Haulin': Sally Beauty Supply and Sephora

Seeing as how yesterday was payday, I spent my Saturday like any other normal college kid would.

I went shopping! And I picked up some super-cool things to share with you all =)

My first stop was Sally Beauty Supply. This awesome chain offers beauty and cosmetic products that are somewhat equal to their salon counterparts at a fraction of the price because there are no super-fancy names stamped on them. Recently, I spent the $5 it costs to join their Beauty Club which is a special rewards program that actually saves you about 10-15% on each item you buy at the store. I originally only went into Sally today to find a good damage repair shampoo as my hairstylist told me that with my constant bleaching and coloring, my hair was becoming dry and brittle. I was totally fine with that, until she tried to sell me a $24, 7 oz. bottle of name-brand shampoo. Umm... I don't think so!

So I went to Sally's and found this awesome product:
In all honesty, this product wasn't THAT new (I already had bought and fell in love with the brand's 2 Minute Repairing Mask). Since I loved it so much, I figure the shampoo must be awesome too. Aphogee's Shampoo for Damaged Hair cost $7.39. I'll try it out tonight and let you know how it goes.

I then walked down the nail polish aisle and these two products caught my eye:
Beauty Secrets' Base Coat (left) and Top Coat (right) came highly recommended from numerous Youtube makeup gurus and nail salons, so I knew they were the real deal. Each bottle cost $2.79. I just tried them out this evening (as I painted my nails with OPI's Teal We Meet Again) and they worked like magic! I especially impressed with the top coat, which helped my nails dry in thirty seconds.

Recently, I really needed a new pencil sharpener for my eye pencils. So, I picked this one up at the check-out counter:
I really like that it has an attached piece for all of your pencil shavings. At $2.99, it was slightly pricey, but it looks like it will work much better than my current sharpener.

I also got a strange impulse to buy this:
It's a 'Lip Crayon', which basically means it doubles as a pencil and lipstick. I bought one in the shade Coral Shimmer for $1.89 and so far, I really like it! It's a peachy-nude, slightly on the orange side, but still very wearable. I'll probably layer lipstick on top of it to ensure that it stays on for longer and doesn't make my lips look dry.

After Sally's, I drove over to Sephora. I originally intended to only buy this:
When I got my Urban Decay Naked Palette, it came with a mini Primer Potion and I fell in love with it. So, I went back to Sephora today and shelled out the $18 to buy a full-sized one. I think it's a smart buy, though, because it works so incredibly well and really holds my eyeshadow in place all day.

I also grabbed this in Sephora:
Though I have been cleaning my brushes weekly, I've been scared to clean them daily because the formula could dry them out and destroy the quality of the brush hairs. This brush cleanser ($6), however, is mild enough to use every day, so I will test it tomorrow and let you know how it goes!

And then my FABULOUS boyfriend bought me the COOLEST Valentine's Day gift ever:
Uh-huh. That would be the Nars Orgasm blush/Laguna Bronzer ($40). I AM SO EXCITED! For those who don't know, this duo is famous for being suitable for practically ANY skin tone (okay, maybe not Laguna. It can be a bit too dark for some skin tones. But Orgasm is definitely appropriate for everyone). I've been lusting after it forever and my darling boyfriend knew it would be the perfect Valentine's Day gift for me. How cute is that?!

So that's my haul! I did do some other shopping, but it was for clothes, so that doesn't really fit on this blog. Have you bought anything super cool lately? Share it in the comments!

Return of Beauty on the Brain!

Hello my lovely BB's! I'm back and certainly did not forget about you. I'm so sorry I haven't posted in ages. Unfortunately, with school and my job, blogging fell to the wayside and I often did not have time to create the meaningful, informative blogs and reviews you all come here for.

That being said, I certainly did not run out of time for cosmetics and beauty products! Here's just a glance at what I've been up to:

That's a heck of a lot, no? The beauty brain never sleeps, no matter how many exams or work-related meetings come up!

Over the past couple of months, I've accumulated a TON of products to review and incorporate into tutorials for you BBs. Some have been awesome; others were less than stellar. Nevertheless, I'm still look forward to telling you all about my beauty exploits.

There were some incredible stand-out products that I came across. First up are the deep conditioning treatments I've been using in my hair:

Both were purchased at Sally's Beauty Supply and while they both are nice, one definitely works better than the other. So, look for an upcoming Battle of the Brands between these two!

Next, I tested the urban legend of using artist brushes (sold at Michael's Craft Store for painting) to apply my makeup.

Please pardon my dirty brushes! I was just getting ready to do a brush cleaning tutorial!

Did they work? Find out soon in an Ultimate Brush Smack Down!

What else? Oh, yes! I tested a new brush cleanser, so look for a review on it soon.

Also got a new boar bristle brush, which is supposed to smooth frizzy hair and keep the natural oils from building up.


So far, I'm loving it! My hair has never, ever, EVER felt so soft and manageable. If you have coarse, frizzy hair, I would definitely recommend investing in one. I got mine at Sally's Beauty Supply for under $6.00.

Another awesome cosmetic acquisition was this package of facial/makeup remover wipes that I bought at XXI Forever of all places.


They smell sooo nice and I love using them to clean up makeup through out the day or to totally get rid of makeup at night. They are soothing, refreshing, and leave my skin smelling sweet. Great price, too (only $2.80)!

