Haute Look Beauty Bag 2014

Haute Look occasionally puts out beauty bags for sale on their site. Even more rarely, they have a clearance sale of those beauty bags to clear them out. I found out about the sale and picked up a bag while it was on sale for $15.00.  This bag is sold out.

First Look!

The bag is a deep blue with weaving throughout the outside of the bag. The inside of the bag has "HL" in blue throughout.

1.5 oz. Blow Pro blow out spray non stick hair spray.

FULL SIZE! Crown Brush Kabuki brush. I didn't think this brush was very soft. I can't use it as a face brush, because it's too itchy.

FULL SIZE! China Glaze Nail lacquer in 'Brownstone' 

0.06 fl. oz. Betsy Johnson Too Too Pretty fragrance sample

0.28 oz. Clarins Lift-Fermeté body firming cream

2 x 0.1 fl. oz. Clarins Total Double Sérum age control extra-firming serum

0.25 fl. oz. Dr. Brandt Microdermabrasion exfoliating face cream

FULL SIZE! NYX Glam lipstick aqua luxe in 'Glory'

0.28 fl. oz. Lash Fusion XL lash volumizer My sample of this came completely dried out. I had to throw this away because it was unusable. 

Laura Geller Waterproof 'Eye Spackle Hues' advanced primer and eyeshadow in 'Mauve Majesty"

L. Erickson metallic silver headband

If you would like to sign up for a Haute Look account for yourself, please consider using my referral link.

Fab Fit Fun Winter 2013

Price: $49.99 per season

Ships out: Quarterly

The Extras: This box is curated by Giuliana Rancic from E!. The box is pricey but promises full size and premium samples that will at least have $100.00 worth of products in each box. 

First Look!

The box includes a fold out card that describes each of the products that were in this month's box. 

The sneak peek for the winter box was this key necklace from The Giving Keys. You are supposed to wear the key for some inspiration and when you no longer need it, you are supposed to pass the necklace along to someone else that could use the inspiration. 

Each key is differently shaped and has a different word etched onto one side. My key had "Inspire". I liked the key, but don't like how it hangs around the neck. I would have rather had the key hang on one side of the necklace instead of at the bottom (like the picture above). But because the key is heavier than the chain that it hangs on, the necklace hangs he way that it does. 

Retail: $55.00

Lorna Jane bracelet

Retail: $29.99

FULL SIZE Bioxidea Miracle 24 face mask

Retail: $19.00

FULL SIZE Truenergy earbuds There were a lot of different color sets that went out in the boxes. I'm happy with the pink/purple set that I received. These earbuds have a headphone splitter attached, so a friend can listen to the same thing you are at the same time. 

Retail: $39.99

 FULL SIZE Simple Foaming Facial Cleanser

Retail: $7.49

FULL SIZE Skyn Iceland Icelandic Relief Eye Cream

Retail: $45.00

FULL SIZE Beauty for Real lip gloss in "Just Lust"

Retail: $22.99

FULL SIZE NYX eye shadow palette from the "Love in Florence Collection" in Ciao Bella

Retail: $8.00

Physique 57 5 free online classes

Retail: $25.00

Me Undies gift card

Retail: $20.00

In all FabFitFun has continued to send out great boxes and is well worth the high price tag. I will continue to subscribe to this service if they keep sending out great boxes!

IPSY December 2013

My IPSY bag arrived!

Price: $10.00 (free shipping)

Ships out: Every month.

Extras: Each month the products featured in the bag have special subscriber discounts. Points system that is accrued for each review you post on the IPSY site from the products that you received in each month's bag. These points as well as referral points can be redeemed for extra products in future month's bags. 

First Look!

This month's theme is "Celebration"

This month's bag was a patent, black geometric pattern. I think this is the first bag that I have actually liked and plan on keeping. I have already put all my old IPSY bags in a bag to be donated to Goodwill.  

FULL SIZED MIrabella Eye blender brush This brush had a lot of weight to it and looks really well made and fancy.  This is my go to blending brush now. I really like the brush and would consider purchasing other brushes from this brand. 

