blush

Haul – BH Cosmetics Royal Affair (February 2019)

Week before last I was surfing a makeup Facebook group I belong to and someone mentioned that Kohl’s had certain items related to BH Cosmetics Royal Affair line on deep deep deep DEEP discount. The 20 pan eyeshadow palette was $3.60 and the 10 piece brush set was $5. What a steal! I did buy an extra palette for my mom. I had actually looked at this palette before at Ulta but thought $18 was a bit much for the three shades I really wanted (the green ones).

Haul – Happy Birthday & Valentine’s Day to Me (February 2019)

This is a mini-haul item wise but I’m so excited by the products I had to share. I bought these items as gifts to myself for my birthday (aside from the two Sephora makeovers) and Valentine’s Day. I figure when you’re single you’re not buying for a significant other so you can legitimately buy something for yourself. I bought the eyeshadow palette at Ulta and ordered the Hourglass compacts from Sephora online. I got the lipstick using some Beauty Insider points at Sephora.

Urban Decay Born to Run Eyeshadow Palette

It’s a thing – I generally buy myself either an eyeshadow palette or yarn for my birthday. This year – eyeshadow palette. Usually if I buy a nice palette I go for a Too Faced palette but the new Pretty Rich palette isn’t really calling my name. Also, I have a lot of neutral palettes so I wanted to buy one with more variety in shades. The greens in this palette are especially beautiful!

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush in Mood Exposure

The makeup artist at the Sephora in Chicago used this but I held off buying due to the price ($38 is a lot for a blush!). After looking at a lot of the brands I normally shop for blushes, I couldn’t find a similar plum colored blush. It truly is a unique shade and I already love it.

Hourglass Ambient Bronzer in Radiant Bronze Light

While this wasn’t used in either of my makeovers this year, it was used in my mom’s Sephora makeover (and she bought one). I have very few bronzers (two from Too Faced and a Physician’s Formula one that looks horrible on me) and nothing this tonal so into my cart it went! Radiant Bronze Light is a warm bronze shade fused with Radiant Light to mimic a summer glow.

Unboxing – Walmart Favorites The Eyes Have It Box (February 2019)

The Walmart Favorites boxes aren’t subscription boxes (or even mystery boxes) but they do contain a variety of curated boxes and I thought they would be fun to unbox. There appear to be about six boxes and I purchased four of them. I’ll cover each of the four in separate blog posts. I didn’t buy the “Extras” box as it contained a lot of nail products, which I don’t need. There is also a hair care box but I couldn’t find it at either of my local Walmarts. Each box costs $10 (at least where I live).

Time to stop yacking and start unboxing! Let’s dig into the with “The Eyes Have It” box.

Overall Box Impressions: For $10 this is isn’t a bad box. There is a WIDE variety of items and brands you can receive, which is a great way to sample products. As compared to the last two boxes I covered, there are more full size products in this box. The front of the box says its “valued over $32” and I feel like that is a stretch. The four full-size products are worth $24 (based on Walmart prices) and there are two small samples. So, the samples would have to be worth $4 a piece (when the full size is likely $8 each). So, I think $10 is reasonable to pay for the box, just know that the items in total are not worth the $32 plus stated on the box.

  • L’Oreal Voluminous Primer Base – super small sample (there’s a mascara wand in there) but I think this would be a good product to put on my lashes under some of my colored mascaras.
  • Maybelline Lashsensational – slightly curved but fine wand.
  • Rimmel Lash Accelerator Serum – kinda cool product but no idea if its actually effective. I will need to set a finite period of time to use this regularly to see if it results in stronger/longer lashes. The wand part just has little ridges and there’s a brush tip on the end to apply along lash lines.
  • Covergirl Flourish by Lash Blast – I used to use Lash Blast all the time but it got to be clumpy once applied. I might try this one a couple times to see if that formula as changed. The wand is straight and thin, which isn’t my favorite style.
  • CoverGirl Lid Lock Up – This is a nude colored lid primer. I really like my NYX lid primer but might give this one a try. The CoverGirl one will have to outperform my NYX one though as the CoverGirl on is more expensive.
  • e.l.f. Brow Pencil – traditional brow pencil with a pointed tip on one end and spoolie on the other. I believe this pencil runs a couple dollars. The pencil in the box is brown so I will give this one a try.
  • Masqueology Under Eye Gold Gel Mask – it’s nice that this is more than a one time use mask and I do love eye masks!

Unboxing – Walmart Favorites Glow Like a Pro Box (February 2019)

The Walmart Favorites boxes aren’t subscription boxes (or even mystery boxes) but they do contain a variety of curated boxes and I thought they would be fun to unbox. There appear to be about six boxes and I purchased four of them. I’ll cover each of the four in separate blog posts. I didn’t buy the “Extras” box as it contained a lot of nail products, which I don’t need. There is also a hair care box but I couldn’t find it at either of my local Walmarts. Each box costs $10 (at least where I live).

Time to stop yacking and start unboxing! Let’s dig into the with the “Glow Like a Pro” box.

Overall Box Impressions: For $10 this is isn’t a bad box. There is a WIDE variety of items and brands you can receive, which is a great way to sample products. However, these are all sample size products. And that’s where I take an issue with the box. The front of the box says its “valued over $36” and I feel like that is a stretch given these are sample sizes. There are 7 items, which works out to $5.14 per sample. Now, given that the full sizes of several of the products only cost $6-$9, I don’t see how the value of the items in the box is more than $36. So, I think $10 is reasonable to pay for the box, just know that the items in total are not worth the $36 plus stated on the box.

  • e.l.f. Poreless Face Primer – in the past I tried the elf blemish control primer and it gummed up on my skin almost immediately. I’ll give this a try since large pores are an issue for me.
  • Maybelline Master Prime – hydrating and smoothing primer might do well for my areas of dry skin.
  • found Illuminating Makeup Setting Spray – I’ve never seen this before and I don’t have very many dewy sprays so I’m excited to try this.
  • Hard Candy Matte Setting Spray – I also haven’t tried any of the setting sprays from Hard Candy (our Walmart only got hard candy within the last few months) so I’ll add this to my try pile.
  • Hard Candy Body Luminizer – This looks a bit dark and sparkly for my pale skin but maybe by summer I’ll be dark enough to give it a try. Typically not a product I use but that’s why I like these sample boxes – to try new things.

These are the two items I was most excited about as one of my favorite beauty YouTubers raves about the blushes and highlighters from Milani. On the left is a blush in the color Romantic Rose (which is really lighter than the picture) and on the right is a Strobelight highlighter in the color Afterglow. Both are just beautiful!