My Sephora haul *Picture heavy*

My Sephora package came. Yay! 

All my goodies.

Half of what I got was free. F-R-E-E, my favorite word. Ahhh. I love it. 

My free perfume samples in Gucci by Gucci Sport and Issey Miyake L'EAU D'ISSEY Florale.

The Gucci is 2ml and the other one is 1ml. 

If I'm going to get a perfume sample, I love getting them in the vials rather than the little towelette. ( I'm talking to you Taylor Swift! I got my Wonderstruck sample and it's a towelette and I have a sinus infection and can't really give a review and I opened it a little...hopefully it doesn't dry out before I get my senses back. ha)  I think in order to truly see if you like something you have to try it a few times. 

Both of these perfumes smell really good ( as much as I can tell), and I should say cologne because the Gucci one is for a man.

The other one is floral, and normally I don't really like floral scents too much, but this has a light floral scent and I can tolerate it. Floral scents normally give me a headache, so if you have that same problem, this perfume might be okay for you too if you're interested. 

I give them a thumbs up. 

I got a sample of this in my August Birchbox, the original kind, and I loved it.

I have combination to oily skin and found this light version, so I bought a travel sized one to try it out. 

I swatched it and the texture of the light feels like lotion. I'm curious to see how this will work compared to the original. The original feels like a smooth silicon and it wasn't heavy at all. 

All of my freebies. :-)

My Yves Saint Laurent mascara sample. (I posted the code for this a couple posts back)

I can NOT wait to try this. This mascara is supposed to give you the false eyelash look and believe me I need  all the help I can get for my poor little lashes. lol. 

This is a 3ml sample, not too bad, not too bad at all. It's a $15 value. 

I have a ton of mascaras to try before I can test this, look for those reviews in the near future.

I picked up this Dior Diorshow mascara in black. I've tried and reviewed D&G's volumizing mascara and LOVED it and wanted to compare it with Dior. 

Have you tried this mascara out yet? What are your thoughts on it? Worth the money? Did you love it or hate it? Let me know. 

I'll be doing a review on this, but like I said, I have a TON of mascara to go through before I get to this...eek...remind me to lay off the mascara purchases. ha.

My $8 NARS eyeshadows!! Yay. I'm so glad I found these little gems on the website...

and the deal is still available! Go check it out!

The packaging on NARS eyeshadows, and NARS in general, is so cute. I love the little mirrors. 

California and Night Sun.

Close up of California.

Close up of Night Sun.

Note: This has ALOT of chunky glitter in it. My camera couldn't pick up the glitter at all. 

It's a very pretty shadow. 

If you hate glitter, you could still get this as the glitter falls off pretty easily. You have to pack it on if you want the glitter to stay on. 

Swatch of Night Sun. It's pretty sheer. 

Swatch of California. 

This swatch looked better on my camera, sorry it's blurry. This is a VERY pigmented shadow. It's a lovely copper color. 

And last but not least, my two year old daughter wanted to help swatch. LOL. This is what was left over on my finger....SUPER pigmented.

XO

Let's do lunch-Smashbox style.

Hello lovelies.

Some of you may or may not know about Smashbox's Let's Do Lunch program so I thought I'd share my knowledge with you all.

Smashbox has a deal where if you're a Pretty Points Member (It's totally FREE to sign up and you get alot of awesome perks) on Tuesday's & Thursday's between 9am-2pm pst (12-5pm est) you will get a free gift automatically added to your shopping cart. How cool is that!?

Today's free gift is cream eyeliner in Java. A $22 value!

You will also get a free deluxe sized sample at checkout. Here are the options they have up now.

Photo Finish Luminizing Primer

Full Exposure Mascara sample, or...

a sample of their Photo Finish Light foundation primer.

And if that wasn't enough, if you're a Pretty Points member,

You will get this Mini Fushion soft light baked starburst.

A pretty sweet deal, if I do say so myself....Oh, and I'm not done! Let's add free shipping on top of all that. Cha-Ching! 

This deal was too good to pass up, so I got the 'try it kit.' This kit comes with a sample of Photo Finish foundation primer ( funny enough, I got this in my August birchbox...), Photo Finish lid primer, an eye liner, a mascara, and a lipgloss. This was $19 so I got this, the Photo Finish Luminizing primer, the Mini Fushion, and the cream eyeliner for $20.28 shipped! Woot woot. 

I'll do a review and swatches when I get my goodies. 

