I’m not dead

This blog may be changing somewhat. 

Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of beauty related posts. 

But a lot happened in the time that I wasn’t really paying attention to my blog. I bought a house and moved. Started actually making progress on paying off some credit card debt. And just realized that I have more important priorities than buying all the new beauty releases. 

So for 2018 I have decided that I am buying no unnecessary makeup. I still love makeup, and still want to do mine every day. But I have a million eyeshadow palettes and lipsticks and don’t need anymore. Probably don’t need to buy eyeliner either. I’m going on this plan of only buying what I run out of. I also canceled my Sephora Play membership. We’ll see what this does to my makeup stash by the end of the year. 

Of course, knowing my luck, Urban Decay is going to release an amazing new Naked palette and I’m going to be upset with myself over this plan cause I will have to wait until NEXT YEAR to make it mine. Oh well. 

Also, I hope you all like books. I decided that this year I am going to try to read all the unread books on my shelf, as well as anything new I purchase throughout the year. So I am going to be reading a ton. And hopefully reviewing. Give me a nice break from all the beauty. And maybe talk to you guys about your thoughts on these. I love talking to people about books. 

So yeah. Thank you to all of my wonderful followers. Sorry for the extended disappearance. And I hope you stick with me for what’s to come. ❤

PS, if you want some more frequent postings, follow me on Instagram. I’m way more active there. @lipstickcocktails

Fenty Beauty Holiday Spoiler

Scrolling through Instagram this morning, I came across the following image. 

This gorgeous stunner is the first taste of Fenty Beauty’s holiday collection. 

LOOK AT IT

How gorgeous! Nice eyeliners, cute lip products. 

Is that…..no wait…..it is……EYESHADOW!

Eyeshadow is my one true weakness. I am obsessed. And now that Fenty Beauty, my new love, is releasing an eyeshadow palette you know I have to have it. 

Collection drops on October 13. That day, it will be mine. Stay tuned for the real life product pics!

Picture a screenshot of the Sephora Instagram. 

September Sephora Play!

My Play! box is coming later and later every month. Maybe it’s because Play! is getting so big that they can’t handle it, or maybe it’s a shipping issue. But either way, it’s rather annoying. Maybe I’ll get lucky and it’ll start coming quicker after I move.

I also didn’t get a fragrance sample this month. I guess I don’t need one, but it’s still slightly disappointing. But it’s probably because I got six product samples instead of five. So here we go.

Touch In Sol Metallist Liquid Foil & Glitter Eye Shadow Duo in Talia – that is a mouthful. And glitter is bright. I don’t normally wear glitter on my eyes. But for this I’ll try it.

Sephora Collection Contour Eye Pencil in Black Lace – a few months ago I got one of these pencils in brown as part of my box. It was a great eyeliner. I’m glad to get another.

Herbivore Blue Tansy AHA + BHA Resurfacing Clarity Mask – I saw another product by Herbivore at Sephora a few weeks ago and was interested but it was too expensive. This will let me try at least something by the brand at a lower cost before the big investment.

Ciate London Liquid Velvet Moisturizing Matte Liquid Lipstick in Pun Up – This is a good berry shade. I’m about it.

Belif The True Cream Moisturizing Bomb – eh

Ouai REPAIR Shampoo and Conditioner – I have this conditioner already and I love it. Interested in trying the shampoo/conditioner combo.

What did you get this month? Have you used any of these products yet? What did you think?

Sephora Haul

These last few weeks have been crazy. Work has been ridiculous; I’ve been working a ton of overtime. Plus I was sick for a week. And we found a house finally so we’ve been prepping for that. I am exhausted all the time.

At my first VIB Rouge event a couple weekends ago, I stocked up, as you can see from the above photo. Basically I probably never need to buy makeup again. But of course, as I say that, I already have my eye on a few more things. Beauty products always taking up my money. Some of these were early releases at the time I bought them, but have since been launched. So instead of being ahead, I’m late in the game. Oh well.

Anyways, I got lots of great stuff, and I plan to do lots of reviews over the next little while.

Here we go:

Living Proof TBD Multi Tasking Styler – As someone who doesn’t like to spend a lot of time on my hair in the morning, I love products that are all in one quick fixes. I think this qualifies.

Fenty Beauty Foundation – There is a whole Fenty Beauty dedicated post forthcoming.

Fenty Primer – Ditto

Fenty Beauty Match Stix in Confetti, Unicorn, Yacht Lyfe and Match Stix Trio in Light – Probably my favorite products from the Fenty line. I am obsessed with Match Stix. I want them all.

Sephora Collection Lip Liner – I don’t remember the color name, but I needed this grayish purple color to match a lipstick I have been looking to match for a while.