FULL SIZE Nicka K nail polish in Classic Taupe. This nail polish is looks and feels really luxurious, but it's only $4.99 on the website! One annoying thing about this brand is that they didn't list the name of the color on the bottle. They only had the number and I had to look on the website to see what the actual color name was. This probably isn't an issue if you are not blogging about the polish and want to list the actual name, but it was an inconvenience to me. It's probably a bad marketing idea in terms of word of mouth for the brand. I know that if I saw a friend wearing a nice nail polish color and I asked her of the name of it, I would immediately forget the name if they said  "NY112" as opposed to "Classic Taupe". ahhhh first world problems…

FULL SIZE NYX lipstick in "Ceto" 

FULL SIZE POP Beauty eyeshadow trio in "Naturally Bare" I ended up really liking this palette. I think that the other option for this palette in the bag was a purple color. I think I would have been happy with either one. 

FULL SIZE Be a Bombshell "The One Stick" in flustered This color was very bright and I know that I would have never picked this color out myself if I were given the option. This stick is marketed as a lipstick/blush/eyeshadow. I mostly use it as a blush. I don't know who would use this color on their eyes outside of Halloween. Because this color is so bright I end up using this color under power to help tone down the color and make it more wearable. 

Aside from the Nicka K and maybe the Mirabella brand I have received products from each of these brands that I received in the bag this month. All of the products were full sized, so IPSY is good for trying out different types of products or colors from a few brands that they are partnered with. Most of which can be easily found in a drugstore or are affordable through their website. 

If you would like to sign up for your own subscription, please use my referral link here.

Ulta Online Haul November 2013

I ordered some items from Ulta because they were having a sale on everything in the store. Even the premium items that NEVER go on sale. My sister is is love with Urban Decay's Cannonball Mascara, so I decided to pick one up for her to add to her Christmas gift. 

I was really impressed with the packing that Ulta did to ensure that all of my products came safe and damage free. All of this bubble wrap was for one $4.00 eyeliner!

I needed to order some other stuff to put myself over the free shipping minimum and I remembered that this eyeliner was highly recommended by Tati/Glam Life Guru on You Tube. Finding the perfect eyeliner is my current purpose in life, so I added this to my cart. I was surprised how bad this eyeliner was! I have never had an eyeliner run as badly as this eyeliner did on me. I lined my eyes one weekend and went out shopping with him mom. On the car ride there I got stuck in traffic and decided to see how the eyeliner was doing. What I saw was horrendous. The liner was lining under my eyes, despite me not actually applying it there. I tried to wipe it off and I couldn't get it off! Apparently this eyeliner is only budge proof AFTER it runs down your face and makes you look like a panda bear. It was so bad that the first thing that I did once I got to the mall was find the Sephora to remove it all. I will not be using this product again because it's going in the trash. 

I was really impressed with the color of this eyeliner. I thought that it was really black and creamy. It applied very smoothly. However the liner stick was not made very well and it broke apart and crumbled as I was applying it to my eyes. 

Pink Teasing comb. I needed one. They were cheap. I bought it. 

Japonesque Makeup Brush Cleanser. I needed a spot cleaner. 

NYX The "it"list lip set in 'the pinks' This set included five of their lip gloss products.  I decided to get this to try out the different lip glosses that NYX offers. I received: 

Butter Gloss in Eclair
Mega Shine in Beige
Lip Plumper in Pamela
Soft Matte Lip Cream in Istanbul
Xtreme Shine Lip Cream in Nude Peach Fuzz

I also ordered another Mega Shine lip gloss in Plush Red

Swatches of all the colors (L to R) Plush Red, Eclair, Beige, Pamela, Istanbul, Nude Peach Fuzz

As with each online order, you can pick a sample pack to add to the shipment. I received samples from Sebastian, Benefit and Ahava

As you might have noticed, this post is missing a pic of the Urban Decay Cannonball mascara that caused me to make this online purchase in the first place.  Apparently whomever did the packing of my box forgot to add it into the box. I contacted Ulta Customer Support and explained the situation.  They responded quickly and said that I would be sent out another mascara soon. 

IPSY September 2013

This month's IPSY bag arrived!

This month's theme was Classic Beauty

The creator of IPSY, Michelle Phan, started out as a You Tube beauty guru. She then created a beauty sample company named MyGlam. Which evolved into IPSY. She just released a makeup line called "EM by Michelle Phan" and is doing some heavy duty marketing for her new line. One such marketing strategy is by putting samples of her makeup in every IPSY bag. What I appreciated about this sample is that it didn't count as one of the samples for the months bag. 

The big selling point of her line is the Life Palette. She included this fold out brochure with three eyeshadow samples and a blush sample.

 0.14 fl. oz. It's so Big by Elizabeth Mott mascara in black? The packaging didn't say what color it was and I didn't want to open the mascara up. I have a lot of different mascaras that I'm trying out and didn't want to open another one and have it start drying out. Interesting fact. Elizabeth Mott only makes two products, this mascara and Lash Cards.

