Wednesday, January 15, 2014

New Year...New Haul (Nars, Too Faced, Sephora, & MORE)!

Hello beauties, I hope you all had a wonderful New Year celebration and I wish you all health & happiness in 2014!!!!!! With that said lets get started on my massive New Year haul!

I have been MIA because I have been collecting all these new beauty products to feature in 1 post...to make all of your busy lives easier! I also must add that I apologize for the lack of blog posts but school began Jan. 6th and I haven't had a break to even catch my breath! I am swamped this quarter...just bear with me.

These 2 palettes are from Nordstrom and I got it as a Christmas gift. The eye shadow palette is not very pigmented unless you pack on the color which can take a while to do, and I find that it works best when you wet your brush so you cut down your application process! My favorite thing from the eyeshadow palette is the mini mascara it comes with... I really like it for my bottom lashes!

The lip palette comes with 3 creamy & pigmented shades of pink (don't mind my fingerprints in the palette lol). And the lipgloss is a sheer shimmery pink (it doesn't look so sheer in the picture because I packed the color onto my wrist).
The two palettes also came with brushes.

I also received this set from Burts Bees as a Christmas gift and I love this brand! I haven't tried anything but the lip balm (which I loveeeee)! It has a thick waxy consistency and it moisturizes well! 
I also like to keep the lotion handy in my backpack for emergencies!

I am a sucker for baked bronzer and this one got me good! It's a gorgeous gold bronze color perfect for a nice glow. This color can be used as a highlight for darker skin tones and for lighter skin tones (like me) I use a little all over my cheeks! A little goes a long way beauties, trust me this is really pigmented.

My graduation picture day was just last week and I was informed to use a foundation that did not have SPF (because the flash from the camera bounces off your face and makes you look scary white) and I realized all my foundations contain SPF. YAY another reason to buy new foundation lol! I ran to Sephora and tried out everything I had been meaning to try and came across this just as I was exiting the store with my purchases. I decided to try it on my hand and immediately loved it so I bought it. I am so surprised that this $20 foundation is probably my new favorite! It is so beautiful and flawless, especially for someone with dry skin like me!
It says that it's a 10 hour foundation but that didn't hold true for me, even though I set it with powder it began to wear off around my chin and nose area because I was touching it a lot that day...maybe thats the reason why but either way I still love this foundation! 
It is oil-free and it says that it's like second skin (meaning it blends in to look just like your natural skin) and that is not totally true because I find it to be a medium-full coverage foundation, which I don't mind because that is what I wanted! However, if you try using half a pump and really blend it into your skin I'm sure you can get a "second skin" result! 
For me one pump does the job because it is soooo creamy and creates a gorgeous glow. It is also true to my face color &  buff it into my skin with an angled kabuki brush!
Overall, this is my new favorite foundation without SPF hands down!

I recently purchased this product and really like it. I saw a difference with just one use!!!
It definitely does remove dirt and purify and for a drugstore product it gets 2 thumbs up!
I absolutely love Freeman products they are so inexpensive and of great quality!


OMG this palette is everything!!!! It is my new obsession and I have not put it down since! Too Faced can never do wrong by me I swear, they are amazing! The colors are so creamy and so pigmented. This palette especially has the most unique colors and I will not say more because I am working on some makeup looks to feature in a separate blog post featuring this beauty!
Stay tuned :)

As most of my readers know I am a huge Nars fan but this product threw me off guard! This was the other foundation I purchased (without SPF) to use for my graduation picture and I am warning all my dry skin girls now...IT IS NOT FOR DRY SKIN! It seriously clung onto my dry patches and accentuated it even more! It looks gorgeous on my hand as I blended it out but horrible on my face. 
In general it is a sheer natural foundation however, it is buildable. It has a dewy finish and a gorgeous glow! It is also really creamy, which is why I was shocked as to why it didn't work out for my skin but oh well! Anyways, I would suggest this for someone who does not have dry skin like me and wants a natural coverage. I ended up returning this product!

I got this Buxom lipgloss "Katie" as one of my 100 point perks from Sephora and it's just another sheer shimmer gloss! All of Buxom's lip products have a plumping & moisturizing effect including this one! It has a thick consistancy (which I like) and it isn't sticky! It also feels very cool on the lips, almost like a gel!

