Colourpop Haul + Review

I recently made an order from Colourpop and I thought I'd share what I picked up! I already own 2 of their Lippie Stix which I received as gifts, so I had to get a few more, especially at only $5 each! The shades I got (swatched L to R above) are Lumiere, Brink, Clique, and Heart On. Lumiere is a cool matte mauve shade. Brink is a warm taupe pink matte. Clique is a vivid orange red matte. Heart On is a bright matte magenta. In my order I also got a couple of their Super Shock Shadows since I've heard such great things about them. I got the shades Desert (a light warm brown with a satin finish) and La La (a rose gold shimmer). So far I love everything I got! The Lippie Stix are super pigmented and long wearing, and also quite comfortable for a matte lipstick. The Super Shock Shadows are nice and creamy and wear beautifully for 8+ hours. If you haven't checked out Colourpop by now I'd highly recommend you do!

MAC x Isabel and Ruben Toledo Collection | Haul + Swatches

This morning I awoke bright and early to head to MAC to check out the new MAC x Isabel and Ruben Toledo collection. Ever since the promo images appeared online for this collection, I was immediately drawn to the bold illustrated packaging and knew I wanted to add some items to my makeup collection! I ended up getting the Blush Ombré in Ripe Peach, as well as 3 lipsticks in the shades Barbecue, Oxblood, and Victoriana.

MAC really went all-out for the packaging for this collection. The lipstick boxes all had sleeves, and the unique illustrations were also featured on the boxes. The lipstick tubes have a matte feeling (similar to NARS packaging) which feels really nice but I'll have to be extra careful to keep them clean and white!

 

Here is the blush ombré in Ripe Peach swatched. From left to right: peach shade,  pink shade, both swirled together, both swirled together and blended out. I'm so excited to have this gorgeous blush in my collection!

These are the lipsticks I got! From left to right there is Barbecue (matte vivid orange red), Victoriana (matte midtone pink red), and Oxblood (matte light peachy nude). All of the lipstick shades from this collection are gorgeous and it was hard to just pick 3! I tried to choose shades that would be unique in my collection, and I'm thrilled with my picks!

Will you be getting anything from the MAC x Toledo collection? What are your top picks?

A Stationery Haul

Yesterday I spent the day in Toronto with my friend Abby and I picked up some cute things I thought I'd share! I had a top I had to return to Urban Outfitters so I used my store credit to pick up a couple of items! First, I got this gorgeous wood and rose gold phone case, which was reduced from $69 to only $9.99! I also picked up a new pair of sunglasses. I have a couple of pairs of sunglasses in this shape, but these ones have a faux leather snakeskin-like texture on the arms of the glasses which make them unique to my collection! Last I got a gorgeous nail polish in the shade "Champagne Toast", which is a white and gold glitter polish, and it was reduced to $0.99! Abby and I also took some fun pictures in the photobooth in the store!

We also went to one of my absolute favourite shops, The Paper Place, on Queen West in Toronto. It's stationery heaven in there. I've had my eye on this floral garland by Rifle Paper Co. for a while, and I knew they stocked it there, so as soon as I saw it in the shop I put it in my basket. I also got some gold photo corners which will be perfect little accents for photos I put in my scrapbook I'm working on this year! I also got a little desk calendar which was on clearance for 75% off so it cost me just under $4! The last little bit to this haul is a set of buttons I got at the TBC Flea which was a little flea market held at TBC Vegan Bakery yesterday as well. The buttons say "I Love Chips" and "I Hate Sports" which perfectly sum me up, and they were especially fitting as it was Super Bowl Sunday!

IMATS Toronto Haul!

Yesterday I attended my very first IMATS in Toronto! I went with one of my best friends, Courtney (her blog is Cupcakes & Cateyes), and we had such a great day. I've been wanting to go to IMATS since I very first heard about it on YouTube years and years ago but I've never been able to attend (for various reasons) until this year. I'm so glad I got to go and I had an amazing time! We got there shortly after 9 and stayed until around 4. We got to meet Sam and Nic of Pixiwoo at their Real Techniques meetup and I also met Stacey Brennan who's a beauty YouTuber I've been watching for about 6 years now (see photos of both on my Instagram)!

