Sephora black Friday 2014 haul

 Finishing off the black Friday hauls I did which isn't very much since I only went to two stores.  Nothing else was good.  I was hoping to get a good deal on the Macbook pro too, but there wasn't anything that great for me to splurge. But on the happier note, Sephora had some pretty amazing deals for only $10 for each item.  For those that shop at Sephora, you know that is a steal of a deal since you can step into the store and not wanting to buy anything and then step out of the store paying $100 for two products.  They have this $10 deal every year, and if you want to check the whole list, you can see it on Temptalia's blog page here.

I was eyeing one product indefinitely and would have been super heartbroken if I couldn't buy it and it was the bite beauty lip trio.  Just one of the mini lip glosses sold for $15, so for three for the price was $10 was definitely a steal.  The other products I was on the fence about were the Nest fragrance trio and maybe even the Tarte set if I could get my hands on it.

I tried to wake up at 6:30 am and get to the mall before they opened but I was slightly still sleepy.  I finally got out of bed at 7:30 am and bused to the mall at 8:45 am or so.  I was so scared that everything would have been sold out but I was lucky and everything was still there :D.

Anyways, let's get into the haul :).  I have been talking for too long.

The body shop black friday haul

 I know this is super duper over due, but I get excited with unboxing memeboxes that I always put everything else on the back burner.  I should have uploaded this when it was still available but I just couldn't with work being so busy :S.  So sorry in advance for that but I am going to share with you this awesome deal right here ;).

I believe this deal only happens twice a year, but they always have good deals like 40% off, buy 3 get 3 free.  I also suggest getting the body shop membership since it is worth it as well.  The card itself is $10, but you do get $10 credit back on your birthday month to spend it on anything you would like.  Every $25 you spend before tax, you get one point.  If you get up to 4 points, you get $15 store credit and if you get u to 8 points, you get back $25 store credit and a free renewal for next year's membership.

On top of that, you get 10% off regularly when you buy anything from the store and you get exclusive deals as well.  I think it is a pretty sweet deal.  You can always work up a good deal since I'm going to teach you all the tips and tricks!  Let's get started shall we?

Sephora VIB 20% off sale haul

First off, I know this post should have went up about a week and a half ago.  In my defend, there are like 97 photos, nearing 100.  That's 97 BLOODY PHOTOS I HAVE TO EDIT and ADD MY NAME ON IT so no one steals my photo again.  And if they do, then thank you for the free advertising ;).  So I have finally finish editing and now having to write this post.

*WARNING:  This is a long long long long blog so grab some popcorn, get yourself a nice cup of tea and enjoy the photos.*

Did you guys get to enjoy yourself in the sale?  I know there is also the beauty.com that also has 20% off and a couple other brands that has 20% off.  What did you guys get?  I'd love to see/ hear from you guys in the comments down below or tag me to your instagram photos @christinahello.

Curious to see what I got?  Click read more!

Sephora VIB 20% off haul

I was going to rush and try and do a Sephora 20% off haul, but because I am going through some decisions, and such, I don't think it would be a good idea to do a thorough haul with close up pictures and such since I am going to return a few products here and there.  But the star of the haul has to be the Marc Jacobs eyeshadow palette which costed a lot of pretty pennies, but is really worth it!  I also got the Naked basics 2 and a surprise product which I didn't expect to buy which is the Nars contour blush in Olympia.

I got some products for presents, and the big super star set isn't mine haha.  It is for a friend but I really recommend getting that set if you do have the discount.  There is a full sized smashbox BB cream, Chole roller ball perfume, full sized (i believe) Nars orgasm, full sized urban decay shadow and a full sized Anastasia brow wiz.  I got the brow wiz too, but I came him today and rolled up the product to see how much there was inside the pencil and there IS SO LITTLE!  The pomade, which I got originally only costed $23 while the pencil cost $27... Not please.

Anyways, I will do a full haul when I get all the products sorted out, and see which products I will keep in my collection.

I'd love to hear what you got for the Sephora 20% off sale or the beauty.com 20% sale :).  Leave a comment down below!

L'occitane haul

Since I have been cutting down on buying any cosmetics, I started getting obsessed with body care stuff.  I was never one to remember to moisturize my body or ever really cared enough to do something, but now I have to shift my focus on something.  I don't normally shop at L'occitane since it is really expensive.  Getting three times are already $100!  That's dropping a lot of cash for a few products.