Oooh, I almost forgot, if you go through Ebates.com, you get 4% cash back! Such a good deal! 

xo

*HOT* NARS eyeshadows $8 @ Sephora.

Hurry! Sephora is having a HUGE deal on NARS eyeshadows right now. 

You can get California ( a molten copper*as seen in the pic*) and Night Sun ( bright marigold with gold flecks), these are originally $23 each!  

And if you spend $25 you can also score a free $15 value YSL mascara! Code is FAUXCILS

HURRY! These deals will go fast!

Plus, if you purchase through Ebates.com you will also get 4% cash back! And I also recommend signing up for the Beauty Insider it's FREE and you earn a point per dollar. 

xo

*HOT* Free Sample of Wonderstruck by Taylor Swift.

To get a free sample of Taylor Swift's new perfume go "like" her Facebook page and click on the Wonderstruck tab and request a free sample. It's that easy!

Top Notes: freesia, apple blossom and juicy berries

Middle Notes: vanilla, honeysuckle, and white hibiscus.

Bottom Notes: golden amber, warm musk, and lush peach.

I can't wait to get my sample, I'll do a review when I receive it. 

Let me know in the comments if you requested the sample, or if you purchase the full size and how you like it. 

xo

Incoco Nail Strips Review

Today I'm going to review the Incoco Nail Strips I got in this month's Birchbox.

I've been wanting to try nail strips for awhile now, but haven't wanted to shell out the $10 incase I failed miserably at applying them, so when I got these in my box I was pretty excited. I wasn't too happy that I got the blue ones, but I retract that statement, the blue is very pretty.

Here are what my nails looked like after applying the nail strips.

They came with 14 nail strips in various sizes, I do believe. They were all pretty big for my nail size but that actually worked to my advantage. 

I was able to use my set for a complete mai/pedi and do my daughter's nails and have four strips left over! Yay! 

One thing though, you need to repackage your leftover strips and seal it off tight or they will dry out.

The strips were pretty easy to apply. The instructions say that you don't need a top coat, but I used one anyway. 

My daughter's little mani.

This is what my nails look like today. I've had them on for about six days with only slight chipping on my right thumb nail and I think that was my fault when I first applied the strip.

I recommend adding a top coat.

I really like the nail strips, and Incoco has a ton of beautiful designs. I would repurchase these, and I get a full mani/pedi out of one pack so I think the price is a pretty good deal at $8-$10. 

I give nail strips a 5 out of 5 stars. 

Have you tried nail strips? What are your thoughts and opinions? Did you love them or hate them?

Let me know in the comments. 

xo

Happy Birthday, Birchbox!

I got my September Birchbox in the mail today, finally!

The September box shipped out later than August's box so we got them about a week later than "normal." I say "normal" because I've only had the Aug. box to compare it to. lol.

I have been super excited for this Birchbox since it's the 1 year anniversary of the company starting.

Enough of me rambling, let's get started.

The little brown Birchbox

This is what it looked like when I opened it.

My first item was these Incoco nail strips in blue glitter. 

These retail anywhere from $7.99-$10.99 

Now, my opinion on these: I went ahead a watched youtube videos and knew what to expect with the different designs birchbox had to offer and these were the ones I did NOT want. Hmmmph. Blue glitter!? I can just paint my nails blue and add blue glitter, not a real big deal. I really really wanted a design. They had cheetah and rainbow glitter and zebra glitter and I get the plain blue ones? What the heck!? My profile says I'm adventurous...but, I have really wanted to try this since Sally Hansen's nail strips came out and haven't bought them and now I get to try them so I'm okay with the blue glitter....just okay. 

My second item was this Pangea Organics facial cream in Nigerian ginger with lavender & thyme.

This is a 1oz travel size sample and I am happy with the size, this is what I expect to get for a sample that I have to pay for. I was pretty excited for this since I am slightly obsessed with face products, but I know Birchbox sends out Pangea Organics products in their boxes all the time so if I had been a member for a while now, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been too happy about this.

I don't have my card with me at the moment, but I think this retails in full for about $40? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Next is this Jouer lip treatment in an extremely small sample size that says "not for retail" on the back, which means it is a FREE sample size! Ugh, come on Birchbox, I thought this was a DELUXE sampling program? I like to consider myself resourceful enough to find a free sample of this on my own and wouldn't have had to pay the $10 a month member fee....I have wanted to try Jouer and I'm glad I get to now, but I could have found this on my own, and it would have been free....just saying..