FULL SIZE Starlooks Kohl eye pencil in Obsidian

FULL SIZE Cailyn Tinted Lip Balm in Big Apple. I really wouldn't call this a lip balm. It's not sheer like I would expect from a lip balm. The color on this was really strong and bright. It was more of lipstick, in a pot.

This product separated into three pieces like their eyeliners. The top of the lid separates to a brush. This is the same packaging as the gel eyeliners in their brand. The only difference between the eyeliner and the lip balm is packaging color and the actual product inside the pot. I didn't like the brush for eyeliner application and I really don't like the brush for lip product application either. I felt that it was too stiff for use on the lips. I have been using the brush for eyeshadow that I use to set my gel eyeliner.

FULL SIZE NYX eyeshadow in Purple. Love this color.

FULL SIZE J.Cat Beauty Fantabulous lipstick in Honeycrisp I hated this color. It looked even worse on my lips. It made me look dead. I applied the Cailyn lip balm over top of this and I looked a little more alive, but I still wasn't completely happy with the color.  The packaging was really cheap feeling. I received another J.Cat product in a previous month's bag and the quality of the product was not very impressive. I don't think the products that I have receive in my IPSY bags from this brand, impress me enough to want to make purchases from the brand. 

For some reason I didn't take a picture of this month's bag. If you are really interested in seeing the bag, I'm sure you can search what other people received. Overall I was happy with this month's bag.

IPSY referral link. Please use my referral link if you would like to sign up for your own IPSY subscription. 

IPSY August 2013

This month I received my IPSY Glam Bag really late in the month.  I am included in the middle of the month shipment schedule and was sent my bag at that time. But upon receiving my metallic foil packet and opening it up I saw that there was nothing inside, except for two postcards. 

Apparently something happened during shipment and my package opened up and my Glam Bag fell out. My mailman delivered me what was left.  I am not sure what happened to my Glam Bag or where it ended up or fell out along the route to my home, but I contacted IPSYcare to see what could be done. 

It ended up taking a really long time for a response to be sent back to me. I sent out two emails through the IPSY website, but wasn't even sure that the first one went through, because I didn't get a confirmation email and wasn't linked to a site that said that the email was sent out. I contacted them again (according to the website you should receive a response from the company within 48 hours. I waited over 48 hours for a response after the first email and wrote them back when I did not receive a response.  

At the same time that I was having issues with my bag, a lot of other subscribers were having issues with their Glam Bags being lost in the mail.  IPSY had some issues with their shipping and a lot of the bags were being shipped late, or were lost, or something, I don't know - I was not one that was affected in this shipping snafu. Needless to say, IPSYcare was being bombarded by other subscribers, letting IPSY know that their bags were affected. So I gave IPSY some slack, knowing that they were having a lot of issues that they had to deal with along with my issue. 

Eventually my bag was reshipped out and I was sent an email letting me know that my bag was coming, but that some of the original products that were in my bag were out of stock and being replaced with a compripable substitute. 

I received the bag at the end of the month and immediately saw what one of the substitutions was.  All of my products were placed in a different bag than what all other subscribers received, granted that their shipment went out as planned.  This is what the August bag was supposed to look like. As I was waiting around for my bag to arrive I checked out some other subscriber's reviews of the bag and for the most part, most subscribers did not like the bag. 

The bag that I received was the July bag. I didn't like the bag when I received it in July and I still didn't like it when I received it in August. Needless to say, I subscribe to IPSY for what's in the bag, not what is the bag.

FIRST LOOK!

0.34 fl. oz. Pacifica 'Alight Multi-Mineral BB Cream'

FULL SIZE NYX blush in 'Desert Rose' This color is a very dark, deep red shade that needs to be applied very carefully on my light skin tone. 

This is the other product that I received as a substitution.  I checked my Glam Room on the IPSY website and it said that I was supposed to have received a City Color Cheek Stain.  I would have liked to try out the City Color brand, as I have never heard of this brand, seen the brand or tried out any of the products before. However, I am horrible at cheek stains so the sample may have been pushed to the wayside as previous cheek stains that I have received have been destined to the bottom of my makeup drawer. 

Noya 'Vanilla Lip Balm' 

Apparently, you could have received either this lip balm or the new Urban Decay 'Revolution' lipstick sample.  I really wanted to have received the lipsticks and was disappointed to have received this instead.  I haven't tried the lip balm, but hopefully it will be nice. 