I do like the fact that they are all organic and made actually from France.  I don't like companies claiming to be made somewhere, but in realty it is made in China or Asia.  And you are paying premium price too! *Coach cough cough*.

Collective Body shop haul

All of a sudden, it hit me.  I fell in love again. And I fell in love with the one I didn't like at first.  Who is it you ask? The body shop.  Ever since I was a kid, I always thought the body shop had very unnatural scents which intoxicated the store.  I mean if you can smell it meters away from the store, it can't be natural right?  Sadly I have been blinded by love because I love the body shop now!

 The body shop is like drugs!  I used to really like Lush but I always found their prices were very expensive.  I was brainwashed to thing that I was paying for the quality and the fact it is all handmade.  The downside to that is there is a fast expiration date which I didn't like that much.  I still love Honey I washed the kids, but I don't think I would be paying $15 for a block of soap no more.  Hopefully in the future, they will come out with a perfume of that scent.  I would be all over that :).

I never really paid any attention to my body but since I am slowly shifting away from cosmetic products for my face, I am beginning to find that I love body products.  And where can I shop that is decently afforable and fun? THE BODY SHOP :D.  I have been eyeing the peach body butter for the longest time.  I'd say about a year and a half? It was limited edition but they came back as a permanent product which I am so happy they did.

Sephora $20 off $50 haul

Last month in December, Sephora had their second sale which was $20 off $50 and I couldn't skip it! I was already in an coma from the first sale which was 20% off everything for VIB only and I spent some pretty pennies in that sale. 

 There was still a few products I wanted to try so I just bit the bullet and went ahead and purchased the Naked 3.  Luckly during the time I was ordering the Naked 3 palette which came out Dec. 15, they also had the Urban decay limited edition Black Market eyeliner set which went on sale for $28 (original price $45) which was an absolute steal!

IMATS Vancouver 2013 Haul

 Ohh yea, it is haul time :D.  This is an overlook on what I bought.  Not much since most of my money went to Hakuhodo anyways.  I kind of blow my budget of $300 and went a little overboard at Hakuhodo but it is okay because those brushes are worth it.  I work hard for my money, I can treat myself right? LOL Okay okay, i know it is a lot of money but I held off buying anything make up related for half a year! Why do I still feel bad :(.

 Overview of the vendors that were there.  I felt like there was only around 12 vendors that were actually there to sell make up and others were just taking up space LOL. 

Michael Todd Skincare Haul

 I couldn't resist! The power of social media has got me once again.  Its not necessarily a bad thing but it is kind of when I'm trying to save money LOL. Meh.  Only live once.  Don't want to be pulling out the YOLO but sadly I just did.  Hearing so much about Michael tood, I finally broke down to buy some for myself to try.  Mainly because gossmakeuparitst said the eye-o-sonic was amazing.  I pretty much take his word for 100% :).

I might have bought the wrong skincare regimen but thats okay.  Actually its not okay because I'm breaking out now T_T.  I have normal to dry combination skin and I was stupid enough not being able to see the normal combination skin discovery kit which is a five piece 1 oz. sample size skincare kit for $36 as of right now.  I don't know the original price but thats the "sale" price.  I have heard others have been able to get it for only $19 :(.  Maybe I will wait for the sale to happen before I try it again.

Temptu Consumer Airbrush system update

As you might know, I found the temptu airbrush system at Metrotown in Burnaby last week from two posts ago but I was still uncertain if I wanted to keep it or not since I didn't even have any pods to work with.  So I told myself, when I went to another Winners close to my house, I find pods, then I would keep it.  Well guess what? It turned out even better then what I expected.

My luck was with me that day.  I went with my mom on a Thursday I believe? I brought the other one I bought in Metro with the mind site of "if I don't find any pods, then I'm just going to return the whole system." I rushed into the beauty section straight away, looking all around the make up section but I couldn't find any! I was quite sad because I really wanted to use airbrushing and see what the difference is and what all the rave is about.

