited to start using these products. 

Another amazing deal Holiday deal from Korres was this little bundle 3 full size Korres lip butters, in 3 different colours/scents. One lip butter on its own is $16 - $18). I only tested this lip butter out once on my lips but it was really really nice. I've heard so much about these lip butter from YouTube beauty gurus claiming them to be a miracle product for your lips. I finally caved and I'm inkling to see how they fair 

FINALLY I purchased the Nars smudge proof eyeshadow base that I have been eyeing for a long while(haha, get it? EYEing).

I'm happy to have all of these products in my stash now, especially the eyeshadow base because that have been a long time coveted product. 
Did you anybody else take advantage of Sephora's Friends & Family Sale??

Until next time, 

xoxoDarlingBuds

Optimum Points Haul

I love Shoppers Drug Mart and I love Optimum Points. If you don't know what I'm talking about, let me explain. Shoppers Drug Mart is a huge chain of drugstores in Canada. You can get all sorts of stuff there: prescriptions, tylenol, toilet paper, snacks, shampoo, face wash, and many drugstore makeup brands such as Maybelline and Revlon, etc. A couple of years ago, Shoppers added a "Beauty Boutique" section of the store where they sell high-end makeup such as Benefit, Clarins, Smashbox, Lancome, Dior, etc. 

Optimum Points are collected at Shoppers by using you Optimum Card every time you spend $$ there. You get 10 points for every $1 you spend. The points can then be redeemed for monetary value, for example 8,000 points gets you $10 off, and the highest level is 95,000 points gets you $170 off. 

I only shop at Shoppers when they have a 20X the points event so you get 20X more points for every dollar you spend.

A couple times a year they have a bonus for points redeemed. So with 95,000 points, instead it being worth $170, it's worth $200 during the bonus event.

All year long, I save and save and save my optimum points throughout the whole year for THIS! The bonus points event. I then take my points to Murale, which is a Sephora-esque store affiliate with Shoppers and their optimum points program. At Murale, I go crazy.

This is this year's haul:

• Caudalie Beauty Elixir (34 FL. oz & 16 FL. oz). I featured this product in my first Beauty Wishlist post. This is a multi-purpose product: toner, facial mist, makeup refresher. It has a really fresh scent, sort of pepperminty, and from reading the ingredient list I know there's also some orange extract and rosemary in this product. It's so lovely. It's a beauty recommendation from one of my favourite bloggers, Vivianna Does Makeup
• Bobbi Brown corrector in Light Bisque. My current bobbi brown corrector in Porcelain Peach is getting dangerously empty. I don't ever want to to be without this product. I think the lady at the bobbi brown counter matched me to the wrong shade when I first bought porcelain peach, so I knew that when I purchased my next one I would go one shade up. I still have a couple weeks of use out of porcelain peach, but I won't be near a bobbi brown counter in a couple of weeks so I needed to get this stat!
• Nars eyeshadow duo in Alhambra. (swatch below) This too was featured in my first Beauty Wishlist post. I've used this a couple of times already and it's amazing! Once again, everything I thought it would be. The lightest shade in this duo is like a rose gold colour, whereas the other shade is more of a peach-yellow gold. The texture of nars eyeshadows is so velvety and luxe. I would definitely look into getting more nars eyeshadows, maybe for my next optimum points haul.
• Chanel Illusion d'Ombre in Emerveille (swatch below). I talked about this in my second beauty wishlist post (Another Beauty Wishlist). I haven't had a chance to use this product yet, I'm kind of scared to ruin it, but it's just as lovely as I expected it to be. It's a very subtle champagne-pink, not too shimmery. It has a mousse-like texture. It's Chanel! Total luxury. I'll have to do a full review of this product in time
• Bourjois Volumizer mascara. I know I'm doing my Mascara Problems series to try and find the best drugstore mascara, but this is my favourite mascara outside of the drugstore. If someone told me I could only have one mascara for the rest of my life, it would be this one. I know that Bourjois is a drugstore or high-street brand in the UK, but in Canada, this mascara is about $21 (not exactly drugstore prices). I'll also do a full review of this mascara when I get around to using it because it's a really neat concept
• Olivella daily facial cleansing wipes. I was $7 short to my total, these wipes were $8 so I got them. The girl who was helping me at Murale said these were really good at cleansing, and also not harsh on sensitive skin. I haven't used them yet so I don't know if that's true. I'm waiting to use up the last of my Neutrogena makeup removing cleansing wipes.

Eyeshadow swatches

Nars Alhambra

Nars "Alhambra" swatch

Chanel Illusion d'Ombre Emerveille

The Chanel illusion d'ombre eyeshadow product comes with a cute little synthetic brush to use to apply the product. I'll probably just use my finger, but I thought this was so adorable. 

