Call My Agent
I am digging the bonus polish from last month’s Allure Beauty Box – ncLA “Call My Agent”. It’s a plasticky, orange leaning red creme. Sure, it SCREAMS summer…but I live in Texas – it nearly hit 80 degrees last week, and it’s February.
This is two coats of “Call My Agent” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat. I probably could’ve gotten away with one coat, but why would I do that?
“Call My Agent” is definitely taking a turn on my toes this summer!
February 2019 Julep Box – A Star is Born
This is it – my very last Julep Maven box.
Yes, it’s true – Julep has shut down their monthly subscription box program. Customers were notified of the decision on February 15th. Not only is the program canceled, but we also lost all of our Jules – I think I had close to $40 worth. It’s a bummer, but not shocking after hearing that they had declared bankruptcy and were closing the physical salons in Seattle. I am disappointed, but also slightly relieved – that’s $20/month I can pump back into my beauty budget.
My first clue that the program was coming to a close was that there was no February Collection – the curated boxes included makeup and the new version of “love your bare face” Replenishing Creme-to-Foam Cleanser. I kept the cleanser in my box and added two polishes from last year’s Zodiac Collection – “Vibrant Virgo”, luxe rose gold multidimensional, and “Tranquil Taurus”, grounded honey wheat metallic. My mom was a Virgo and my younger sister is a Taurus, but I don’t believe any of that shit.
The face wash is rather nice – it’s a pretty big tube and it rinses clean. I still prefer the stick formula – it works well with my Clarisonic and leaves my skin feeling squeaky clean, but this one will do.
According to the breakup email I received, all Mavens will continue to get a 25% discount off of regular prices, but I don’t know how much I’ll be shopping at Julep. I do need more Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat, but they’ve been out of stock for months. So frustrating!
Yes, it’s the end of an era.
Prismatic
I was feeling like something different for my nails. I hadn’t done a green polish in a little minute, so I dug DEEP into my ever-shrinking basket of untried polishes and found…Formula X “Prismatic”.
“Prismatic” is an emerald teal jelly shimmer. The formula is so smooth and shiny – I love it.
This is two coats of “Prismatic” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat.
I really miss Formula X – Sephora, please bring it back.
Chocolate Heart
Several weeks ago – actually, probably the end of January – I noticed that Makeup Revolution, err, now called Revolution Makeup was offering another Free Mystery Bag with a purchase over $40. Shipping to the US was free on orders over $60, so I splurged.
The first thing into my cart was the I Heart Revolution Chocolate Heart Set, which includes 4 products: the Red Velvet Eyeshadow Palette (reminds me of Blood Sugar), the Peanut Butter Cup Eyeshadow Palette, the Praline Chocolate Face Palette and the Chocolate Heart Highlighter. I also grabbed the new Galactic Chocolate Eyeshadow Palette – it’s full of marbled and shimmer shadows. I also picked up two of the new Eye Glistens – Foil and Glitter Liquid Eyeshadows in “It’s Fate” and “Desired”.
The shitty part? I only had a chance to use the Galactic Chocolate Palette twice – I was afflicted with a stye over the weekend and have been wearing NO eye makeup. It’s nearly healed though and I should be good to go in another day or so. The Galactic Chocolate Palette has very dark, shimmery colors – I wore it to work one day last week and caught sight of myself in the bathroom mirror – I looked like Mimi from The Drew Carey Show. Oh, and one of the pink shadows stained my eyelids for a day or so. I’ll have to be careful with this one – so pigmented!
OH! The Mystery Bag! I was less than impressed with this year’s mystery bag. There were just 4 products: Ultra Pro HD Powder Contour Palette, Strobe Lighting Highlighter Palette, Skin Kiss Super Intense Skin Loving Highlighter in “Ice Kiss” (again, reminds me of Jeffree’s “Ice Cold”); and a Sunlight Mood Lights Gradient Highlighter (the only product I’m likely to use). So, all highlighters and contouring shit – which I hardly ever use. Oh well, at least it wasn’t blackface foundation.
Shipping from the UK has really improved since my last order – it took less than two weeks to get here.
On the website, my order totaled $61 USD. I decided to process payment through Amazon Pay, instead of Paypal and I was delighted to learn that the World’s Biggest Retailer offers an amazing exchange rate – I was only charged ~$57. 10/10, would use again.
Ulta Birthday to Me
I needed a haircut, my kids had been bugging me for a haircut, I had a birthday gift waiting on me…time for an in-person Ulta trip.
Let me just say – my haircut was fine. My daughter’s haircut was fine. My son’t haircut was…NOT fine. I didn’t realize how much he hated it until we got home. It was so bad that he had my husband buzz his head with clippers. I felt HORRIBLE. I bought him a bottle of my hair & nail vitamins and promised to take him to Sport Clips next time. Oh well, at least I got 2x points on all the haircuts.
So the coupon in my email said I would be getting a Full Size NYX Lip Lingerie as a birthday gift, but in-store, they gave me a totally different gift – a mini Lancome Monsieur Big Mascara. Google says that it was the December gift – I guess they give em away until they’re gone.
Oh, I also picked up a few generic Diamond buffers for my nay-nays.
Just like that, $241 to Platinum!
Born to Run
I did it – I finally pulled the trigger on the Born to Run Palette…I decided go big, or go home…and ordered the FULL Urban Decay Born to Run Vault ($98).