I don't know why, but is always when I finally give up that I find what I wanted in the first place.  I gave up after looking three times in the same section, but then the clearance section was a completely different story.  I don't know why I didn't think of looking there, but a white box caught my eyes.  it was in the back of everything with the security spider locking up the box.  It was....THE TEMPTU AIRBRUSH SYSTEM! This one is the regular one, black compresser and I wanted this on instead because I was scared that the other one had something missing in it and I like it all black anyways.  So I returned the other one, picked this one up and kept looking in the clearance section. Both were stil the same price. 

Random Haul at Daiso

Many many times I would go into stores like Winners and Daiso not expecting to buy anything and just going there for a stroll, and then end up buying a bag full of stuff.  Don't pretend you don't do that haha.  I like many people step into target for groceries and end up buying tons of stuff they don't need.

I believe that we have the biggest daiso outside of Asia which is located in Richmond, British Columbia in Canada.  Vancouver if  you will.  Two stores high, ridiculously big too.  Tons and tons of stuff, even stuff you don't need but wilil still put into your basket because, heck.... its only $2 anyways!

Sephora 15% off haul

It has been far too long since I have posted my last blog post.  I have been just working non stop and fighting with my boss over law essentially.  Its ridiculous when I don't even get enough sleep and even the law states it.  But no more of my problems, back to the haul.

Most of the items here are actually for my mother, only the urban decay setting spray is for me.  I didn't buy much since I'm saving my money to go to the Vancouver Imats this year.  I swore the first time I went when imats was in town the first ever time to never go back to the vancouver once since it wasn't that great, not compared to the LA one for sure.  If I'm lucky, this year there would hopefully be actually 40 vendors.  I just wish it was as big as any other imats ni the world :( but that is the sad truth.

My mom isn't much of a make up women but she wanted an eyeliner that would actually wor since her make up forever aqua liner doesn't statisfy her needs. I showed her the bobbi brown once since I have many good things about it but they didn't have a nice brown and I noticed all their gel liners had simmer in it so it was a no good.  This one was have the price of the bobbi brown one $16 CAD and it is super creamy too.  I couldn't exactly review this since it is my mothers but i could give it a try and do a good impression :D.

The only few things my mom does on a daily basis is her lips and eyebrow.  So I thought she could take advantage of my discount and use it on something really good, a brand that is focused only on brows.  This kit was quite expensive actually, well everything in sephora is I think haha.  I'm used to E.L.F prices which is dirt cheap.  I don't know if it just me but everytime I go into sephora and want to look around, i never end up buying anything since there is so many products in there. Hopefully its not just me Hehe.

Holika holika aqua petit jelly BB cream first impression

I have been waiting for this bb cream to come in the mail for the longest time! Since my skin79 hot pink bb cream is on its last leg, I decided to venture out to see what other company's bb cream had to offer.  Now I have seen this on Michelle phan's how to be a Korean pop star video and have seen it in other guru's on youtube talk about it so I thought I would just check it out on eBay to see how much it is.   I don't know why but I was convinced that this bb cream would have been at least $30 but it was only $12-$16! I was crazy surprised.  This is one of the reasons why I love bb creams from asian.  They are utterly awesome, does the job while not being heavy and it is inexpensive!

 I was super excited to open the package when i got it in the mail seven hours ago.  There was so much mail in our little mail slot.  Two magazines, five letters and sitting in the back of the slot was a little box. I was thinking how on earth is it going to come out because the dimension was the same as the slot.  I got so scared because it wouldn't come out! Freaked out for a moment but it finally came out.  I couldn't get home fast enough.  This is one thing I like about online shopping, when it comes and you can open a package.  Christmas all year long :D!

I got my bottle on ebay from a seller under the username "cosmeticmarket2012".  If you are interested, link is here.  I bought mine for $12.33 USD which is an amazing price.  If i buy anything from asia, espically bb creams, I would usually try to find a seller who actually lives in that country to aviod counterfit as much as possible. Consider the country of origin and also find a reputable seller.  This one is a top seller so most likely I didn't buy a fake ^_^.

Forgotting haul from zara, winners, forever 21

This is what happens when I take pictures and mean to post them but then I completely forget and then get absorbed into working and studying.  I just found this on my memory stick so i thought it is finally time to post this.  This haul was back around the beginning of February when Zara was having their season end sale where a lot of things were 50% off or if you waited even longer, everything would be reduced to even 70%.

