Weekly SDM Haul

Hello, beauty lovers! It's been a while since my last blog post! I had some computer problems this week, but I'm back for now. :)

I just wanted to share some Shoppers Drug Mart haulage from this past week. There were a couple bonus points promotions this week at SDM, and I always love to take advantage of these when I can.

 

From top left to right is Estee Lauder Sensuous Nude perfume, Clarins Beauty Flash Balm, Urban Decay De-Slick Makeup Setting Spray and Clarins Gentle Foaming Cleanser with Taramind and Purifying Micro Pearls for Combination/Oily Skin.  The bottom row is just a few samples: Clarins Skin Perfecting BB cream, Gosh Extreme Length Coloured Mascara, Elie Saab Le Parfum sample and Narcisco Rodriguez For Her EDT sample. And deodorant. :P

 

 

 

 

I fell in the love with the Estee Lauder Sensuous nude around Christmas this year. I picked up several of SDM's fragrance sampler sets, and this was one of my faves! Regretfully, I didn't choose to redeem for this one, and my sample just ran out this past week. I had to have more! The top notes are quite strong and sharp, but they die down into the softest most luscious smell. If you like vanilla/musk scents then you'll love this! I can not stop sniffing my wrists when I wear this. Mmm...

 

Clarins Beauty Flash Balm was something I really liked the sounds of. Women claim they like using this under their makeup as a primer as well as using it as a tightening mask. Sounds perfect for me! I did wear it out Saturday night, and while I didn't check my face in a mirror once that night to see the effects, I can report no breakouts! Yay! I will be trying this as a mask asap and I can't wait to review it. :)

 

Here it is on my hand:

 

Urban Decay De-Slick is a product I had been dying to try. As an oily faced chick, I'm always looking for something to get me through long days/nights without having to touch up constantly. I haven't tried this yet, but I'll also be reviewing this once I have! My skin is acting super crazy lately and I've been avoiding wearing or using anything but Bioderma until it settles down. But I'll be trying this asap! Maybe by this weekend!

I was getting bored of my Avene Cleanser (which honestly has lasted me forever now), and I read great things about this Clarins Gentle Foaming Cleanser. I haven't any problems with Clarins products yet! I particularly love their Hydra-Quench Cream-Gel, so I'm hoping this cleanser gives me no problems! Review coming soon. :)

Here's a write up from Clarins, "Every day’s a spa day with this refreshing, skin de-stressing cleansing foam. Gentle Tamarind Fruit Acids free pores of trapped make-up, excess oil, pollutants and dull-making dead cells for a refined, matte complexion. Silky lather rinses easily with cool water. Protects skin from the drying effects of hard water."

Here is a blob of the cleanser on my hand. You can see a little bead in the middle:

 

 

I was happy they had some samples of the Clarins BB Cream as I'd been really wanting to test this out! I received two samples of the lightest shade, 01 Light and I was pretty surprised at how dark it is. My skin is between NC20-25ish and this looked too dark for me! I'm also not huge on the smell. And I've had mostly bad luck with BB creams in the past, but I'll still give this a try and write a review.

 

Blended out:

 

Anyway, that concludes my weekly haul! Not overly exciting, but I'm sorta stoked to switch up my skincare routine. :)

 

Thanks so much for reading! xo Steph

 

 

Urban Decay Smoked Palette Look with Mac Angel lipstick

Hi beauty lovers! I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. :) Anyone else excited for the Oscars tonight? I can't wait...actually, red carpet is on now, so I'm gonna post this and go watch!

 I just wanted to share a look that I wore Saturday night using Urban Decay Smoked Eyeshadow palette. This palette comes with a 27 paged look book, so I went with the first look called "Iconic". If you'd like to see my swatches of this palette, you can find them here.

I love this palette! I personally prefer it to the Naked 2 palette which I also own. I find the shades easier to wear, and for me personally, there was less creping.

 

 

 

 

Sorry about my messy hair!

 

On my face:

Lise Watier Base Miracle

CoverGirl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3 in 1 Foundation

Guerlain Meteorites Compact in 02 Teint Beige

 

On my eyes:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Urban Decay Smoked Palette

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion

Lancome Cils Booster

and several coats of Benefit Bad Gal Lash

 

On my cheeks:

Nars blush in Dolce Vita

 

On my Lips:

MAC Angel Lipstick

Smashbox Reflection High Shine Lip Gloss in Star



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much for reading! :)

 

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Look of the Day - featuring Ronnie Red lipstick by MAC

Hello beauty lovers! Just wanted to post my look for today!

 

 

 

 

 

On my face:
Vichy ProEven BB Cream
YSL Touch Eclat
Sleek Santorini Blush
Lise Watier Pastel Power Illuminating Beads
Guerlain Meteorites Compact

On eyes:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Stila Bubbly and Bare eyeshadow
Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on Eye Pencil in Perversion
Benefit Bad Gal Lash Mascara

On lips:

MAC Ronnie Red lipstick

I'm not really loving Stila's Bubbly. I've also tried Urban Decay's Halfbaked. I find them both really crepey near my lashes, and I don't know if it's the frost formula or what?! Thankfully, I can hide this with liner, but I'd like to find a gold shade that doesn't crepe at all! Any ideas?