Oh, yes. The holiday season AND my birthday also came and went. Thanks to my amazing family and fantastic friends, I got some super sweet goodies to share with you! First up is this nail polish set from my dad:

Isn't it CUTE?! I love the teal one and the silver glittery one the most, but it's such a great mini set of OPI's most popular colors.

My fantabulous boyfriend somehow managed to get a hold of an Urban Decay Naked palette for me for my birthday. It's my latest makeup addiction:


It's incredible. He's incredible. Be jealous =) HAHA! But in all seriousness, this is an amazing palette, so expect a review and tutorials based around it.

Then, since my mom is pretty much the coolest person ever, she totally out-did herself and managed to snag a bottle of MAC's Mean and Green nail polish from the sold-out Venomous Villains collection for my birthday. The duo-chrome shade didn't photograph perfectly, but here's a quick peek:


I've been wearing it for almost a week straight and have gotten dozens of compliments on it. I will do a post soon with better photography and easier-t0-see color swatches.

And lastly, my good friend Morgan (who's blog you should check out over here if you are interested in writing techniques) got me the makeup Bible for my birthday:


It's so... pretty! All of the looks are beautiful and Jemma is a brilliant makeup artist. So, in honor of this fabulous book, I will be starting a new series called Masterclass Mondays, where I will do one look from the book each week. Look for it soon!

OH! And I just realized I forgot to photograph this with the rest of the group of items, but I got this super-awesome nail polish at Disney World in December:


It's from OPI's Alice in Wonderland collection and is called "Off With Her Red" (Get it? Get it?!). It's a lovely color, so look for a review on it soon.

Honestly, I'm so glad to be back to blogging again. I have so many fantastic blogs planned and I'm really excited to post them for you. Thanks for sticking around with me!

Look What Arrived Today!

A Sephora haul! Yay!!

Most of the time, I can't afford to buy too, too much at Sephora because the prices are a tad bit expensive, but every year the store does what they call their Friends and Family Sale where you can 20% your entire purchase.

That's right. 20%! That's a heck of a lot off their products, especially when you're already shopping the sales and bargain items.

I've always wanted one of Sephora's Beauty in a Box sets simply because I love kits since they give you a great variety of products that work well together and suggestions on how to use it. This year, Sephora created four Beauty in a Box sets that would make great Halloween looks: a Vegas Showgirl, a Peacock, a Vampire, and a Devil. While I thought the vampire and devil kits looked great (especially the devil one, which had a black lipgloss I've been dieing to try!), I opted to go with the Vegas Showgirl and Peacock kits because I felt I would get more use out of them.

Anywho, the day after Halloween, these sets went from $26 all the way down to $10! What a deal! So, naturally, when I couldn't decide between either of them, I grabbed up both. After all, each was valued at over $50 and that's a GREAT deal for higher-end cosmetics. Plus, with the Family and Friends discount, the boxes were only $8 a piece. SWEET!!!

So, today, my Sephora box arrived. I was so excited to open it! And Sephora never lets you down with presentation. Even though I didn't order gift wrap, the kits were wrapped in the iconic red tissue paper and displayed like the crown jewels. Inside each kit, the items themselves were also wrapped in the red tissue (which I conveniently ripped to shreds in my excited state. Hehe..). Needless to say, I was impressed to find that the kits had full sized products in them, and not the little 'deluxe samples'/one time use products I thought would be in there. Both look uber fun, so here are my first impressions.


Vegas Showgirl: So far, I'm LOVING the lipgloss (it's the only thing I've really tried on). It's a gorgeous hot pink and full of glitter: totally glam. I find that it does stain your lips, which I'm a fan of since I hate reapplying makeup just shortly after i first apply it. The formula is smooth and silky -- not heavy at all -- and the doe-foot applicator feels more luxurious than most. Though I have not really used them yet, the shadows look gorgeous and are highly pigmented. The eyeliner is quite pretty, too, even though I just swatched it on my wrist. I have not sprayed the glitter yet, but I'm excited to! The only thing I wasn't an immediate fan of was the false lashes. Online, I couldn't tell that they had strands of glitter mixed into them. While I don't hate it, I think it kind of makes the lashes look tacky and I don't know if I'll really get to wear them very much. However, the over all kit looks fabu and I can't wait to really use the products!

Peacock: The lashes in this kit are to DIE for! So adorable!! I really love that you can apply as many or as little as you want to make the look yours. The eyeshadow combination is lovely... the dark green shadow is my favorite so far. These don't seem very pigmented, though, so I would recommend using a heavier hand with them. Again, the liner I swatched on my wrist looked beautiful, so that'll be exciting to use. The lipgloss -- although quite sheer -- smells deliciously sweet, so it should be pleasant to use. I also did not test the glitter spray in this kit.

Tomorrow, I should have at least one look tested, so I will let you know how it goes. The kits also come with little flaps in the front that provide instructions for a night look and day look for each kit.

Vegas Showgirl comes with a Colorful 9 Eyeshadow Palette in Forest Fantasy, Nano Eyeliner in Wild Spirit, Ultra Shine Lipgloss in Fuchsia, Silver Glitter Spray, and False Lashes. Above is the instruction flap!


The instructions on the Peacock kit tell you how to use the Colorful Eyeshadow Palette in Schizo, Super Shimmer Lipgloss Sugar Coat, Nano Eyeliner in Ladoon, Gold Glitter Spray, and False Eyelashes that come with it.