The rest of this post is quite picture-heavy so I've put it under a cut, but click on to see and read about everything I bought!

Lush Night Before Christmas Set

I went into Lush yesterday wanting to try some of their Christmas bath products. I've tried a few things from Lush but I've never tried their bath bombs, bubble bars, or bath melts! To be honest I haven't taken a proper bath in well over 10 years - I prefer showers. But after hearing so many bloggers and vloggers rave about Lush's bath products I finally decided to pick up a few. After being shown some demonstrations of products in the shop by an employee I settled on getting the Night Before Christmas set! This set includes the Christmas Eve bubble bar, the Father Christmas bath bomb, and the infamous Twilight bath bomb. I believe of the three, Twilight is the only one that's available year round. They all smell amazing and I can't wait to try them out!

What are some of your favourite Lush products? I'm always wanting to try more!

HAUL: Sephora VIB Sale + Bath and Body Works!

This morning I headed to the mall for the Sephora VIB sale! I was upgraded to VIB-status only about a month ago so I'm so excited I was able to shop the sale this year! I've had a few items on my makeup wishlist that I've really wanted to try so I finally let myself buy them. My haul isn't too big but I also got a few items for Christmas gifts (which I will not be showing here in case any of my friends see!), and I'm really happy with the few things I did get. I also went to Bath & Body Works since they were doing 3 for $33.50 3-wick candles and I had a 20% off coupon and a gift card!

The first item I picked up from the VIB sale is the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper. I wear liquid liner on a daily basis and even though I don't need a new one right now I thought I'd buy this while I could get it on sale so that way next time I run out of liquid liner I can use this! I currently use the Kat Von D Ink Liner which is her felt-tip liquid liner pen (and I love it), but I'm constantly hearing people rave about this one, her brush-tip liner pen that I thought I'd give it a go!

The next product I got is actually my first NARS makeup product! As a fan of both a matte lip and a vampy lip, I had to get the infamous NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Train Bleu! It's a super deep plum-burgundy that I can not wait to wear.

Lastly, it seems like everyone and their mothers uses and loves Anastasia Beverly Hills brow products, so I finally bought something from their range! I got the Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade in Soft Brown. I wanted to try the Auburn shade but they were sold out, but when I swatched this it looked like it should work for me! I currently use the ELF Eyebrow Kit on my brows and though it works okay, sometimes I notice it smudging or fading by the end of the day. From what I've heard about the Dipbrow Pomade it's exactly what I'm looking for since it's smudgeproof, waterproof, and supposedly lasts all day! I can't wait to do my brows tomorrow and try it out!

I also picked up a Sephora brand sharpener because I left mine at my friend's house recently, and this pink one was too cute to pass up!

From Bath & Body Works I got three holiday candles. I've been good and haven't bought any candles since July, so I let myself get these with the gift card I had! All 3 only ended up costing me around $26 with my 20% off coupon - what a steal! I got the scents Pumpkin Gingerbread, 'Tis the Season, and Mint Mocha Bark. I can't wait to burn them this winter!

What's on your VIB sale wishlist? Or what did you get?

Any other holiday scents from Bath & Body Works I should check out?

I'd love to know in the comments below!

Big USA Beauty Haul! (Ulta, Sephora, Target, B&BW, etc.!)

Hi everyone! So the week of July 14-21 I was in America visiting a friend and we ended up doing quite a bit of shopping. I also got to go to Ulta for my first time (we went to 3 actually) which was so exciting for me!! I thought I'd share the beauty things (plus a few extra items) that I bought!

