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March 2016 Low-Buy Accountability

~ stashy ~ 57 Comments

I felt like I did less shopping and browsing in March just simply due to being busier… but now listing everything out, I did in fact, do a lot of shopping! 😳
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I’ll be listing all of the beauty related items I bought in March, but only actual makeup items will be counted toward my budget.  First makeup item I bought in March was the Body Shop Fresh Nude Foundation $25:
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I’ve worn this a few times now and it’s quite nice. I’ll do a review after I’ve given it a more thorough test.

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Stash Matters’ Favourite Things Giveaway!

~ stashy ~ 141 Comments

Edit: This giveaway has ended!  Winners are announced HERE. 🙂

Since it was my Blogiversary yesterday, I decided to host my first ever giveaway! 😀 These items are some of my favourite things – you may have seen me mention these items on the blog or in comments throughout the year. Here’s a group photo of the giveaway items:
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PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE POST BEFORE ENTERING!

There will be multiple winners, each will receive FIVE (5) items of their choosing (see restrictions below).  I bought some items especially for this giveaway and some are from my stash (since I realize I do not need so many back-ups!) These are all brand new, unopened, full-sized products.  The open product shots and swatches I’m showing are of my own personal items.

Here are the items in more detail:

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Beauty Blender Battle

~ stashy ~ 92 Comments

[I’ve had this post in draft mode for ages!  Random timing to post this but no time like the present!]

The Beauty Blender needs no introduction.  These hot pink egg shaped sponges cost a whopping $26 each and have spawned a slew of BB-like sponges.  So is a $26 sponge 26x better than a $1 one?

For years, I refused to succumb to the Beauty Blender.  I resisted and bought the dupes to satisfy my Beauty Blender curiosity.  I simply could NOT justify paying $26 for a flimsy little egg shaped piece of foam.  So I bought some off ebay, and a few from drugstores before I finally decided to get the real thing during the Spring 2013 VIB sale.  I’ve been using my stash of makeup sponges for a while now.  Let’s have a look at how they stack up the the original Beauty Blender:
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L to R [These are arranged from the most airy / porous (L) to the most dense / heavy (R)]:
• Beauty Blender (hot pink) – $26 [note: I paid $26 for mine but I see that it’s now $28 – damn that exchange rate!] (Sephora)
• MAC Pro Performance Sponge (orange) – $24 (MAC)
• Quo Blending Sponge (purple) – $5 (Shoppers Drug Mart)
• Sephora Airbrush Sponge mini (teal) – $12 for 2 [bought this during Black Friday sale 2014] (Sephora)
• Blending sponge from eBay (black) – $1 (shipped from China)
• Kit Super Blenders (mint) – $12 for 3 (Rexall)

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Shiseido facial cotton and possible dupes?

~ stashy ~ 37 Comments

I’m a facial cotton snob. It wasn’t always this way, but ever since I tried my first package of Shiseido Facial Cotton, I haven’t looked back.  Let me qualify that – I don’t use Shiseido Facial Cotton exclusively – I only use it for removing my eye makeup.  The pillowy softness of this cotton is especially appreciated against the delicate skin around the eyes.  Now when I use non-Shiseido cottons on my eye area, I feel like I’m using sandpaper (I exaggerate, but really, like 80-grit).  For everything else – toner, exfoliants, nail polish removal – I use other cottons.
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I was happily shelling out $9 per package for the Shiseido cotton, until one day, about 2 years ago, the Shiseido counter lady informed me that the price was going up soon… to $11 per pack!  That’s a 22% increase!  In my mind, this crossed over some imaginary threshold, and this item became “too expensive”.  I rushed to purchase half a dozen packs of the cotton at the $9 price.  My current stock is still the $9 price, but the supply is dwindling. Then I began to notice that drugstore brands were coming out with their own versions of square facial cottons that look suspiciously similar to the Shiseido cotton packaging:
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So I set out to find out if they’re dupes!

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Canadian beauty brands

~ stashy ~ 56 Comments

Happy Canada Day! canadian-flag-banana

In honour of Canada Day, today I’ll showcase some Canadian brands and a few items I own from each.
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Lise Watier (Shoppers Drug Mart, online)
LW made her name firstly through her signature perfume, Neiges (which I don’t particularly care for) but has since branched out to colour cosmetics and skincare.  I’ve grown fond of her lipsticks, eye shadows, and concealer.

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Lip stuff stash

~ stashy ~ 64 Comments

As I’m laying out all my lip stuff in preparation for photography in today’s post, The Boy asks me, “What’s the purpose of all these pictures?”
“They’re to show my whole collection on the blog.” I reply.
“So it’s like… makeup porn?” he asks.
“YUP! You got it!” 😆

My lip stash is probably the least exciting of all of my stashes – the majority of my lip products can fit into one frame:
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I’m just not that into lipsticks. I feel bold colours don’t suit my face. I’m also not into matte textures or shimmer, or overly glossy finishes – so it leaves me with a fairly narrow band of comfort zone, as you’ll see in my stash. And I only own 5 MAC lipsticks! (of which 3 are retired)  It’s relatively small by comparison to my eye shadow stash (600+) or nail polish stash (400+)   That said, I have amassed a lot of lip balms and butter butters.

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Beauty Tools Tag

~ stashy ~ 22 Comments

I almost renamed this Tag to “Tool Time Tag” – anyone remember the show Home Improvement? 😛  I was tagged for this first by Joy, and then by Shareen.  Thank you!
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Rules:
• Tag up to 5 people & let them know you tagged them.
• List what you want. If you got three things that are unbelievable or twenty… Don’t care, just share.
• Cannot be actual makeup, skin care, or hair care products – just the tools/gadgets you use.

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Eye shadow stash

~ stashy ~ 69 Comments

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)

Brace yourself, eye shadows galore this way