Hey everyone! Happy Holidays! Today, I wanted to share a collective haul with you on some things I’ve picked up over the last few weeks. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen a few of these items already. I wanted to post the haul here since I haven’t posted in a while and just because I want to share. Without further adieu, let’s jump right into this haul!
Makeup
- Sugarpill Chromalust Loose Eyeshadows in Goldilux, Royal Sugar, Stella & Magpie: If you don’t know what Sugarpill is and you’re active in the beauty community, please step out from under the rock you’ve been hiding under, lol! I knew when Sugarpill had their Black Friday sale that I had to purchase a few of the loose eyeshadows that have been on my wishlist for about two years now. The loose eyeshadows are very pigmented, sparkly, and just so fun to use! Goldilux and Royal Sugar are my favorites.
- Coastal Scents Fall Festival Palette: I love this eyeshadow palette so much. I have been eyeing it for a while, trying to decide if I really wanted it. Finally, during their Black Friday sale, I put it in my cart and submitted my order; I couldn’t be happier. The palette is made up of shimmery and a few matte colors. The color payoff is absolutely wonderful and the colors are beautiful. This palette makes me think of fall from its riches golds, browns, and greens. This palette is my favorite fall/winter palette right now.
- Coastal Scents Blush Too Palette: I was introduced to this palette by Traycee from KISS on one of her videos. This palette drew my attention because it seemed like the perfect palette for brown girls. All the reviews from brown beauties were right; this palette is perfect for darker complexions without being too ashy on our deeper skin tones. The colors are so very pigmented and you only need a little bit on your blush brush to give you a wonderful glow. My favorites out of the palette are the bright purple and bright orange. These two colors leave me like: YASSSS!!!!! GET CHO LIFE!!!!
- Lorac Pro Palette: This palette also has a lot of talk around it, with many beauty mavens loving it or hating it. I am one of those people who loves this palette. This palette can take me from day to night, and pretty much has all the shadows I need to do my eye shadow and my brows. I am in love with the Sable and Espresso colors for doing my brows. The Deep Purple has become my favorite purple to use in smokey eyes. I love this palette for everyday.
- Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman Brushes: I finally broke down under the hype and purchased the Your Base/Flawless Core Collection and Your Eyes/Enhanced Starter Set kits from Drugstore.com. Drugstore was having a promotion on these brushes (save $2 when you buy two), as well as lowering the price some, so I decided to take the plunge and add these to my brush collection. I typically use ELF Studio brushes because they pretty much get the job done for $3 a pop. I can say now, that even after one use, that the Real Techniques brushes are my new staple products. These brushes apply makeup flawlessly, especially the eye brushes. I typically do my eye makeup on my way to school, and these brushes made it easy for me to get a blended and gorgeous look without any trouble. These brushes rock and are worth the hype.
- Iman Lip Affair Palette: I haven’t had the chance to play with this lip palette yet, but by looks alone, it’s a gorgeous lip palette. The standout shade in this palette is the purple called Taboo. It is supposed to be the same color that Iman is wearing on her lips in the promo photo. This palette also has nice coral, pink, red and orange colors. I’m going to incorporate this color into a look just to see how pigmented the colors are.
- Black Radiance Baked Blushes: Hi. I have a confession. I’m becoming obsessed with blush. I don’t know what it is about blush, but I’m falling deeply in love with it now. The Black Radiance blushes are great for my Brown Beauties; you don’t need a lot of this product because it goes everywhere. When I’m in a rush and I just want to throw on mascara, liner, blush, and a lip product, I turn to these blushes. Definitely a great buy.
- Coloured Raine Lipsticks: Did I mention that I am a sucker for dark lips in the fall/winter times? I haven’t. Well, allow me to introduce to my three new dark lip colors. I don’t know how familiar you all are with Coloured Raine, but this company makes some pretty nice colors of lipstick. For Black Friday, I decided to pick up Arabian Night, Plum Fairy, and Boudoir. These colors are of a similar color (purples) and I am in love with the look of them. I will swatch these lipsticks for you all soon.
Hair
- Elasta QP Olive Oil & Mango Butter Line: I’ve been using the Elasta QP Olive Oil & Mango Butter Moisturizer since I have been on my hair journey. The moisturizer is perfect for my hair during the wintertime because it is a heavy, creamy, and highly moisturizing product. Recently, Elasta QP came out with an entire Olive Oil & Mango Butter line, so I picked up the Leave-in Conditioner, the Curl Definer, and the shampoo. I won’t get into too many details right now, because I plan on reviewing these products soon.
- Cantu Shea Butter for Natural Hair Moisturizing Twist & Lock Gel: Like Elasta QP, Cantu Shea Butter is very popular in both the relaxed and natural hair communities. Recently, the company decided to launch products geared towards natural haired ladies (though anyone can use the products), with no mineral oil, sulfates, parabens, silicones, and a host of other ingredients deemed as bad/not good for hair. I picked up the twist and lock gel after watching a few videos on it. I have to say that I really like this gel. It reminds me just a tad of Eco Styler gel based on consistency, but it is so moisturizing and soft. It holds my twists very nicely and gives me BOMB twist outs. I love this stuff.
- Style House 6″ Professional Curling Wand, 1.25″ Professional Styling Iron & Accessory Kit: This was actually an early Christmas gift. My mom got this from Sam’s Club for me, from a woman that was promoting these hot tools. So far, the flat iron works pretty darn well in straightening my natural hair, and the curling wand works better on my weave. I’ll do a full review after I have my weave installed and can really use the hot tools to the full extent.
- Aliexpress Queen Weave Beauty LTD Weave: I got the Brazilian Straight Hair in a bundle. I got the 14″, 16″, and 18″ bundles. So far, the hair is super soft and doesn’t shed too much (unless I don’t comb it). I’m going to try to have this hair installed before the holidays are over so that I can wear it and review it for you guys.
Nails
- California Mango Mend Skin, Cuticle and Nail Treatment Balm: This is turning into a “YouTube Made Me Do It” post, lol. I saw Queen of Blending talk about this cuticle oil. She talked about how nice it made her cuticles feel after doing her manicures. Paired with her review, I saw many positive reviews on this product online so I decided to finally get it. So far, I like it. It take a few minutes for the oil to set in, but it leaves my cuticles feeling quite well. It is surely needed during these cold months to keep my hands looking well.
- Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network: I have very weak nails. Sometimes, mainly on my right hand, my nails break for no reason. I went to Sally’s Beauty Supply online and read reviews on this product. Typically, I use OPI’s Nail Envy as my nail strengthener under my manicures, but I decided to give this a try. Apparently, this hardens on your nails like acrylics would to make your nails feel stronger. We’ll see how it works on my nails.
This is pretty much all I’ve picked up. I left out unimportant things like nail filers and cuticle pushers, as well as hair clips. I didn’t think those were necessary to show. I hope you all enjoyed this post and I will talk to you all again very soon!