I'll start off with the things I bought at Ulta! One of the things I knew I 100% wanted to buy on my trip was the Lorac Pro Palette. Lorac used to be sold in Sephora stores (and in Canada) but now Lorac is only at Ulta I believe, so I finally got to buy it! I was tempted to buy the new Lorac Pro 2 Palette but I restrained myself. At Ulta they were selling a 2-pack of travel-sized bottles of Urban Decay De-Slick Setting Spray and since I had never tried a setting spray but wanted to, my friend and I split on the 2-pack so we each got a little bottle of it. Something else I wanted and ended up buying at Ulta was the Urban Decay Naked Flushed Palette in Streak. I own the Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in the shade Streak so I thought it'd be nice to get the corresponding cheek palette and I've really been enjoying it so far! I also got some nail polish at Ulta. I really wanted to try quite a few shades from the new OPI Coca Cola collection so I ended up buying the OPI 10 Pack of Style of the Coca Cola Collection. This pack includes 8 of the shades from the collection, as well as OPI's base coat and top coat. Another couple of polishes I bought which I found in the clearance section were Urban Decay Nail Polish in Blackheart and OPI I Sing in Color from the Gwen Stefani line.

Now, onto my Sephora purchases! A new product I wanted to keep my eye out for in Sephora was the Kat Von D Studded Kiss lipstick range. I ended up finding 5 or 6 of the shades on a display for sale and ended up buying one! I got the Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in Backstage Bambi. This lipstick is gorgeous but I'll be doing a separate post all about it! At Sephora I also found the Sephora Formula X The Twenty-Two Nail Polish set which includes 22 mini bottles of the Formula X polishes! As a nail polish junkie I couldn't resist this at over 50% off. I also hadn't tried the Formula X polishes yet so this is such a great way to try a bunch of them!

The rest of the items here are from a few different places. At Target I bought a new ELF Eyebrow Kit in Medium as it's my favourite product to use on my brows and I'm nearly out of the current one I'm using. I also found this cork ampersand at Target and as a design nerd and ampersand collector I couldn't resist it! At a CCO we went to on our first day of shopping I found this MAC Nail Polish in Double Trouble from the Spring 2013 Archie's Girls collection. I was so excited to find something from this collection!! We of course also went to Bath & Body Works and I had a gift card to spend there so I bought two 3-wick candles in the scents Coastal Sun and Turquoise Waters. One thing I forgot to photograph (because it was already in my bathroom) was a bottle of It's a 10 Miracle Leave-In Product which I picked up at Nordstrom Rack. And last but not least, on our layover back to Toronto we were at Laguardia Airport in New York and I had to get an I <3 NY mug!

I hope you enjoyed looking at/reading about all the items I picked up! I'm considering making a post with some photos of my trip so let me know if that's something you might want to see!

Collective Spring Nail Polish Haul

Over the past few weeks I've gone a little crazy with buying nail polish. To be fair I did get a great deal on quite a few of these, plus there are all sorts of new spring collections out that are just too tempting! I should probably hold back on buying nail polish for the next little bit but we'll see how that goes. I tend to not have much self control when it comes to buying nail polish.

I got these two polishes from the Gwen Stefani for OPI collection from a couple months back. I already have two polishes from this collection (I Sing In Color and 4 In The Morning) but I found the collection at Sally's for 50% off! I couldn't pass up that deal so I got In True Stefani Fashion and Push and Shove. I have heard a lot of interesting things about Push and Shove so I really wanted to give it a try. And one can never have too many pretty silver glitters!

When the OPI Brazil collection came out I knew I wouldn't be able to control myself because the collection is so gorgeous! I ended up getting three to start in Kiss Me I'm Brazilian, Toucan Do It If You Try, and I Just Can't Cope-acabana. So far of the three I've only worn Toucan Do It If You Try and I loved it, so I can't wait to try the others!

When I was last at Sally's I saw their new Sally Girl Ice Cream Shoppe collection on the front counter and I had to pick up a couple! I love that these are so small and only cost a little over a dollar each. It's so affordable if you just want to try out a colour! I got the speckled polishes in Grape Sherbert and Chocolate Chip!

I found this NARS Pierre Hardy "Sharplines" Duo at Winners one day for only $16.99! I have never tried anything from NARS as it's usually a little out of my price range but I couldn't pass this up! It's a beautiful peach cream and a deep dark burgundy cream, two of my favourite shades of polish!