Sephora Collection fluffy Concealer Brush

Fenty Beauty Highlighter Brush – The shark tooth shape of this is perfect for cheekbones. And it’s so fluffy. I love it.

Urban Decay Eyeliner in Mushroom and Mainline – My go to I-woke-up-too-late-for-makeup or I-don’t-feel-like-really-doing-my-makeup-today product. I keep collecting more colors. I want them all.

Urban Decay Little Vices Set – I love little lipsticks. I feel like I’m more likely to use it all up. And when there’s less product to be used, I feel like I can get more colors to try.

Beautyblender Cleanser Solid – This is my favorite brush cleaner. It was on sale. I picked it up.

Makeup bag – this was my free gift with purchase for going to the event.

Too Faced Boss Lady Beauty Agenda – This came with a palette, diary/calendar, mini mascara and mini Melted Matte. We already established that I love mini lip products. The diary is going to be good for work next year (it’s a 2018 calendar). I’ve used the palette a couple times since I bought it. The shadows make a mess, but blend out super well. They feel so smooth. I think this is going to be a great product.

I am so excited for all of these. Stay tuned for full reviews!

My First VIB Rouge Event

Last weekend I was invited to a VIB Rouge Event. Having never been to one of these before, I was pretty excited to see what it was all about.

For those of you that don’t know, a VIB Rouge event is a special shopping event for VIB Rouge members and guests only. They sent an email about a week and a half prior, and you had to RSVP. This is time that the store opens outside of regular business hours so you can shop without the crowds. They also have products available before the public launch. I picked up a few new things and have my eye on a few more to buy later. I already spent enough money that day.

Fenty Beauty also had just launched the day before, so all the associates were excited about that. I got a Fenty makeover and picked up one of everything I liked about the collection (and 5! of the highlighter sticks I am now obsessed with).

The best part was that breakfast was provided! They had muffins, donuts, coffee, fruit, and water. Sorry for the blurry photo. I was trying to not get in everyone’s way.

The only down side was that the event was at 8am, so I had to be up early enough to get ready (definitely not showing up to a Sephora event looking awful), and drive a half hour away before 8am. Too early for how I usually like to spend my Saturday mornings. I would have preferred the event to be on Sunday after close, not Saturday before open. It was worth it though.

I will definitely be going to more events like this in the future.

It’s A New Day

I finally heard Taylor Swift’s new song. It’s not good. Just no. The video is a visual stunner though. But it looks like it was super expensive to make, and in this day and age where music videos are less important, I just don’t see the point.

Anyway, clothes.

Target released two of their new brands on Monday. The mens’ one looks interesting for my boyfriend, but not as fun to talk about. But the new womens’ line, A New Day, just has me in thrall.

Seriously, this collection has every item I want for fall and every item of clothing I have been on the hunt for the last year. I just want it all.

I threw everything I wanted into a “cart” online just to see where I ended up and the total came to over $500. I need to get it down to a much more manageable number if I end up buy anything. But I really should buy nothing. Too many things to pay off. ugh…adulthood.

But here are a few pieces I really liked.

All images from Target.

Cute right?

Sample Haul – Also known as “I want to try as many products as I possibly can and spend a little money as I possibly can”

It has begun to feel like fall here the last few days. The air feels so crisp and I am so happy. I must be one of the few people in this state who do not live for summer. Spring and Fall are my favorite seasons, and I even prefer Winter to Summer; I HATE being hot and sweaty. Maybe that will change if we ever find a house and move somewhere that actually has air conditioning. But in this place, summer just makes me feel gross most of the time.

I want to start getting prepped and bring my sweaters out of storage, but I probably shouldn’t get too ahead of myself just yet. I’m sure we’ll have at least one more heatwave.

 

I’ve really been trying to focus on upping my skincare game lately. I actually tried to find out my proper skin type instead of just guessing (I have combination skin, not dry – who knew) and have been working to build a skincare routine around it. I’m not done yet, but my skin looks better even with the small adjustments I have made.

The down side in trying to build a new routine is you have to try a ton of products to see what works. Thankfully, Sephora frequently gives away great sample bags, and the rewards you can get with your points are often pretty good. So that’s been helping a lot. I thought I’d share some of the samples I’ve picked up lately and see if the blog scene had any thoughts.

 

The week I was on vacation Sephora was giving away this little sample bag with any VIB or VIB Rouge purchase, and I was disappointed when I thought I missed it. Thankfully, the Sephora near me is a very small store, and when I went shopping the day after I got back they still had a few of these left and gave me one. There are some pretty good products in here!

bosica Charcoal MakeUp Melter – When I first saw there was a bosica product included, I thought it was that charcoal mask that’s everywhere. Now that I know it’s a cleanser, I am definitely intrigued.