I came across this product at the drugstore and was blown away by the packaging. I have never seen such neat packaging from a drugstore product...like ever! It was so cute I had to try it lol! I got the only color that was left on display "Nude Glow"and I think it is the only color they have! Anyways this whole "Nude" line they have going on has the cutest packaging, similar to the MAC Rihanna ones except with bows! 
So the point of this is to conceal & highlight leaving a skin-glowing finish! As far as concealing, it does not do its job. I have purple veins that you can see under my eyes and it did not cover those veins. As far as highlighting it was too dark for my skin tone so it did not highlight. And as far as giving me a glow it totally did that lol, it gave a subtle glow! I don't dislike his product but I would not repurchase it thats for sure. I can use it over my concealer to give me a glow but that's about all. If anyone has beige skin (a shade or 2 darker than the color above) you will love this for highlighting otherwise don't be fooled by the packaging! 

A month or so ago I had accumulated about 600 Sephora points and decided to use 500 of it on this Dolce & Gabbana set, which I regretted immediately after lol! I hate perfume samples because I never use them so I have no idea why I even bothered to get this! 
The set came with a cute burgandy clutch, 2 perfume samples, and an eyeliner. The eyeliner is not creamy so it is a little difficult to apply because you have to go over it a couple times to get a nice pigmented line. The color is a bronze (almost rose-gold) shade with shimmer, not very universal but definitely unique! It comes with a smudger on the opposite end of the pencil, which to be honest I find no point in because it is literally a rubber tip (exactly like a cuticle pusher). I used it to smudge out the pencil on my hand and it took all the shimmer away (as you can see in the picture)...pointless!
This was a waste of points! 

It's safe to say I love this brush duo! I love that it comes with instructions & tips..very useful for anyone who might be intimidated by the brushes and the shapes. 
I use the left one to do a cut-crease (or to define my crease) and I use the right one on my outer V to blend out any colors! the right brush which is said to be an all over shader brush is a bigger version of my Stila #5 brush. The left brush says it is a cat-eye eyeliner brush but I find that it is more useful for defining the eye because of the brush length!

I ordered this product from Sephora a few weeks ago because I am almost out of all my foundation. I got the lightest shade and it is way to yellow for my face so I really have to blend it down to my neck. The packaging is neat it's in a matte glass bottle and has a pump...1 pump does the job! It is thick & creamy. The reviews on Sephora raved that it is compatible with dry skin but I wouldn't totally agree because it does tend to latch onto dry spots, I have to make sure my face is heavily exfoliated, moisturized & primed! The foundation is also supposed to be 12-hour and it does seem to do the job...I have wore it for 5 hours max and I did not need to reapply (except around my nose which is normal for me regardless of the foundation). What I find interesting is that there is hints of shimmer and a glow coming from the foundation, but it's not very obvious. It also has a smooth finish to it!
Overall, I only use this for events or during nighttime because it is really yellow and in my opinion doesn't look pretty in natural light! And I need to make sure my face has been exfoliated and primed to get a flawless application!


A week or so ago I got samples of these 2 products and am dying to purchase the real thing!

First off, the creator of Glam Glow is a skin care god! Ladies, whoever created this is a freaking genius! It is an amazing product! It does tingle which feels a little comfortable cause it feels like your face is going to burn off but it's worth it lol because you see results right away! No joke, right away! No wonder it has a beauty award. It is better than my Botanics Conditioning Clay mask, which you guys know I swear by! Anyways, I will have a full review once I purchase the product!

The second product, the Illamasqua Hydra Veil Rehydrating Gel, is seriously another genius creation! It is part primer part hydrator and it works! All my dry skin ladies get on this product now! I love my Too Faced Primed & Poreless but I feel like this works even better, I still need to use it a few more times once I purchase the full thing...which might I add is SOLD OUT everywhereeeeeee...but so far telling from the sample its my new fav!

Stay tuned!!!

P.S. this post took me like 2 days to write because I've been so busy...sorry beauties!

As always I hope you guys enjoyed this post & if you have any questions you can comment below or email me!
Email: fortheloveof_makeup@yahoo.com
Instagram: fortheloveofmakeupbaby 

-Love Greta! Mwah!


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