Winter Haul! Makeup Goodies & More!

Hello everyone! Back to blogging after my school exams! This week, I'm excited to share with you all my birthday goodies and Christmas presents, all in a haul format. I'd also like to say that I am NOT a rich or spoiled girl, and that I saved up to buy myself a present and the other gifts were given to me by my very lovely friends. I'm truly blessed to have them in my life and I can't imagine what I'd do without them!

First of all, here is a picture of my lovely Christmas bear given to me by my boyfriend Gordon :) I haven't ever had the pleasure of getting such an awesome gift, much less from someone so special! It's the FAO Schwarz 150th Anniversary Collectible Plush Bear, and he comes with a cute varsity jacket that's oh-so-soft and has velour sleeves! I usually don't like stuffed animals, but for something with such sentiment, I'm instantly biased! Absolutely LOVE this gift.

Secondly, makeup goodies! I was lucky enough to snag the Urban Decay NAKED 2 palette at Sephora last Wednesday, right when they had restocked! They were out of stock the last two times I went to the store, so I was excited to be able to get it! I love the shadows included in this palette, and the packaging is super durable, is sleek, and wards off fingerprints well. I will probably include this in a future eye tutorial because I love the combination of looks that can come from it! Urban Decay shadows never fail to disappoint in the pigmentation department and quality- they are buttery smooth and never grainy.

I also got one of my Secret Santa wishlist gifts, which was the OPI Skyfall Bond-ettes Set. It has four mini nail polishes from the OPI Skyfall collection released recently in celebration of 50 years of 007 and the release of Skyfall (amazing movie by the way!) The four colours are GoldenEye, The Spy Who Loved Me, The World Is Not Enough, and Live and Let Die. I currently have The Spy Who Loved Me on my nails and I love it! The same quality of OPI, in mini format, so that I can finally finish a bottle!

Makeup Hauls Galore!

Wow, lately I have been lemming over both products that I have looked over many times before, thinking about whether to buy them or not, as well as newer (to me, at least!) products that I am very excited about trying out. I hope many of them will become staples in my collection! (Can you believe I have never tried bronzer before? I used to be a bit skeptical because I didn't want to look overly tanned, yet I've learned how valuable bronzer can be in contouring and adding depth to the face!)

This is what I picked up at the mall today!

The first item isn't actually a purchase, but I picked it up at Sephora because I might buy this product in the future! It's a shade bookmark for Urban Decay's new NAKED Skin Foundation, and I checked in with the shade 5.0, right near the middle of their spectrum. I must have gotten darker this summer from all that commuting and walking about, because this is darker than usual for me!

From Sephora, I also got the benefit Watt's Up highlighter as a sample I redeemed from my 100-point perk choices. I was planning on saving points, as that's my natural habit, but I was actually swatching this earlier in store and I was really looking forward to buying it one day, when lo and behold, it was available as a pretty generous sample (2.5 grams!) Will look forward to using this to bring light to my tired face come school time!

What caught my eye in the ever-shrinking collection of tokidoki makeup is this lovely lip gloss that applies as sheer as clear can get, but adds a lot of shine: the Prisma Lip Gloss in Strawberry Latte! I've wanted this colour since a long time ago, and to finally get it to add the cute packaging to my collection (I'm rarely a sucker for packages...or so I think!) along with a great gloss is great! I love the blueberry scent to boot! 

From Wal-Mart, where getting makeup is a nightmare (behold the opened packages, scattered tubes, mismatched colours...you get my drift!) I managed to snag the last Rimmel Natural Bronzer in Sun Light, which is the one I've been looking at for a while. I am also planning on getting The Body Shop's Honey Bronzing Powder to compare, because I swatched that today and it was gorgeous on my skin! I hope this product will be a nice first matte bronzer for me, because I've heard this shade doesn't pack on too much colour for a bronzer. The fact that it was the last one made it feel extra special! There was seriously NOTHING left in the bronzer slots, just lots of loose powder. This was the only one left and with the safety seal tape intact, I didn't hesitate!

Finally...drumroll please, because I am about to present the most exciting item of all! Today I purchased a MAC Lipstick: See Sheer (Lustre) because I've been looking at it for the longest time and I've seen tons and tons of swatches of it. I tried it on myself today and it looks just simply gorgeous! Lustre finish lipsticks are one of my favourites because they have a sheen, but they're not overly frosty or shimmery and provide easily buildable colour that's great for any look! 

I will bring reviews of all these products slowly and surely! For now, I have a lot of products to work through, but if I see recommendations for new things, I am always on the lookout! (Note to self: Buy L'Oréal Caresse Sticks!)