Ulta Haul (and some mini-reviews)

I think my nailpolish obsession has meandered into a make-up-in-general obsession. Not necessarily a bad thing, considering all the job interviews I'm going to be doing.

So, I had bought the Kat Von D Beethoven palette from Sephora and decided it really was not worth the money (I think it's the purples that did it for me, the yellow and a few of the others were lovely, but when I see a purple and it has purple in its name, I expect it to be purple on skin, not navy or grey).

See that dark purple that looks lovely? That's "Rad Purple" aka "Navy".

I had been debating eventually buying the Urban Decay Naked palette and heard that they actually had one at Ulta to see (none to buy, of course) and ended up going all the way out there to check it out.

And bought a bunch of other makeup stuff, lol:  Cargo's Safari Kit, Too Faced's Brow Envy and Natural Eye Palette, Eos Lip Blam, and Smashbox HD Concealer.





I bought the Cargo Safari Kit, which I've been wanting for ages just for the adorable bag:

Along with the really good quality bag (one side looks like a postcard, the other side has a beautiful image of a lot of African animals, including a sewn on puffy flamingo (my sorority mascot!) and a "stamp" from Kenya), there's also some makeup:
--Eye Shadow Duo ED-13, a light shimmery gold and a shimmery golden brown
--Coral Beach Blush, a blush quad which I probably won't use much, because it shows up a bit orange on my pale yellow skin
--Serengeti Lip Gloss, a great peachy color with gold shimmer, which I can't wait to try over foundation-dimmed lips. It feels a little greasy on, but I think that's in combination with the Eos lip balm.
--Eye Pencil in Khaki, which is more of a dark brown with light gold shimmer (light compared to, say, UD, TF, etc.)
--Cargo 3 Triple Action Mascara, in black, which I have yet to try but the brush is one of those prickly short ones so I'm excited.

Everything except the mascara and lip gloss are full sized. Not a bad deal if all you want is the bag, lol.

ETA: Just tried doing a look with these and can I just say WOW, what a nice mix of products for a full look!  The eyeshadows are great for a light smoky eye, the eyeliner just the right color to not make it overpowering (and so far seems to be doing well on the waterline), and the mascara went on really well!   Got some fall-out from the gold eyeshadow, but I was too lazy to do it with a primer so that would probably help a lot.  Blush is still a bit too orange-y for me, but maybe if I actually ever went out in the sun that would change.  I'm really excited that this wasn't just a cool bag with useless makeup.



I also got the Eos Lip Balm in Lemon Drop

I've been wanting one of these since I saw Michelle Phan use one in a video. It smells like your normal sweet lemon-y smell, feels nice going on, not overly slick.

Too Faced Natural Eye Shadow Collection

I ended up getting this, because I figure by the time the UD Naked comes back in stock, I'll know whether I love this or want to try that, lol. I generally have a lot of luck with Too Faced products, too. The little draw for the brush comes all the way out, I feel like maybe if I could find a flatter mini eyeliner I could stow it back there.

Too Faced Brown Envy Kit

Great kit, comes with only three templates, but I think they'd work well for most people (I was in between all three in one way or another because I have big thick eyebrows, actually, but not so in between that I couldn't use them).

The powder for blonde brows seems a bit chalky, but the brunette one is awesome (I actually use a Smashbox eyeshadow to fill in my brows because it's a perfect color for it, this brunette is a little light if you have dark brown eyebrows). Mini-tweezers are much better quality than I was expecting, actually perfectly usable. Brow pencil is really dark, maybe to make up for the light powders? lol Highlighter is good, though I don't like the fact you use the same brush for the powder and highlighter (if you use the brushes it comes with). Also, someone had complained on Sephora about how hard it was to get the brushes out and I remember thinking "Why would you take off stars just for that?" except it is extremely hard to get the brushes out, so I don't blame her. Basically I just push at them until one comes out (generally not the one I want), then it's easy to get the second one out.

And then I got the Smashbox HD Concealer to try and some random tools I've been needing from Sally Hansen.

My BOGO summer collection from Zoya and my 40 color spoons should be coming today! I'm so excited!