Kat Von D Lock-it Setting Powder – Heard great things about this on the internet. We shall see.

Sephora Collection Cream Lip Stain in color 01 – I already received this a couple months ago in my Play! box. Not impressed.

Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Skin Booster Serum – Yes! I am all about trying different serums right now and they are just too expensive to keep buying. I love serum samples.

Bumble and bumble Bb Repair Blow Dry – Too bad I never heat style my hair. Seriously. I think it’s been two months since I used a hair dryer and I cannot even remember the last time I used a straightener or curling iron. It’s going to take me probably nearly a year to use up this sample, and I’ll use it so rarely I probably wont even know if it worked.

Fresh Rose Face Mask – Ordinarily I would be excited about this, as the full size product is pricy. But I have received a few of these lately and I haven’t even used that much of my full size. I might be making someone a gift basket soon and including this.

Stila Atay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner – not gonna say no to a new liquid eye liner

AND THAT’S NOT ALL

I also turned in points for this neat little gift set.

I keep seeing awesome Peter Thomas Roth reviews so I figured this was a good investment.

Water Drench Hyaluronic Cloud Cream – What is hyaluronic anyway? This looked like a good lightweight moisturizer, and I’ve been debating picking up the full size. So now I get to try it first. Yay!

Firmx Peeling Gel – I have never used a peeling gel before. This is going to be an experiment.

Anti-Aging Cleansing Gel – A few of the websites that I read said that for my skin type I should be using gel based cleansers. So we’ll try this.

Irish Moor Mud Purifying Black Mask – Hmmmm……

 

So have any of you tried these products before? I’m interested in opinions!

When did Abercrombie get so trendy?

Seriously though. I got an email today about select jeans being only $35 so I thought I would check it out. And I was STUNNED.

This stuff is straight out of Who What Wear.

For years the company has been dropping hints that they’ve been in the process of a reinvent. Apparently that meant going super fashion. I am all about that.

I love stuff that looks like super expensive fashion girl duds without the high price tag. And with quality better than Forever 21. I kind of hate that place.

Undone hems and an ankle slit? Yes please.

So basically, Abercrombie is making the brand worthwhile again. Here’s hoping we have more good things to look forward to.

All images from Abercrombie.com

Why I’m Passing on the Subculture Palette

I went out to Ulta the other day set on making this purchase. I looked forward to it all day at work, ran out of the office the second the clock hit five, drove up there, walked up to the ABH section….and got the feeling of “eh”.

The colors were just not as exciting as they looked online. I swatched a few and everything just fell flat. Yes the colors were overly powdery, but that wasn’t an issue for me – I’ve gotten used to that from a few other palettes.

Online the colors looked bright and fun. In person everything was dark and dull. Good colors for fall if you don’t have many other options, but nothing that really thrilled me.

At both Sephora and Ulta the palette has an average review of 3 stars, and I would say it’s deserved. Seems like a perfectly good palette, but not a must have.

Plus, Too Faced and Kat Von D have some really good looking stuff coming out later this month. I think I’ll save my money for those. I mean, look at that lipstick!

They haven’t advertised Subculture as limited edition, so unless sales tank I’m assuming it’s not going anywhere. Maybe I’ll get it down the road, but for now I have enough.

For those of you who have it already, what do you think about the palette?

 

All images from Sephora.com

Play! Time – Sephora Play! August Box

Another month another box. I’m too exhausted from working overtime this week to get too involved so let’s just dive in ok?

The theme is Elements of Beauty. It came with a super cute list of makeup and skincare ingredients stylized like a periodic table of elements. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it’s the best set up for the product list I have gotten so far.

beautyblender micro.mini – I was just thinking the other day how I wanted to pick up one of these minis for concealer. Thanks Sephora for knowing exactly what I needed.

Clinique HIM Dual-Ended High Impact Mascara & Primer Duo – I am all about mascara samples. And this one comes with a primer so yay.

Hourglass Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation Stick in Shell – After the last box I was wishing that they would send foundation samples. Foundation is one of those products that I would like to try more, but tends to be a bit pricy. So hopefully this color works. I’ve also never used an Hourglass product before, but I’ve heard good things.

Korres Golden Krocus Ageless Saffrom Elixir Serum – Serums are the type of product I’m really looking into now, so I’m super excited about this.

Alterna Haircare CAVIAR Anti-Aging Miracle Multiplying Volume Mist – Don’t really know what to say about this. We’ll give it a shot.

Burberry My Burberry Black – I’m interested in giving this a shot because the packaging was a little more upscale than fragrance samples I’ve received in the past. And it smells good.

Have you tried any of the products yet?