The Vault is value packed! The Born to Run Palette is $59 by itself, the Vice Lipstick in “66” would be $18, and the 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil would be $21 – there’s your $98. The vault also comes with a Travel Size Perversion Mascara Mini, a Travel Size Original Eyeshadow Primer Potion, a Travel Size All Nighter Long Lasting Makeup Setting Spray AND a matching crossbody bag. I was hoping the bag would be big enough to use as a purse, but I don’t think it’s quite big enough for all my “mom” stuff. It would be perfect for a night on the town though.
The Born to Run Palette is larger than the last several releases – it’s reminiscent of the HUGE Vice palettes, except with the cheaper cardboard packaging and NO brush. It’s the usual Urban Decay quality – the shifting shimmer shades have more than average fallout, but nothing catastrophic. This would be a good palette to travel with, with neutral and colorful shades. I’m in love with the “66” lipstick – it’s the perfect shade for me. It’s neutral enough to match any eye look and dark enough to not be boring. I have no regrets about waiting to get a good deal on the Vault!
Oh, I also sprung for the new Urban Decay Brow Blade in “Neutral Nana” ($26). It’s a double-ended brow tool. One end is thin pencil, much like the ABH Brow Wiz or my favorite Ulta Ultra Slim – but the other end is a fine, felt tip marker, to draw in hair detail. It works okay I guess – but I don’t know that the results are worth $26. It’s fine I guess.
Of course, I didn’t spend $98 – I waited until I had a 20% off code, plus I’d accrued $59 in Ulta points. I got all this for $43 and some change.
Ulta is STILL not giving out samples with their orders. Cheap bastards. $374 to Platinum Status.
Half-Off-entine’s Day
February 15th is is the best, am I right?
Instead of the usual pink and red shit, I decided to celebrate my REAL love – chocolate. I started with two coats of Sinful Colors “Hot Toffee” over Sinful Colors Base Coat. I then got out my most candy-ful glitters. The hearts are Funky Fingers “Queen of Hearts” and the multi-colored bar glitters are Funky Fingers “Cupcake Sprinkles”. You know, I never noticed until now that “Cupcake Sprinkles” is cupcake-scented! I got to enjoy it for a few brief moments, until I topped the whole thing with Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat. Doesn’t they look good enough to eat?
By the way, I went by Walmart today, but I couldn’t find any new Sinful Colors OR any dark chocolate. What the shit? At least I found the special Cap’n Crunch – Chocolately Berry Crunch.
The Full Monte
I’ve never seen ‘The Full Monty’, but I know what it’s about – pasty English Strippers. And unlike Magic Mike, they bare it ALL.
I myself am fairly pasty, er, alabaster, so Sinful Colors “The Full Monte” is fairly close match to my skin. It’s a pale pinkish nude, full of flakey sparkos.
This is two coats over Sinful Colors Base Coat. It was fairly shiny on its own, but I couldn’t resist trying it with Glisten & Glow Matte Top Coat. Like I always say, “Matte all the polishes!”
Target Birthday Shopping
Nothing burns a hole in my pocket like a Target coupon. For my birthday last week, Target sent me a coupon code for an additional 5% off a shopping trip – I had to use it before it expired!
I really didn’t need anything specific, so I just wandered. The first thing I grabbed was a replacement up & up dip-it and a bag of Exfoliating Cotton Rounds. That was the point that I noticed the rack of Sinful Colors Nail Polish. I’ve been so bummed that Walgreen’s no longer carries them. Walmart will have the new collections soon, I’ve heard – but until then, I had consigned myself to going without. What did I spy, but random bottles with “New Shade” Stickers in the Core Collection Display. Don’t mind if I do! I picked up three of the new shades – “Hot Toffee”, “Raisin the Roof”, and “Spring Fling”. I also picked up an older shade I had never seen before – “The Full Monte”.
As I moved on through the aisles, I came upon a HUGE display for Flamingo Products. Flamingo is a service similar to Dollar Shave Club – basically, a subscription box for razors and wax strips. We’re quite happy with Dollar Shave Club, but I thought I’d give the Flamingo Face Wax Kit a try. At $9.99, it was a bit more expensive than the Nads Kits I had been using, but I feel like it was much more gentle to my face AND I was able to use less strips to get the job done. Nice!
And yes…that IS a Spongebob Squarepants Outfit for my Barbies. It says, “Sponge On!” – it was very important for me to have it!
January 2019 Allure Beauty Box – Thrill of the New
I’m not even gonna apologize for running late on reviews – I been busy as shit.
2019 brings big changes to the Allure Beauty Box – gone is the shiny red box, instead replaced by a generic cardboard mailer. That’s okay though – because now the monthly goodies are coming inside a sleek plastic pouch. No word yet on whether we’ll be getting the same red pouch every month, or they’ll mix up the design – stay tuned.
In this month’s all new pouch: Mally Shadow Stick Extra in “Burnished Bronze”; OUAI Scalp & Body Scrub (Hmmmm, not sure if I’m ready to be picking sugar out of my hair for a month – also includes a 15% off code for theouai.com); Sunday Riley C.E.O. Glow Face Oil; Sunday Riley A+ High-Dose Retinoid Serum (How did they know I’m retinol aged now?); Doucce Relentless Matte Lip Crayon in “Winterberry” (with a code for 25% off at doucce.com); and a pack of 2 Beautyblender Micro Mini Sponges.
And as a bonus this month, each subscriber received a nail polish from NCLA. I got and orangey red called “Call My Agent”.
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..