Thanks for reading! Hope everyone's having a great week :)

Urban Decay Dangerous and Smoked Palette comparison

Hello beauty lovers! I just wanted to post a few pics and do a quick comparison of the Urban Decay Dangerous and Smoked palettes.

I bought both of these palettes online a few weeks ago, and they both arrived on the same day last week. I didn't realize when I ordered them that they are so similar! I probably didn't need both, but I did like certain things about both.

Dangerous comes in a black, zipped, vinyl case and includes 6 shades and a mini Lip Junkie in Naked. Included are the colours Gravity, Loaded, Evidence, Deeper, Mushroom and Ace. Each one is soft and deeply pigmented. I can tell there will be fallout when using it on my eyes as it was quite messy while swatching!

 

The Smoked palette includes 10 shades, a full sized 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion, a travel-sized Eyeshadow Primer Potion and a 27 paged Look Book.  This palette also comes in a zipped case, though not vinyl. As you can see from the pictures, the eye shadows are very similar to Dangerous. Actually, 3 of the shadows are the SAME. In this palette we have Kinky, Freestyle, Mushroom, Backdoor, Blackout,  Barlust, Rockstar, Evidence, Loaded and Asphalt. Mushroom, Evidence and Loaded are in both palettes. The shadows for the Smoked palette are of the same quality, though Smoked contains 4 matte shades and Dangerous has no matte shades.



 

 

 

Here's swatches of Dangerous:

 

And Smoked:

 

 

I think that if I were only to buy one of these palettes, I would buy Smoked. For $18 more, you get 4 extra eye shadows, a full sized 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil that normally retails for $23 and a mini Primer Potion. I do however, wish that the Smoked palette contained a shimmery highlighter, but then Dangerous doesn't contain any highlight shades at all! Dangerous does however have the beautiful purple shade, Gravity, so I'm glad I have both. :)



The Urban Decay Dangerous Palette is  $40 CAD at Sephora, and the Urban Decay Smoked Eyeshadow Palette is $58 at Sephora.

Thanks for reading!



 

Spend Your Points Haul: Lise Watier Pastel Power, Urban Decay Theodora, Dior Cherie Bow etc.

So today I participated in Shoppers Drug Mart's Spend Your Points event. I redeemed 80,000 Optimum points for $200 worth of cosmetics. I adore this program! I did two top redemptions at Christmas and got so many goodies! I almost always participate in SDM's 20x the points events, so as you can imagine, my points build up really quickly! If you don't know about Shoppers Drug Mart's Optimum Program, you can learn more, here.

Today I went to an SDM that carries more high end brands like Dior and Guerlain. They also carry Urban Decay, and that's why I went to this particular location!

Everything I bought is a new release/spring collection:

 Lise Watier Pastel Power Eyeshadow Quartet ($36), Dior 5 Couleurs Cherie Bow Edition in 854 Rose Charmeuse ($61), Urban Decay Oz The Great and Powerful in Theodora ($58), Smashbox Love Me Lip Enhancing Gloss in Adore Me ($22) and Lise Watier Eye Shine in Vert Sarcelle ($19).

I called the store in advance a couple days ago so they could put aside the Urban Decay Theodora and  Lise Watier Pastel Power Quartet. I was dying for both of these! I purchased a couple of other Pastel Power products last week, and I'm totally loving them. I think the Lise Watier quad will be so pretty for spring! These are not shades I would normally wear, but I'm super excited to try them! :)

Urban Decay's Oz palettes are something I've been seriously lemming since I first heard about them a few weeks back. The colours are beautiful, and I'll be sure to swatch them later on! This palette came with a travel size 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero and a Super-Saturated High-Gloss Lip Colour in Theodora (which I used before this pic...sorry!).

 

 

The Dior palette was something I bought on a whim. I had nothing else in mind and needed to get to $200. I thought the shades in this were gorgeous. I love the hot pink and black!

 

I really wanted something from the Smashbox Love Me collection as I know it is selling out fast! I swatched the Lip Enhancing Gloss in Adore Me, in the store and thought it was really pretty.

 

Lastly, I got the latest Eyeshine from the Lise Watier collection that was released for the Spring to match the Pastel Power Quartet.

Here's a couple swatches of the UD Lip Colour, the Smashbox Gloss and the Eyeshine.

Without flash:

 

With flash

 

 

 

I'd love to hear if you participated in Spend your Points today! Please let me know what you got. :) This promo runs until this Monday, the 11th, if you weren't able to get to a store today. Also, there are whisperings of a Spend your Points event at Murale for this coming week. I'm hoping it's true!

 

Thanks for reading! :)