 For the longest time I wanted this really elegant Victoria Beckham-estique dress but it was priced at $120 which I was not willing to pay for.  Yes Zara has some nice designs but the quality isn't the best for sure.  I was thinking about paying that price for it but I kind of forgot about it and I'm actually glad I did because I got it for only $50 :).  I was super happy but I also kind of asked myself if I wanted to wait anymore and see if it would get any cheaper.  I was quite happy with the price and the quality and cut of it was worth $50 for sure.

Mac and I'occitane en provence haul

Back in the end of January, I saw a post on smartcanucks.com (a website where they post really good deals and freebies for Canadians) had a freebie for a free l'occitance hand cream and if they reached 60,000 likes on their facebook page, they would upgrade the 10 mL to a full size 30 mL tube.  Thats an awesome deal and this is the second time that I know of that they had this freebie.  You didn't have to buy anything but there was a 15% off coupon.

When I went, I didn't really want anything since I knew everything was quite expensive, although I did buy their night shea butter face cream last year with the 15% off coupon.  I did really like the face cream but spring and summer was just around the corner so I really didn't need something so hydrating and oily.

Everyone had a choice of three scents: Peony hand cream, shea butter hand cream or lavender hand cream.  I choose Peony since it is one of my favorite flowers since the first bouquet of flowers that I ever got was from my boyfriend and they were the stand out in the bouquet hehe. I find that this peony version compared to the original shea butter one is a lot more thin and not as hydrating but still does the job.  I have to wash my hands more then 20 times in the eight hours I am at work so I have stupidly dried up

 hands.

Forgotten Coastal scents haul

Okay okay.  I forgot about this haul.  Sue me. Actually don't please, LOL I'm a poor working class women :'(.  But yes I will admit that I forgot about this haul completely! I actually bought myself some stuff from coastal scents back in black Friday (yes I did make two hauls) but this one came in January since the Christmas mail time is really backed up.  That is completely understandable and the fact that I had to go back to work full time, so there is my reasoning. :). 

I absoultely love coastal scents but this time around, I really didn't feel like I needed anything.  But because during that time a few weeks back I was stupid enough to drop my 88 neutral palette and there was eyeshadow on the floor everywhere and many just fell out, I decided to just hand pick the few neutral colors I would wear so I just browsed through the hot pots hoping to find the perfect neutrals.

ELF Studio Long-Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow review and swatch

 Like always, these awesome eyeshadow was on the ELF cosmetics instagram sneak peek so when these came out back in November, I jumped on the horse and bought them on Cyber Monday.  The description of these eyeshadows just intrigued me since its suppose to be a whipped gel eyeshadows which i don't even think there is anything like it on the market right now.

ELF's description on this product: "Soft and fluffy, these vibrant, shimmering Long Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow colors can be used as eyeshadow or a bold liner. The whipped gel texture is easy to blend and lightweight for lasting comfort and wear. Perfect for highlighting the brow bone and adding extra shimmer for a truly glam look."

Product Packaging: Let me just start off by saying that the cardboard packaging for this was so annoying! The eyeshadow was stuck in there! You have to actually rip the packaging to get it out but I had to try so hard to not rip it for picture purposes LOL.  

Another thing that is super annoying is that the names for the eyeshadow was the names are not on them.  You either have to write it with a sharpie yourself on the bottom or you would manually have to rip the little sliver sticker off the back of the box.  I really hope that they don't do that for all of them because that just makes me question if they were thinking when they made this product.

 These have super simple packaging with a black lid on top with "ELF long lasting lustrous eyeshadow" printed on them and a clear plastic bottom. In pictures before I got it, I thought the bottom would be glass like the Maybelline color tattoos.

I stuck that sticker on myself by the way.

Texture:

Unlike anything I've ever tried before, but these do remind me of their studio cream blushes which has the same "bouncy" texture. These are "bouncy" but they are more wet then the cream blush which turns slightly powder on the skin.  I wouldn't slide my finger around since they are really squishy and I would just create a huge crator so i would actually just dab my finger over it. On the skin, it still has a slight wetness to it but it does set well.  The wetness does also help attract powders to show their true color, exactly what a eyeshadow base is suppose to do.