This polish is one I picked up on a whim while at Forever 21 one day. It's the Love & Beauty Nail Color in Light Blue. I didn't really have a polish this shade yet and I've never been disappointed with Forever 21's nail polishes!

LVX is a brand of nail polish I've been wanting to try for a while but a) they're not widely available (or even sold in stores in Canada typically) and b) they're kind of pricey. So I was absolutely thrilled when I came across some LVX polishes in Winners for only $6.99 too! This is Azalea from the LVX Spring 2013 collection. I can't wait to try this polish!

Last, and my most recent purchases, are these polishes from Hard Candy. Hard Candy have recently released some new polishes in their range and I had to get a couple since they were so unique looking! I got King of Pop from the Hard Candy Pop Art collection as well as Fairy Ball from the Hard Candy Crystal Confetti collection. I've already worn King of Pop and I love the look of it! These polishes are so unique and pretty and the prices of Hard Candy's polishes is great too!

So those are all of the nail polishes I've bought in the past few weeks. All of those, plus my March Julep Maven box that came in, should give me more than enough polishes to last me through the spring. Hopefully I'll have more self control in the next month or two but sometimes I come across deals that I just can't pass up!

Have you tried any polishes I've purchased recently? Any you see you might want to try?

Julep Maven March 2014 Box

Time to show you what I got in this month's Julep Maven box! I was really excited about the colours in this collection. If you're not familiar with Julep Maven boxes, they are a subscription box for nail polish and other beauty products from Julep. The boxes cost $19.99 each (with free shipping) and usually you get 2 nail polishes and one other item (they often throw some candy in as well)! Julep polishes are sold at Sephora for $16/ea. so the value of these boxes is really fantastic! 

The box I chose this month was the Bombshell Box. This box included the shades Monaco - which according to Julep is Pantone's 2014 Colour of Spring, a mariner blue creme, and Lilou - a lemon chiffon creme. I also bought Rae as an add-on for $4.99 which is the Pantone Colour of the Year - a radiant orchid creme that is absolutely gorgeous. And last but most certainly not least, I used my Jules (rewards points) to add Tania to my box for free! Tania is the most beautiful mermaid teal glitter. I can not wait to use this one! I really am totally in love with all of the polishes in my box this month which doesn't always happen. I can't wait to use these colours all spring and summer!

My Maven box also came with a lip gloss and I chose the shade Graceful which is a creamy baby pink. It applies semi-sheer so you get a little bit of pink and some shine. I'm not really a lip gloss girl but I tried this on when I got it and it was really smooth and not sticky at all!

This might just be my favourite Julep Maven box I've received yet. All of the nail polish colours are absolutely stunning and the lip gloss is really pretty too! And the best part is, I got all of this for $24.99! If I had bought these products individually from Julep's website it would've cost me $72, so the value of this box is amazing!

Sign up to be a Julep Maven here!

ELF Haul!

It's been a while since I've made an order from ELF, so when I noticed I was running low on a couple things from them a few weeks ago I decided to make another order! ELF products aren't sold in stores in Canada really, though you can find the odd product here and there in Winners or Marshall's. I prefer shopping online for ELF products though as there's usually a good coupon code to use or something and it's a good chance to try some new products!

The two main products I was sure to get were the Studio Brow Kit in Medium and the Essentials Wet Gloss Last & Brow Clear Mascara. I use both of these products every day for my brows and was running quite low on both of them! The brow kit has a tinted wax and a powder in it, and I use the wax first and set it with the powder. I then comb through my brows with the clear mascara to set them in place! I love both of these products and for a combined $4 it really can't be beat.

I also picked up a Studio Blush in Tickled Pink. I have one other Studio Blush and I really wanted to try another! I've only used this once so far but it's a really pretty light pink shimmery blush! 

I got the Studio High Definition Powder since it is a very commonly talked about product from ELF. I've used it twice now and I am impressed with how matte it keeps my skin, but I'm not a fan of how it makes my foundation look when I apply it on top. I'm going to continue trying it out though and maybe I'll come up with an application technique that works for me. 