Ah, Chanel. It's so lovely

Chanel "Emerveille" swatch

I haven't used the Chanel eyeshadow yet. It always takes me a little bit of time to rack up the courage to dive into using a luxury product. I'll get around to it eventually though. How can I not? It's such a lovely shade of champagne-pink. Right up my alley


So that's my Optimum points haul from Murale. In Canada, Murale is such a great place to shop for high-end makeup because they have some brands that Sephora doesn't carry, such as Chanel, Bobbi Brown, Deborah Lippmann, and a great selection of Clarins makeup. PLUS you can collect optimum points when you shop :)

Such a wonderful place. Bad though, for people like me, with a serious obsession with makeup. 

xoxoDarlingBuds

A Collective Haul for Y'all

Shoppers Drug Mart had another points bonus on and I actually needed a few things (not pictured) so I did a bit more damage.

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream - seriously a miracle product. You can use this anywhere you have any dry patches for extra refreshment. 
Hawaiian Tropic Dark Tanning Oil - I gotta be tan this summer, and this is a good starter. I use sunscreen on my face and shoulders, but the tanning oil goes everywhere else to make me nice and bronzed
Speaking of bronzed...
Physicians Formula Bronze Booster - another powder bronzer. My rimmel bronzer finally died (I dropped it and it shattered). This bronzer was super duper on sale (more than 50% off) so I decided to give it a try since I've heard good things
Biore Deep Pore cleansing strips - for those pesky blackheads. Biore's new packaging really threw me off, I was looking for the usually green and pink packaging. Not anymore!
Q-Tips - I prefer the life brand cotton buds, but Shoppers was all sold out. Q-Tips are seriously the best beauty tool: clean up eye makeup, clean up lipstick, sometimes I even use Q-Tips to apply liquid concealer. Definitely a product most people don't think about as super useful, but I could not live without them
Maybelline MEGA PLUSH mascara - a newbie mascara from the drugstore. I've been using this for a couple of days already; I also used this mascara in my latest FOTD. This mascara is already up for review (mascara problems)


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On a different day, I ended up making another trip to the drugstore to pick up a couple of necessity items. I strayed a little bit and also picked up these...

• Two essie nail polishes: Navigate Her (green) and A Crewed Interest (peachy-pink)
• The new Maybelline BB cream. I haven't had a chance to try this out yet, but I'll definitely let y'all know what I think about this
• Revlon PhotoReady Airbrush foundation. I've used this once already and my first impressions were not that great. The colour is super orange/yellow tinted and I had a lot of difficulty blending it out. On me, it clung to any dry patches or imperfections on the skin. It also has a really funky smell. I'm going to keep using it to see if I can make it work
• L'Oréal Perfect Blondissima hair bleach. I want to dye the ends of my hair bright blonde. I'm going to start off with this bleaching kit and then see if I need to top it off with a platinum blonde hair dye over top

I hope everything works out 


xoxoDarlingBuds


p.s. I think my new favourite word is "peachy-pink"

Hautelook Haul: theBalm

Hautelook had a sale on "theBalm" a couple of weeks ago. Too many times has theBalm escaped my grasps, and a sale on Hautelook is just too good to pass up. Everything I got was seriously discounted!

I haven't had a chance to really try any of these products yet but I fully intend on doing some more in-depth reviews once I've gotten a better feel for the products

This is mostly a first impressions and swatches post

click below to read more (+ swatches)

Uh Oh...I've done it again

Hue from MAC is one of my favourite lipsticks of all time; but, I hate the way it clings to any little dry patches on my lips. It's a glaze finish which is also a sheerer formula, another aspect I'm not too particularly fond of. I feel like it really just accentuates any flaw. So I went to MAC looking for a replacement, and I ended up coming out of the shop with 2 replacements! And then randomly, as if driven by some supernatural force, I ended up in Sephora...but I only bought one thing so that is a vast improvement! Yay me!

The MAC Lipsticks:

The pinky-nudey colour on the left is Creme Cup, and the peachy-nudey colour on the right is Creme d'Nude. Two colours which have coincidentally been on my MAC Want List for a while. When swatched side by side with Hue, they look sort of similar. Obviously Creme Cup plays up more on the pink tones in Hue, whereas Creme d'Nude leans more towards the peach and nude hues in Hue (ha, no shit).

I'll do a more in depth review and comparaison bientôt.

MUFE at Sephora

I have been eyeing this colour aqua cream shadow ever since I bought my first one way back in November. I couldn't decide between #15 and #13 at the time. I ended up buying #15 which as it turns out, is a total dupe for the Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze . Which leaves MUFE #13. A lovely champagne-beige colour. It's got shimmer, but not too much. I've seriously been loving cream shadows recently because they're easy to apply, they last all day, and they don't crease or smudge. 

MUFE Aqua Cream eye colour, #13

Such lovely new products! I've been such a haul-zilla lately! 

xoxoDarlingBuds

Shoppers & Lush Haul

Canadians rejoice! This past weekend was 20X the optimum points at Shoppers Drug Mart! I always save up my shopping list of necessities for this joyous day. Apart from picking up some basics (toothbrush, toothpaste, kleenex, etc.) The 20X the optimum points event is also the perfect time to mosey on through the Beauty Boutique...and that's what I did. I also stopped by Lush because my skin has been being a little bitch lately, and I can always count on Lush for a handy-dandy face mask to make everything better.

click below to read/see more...

