Tips For Scoring High End Cosmetics for Bargain Prices

Makeup is expensive. Whether you purchase drugstore or high end makeup, getting enough items for a full face still adds up fast! So, I thought I would share my money saving tips for getting the most bang for your buck on those high end and luxury beauty items which cause sticker shock for so many of us.

Sephora and Ulta 20% off coupons: If you are a beauty insider at Sephora, or part of Ulta’s rewards program which are absolutely free to join, you’ll be sent some sweet 20% off your entire purchase coupons. Sephora usually has theirs sent out mid-holiday season which is a great way to save on presents and Ulta has one that’s at the end of January which is the perfect time to get holiday products on discounts and some of the new spring collection items.

Ebates: If you purchase online, you should consider creating an Ebates account. They regularly give you anywhere between 4-10% of your total purchase back as a check once every 3 months. All you do is sign into Ebates and then navigate to your retail website and it will automatically track the amount you spent and calculate the percentage to send back to you.

Flash Sale Websites: Hautelook and Gilt frequently feature Prestige makeup on their sites and are absolutely free to join. This can be a great way to snag a deal without using a coupon or discount code.

Makeup Brand Websites: Go ahead and check the actual makeup brand websites. A lot of these will have sale pages and I’ve found Lorac, Urban Decay and Stila have great deals for items they are discontinuing or were limited edition. You can also sign up for emails and get discount codes sent to you periodically. Some brands also offer rewards programs, such as Bare Minerals, and you can get a free birthday gift along with other random coupons or free gifts throughout the year.

Sephora Weekly Deals: This is yet another excellent way to get sample-sized products. You can usually tack on a code if you spend $25 online and there are some really great things you can get to try because deluxe sample sizes can certainly last quite a long time.

Cosmetic Company Outlet: These you can find in certain shopping outlet centers. CCO’s carry overstock or limited edition products from brands owned by Estee Lauder (MAC, Bobbi Brown, Flirt, etc) and can be a great place to find discounted products as well as any holy grail items that have been discontinued.

Lancome – Designer Fragrances and Cosmetics Company: Also found in some outlets, these are really great! The reason I particularly like this store is because they not only carry Lancome, but also YSL. It is VERY difficult to come by discounted YSL products and there’s quite a bit available here. In addition, I recommend going towards the end of summer since they tend to have an additional 40-50% off. I myself have scored a YSL cream blush and Volupte lipstick for drugstore prices J These aren’t quite as common as CCO’s (#5) so I’ve included a link with locations: https://www.premiumoutlets.com/brands/brands_3rd_level.asp?id=289

Gift with Purchase: Oh department stores! The counters at department stores frequently have pretty amazing gift with purchases. Lancome and Estee Lauder are particularly good about this, advertising and offering gifts worth over $100 when you make a purchase around $35. It’s a great way to get full size and sample size products to try from the brand that you may have been curious about.

Build a relationship with department store makeup artists: Believe it or not, you can score some really generous “gifts”, aka free full sized products, through a good relationship with the artists who work at the counter. I’ve found that Dior and Giorgio Armani are particularly good about this and will often provide you with skincare and makeup products or makeup bags that are not advertised to the general public like the traditional “gift with purchase”. You don’t even need to make a giant purchase; a couple of products bought over time with the same artist can lead to some of these surprise gifts.

Don’t be shy about asking for samples: If you purchase a product, you are definitely entitled to getting a sample of something you might be interested in. Sometimes you’ll get offered one at Sephora or a counter, but if not, always make sure to ask about something you have your eye on, or even just ask for a recommendation for a product and see if you can get a sample. This can be a great way to decide whether that expensive product is really going to be worth it for you.

If you don’t love it, return it: I personally try to avoid returning things by sampling them ahead of time, as I think that’s the right thing to do; and I absolutely recommend using this method. But, in some cases you can’t come by a sample, so you just have to buy the product itself. If you aren’t 100% happy with it, you should definitely return it and get your money back.