Another new product for me that I got was the Studio Maximum Coverage Concealer in Porcelain. I have yet to try this but it looks like it might be a little too dark/yellow for me. I'll give it a try though and see how it goes!

On a whim I decided to try the Studio Daily Brush Cleanser for spot cleaning my brushes in between washes. I haven't really used this one yet either but I'll be testing it out soon!

As a girl who wears a lot of bright and/or dark lipstick, I thought the Studio Lip Lock Pencil might come in handy for me. I don't usually have a problem with lip products feathering on me but this might be a little extra preventative step for me just in case.

I got a couple products from the Essentials Tools line, the Eyebrow Stencil Kit and the Shine Eraser. The Eyebrow Stencil Kit I got just because I was curious about it since I've never used brow stencils before. Unfortunately all of the stencils in the kit were too narrow for my fuller brows. I got the Shine Eraser as well which are blotting sheets. I tend to get a bit oily in my T-zone throughout the day so I thought these might come in handy!

The last thing I got was the Studio Flawless Concealer Brush. I have one of these already but I absolutely love it so I picked up another. This, just like its name suggests, applies and blends concealer flawlessly. It works for under the eyes or on blemishes. It's super soft and fluffy and softly blends concealer into the skin. I use the one I have every day and sometimes get lazy with washing it so that's why I picked up another!

Have you tried any of these products from ELF? What were your thoughts on them? 

And do you have any favourites from ELF? I'd love to know!

Collective Haul (Forever 21 + H&M)!

I've done a little bit of shopping over the past couple of weeks and thought I'd put together a little collective haul! It consists of things I ordered online from Forever 21 on Canada Day when they did free shipping, and a couple things I picked up yesterday at H&M! Here's what I got!

The first thing I got from Forever 21 is this cat print makeup bag! I've needed a new makeup bag for quite a while now and I couldn't pass this one up. So cute!

Next I got this compact mirror. It's always nice to have a mirror to keep in your purse and the print on this one is absolutely adorable. And it was on sale for $0.99!

I also got some nail polishes! I only had 1 Forever 21 nail polish before this which I haven't even tried yet, but they had so many gorgeous colours available and for only $3.80 each I had to get some! The colours I got are: Neon Orange, Think Pink, Pot of Gold, Pink Icing, and Babyface!

And the last thing I got from Forever 21 is this polka dot paddle brush. This was on sale for $0.99 too!

Onto the things I picked up yesterday at H&M now! First I got this adorable cat iPhone case. I was so happy to see that they were selling cases for the iPhone 4, since it's so hard to find them in stores since the iPhone 5 came out! And this was only $6.95 too which is a great deal!

I also got this khaki coloured crop tee! I've been wearing crop tops with skater skirts all summer, and at $6.95 I couldn't pass this one up. It's so comfy and cute!

And last, but most definitely not least, I got this cat print dress at H&M! This dress cost $29.95 which is a fair price for sure! I absolutely love the print on this. I'm obsessed with it. And the dress is a bit of a thicker material so it'll be a dress I'll definitely wear into the fall and winter with tights as well!

So those are all the things I've picked up in the past couple of weeks! I've gone quite cat crazy, haven't I? I just can't help myself!

Mini TopShop Clearance Sale Haul!

Last time I was in Toronto I went into TopShop only to find out that they were having their semi-annual clearance sale! I was in the city to shoot a concert that night so I couldn't buy much since I'd have to carry it in my bag, but I did pick up 2 things!

The first thing I got is this polka dot crop top tee! It's very baggy and so comfortable. In the past I haven't been very comfortable wearing crop tops but this year I've been loving them to wear with skater skirts! Above is an outfit of the day I posted on my instagram of how I wore it one day!

The other thing I bought is one of their lipsticks! I've been wanting to try out TopShop's makeup line for a while so I picked this up on sale when I had the chance!

The shade of lipstick I got is Pillow Talk. It's a light creamy nude-pink that is a really pretty subtle lip colour!

The formula of this lipstick is super creamy and moisturizing on the lips! I also love the tube it came it, it's gorgeous. I definitely will be picking up more of these lipsticks in the future!