Michael Todd Organics 'Jojoba Charcoal Facial Scrub' 

If you previously saw my Little Black Bag August 2013 post, you will see that I received a sample with my Little Black Bag subscription.  I could have received either the Michael Todd 'Pumpkin Mask' or the 'Jojoba Charcoal' scrub. I stated in the August post that I would have been happy to have received either one, as I have heard some really great things about Michael Todd facial products, but did receive the 'Pumpkin Mask'.  I was happy to have received this in my Glam Bag and can't wait to try it. 

Pixi 'Lash Booster' Mascara in "Blackest Black"

The thing about sample boxes, that I have recently been noticing is that it seems that beauty companies tend to go on a marketing campaigns and they contact a lot of different subscription boxes at one time. I understand that it's probably easiest for the company to do this at all the same time, with the manufacturing of the product and all the other logistical issues that go along with this campaign. But for the subscribers or multiple boxes, to be receiving products from the same company - often times they receive the same product from various subscription boxes at one time - it can be a little disappointing.  I was happy to have received these two Michael Todd products in the different monthly sample boxes, but I was interested in trying out the brand. For someone that isn't interested it can be a letdown to receive multiple products from the same brand. But this is just something that monthly box subscribers have to deal with and comes with the territory.  That is what I like the best about the subscription box model. I love to be surprised every month with different products to try out. Very few of the boxes let you choose what you receive (Elizabeth and Clarke lets you choose clothing from a selection of their products, Beauty Army has a choice of six samples that will be shipped out to you, etc...)  So I really can't complain, because it's what I signed up for and knew what I was getting into...

Beauty Army Referral Link

IPSY Referral Link

IPSY June 2013

I received my June IPSY bag in the mail and I am so happy with this month's bag!

Price: $10.00/month

Ships out: Every month

June's theme is "On the Wild Side"

First Look!

This month's bag is leopard with a lime green zipper. This bag is a little different from the bags that I have received in the past because the zipper is on the front of the bag instead of the top. I really love this bag! I don't usually go for animal print (all I can think of when I see animal prints is the Jersey Shore. I'm trying to expand my wardrobe and incorporate more animal prints into my life, but finding animal prints can be hard to not look cheap. 

FULL SIZE NYX 'Rouge Cream Blush' in "Bronze Goddess"

Value: $6.00

Chella 'Highlighter Pencil' in "Ivory Lace" I used this to line my waterline. The stick was so creamy and easy to apply. 

Full Sized Value: $18.00

FULL SIZE Starlooks Lip Pencil in "Bare"Starlooks has their own monthly beauty box that ships out with various Starlooks products. I tried this lip pencil and I really liked it. I applied it in the morning before work and I saw still seeing evidence of the lip pencil on my lips at the end of the work day. 

Value: $12.00

FULL SIZE Cailyn 'Linefix' Gel Eyeliner in "Iron" with Built in Brush I have heard some really good reviews of this eyeliner. It claims to be waterproof and last all day.  I used this eyeliner and believe the hype. I have a hard time finding eyeliner that stays on my lids all day without smudging.  This product and MAC's Fluid line gel liner seem to work the best for me. The smudging is minimal throughout the day and most of the product seems to stay put. The built in brush is crap though.  I tried to use it to line my eyes and ended up quitting halfway through my first eye.  The brush is basically just a short lip brush. 

Value: $21.00

Close up of "Iron". It's a deep grey color. This is a color that I currently do not have in my cosmetics stash, so I was happy to get this color. 

Swatches of the colors I received. 

TOP: NYX "Bronze Goddess"

TOP MIDDLE: Starlooks "Bare"

BOTTOM MIDDLE: Chella "Ivory Lace"

BOTTOM: Cailyn "Iron"

JCat 'Sparking Cream Palette' in "Volta"This was interesting. I currently do not own anything like this and I really don't think that I would ever use this outside of Halloween. I might eventually find a use for this, but it's nice to be able to try this type of product out. 

Value: $4.49

Swatches (Top to Bottom):

Gold

Emerald Green

Yellow/Green

Multicolored and Black

Silver

One thing I noticed about this bag, was that most of the products all had Cruelty Free Symbols on them.  The only product that did not have a Cruelty Free symbol or say that it was Cruelty Free on the website was the Chella highlighter. I think that it was really cool of IPSY to not only have an animal theme this month, but also have animal safe products within the theme. Great job IPSY!

I love this bag! I think it might be my favorite IPSY bag that I have received so far.