Brow Battle: Tarte versus Anastasia

Anastasia recently came out with a dipbrow pomade for filling in eyebrows. When I saw the concept and product, it reminded me a lot of Tarte's brow mousse which I already own and enjoy. So, I figured I'd give you a comparison of the two and what I think the pros and cons for each one are.

Tarte Amazonian Waterproof Brow Mousse is available in 3 shades and retails for $28. Each container houses 0.1oz of product. On initial inspection, this may seem like nothing. But, the product is extremely pigmented so you really only need a little every day. I'm not sure I agree that the texture is a mousse. To me, the texture seems like a slightly drier cream product, which I enjoy because it doesn't have too much slip to it which can be good for creating small brush like hairs. I use the color rich brown and find it to be a great match and all the colors in the range lean on the cool side. You can also use this to define the bottom or top of your brows, but I find that to be a little more difficult since it isn't quite as smooth and creamy like a liner or pencil might be. The formula sets and lasts all day long.

The Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade comes in 5 colors, though I believe three more will be released soon and retails for $18 for 0.14 oz. Cost wise and amount wise, this is a better deal than the Tarte. I had to do a bit of searching to find a good color match because a lot of the existing 5 shades lean really warm. I ended up going with Dark Brown, which is the cooler of the darker shades. This stuff is super smooth, creamy and very pigmented. Again, a little goes a long way. This is ideal for people who really want to define the bottom and top of their brow, since the slip in this product allows for a seamless line. It is extremely easy to go overboard with this product so I wouldn't recommend this for beginners. The formula sets and stays in place quite well, but I would recommend getting a very small brush if you are interested in creating hair like strokes. The creamy-ness tends to make the typical angle brush stroke a bit heavy.

Depending on your hair color and what your preference may be for your brows (filling in hair like strokes versus defining the top or bottom of your brows) one may be more suitable for you than the other. I am personally enjoying using both, and actually like using them together. The Anastasia for defining the base of my eyebrow, and the Tarte for creating extra "hairs". They do have different consistencies, so if one doesn't work for you the other may still be worth investigating.

Neutral Brown Eyes using Drugstore Shadows

Lid: Wet n Wild Nutty
Crease: Wet n Wild Naked Truth "Crease"
Outer V/Lower lash line: Wet n Wild Naked Truth "Definer"
Browbone: Wet n Wild Naked Truth "Base"
Inner Corner: Wet n Wild Naked Truth "Browbone"
Waterline: Loreal Silkissime Highlighter 230
Liner: Eveline Cosmetics liquid liner
Mascara: Tarte Lights Camera Lashes

Empties: February 2014

It's time for another round of empties! I've got a mix of different makeup products that I have managed to use up and have well-formed opinions on to share :)

Let's start with the face products:

• Revlon Photoready Color Correcting Primer: This is a lotion style primer, and I really did enjoy it. I think it's the best drugstore primer I have tried thus far (though I have my eye on the Rimmel Matte primer) and I love that it came in a glass bottle with a pump. Not sure it really color corrects, but it definitely helps your makeup last.
• Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer (Caramel): I have a love hate relationship with this. It's a fantastic match for my skin and wears really well in the winter time, and in humid weather. But, if it's hot, it will not last. Even with a good primer I can't make it work. For now I'm going to hold off on re-purchasing this and try out other tinted moisturizer formulas.

Next, to my lonely lip product:

• Buxom Full On Lip Polish in Sugar (sample size): Oh man, this is my absolute FAVORITE formula of lip gloss. They come in tons of colors, are really glossy with only a slight tacky feeling, and they have this wonderful minty plumping sensation. I will always always repurchase this product. PS: My friends who I've told about this say their boyfriends request it for makeout sessions ;)

And lastly, what I go through the most, eye products:

• Diorshow Maximizer Lash Primer: Hot damn, this stuff is really good. Honestly, I was kind of hoodwinked into purchasing it but it really makes a difference. Since using it, my lashes are softer and fall out way less. The lashes on the very inner corners of my eyes have also grown significantly while using this, and they were non existent before. I'll repurchase when I can get 20% off.
• Eyeko Skinny Liner: Basic felt tip liquid liner. The tip isn't very flexible so it's not amazing for winged liner, but its solid for any basic liner you would wear regularly. I won't repurchase since I have a $3 Jordana liner that I love more than this.
• Tarte Lights Camera Lashes Mascara: Really nice and volumizing formula to this mascara. It doesn't give much length, but it's good at not being clumpy. I have purchased a full size.
• Smashbox Full Exposure Mascara: The brush on this thing is GIGANTIC. Because of that, it took me a while to figure out how to use it. It gives good separation, but not enough volume for my liking. I won't be repurchasing.
• Lancome Hypnose Drama Mascara: LOVED this mascara. It's quite a wet formula and gives you both volume and length. The only issue is that since it's wet it can get a bit clumpy, but this is easily sorted out using a lash comb. I have another two sample tubes of this and can't wait to use them!

All righty, that's it for now. Hopefully in the upcoming months I'll be able to have some interesting products like blush or eyeshadow since I'm shopping my own collection.

EOTD

EOTD: Felt like doing something colorful for a change. The lid color is a blue-green-gold duo chrome but really requires some building up since it’s not super pigmented.

Lid: Starlooks Enter Eden

Crease: Tarte Mattenificent View From the Taupe

Outer V: Tarte Mattenificent Two Plums Up

Browbone: Tarte Mattenificent Sand Out From the Crowd

Inner Corner: Lorac Unzipped Unreal

Liner: Tarte Mattenificent Don’t Sand Black

Mascara: Tarte Lights Camera Lashes

Perfect Pink: Too Faced Pink Chocolate

As a general rule, I have a hard time wearing lighter pinks. For some reason my skin tone really pulls the pink shades out of lip colors (I have a hard time wearing corals that don't have enough orange in them because the pink is the only thing that will show up). For this reason, my "pinks" tend to be things that are like Revlon Fuchsia or MAC Girl About Town. Unfortunately, those kind of pinks aren't exactly the everyday kind so when I saw the promotional pictures of Too Faced's spring collection, Pink Chocolate immediately caught my attention. I already own two other lipsticks from the La Creme line, and they are buttery soft, smooth and quite moisturizing with a light sheen. They last about 3 hours on my lips, and Pink Chocolate has the same consistent qualities. Not to mention they come in lovely luxe gold packaging.

In the bullet, Pink Chocolate looks like a dark browny-pink, which is probably what it will show up as on people who don't pull pinks as much as I do. I think the color on it's own is lovely, but on my lips it actually shows up a bit "pinker" which I think helps make it a true everyday pink. On lighter skin tones this would be a phenomenal fall color.

This is seriously one of my favorite lipstick formulas, and there's a wonderful selection of permanent shades. If you're interested in pinks/plums, the spring collection is definitely something worth checking out :)

Birthday "Haul"

As I stated in my last post, I'm currently on a no-buy. BUT, one of my oldest and dearest friends sent me a Sephora gift card so I had to go spend that...right? Plus Sephora gives a free birthday gift during your birthday month so I figured I could pick that up as well.

Before I went, I decided after looking through my collection that I would not be purchasing any lip products or eye products. I ended up deciding to swatch a few different Marc Jacobs and Nars blushes, and then pick one to purchase.

I ended up getting the Marc Jacobs blush in Irresistible ($30, 0.15 oz) which is described as a warm terra-cotta color. It is so pretty! I highly recommend this color for anyone with a medium/tan olive complexion because it will really pop against that skin tone.

As for the free birthday gift, this year Sephora is giving out a mini Make Up Forever lipstick and smoky lash mascara. I've had a sample of the smoky lash before, and it's a great volumizing formula. The lipstick is their Rouge Artist formula in color N9, a really nice neutral browny pink color. I also ended up redeeming some of my points to get a mini Buxom eye liner because I go through black eyeliner like it's going out of style and wanted to try the formula.

I'm really pleased with everything I got and am looking forward to using these products in the next few weeks :D