Color Pigmentation/ Payoff:
Out of the 7 shades, i only bought three of them since most of them are very boring shades to me and the three shades I bought, I thought I could get the most use of. The seven shades they sell are Toast (yellow golden bronze color), Soiree (light pinky purple), Gala (browny raspberry purple shade), Festivity (dark purple amethyst), confetti (white with silver shimmer), celebration (sliver), and party (dark silvery blue color).

As you can tell from my description, gala, soiree and festivity all are different shades of purple and on the skin (from swatch pictures  I've seen, they all look very similar so that saved me some money there knowing that I didn't have to buy all of them.

All of the shades are shimmery which stopped me from getting them right when they first came out but when it came time to the cyber Monday sale, I went crazy and just picked some up. Now I'm not the type to like crazy shimmer on my eyes but these makes the skin look like there are Swarovski crystals on my eyes. They are stunningly gorgeous! It has this metallic element with tons of shimmers that does actually adhere to the skin nicely.

The colors are very buildable and it will be true to color after about three layers.  The good thing about these is that you can actually wear these by themselves and it wouldn't crease or you could use these as a color base which is quite effective as well.

Smell:

Good news for those that don't like frangances in their products.  These do not have any smell :).

Lasting power:

From the name, you could kind of tell but these do last quite a long time. I would put these on in the morning and when I go to take my make up off late at night, it is still there.  It fades a slight  bit but nothing dramatic.

Price:

 These go for $3 each in their studio line but you can easily get these for $1.50 a piece if you use a studio 50% off code which you just have to google for one. 

Overall I really do love these even though I am not a big sparkle girl but wow I'm in love with the shades.  I  wouldn't be going out to get all of the shades since I have too much stuff already  as it is but i just wanted to try something new. 

Boxing day haul

The night before boxing day, I was so excited to go to this really big mall called Metrotown in Burnaby for boxing day that I couldn't sleep at all and went to the mall right when it was opened at 8 am.  Luckly I decided to drive and get there right when it opened or else there would be absolutely no hope on getting a parking spot and the stuff I bought was quite heavy if i were to carry it around with me the while time I was shopping.  

Even though I went there right when it opened, the mall was already packed and I knew right then and there, I had to head to Lush first since last year they sold out of their Honey I washed the kids when I got there at 11 am.  I wasn't going to risk that chance so I went and got two blocks of it :).  I was happy since everything was still there and I got first dibs on them! Happiest day of my life :D. Also this is the only day in the whole year that I would buy some lush products since it is buy 1 get one free and I usually only just get their soaps.  I don't really take baths in my household so bubble bar and bath melts are useless to me.

 I actually accidentally deleted the picture of the stash of honey I washed the kids but this is a stash of the North pole soap that smells like mint and chocolate.  Its amazing too :).  I picked a piece that just had the pink part which was just chocolate and I love it!

 It wasn't super crazy packed with people when I got there but the line up felt impossible! It felt like the longest thing everrrrr.  All the customers was having a little chat, making the cashier slower and there was only two cashier there too.  Oh my goodness >_<. 

 There was this lady in front of me that had so many of the lush gifts, I'm pretty sure that it run up to at least $300.  Damn LOL.  I wonder how she could carry all of that to her car or even worse if she didn't even have a car.  Just imagining this tiny asian lady carrying it LOLOL.  Okay, back to reality.

 So in the end, I did control myself I think since I got myself two of the Honey farm gift box for $39.95 and it comes with a bar of 100g Honey I washed the kids soap, butterball bath bomb, its raining men shower gel, honey bee bath bomb and soft coeur massage bar which has actual chocolate in it :D.  Most of the stuff I would use so I didn't mind getting this gift set.

I will do another post of this lush haul since I have a lot to say about the stuff I got so watch out for that.  I can't wait to use It's raining men since it is basically the liquid version of honey I washed the kids.  If they had that in a perfume, I'd use that everyday no problem :D.

I got myself two bars of the honey I washed the kids.  This chunck is already $16 Cad which is quite expensive but the smell of it is too amazing.  Too bad I can't afford buying a whole wheel. If i could, id just leave that in my room so it would smell like that.  UGH!

 I believe this is a repromote from their Christmas collection from last year called the Northern lights.  Nothing really special.  This falls into the same category as sexy peel, sandstone and bohemian, citrusy.  I love citrus smells since it is so awakening and refreshing so this is perfect :).