This would be $14 in full size.

This was what I was least looking forward to, LIV GRN perfume sample. First of all, I am very particular in my perfume and getting a sample is kind of hit or miss so I don't like getting random perfume samples, second of all, perfume samples are FREE! I just got a Burberry sample for FREE in the mail and I can get them anytime I please at the mall and I can grab 10 if I like. You only get one in this box. So, two out of four products I was sent was absolutely FREE for Birchbox to send me....Ugh!

On a positive note: I actually do really like this perfume, so the only thing Birchbox got accomplished is I am now aware of this perfume, but it is $60 and that alone deters me from making a purchase.

The "Extra" for this months box is a friendship bracelet in the shape of the Birchbox logo. 

This is kinda cute and I am wearing it right now. I appreciate the thought behind this, Thank You, Birchbox.

Everything that was in my box.

My final thoughts: Overall, I am kinda disappointed in this month's box especially because this was the 1 year anniversary. Two out of the four items should have been free so I only got two that actually counteracted the $10 I pay a month and the nail strips were not the "coolest" design so I could have just took my $10 and bought Sally Hansen's in a design I liked and skipped this box. I really wanted to love this box, I don't hate it, if this were any other month I would have actually liked it, but it was very underwhelming for a birthday box. 

I am also very disappointed because I've watched videos of boxes in the past and it seems the quality of products have went way down. Birchbox has sent out free full sized items before, like a $30 blush and a full size $18 eyeshadow. I don't expect a full size product in every box or even at all, I just expect to get deluxe samples, not super tiny FREE samples. I really like the idea of Birchbox, but they have alot to work on. I am going to keep my membership and hope the quality gets better, I have faith this can be a good company. 

Labor Day Collective Haul

I went hauling over the Labor Day weekend and here are the results. Enjoy. ;0)

I went to American Eagle and they were having a 40% off the entire store sale, this included already reduced items!

 I needed some shoes so I was pretty excited when I found these cute grey slip on shoes. Reg. price is $20, so that in itself is a pretty good deal, IMO. They ended up being around $11. They still have these in stock as they were not on clearance.

I also found these cute shoes for $20 reg and $11 w/ the sale. They are still in stock. They also have some other really cute shoes like these and they grey ones in different colors and designs. I really wanted the ones with flowers but they were out. Sigh. 

I needed some scarves since fall is vastly approaching. I found the purple plaid one in the clearance section plus the 40% off it was around $5. The blue floral one is a new item but with the 40% I think I paid like $15, eek. lol. I will admit, that is a bit pricey for me since I'm super cheap...but it was super cute. 

I found these cute owl socks at Forever 21 for 95 cents each. They are normally this price, so go check out F21 if you're in need of socks. They have a ton of cute designs. 

I can't resist Abercrombie and Abercrombie on sale is even more irresistible. They were having a 50% off clearance in stores and 40% online, which is still going on until tomorrow, I think. 

I got these $50 shorts for $25 and it included this really cute navy and white belt. 

I got these tanks for $14 each and they are around $30-$38 each originally. 

I went to Bath & Body Works a few times. hehe. First trip was three hand soaps in Mint Chocolate, Peach Punch, and Passionfruit Colada. They were having a 50% off summer sale on those making them $2.75 each. I wish I would have stocked up on those...they smell so good. I also picked up two candles, Frosted Cupcake and Apple Crumble. They were having a two for $20 on those, they are normally $20 each. Second trip I picked up one more hand soap in Vanilla Berry Sorbet, I still wish I would have stocked up on those...Idk why I didn't...anyways, I also picked up two more candles, another Frosted Cupcake and a Homemade Cookies candle. 

Next, we made a trip to the CCO ( Cosmetics Company Store Outlet) 

I didn't have much time to actually look at everything because a certain little lady makes shopping at a makeup store very difficult. ( My two year old daughter. lol) I needed a concealer so I got this MAC studio sculpt in NC20. I think it was around $11

I got this eyeshadow in Fashion, it's a starflash finish. Eyeshadows are around $10

Here is a swatch. It's like a silvery-greyish-blue color. 

I got this eyeshadow from the Mega Metal collection in Prance for $13. For some reason these eyeshadows are alot bigger than the normal MAC shadows. 

It's a very pretty champagne with a pinky undertone to it.

And lastly, I thought i'd share my spring inspired nails in honor of fashion week. (Fashion week is six month ahead so therefor it's spring. ;0)