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.

Project shoe dazzling inspired by the Christian Loubutin strassed daffodile

Back in December when i decided to really bite the bullet and make myself a pair of crystal shoes with none other then swarovski top notch crystals, I broke down and bought myself the pair of Steve madden babylonn since they are the exact same style as the christian loubutin daffodile ones. The only problem was that they didn't have the color I needed to match the crystals so I had to do myself a big DIY project. by the way, the color I choose for my shoes is called volcano which is mainly a amethyst purple shade but you can also see yellow, orange, light sea foam green and a light ocean blue.

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. 

Inside a lush Honey farm

Just recently went to Lush during their boxing day sale which was a buy one get one free event and it only happens once a year so I couldn't miss out.  I knew for sure that I wanted to finally buy myself a Honey farm wrapped gift since most of the stuff inside I really like, especially the Honey I washed the kids bar soap, their best selling soap.

First of all, let's start with the packaging.  The wrapping paper is made of 100% recycled material which just makes this gift more of a feel good thing :D.  There are little bees all over the wrapping paper and the whole gift is wrapped with a black ribbon with thick white stitching all over.  

 Each gift has a little directory of what is in the gift. This particular one has It's raining men shower gel 3.3 fl oz. which has the same smell of honey I washed the kids soap but in liquid form, honey I washed the kids soap 100 g, Butterball bath bomb, Honey bee bath bomb and a soft coeur massage bar.

 Ahh its naked! After unwrapping the box, this is what is revealed.  All lush products has a little cute sticker of who packaged the product and all products made by lush which makes it that much more personal.  Its a really cute concept and only lush does that as far as I know :).

 I know there was a time where lush gifts was packaged with popcorn.  And yes edible popcorn but I wouldn't suggest eating the popcorn since there was soap and what not sitting in that box for ages LOL.  So now they use packaging peanuts to hide away your products.

All of the gift has these little booklet with small explanations of what each product is in their whole lush collection.  Love the idea since all of the lush product doesn't have any product packaging.

 I can't wait to try this! Liquid honey i washed the kid, just want I wanted and needed. I'm not really used to using solid soaps so I think I might like this a lot more :).

 I still haven't opened the soft coeur massage bar since I don't know what to use this for.  I don' t live with my boyfriend and I don't massage myself so this is kind of useless for me but I will try to find a good use for this.

The two bath bombs are butterball which is super duper popular and honey bee bath bomb. Butterball to me doesn't smell special me but a slight clean clothes smell. Honey bee though smells amazing. I don't know if it is because it has been in the same box as honey i washed the kids smell but oh my goodness, it just smells like sweet honey with a hint of caramel.

Overall I would buy this gift set again but considering $40 for 6 products, I don't think I would be rushing out to buy this anytime soon. I think I would just repurchase honey I washed the kids soap and its raining men :).  

What do you think about this wrapped gift? Which one is your most favorite out of all of th elush gift sets?

2012 Christmas presents :)

In my opinion, I think this might have been the best Christmas so far.  All my presents were very modest but thoughtful, I don't think I could complain...not even a bit.  The best one was from my boyfriend which is priceless I think :).

From my boyfriend's family, they came me this really cute cupcake soap that smells delicious! I don't know where they got this but this is just as good as Lush soaps that I use everyday :).   The bottom smells just like chocolate and the swirly part smells like vanilla awesomeness! I don't know if i ever want to use this though :(, its too pretty~.  They also gave me a really cute white toque since I think they figured that i like hats LOL.  I wear one almost everyday since its damn cool!!! And well, they also figured I'm a winners crazy shopper so they gave me a gift card.  So nice :'), and yes...that gift card came to use the next week HAHA.

 My parents found me this super cute onesie which soooo came in handy since I just wear it and run around my house like a teletubbie as my boyfriend calls me.  I don't care! It so comfortable and I never got this when I was a kid :).  They are actually for children but my mom got it in extra large because I'm a kid like that! And yes the picture of me, I just woke up so I didn't comb my hair.  Don't judge me hmmph!

 My really good friend finally came back from Toronto and she brought me a present :). So sweet of her! She got me this really cool couture poster, a Elizabeth Arden set with lip balm, hand cream with gloves which is super useful since I have to wash my hand at least 50 times a day at work.  No more ashy and crusty hands LOL.  She also got me this choco Air chocolate which is the first time I have tried it and it reminds me of aero but a lot less sweet. Pretty good :D.

The last present I got was from my sister.  Before I opened the box, I could already smell something that reminded me of food.  When I saw the cardboard that said diamond candles and I completely freaked out.  Now the relationship between my sister is almost nonexistence so when i saw this, I completely was in shock.  I really wanted to buy myself these since you have a chance to actually win a real and expensive ring but they don't ship to Canada, only in the states. This smells so damn good! Just like fresh cut apples and yes I did burn that the next day and digged that ring out :).  LOL I know your not suppose to but I couldn't wait and I could already see it anyways.

What did you guys get for your Christmas presents? 

What was your most favorite reactions from the person you gave the gift to? 

Let me know down below :).