Month: February 2020

 
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February 2020 Allure Beauty Box – On Holiday

February’s Allure Beauty Box is a hodgepodge of items – some makeup, some tools, some skin stuff.

This first product I noticed was Olay Regenerist Retinol 24, which I had just finished off from last month’s Target Beauty Boxes. It was a great night moisturizer and I’ll be using this one up, too.

Also in this month’s box: Wander Beauty After Hours Highlighter (aren’t we OVER highlighters, yet?); an NYX Cosmetics Multi-Purpose Buffing Brush; BareMinerals Skinlongevity Vital Power Infusion Serum; Belif: The True Cream Aqua Bomb (finished the sample I got in December’s ipsy bag LAST NIGHT); Honey Jarret Super Beau’Tea Mask; and Cargo Cosmetics Essential Lip Color in “Santa Fe”.

A so-so box with really good products and really mediocre ones.

The Allure Beauty Box is $15/month, but they give you $5 off your first box. They also offer an option for $150/year – a savings of $30. Sign up via my referral link.

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Cele-Bert

We are drawing near to the end of the Sesame Street 50th Anniversary polishes with the 10 polish – China Glaze “Cele-Bert”.

“Cele-Bert” is a green-leaning gold glitter polish, which I’m assuming is named for the unibrowed muppet. It is far more green in the bottle than on the nail. It’s a full coverage glitter, and not too sharp either.

This is two coats of “Cele-Bert” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat. I actually like it mattified with Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat (ring and pinky) than glossy with Glisten & Glow Top Coat (Thumb, index and middle).

Two more to go…

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Birthday Splurge

But is it really splurging if it’s on the sale page?

I hadn’t used my $10 off birthday code at Ulta yet, so I filled my cart on the sale page. Actually, let me back up. I was scrolling the Sephora Presidents Day sale and saw that the Jackie Aina and Carli Bybel palettes from Anastasia Beverly Hills were 30% off, so I decided to redirect that purchase over to Ulta – not only because I have a coupon, but also because I feel like I get more value from being top tier at Ulta than being top tier at Sephora. Also, Ulta has BOMB GWPs.

Ulta didn’t have the Jackie Aina palette, but the DID have the Anastasia Beverly Hills Carly Bybel Palette ($31.50, down from $45). That’s fine, because the Jackie Aina palette looks a little cray. (I was hoping that the Alyssa Edwards palette would be back, but nope.) I only know Carli from the Allure Beauty Box she did last year. I was thinking that the palette would end up being pretty basic, but it’s got a nice selection of colors, with lots of shimmer and glitter. I’m enjoying using it, except that the glitter shades have the fallout from hell. It sprays all over my whole damn face. Primer helps a little bit, but it still gets everywhere. I’m gonna have to work on it.

I also decided to go out on a limb and try the Lime Crime Venus XS Vixen Palette ($10, down from $20). I’ve stayed away from Lime Crime for the most part because the owner was a shitbag, but since selling out in 2018, it appears they’ve turned their reputation around. The XS Vixen is a small red-themed palette. The quality is just OK – it doesn’t blend very well at all and the coverage is splotchy. Looks like I can continue to ignore this brand.

One more sale purchase – an Urban Decay Cosmetics Brow Beater Microfine Brow Pencil and Brush in “Dark” ($10, down from $20). I’m guessing that it’s on clearance because they are discontinuing it…which is fine. The quality is fine, similar to Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz, but still not as good (for me) as the Ulta Ultra Slim Brow Pencil.

I picked up the new Pacifica Sunshine Highs Toning Shampoo & Conditioner ($10 each) for my son’s bleached locks. I got it in preparation for another round of highlights, so probably next week or so.