This one is called North Pole which is completely brand new to Lush and it is actually a whole pole in the store so the name completely suites it.  It has a chocolate and mint scent which is very nice and not overbearing to the point where I want to puke.  I usually wouldn't buy a mint scented soap but this is really nicely balanced :).  I quite like it.

The second store I hit was Nine west of course.  Now the prices in Nine west is quite expensive but I have to admit that their shoes are comfortable so I would give them that.  Most of their shoes are really boring and old lady like to me but my most favorite part of heels are from them and they also were the pair of heels that I wore when I first met my boyfriend so it holds near and dear to my heart.  I didn't want to miss the chance to buy the pair of shoes I want and not have my size which would suck so i fought through the river of people to get there.  

Most of the shoes were 50% off but there were also ones that was only 30% off which kind of sucks but I still wanted them so LOL.  Too bad for me to falling in love with them!  I actually already knew what I wanted to get but little did I know that the part of heels was going to be Barbie heels, meaning your foot is arched so much to the point where its basically just walking on your toes LOL.  Too bad because I really loved them but oh well.  I did end up getting these other pairs that I had my eye on called "Drumroll" in the color pink multi suede. 

 They also had these in a more muted color scheme but this was the only pair of size 6.5 I didn't really mind the bright colors so i got these.  I'm actually a size 7 normally but because these are bootie style shoe and the front top didn't really hold my feet properly so I had to get a size 6.5 for a better fit.  These really remind me of the style in the movie Tron, super future-estque.  The cut out on your feet is really unique since it shoes the sides of your feet, never seen or had any pair of heels like this! Its awesome.  I'm also really happy that I have another pair of shoes to add to my collection since I'm a picky shoe buyer and would only buy a pair if they are comfortable, looks good and I can get it at a good price.  I got these for $79 after tax and discount which I think is a very reasonable price point for these since they are still on sale on their website for $111.99 which I don't find that to be a deal since the original price is $140.00.  You can check these out here if you are interested to find these.

http://www.ninewest.ca/product.asp?productid=8992#.UOqVQ649-Go

 Love me some platform heels :).  These puppies has a 1.5 inch platform.

And a 5.5 heel height which really would be 4 inch heel from the platform which is why I love me a lot of platform shoes since it just makes everything more comfortable and I think it looks better too.

This isn't really from the boxing day sale but I finally bought myself a pair of runners since I'm really serious about working out now LOL.  Hopefully I would get off my bum and do as I think.  These were $59.99 which I have been putting off on buying but I couldn't put it off anymore since I finally found a pair that wasn't pink FINALLY! I wore these for the first time and omgawww! They feel like I'm walking on cloud! These are called the Nike air and the inside is so padded, it feels super comfortable.  I think the sole does a pair of the job too.  I don't know much about runners but I'd wear these everyday too :), just to run away from my boyfriend harassing me.  LOLOL joking joking, I love him.

 I was actually already done with shopping after I bought the pair of Nikes but my friend wanted to check out Aldo and they had this little section where it was 50% off all their clutches and an extra 30% off their bags.  I saw this bag called "Ferruso" and it caught my attention since it was actually a pretty good quality bag which is really surprising since aldo shoes is super uncomfortable and the quality of the bag is never really that good. It was originally $50 but I got it for $27.99 which I think was a reasonable price. They still have this bag on sale on their website if you would like to check it out on their website.

http://www.aldoshoes.com/ca-eng/sale/handbags

 The inside has three compartments, two just open spaces and one part with a zipper which I think is a must since the bag itself doesn't have a big zipper to close it completely.  I also love the attention to detail on this bag.  Its not everyday you could come across a good quality bag at aldo LOL for this price too.

 The zipper detailing, which is functional, is awesome too! I can put my phone or loose coins and it would be easy access.

 I also love the small stud detailing on the sides and the best thing yet is that it has a body strap! That is a complete must for me since I don't find that holding my purse or bag is really ideal for which I'm out.  

 I also love the handle detailing! Its this lace up type of thing and it has buckle handles which I believe is just for show.

Overall I think I did a good job controlling myself during such a rush of sale time.  Spent about $300 for a lot of things that i love so no regrets!

What was your most favorite boxing day sale item you got? Did you got boxing day shopping?