coastal scents

Anastasia Beverly Hills Eye Shadow Singles: Chiffon, Comfort, Chocolate Crumble, Rosette

~ stashy ~ 75 Comments

I remember a time when Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH) was solely a brow product brand.  And look at it now!  According to Sephora, their most popular product is their Modern Renaissance Eye Shadow Palette.  You know me, I can’t commit to a large scale palette so I was quite psyched when I learned that ABH launched single refills and a customizable palette.

I got these right before Christmas last year as gifts to myself. 😉

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Megapost: Custom Palette Systems

~ stashy ~ 143 Comments

I’ve had this post brewing for months and finally dusted it off in light of the recent controversy with Z Palette. If you don’t know about it, read about it here, here, and here. Um yeah… total gong show. 😮  Z Palette is probably the most well-known of any major custom palette systems, so their social media misstep has certainly opened the door for other players to secure a larger share of the market. People are now looking for Z Palette alternatives – let’s have a look at what the options are:

I’ll be showing what I own and also list some that I know about but do not own.  All prices are shown in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.  Warning: long post and lots of photos! 😎

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Trash Stash: July 2016

~ stashy ~ 44 Comments

It’s a holiday here today. It’s just called a Civic Holiday but the meaning varies depending where you live in Canada. In BC, it’s called British Columbia Day, in Alberta it’s called Heritage Day… very specifically, in the city of Toronto, it’s Simcoe Day. Simcoe Day is named after John Graves Simcoe, who founded the town of York, Upper Canada, which became Toronto. He was also the first lieutenant governor of the province. Now you know! 😉

Onward to the July Trash Stash:
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I’d call this month a pretty average month in terms of using things up, except for ONE epic empty that I’ve been working away at for YEARS.

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Foundation and Concealer Purge of 2016

~ stashy ~ 68 Comments

This has been a long time coming. I just needed to set some time aside and be in the right mood to be serious about getting rid of some items from my stash. Sometimes I feel a bit attached to items due to nostalgia and I talk myself into keeping stuff I really shouldn’t. I think I did well:
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Since I’ve been hauling like a madwoman, it’s only fair to purge some stuff too! Tomorrow I’ll be purging some lip products.  Let’s have a closer look at the foundation and concealer purge pile:

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Black Friday 2015: No-Buy edition

~ stashy ~ 30 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends! I hope you get stuffed full of turkey and pumpkin pie! 😀  Then rest up for Black Friday tomorrow! 😉

So it seems like everyone but me will be going out Black Friday shopping this year. *pout*  Alas, Black Friday in Canada is less of an event compared to the US anyway.  Our Thanksgiving was 6 weeks ago, but we participate in this American Thanksgiving tradition, whereby we have a random day of special sales on a Friday at the end of November.  It’s a regular work day for us; our stores don’t open as early, and our sales aren’t as insane as in the US.
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But, I have seen a bigger push from retailers to promote Black Friday here in the past few years. The last 3 years I made an effort and went looking for deals on Black Friday.   In 2013, I actually took the day off and went shopping!  Since I’m not participating in Black Friday (cosmetics-wise) this year, it got me thinking, did I even like the stuff I bought on Black Fridays past?  It’s not a good deal if I don’t even use the stuff.  Let’s have a look.

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MAC 217 Blending brush and the like

~ stashy ~ 33 Comments

The 2nd installment of “Comparison Week” will feature the ever popular MAC 217 Blending Brush:
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This versatile brush regularly appears on “Best Makeup Brushes” lists due to its high quality and multi-purpose-ness (yes that’s a word now).  It is rated 4.7 out of 5.0 on MakeupAlley with 946 reviews and 92% stated they would repurchase this brush again.  It is a universally lauded beauty tool.  But should you rush out to buy one?

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