Book Haul!

I have been in a severe book rut lately. Being an English major means that I never have time to read for pleasure during the year; I'm always to busy reading Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Keats. Super fun stuff. 
Now that it's summer, I can finally read books that interest me. So I walked on over to Chapters and picked up the books that I have been dying to read all year. 

 The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From my Frontier by Ree Drummond. Ok well this is a cookbook, but I'm still going to be "reading" this, in some sense. If you haven't heard of Ree Drummon, go check out her flippin' amazing website/lifestyle blog/food blog The Pioneer Woman

The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Described by my buddy Donna as "Harry Potter with swearing and sex" - why not give this a read?


The Maze Runner & The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. The first two books in "The Maze Runner" trilogy. I've actually already read The Maze Runner and I'm halfway through The Scorch Trials already. I meant to get this blog post up before I dove into any of my new books but I was just so antsy and I couldn't help myself! These books are very similar to The Hunger Games in the sense that they are set in a dystopian society. [between actually writing and posting this, I have also finished the Scorch Trials! So good! Can't wait to read the last book in the trilogy, "The Death Cure"]


Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James. The book that everybody is talking about! This is basically some sort of erotic novel based on Twilight. LAWL! It's gonna be an interesting read.


Divergent by Veronica Roth. This book is supposed to be very similar to The Hunger Games as well. I've from people who have read both series that they actually preferred Divergent to The Hunger Games. Very interesting...I shall have to wait and see. 


What have you been reading lately? I'm always curious to hear what books have been tickling other people's fancies.


xoxoDarlingBuds

A Haul for Y'all

And it's not a makeup haul! YAY! 
This is actually a really exciting haul for me because everything I got was on sale! Or just really inexpensive :)

I started off at Bath and Body works because I wanted to check out their new Spring collection. Turns out, they're changing the bottle design on a bunch of their products so they have some great stuff on major clearance. 

I really like the scent Twilight Woods (can you tell?) and they had their hand soap for 50% off $5.50 - so $2.75 a bottle, which may sound expensive, but it's Bath and Body Works so that's actually a good deal and COME ON it's TWILIGHT WOODS! I also picked up a pair os shea infused lounge socks because I've heard great things and they had the cutest designs on them! I'm really into colourful, fuzzy socks so these are perfect.


Next up, I went to Winners. I usually don't peruse through the clothing at Winner's because I find it so tiring; however, they always have really great deal of hair care products and fragrances, if they have what you're looking for at the time. During this shopping, I wasn't looking for hair products because believe you me, I stocked up the last time I was there. Instead I was looking through the tights because I recently ripped a hole through my last good pair of opaque black stockings. 

I found a lot of great stocking deals at Winners. The Betsey Johnson tights are a 3-pack. It comes with 2 pairs of black opaque tights and one pair of sheer black tights with a heart pattern. So cute! I also found these Givenchy lace stockings. I've never owned a good pair of lace tights. I had a pair from H&M that I only wore once before they ripped, so hopefully the Givenchy ones are good. I also picked up a 3-pack of ankle socks from Calvin Klein. 
Now, all of these foot-related garb is all from major designer brands, this is correct. However, I paid uber discount prices for all of these goods. Just look...

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?! I can honestly say I've paid more at Walmart for similar products of lesser quality. I am so pleased with myself 


Last stop was American Eagle. I didn't even buy any clothing there; I bought books and shoes. Who buys books and shoes from American Eagle?! So random, I know; but I got amazing deals on both!

The books are all style books. They were all under $10 because I found them on the %50 off table at AE. Honestly, I have never seen books or a %50 off table at American Eagle so I was seriously surprised. I have a quick look through all of these books and they all seem really interesting so I will be reading through them more in depth soon. 

Randomly, I also found a headphone cord wrapper-thing on the %50 off table. My headphones always come out of my pocket in knots so this is going to be a fun and efficient way to hopefully avoid that. I got the cord wrap from AE for less than $2. 
Last but not least are the shoes. These weren't on sale, but they were still an amazing deal. 

I had no idea that Sam Edelman had a shoe line for American Eagle! He's a major shoe designer who makes cray-cray shoes that all the celebrities wear. They're also cray-cray expensive. 
The line he did for American Eagle is much more affordable and more wearable for everyday. 

I just bought this adorable pair of ivory crochet flats. I worn them around my room a couple of times and I can say from experience that they are super comfortable. I'm thinking of going back to American Eagle and having another looksy at more shoes and sandals from the Sam Edelman line. 


And that's it for my haul! I'm loving everything that I got. A lot of stores are having major sales right now because they are clearing out their old winter inventory and getting ready for new stuff. I can't wait for more spring collections to hit the stores so that I can start putting together my spring/summer wardrobe. I love the warm and cozy apparel of winter, but it's now time for a change. You know what I mean?


xoxoDarlingbuds