After quite the delay with the post office delivery (I think Royal Mail and Canada Post were equally to blame for this snafu!), I finally received my epic prize from Rachael of Helpless Whilst Drying! I don’t use the word ‘epic’ lightly, I mean, just look at this:
It was like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one as I unwrapped item after item! 😀
By now you’re sick of my hauls, right? I’m sorry, but you realize January was NO HOLDS BARRED month, and I just came off a yearlong dry spell, so every makeup item looked mighty tempting. This is the LAST of the January hauls (until I receive the items I ordered online). Here are some random bits and pieces I picked up that I haven’t covered in my previous posts:
This post is dedicated to fivezero. I had lodged a complaint on her blog a few weeks ago because I felt she had been featuring too many orange nail polishes on her blog lately. I mentioned that I only owned 2 orange nail polishes whereas she had 20 minimum. Well, it turns out I actually own 3 orange nail polishes, and in the spirit of Halloween, I will showcase them here:
L to R:
• Essie Braziliant
• L’Oreal Nail Color Orange You Jealous
• Essence #46 Wake Up! (this was the one I didn’t realize I had)
I’m testing out something different for this post – a black background! I’m not sure how I feel about it – I think it makes colours look wonky. I mainly did it for the Halloween-y theme of orange and black. 😛
On this Labour Day holiday, I thought I would examine where in the world our cosmetics are made. It’s something that I always take note whenever I buy a product – I like to turn over the compact or box to find that fine print: made in xx / fabriqué au xx. For me personally, of the typical cosmetics producing countries, here’s how I rank them in terms of quality, from high to low: Disclaimer: this post in no way is a reflection of all qualities of products made in each country. I understand that there are high and low quality products made in every country. This is a generalized overview, and as such, there will be exceptions.
France – most notable for perfumes and skincare. Certain brands exclusively produce in France, staying true to their origin, such as Guerlain, Chanel, and Bourjois. I feel that these brands focus on controlling both the heritage and integrity of their products. There are also excellent pharmacy skincare brands like Nuxe, Avene and Bioderma – luckily in Canada we have easy access to these brands!
Interestingly, I noticed that my Benefit Boxed Powder Blush changed from “Made in USA” (in the shade Dallas) to “Made in France” (Hervana) and 4g less product!
Bright blushes are perfect for summertime – they look especially gorgeous against tanned skin. But fair skinned gals, don’t let bright blushes scare you – they add a flush of colour when dusted on lightly at the apple of the cheeks. Put your sunglasses on – here are some of my favourite bright blushes from my stash:
I do have to say though, no photograph can truly capture the BRIGHTNESS of these blushes – you have to see them in person to appreciate them!
Blushes make me SO happy! They’re like candy for my face! 😆
According to my inventory count, I currently have 155 blushes in my collection. And yet I still wish I had more…! 😛 The highest brands on my wish list are Sleek and Colour Pop – I can only order them online so it’s a case of hard to get = want them even more.
I store the bulk of my blushes in the same clear drawers as my eye shadows, but in the wider format:
Here’s the motherlode. I’ve mentioned many times that I have a lot of eye shadows – over 600 – it is the most abundant makeup category that I own. I just love eye shadows and it’s the area of my face that I spend the most time applying makeup. I’ll keep this introduction brief and just let the pictures do the talking.
It took me over 2 hours just to sort and photograph the whole eye shadow collection and probably another 4 to edit everything. Usual disclaimer: this isn’t meant to show off. It was actually quite a beneficial exercise for me to display all my eye shadows visually. Warning: photo heavy post! (50 images)
In keeping with the Easter and Spring theme, I thought I’d showcase 5 pastel nail polishes from my stash:
Thumb to pinky: Essie Pink-a-Boo, Revlon Apricot Pastry, Illamasqua Milf, Mary Kay Blue Lotus, Essence A Lovely Secret.
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I’m officially renaming my Empties posts to Trash Stash. 😀 Once again, I’ve accumulated enough empty beauty products to post – I reckon this will be a monthly feature going forward. I can no longer deny it – being on a No-Buy has definitely forced me to use up some of my stash!
stash matters 