There was also a free 28 piece beauty bag with a $70 purchase. You know I cannot get enough of those GWPs. Inside this HUGE red bag: Elizabeth Arden Prevage Anti-Aging Daily Serum; LORAC Pro Plus Fiber Mascara (eek, those fiber mascaras scare me); PUR Fully Charged Mascara; Boots No7 Dark Circle Corrector; Mamonde Petal Spa Oil to Foam (I have 3 sample bottles of this now – thanks, Ulta); Living proof. restore perfecting spray; Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in “Patina” (I really like this shade – I wonder if my old one is dried up?); proactivMD Deep Cleansing Face Wash (I used proactive back when it first came out; it worked for a while, but then ate all my skin off); Becca Ever-Matte Poreless Priming Perfector; Clinique Dramatically Different Hydrating Jelly; First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream; It’s a 10 Miracle Finishing Spray; Shiseido Benefiance WrinkleResist 24 Pure Retinol Express Smoothing Eye Mask; Patchology Flashpatch Illuminating Eye Gels (so many damn eye patches – I feel like a fucking pirate); TonyMoly Vital Vita 12 Ampoules Mix & Match Serums; Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder and Glow Powder; DevaCurl Supercream (no curls here, go will give away); Viktor & Rolf Bon Bon; Zitsticka (intrigued); Botanics Simply Calm; Ulta Beauty Matte Black Eyeliner; Biolage Airdry Glotion (what?); Pureology Colour Fanatic; Smashbox Photo Finish Oil & Shine Control; Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio; e.l.f. Poreless Primer Putty (oh, this is some GOOD stuff – I like it); Cover FX High Performance Setting Spray and Florence by Mills Clean Magic Face Wash (what does that girl from Stranger Things know about beauty products?) A dang good bag!

$1,088 to Diamond. I better step it up!

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Flushed

To my daughter’s dismay, I had to take another break from her Sesame Street Collection to try out at least one of my new purchases.

It was a difficult decision, but Lily chose Sinful Colors Quick Bliss “Flushed” for my to try. It’s a mauve duochrome with a strong gold shimmer. I was fearing that the formula would be really sheer, but it gave great coverage in two coats – no visible nail line! This is two coats over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat.

The Cherry Oil in the formula is supposed to make it dry quicker and not need a top coat, but I really didn’t notice any difference from regular Sinful Colors.

Sinful Colors is on a roll in 2020. In addition to Sporty Brights and Quick Bliss, they’ve just dropped a SCENTED food collection of polishes. That’s right – my nails can smell like tacos and pizza. I haven’t found them in stores yet, but you know I’m looking.

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February 2020 Ipsy Bag – Feel the Love

As soon as I saw the velvety quilted bag, I snatched it and rubbed it against my cheek – it is so soft and smooth!

For this month’s product choice, I selected PUR Love Your Selfie Foundation in LN2 Fair Ivory. I’ve been pleased with the PUR powder foundation I selected in last month’s ipsy bag, so I figured I’d try the liquid, too. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, though.

Also in this month’s “Feel the Love” bag: MURAD Renewing Eye Cream (even though I use eye cream almost every day to clean up eye shadow fallout, I have more than I’ll probably ever use); IBY Beauty Headliner Eyeshadow (I tried it out and it’s so-so – it didn’t apply completely smoothly without primer, so I’ll have to try it again with primer); TULA The Cult Classic Purifying Face Cleanser (I’ve been using this one as well – the smell reminds me of a swimming pool, a slightly chemical smell…but not in an off putting way); and It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better Primer + Oil Free (I usually like It products, so looking forward to trying this one).

A pretty good bag, although heavy on the face products.

I subscribe to the basic ipsy bag for $12/month. If you’d like to try Ipsy – click here. I’ll earn 250 points if you sign up through my referral link.

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10 Polishes

That’s right – I bought 10 bottles of nail polish on Saturday. I can stop any time.

I started with one bottle – Sinful Colors “Track $tar” – at Walmart. I found the rest of the new Sporty Brights at HEB, but “Track $tar” is a Walmart exclusive color, so I saw it and sprung for it.

The other nine polishes were from my grocery store stop at HEB. There was a 3/$5 coupon in the MyHEB app, which is a good deal on the regular $1.98 polishes…and a GREAT deal on the new Quick Bliss polishes, which are listed for $3.98!

First, I grabbed all the Quick Bliss polishes. Quick Bliss is Sinful Colors’ newest formula, which includes Cherry Oil and supposedly dries in a minute. Left to right, the polishes are “Ice Ice Cherry!”, “Climaxxx”, “Flushed”, “Blackcherry”, “Sweet Cheeks (Sheer)”, “Cherry Chaser”, “Hit the Spot”, and “Bite”. Is it me, or are these names kinda sexual?

I needed to buy 9 polishes to make the coupon work, so I added Sinful Shine “Prosecco”, a polish that I’ve had my eye on for a while.

It turns out that there are 9 Quick Bliss polishes though. It appears that I missed “Juicy”, which may possibly be a Walmart exclusive. My closest Walmart doesn’t have the Quick Bliss lines yet though – so I’ll have to try again later.

All told, I got 10 polishes (~$38 worth) for ~$18.

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Valentine’s Mood

I really don’t get into celebrating Valentine’s Day. I just don’t see the point…of any of it. I remember getting all bent out of shape at my college boyfriend for giving me a tiny Grocery Store cake one Valentine’s Day. It wasn’t a money thing – it was a lazy thing – he obviously put zero thought into it. I was right to be mad, because he put zero effort into our relationship the rest of the time, too. To this day, I stand by my anger, because it’s really about how your partner treats you every day. My anger was a culmination of YEARS of disappointment. Strangely enough, my husband and I usually don’t even bother to celebrate Valentine’s Day (except when we do), at least not with flowers or candy…wink, wink.

I will, however, do my nails for Valentine’s Day. I decided on Jelly Belly x Sally Hansen Insta Dri in “Strawberry Cheesecake”. It’s different sizes of hot pink metallic glitter in a milky light pink base. It’s very similar to “Buttered Popcorn”.

I started with Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat. I got fairly full coverage with two coats, but you can definitely still see my nail line. I decided to go all matte with Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat – my nails looked like Jawbreakers.

I wonder if I can figure out the base shade from Sally Hansen that these glitters were in – it’s almost exactly my skin tone.

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Brought to You By…

This fantastic emerald teal shimmer is China Glaze “Brought to You By…” from the Sesame Street 50 Year Anniversary Collection. The best part of every episode of Sesame Street – besides the Count – was finding out what letter and number the episode was brought by.

This is two coats over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat.

The last week was super hard on my nails, so I had to chop them down super short. They feel so WEIRD.

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Vegas Birthday

As many times as we’ve been to Vegas – I’ve never been on my actual birthday!

My lips were getting dry and I forgot to pack extra lip moisture. I dragged my husband into Sephora, with the intention of buying a mini Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask (like I did last time), but they did not have any of the minis in stock and I didn’t feel like spending $26 on lip stuff. My husband had shown me a Kiehl’s Lip Balm for $10, which was what I was getting until I saw the bin of Smith’s by the checkout. Grabbed two Rosebud Perfume Co. tubes: Rosebud Salve in a Tube ($7) and Menthol and Eucalyptus Lip Balm ($7). They were very moisturizing and I could share with my husband.

I also used this opportunity to pick up this year’s birthday gift. I was gonna wait and order online to get the Jo Malone sample, but I decided to go ahead and get the Sol de Janeiro Bum Bum Cream and Coco Cabana Cream Set – that stuff smells so good! There were also gifts from Milk Makeup and Briogeo available.

$316 to VIB…

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T is for Tinsel

I wanted to use the rainbow-y looking glitter, but Queen Lilith demanded that I use that polish last…so I picked China Glaze “T is for Tinsel” for my Las Vegas trip.

“T is for Tinsel” is a packed silver holographic glitter, with a little bit of blue litter scattered within. This is full coverage in two coats, over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat.

I feel like I was disappointed in the wear power of this polish, but that might not have been entirely fair. After just five days of wear, several of my nails were ~50% chipped away! Las Vegas is so hard on fingernails – the dry environment, plus washing my hands so much with cheap casino soap. I’m going to give this polish the benefit of the doubt, since I haven’t had performance that poor with any other shade of China Glaze.

Viva Las Vegas!