Birthday Haul 2015

Last month I turned 30.
Along with all my other birthdays, since I'm signed up for quite a few rewards cards, I was drawn into having Birthday Savings at a lot of different places, as well as receiving giftcards.

Here's what I got from...

Sephora



I got the Nars lip pencils as a Birthday Gift from Sephora for being a Beauty Insider.
I also treat myself on my birthday every year to something else from Sephora since I'm already there, and decided to get the Too Faced Natural Eyes palette. It is now one of my favorite palettes I have ever owned, and I find myself using it almost every single day. All the colors are so wearable for my skin tone, and are just gorgeous.
I also picked up a new Urban Decay eyeshadow in Lost, and it goes quite well in my Urban Decay palette.



I purchased Sin either last year or the year before (I honestly don't remember), and it was so lonely. Now it has a buddy, and they look beautiful together.


Ulta


A couple of friends of mine gave me giftcards to Ulta for my birthday, so I decided to use them to get some things I had my eyes on, but never bought with my own money.
The CoverGirl mascara was kind of a dud- it's definitely not up there with my favorite mascaras, or even ones I just tolerate.
The foot scrub and foot balm were a couple of products I had been eyeballing, and when I went in they were BOGO 50% off, so I decided to try them and give myself a pedicure. Okay, a pregnant girl giving herself a pedicure is like the funniest thing, ever. If only you guys could have seen me. I will say both the scrub and the balm worked great, and I'm definitely glad I have them for after my pregnancy, but for now I will either ask my husband for help or leave it to the professionals.
The Morrocan Oil Mask is something that is so incredibly hyped that I just had to give it a try finally. I had been holding out to see if maybe I would receive it in a subscription box, but no such luck. I now know that it's definitely worth the money, and I can see myself saving rewards points to purchase this in the future.
The Eucerin hand lotion is something I always have at my desk at work. It's non-greasy, and unscented. And incredibly moisturizing.
The Covergirl Ink It eyeliner is another thing I've heard a lot about, and even though I didn't really need a new black eyeliner, I bought it. And I'm glad I did- I really enjoy it. It's very black, and does not go anywhere.
And, finally, cotton pads. I bought these because I knew I was getting the Marcelle eye makeup remover in my February 2015 Birchbox, and I didn't have cotton pads.



This is my second Ulta purchase in the month of February. It was only after I bought everything above that I remembered I get a birthday gift with Ulta, but it doesn't come until your actual birthday. So, this year, they gave away that eyeshadow palette (which, okay, that's fine, but I really liked the CKOne Mascara from last year and wish it was a higher-end brand product), and since I'm a Platinum Member I also received $10.00 off anything. I combined that with about $20 worth of rewards dollars, and purchased the Matrix Oils you see above. I had received samples of them from the girl that does my hair at Ulta, and they are pretty great.
I also got a sample of the itCosmestics Universal Brow Pencil from an email coupon- it was free with any purchase.



Overall, other than that Covergirl mascara, I'm pretty happy with all of my purchases. I've been really careful lately to truly think about what I'm buying before I buy it, and if I'll actually use it. I actually impulse buy a lot less now that I do a couple of subscription boxes, and I actually research everything I buy before I buy it, at least in terms of cosmetics. With the kid on the way (and the cost of daycare in the front of my mind all the time), I know I need to watch my dollars as carefully as possible!


FTC: These products were either purchased by me with my own money, with giftcards provided by friends, as birthday rewards gifts for being signed up for loyalty programs, or as a gift-with-purchase. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Birchbox Brag Haul #2

Today I bring you another Birchbox Haul!



I decided to use some built up points to purchase the Color Club Zodiac Nail Art Kit in Aquarius, the Kate Spade Stationery Like a Book Thermal Mug, and the Beauty Protector Protect and Detangle Spray. The nail kit and the mug were fun little purchases, but the Beauty Protector Spray is something I've recently used a sample of and discovered that, as of right now, I cannot live without it! (I received it in my October 2014 Birchbox, which was one of the months I missed thanks to my lovely bout with morning sickness!)



Because my purchase reached over $35.00, I received a free sample pack. Honestly, I'm not very fond of these samples, and I also am not going to use them right now. So they've gone away where the rest of my samples go until I'm ready to use them.


The best part of this haul is that I spent $0.00. My total order came to $60.45, but I received a discount of 25% off for my 13 Month Box Anniversary (so cute they do this!), as well as Free Shipping because I'm a VIP member, and then I used 400 points for the remaining amount, and spent absolutely nothing! 


FTC: These products were purchased by me with my own money, and with the use of birchbox points which were received by doing reviews of samples received in my monthly subscription. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This post does not contain any affiliate links.

Ulta Haul #1

I decided to place an order at Ulta.com- the Naked2Basics had just come out, I needed a new thing of Too Faced Shadow Insurance to have as a back up (plus, it was 1/2 off that day, thanks to Ulta's 21 Days of Beauty!), and there were a couple of other things I wanted to get with my $3.50 off of $10.00 for the month.



I am almost out of my Biore Charcoal Cleanser, and that is now a must-have item for me, so I had to pick it up. I also wanted to try the Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Body Wash because I've heard it's great for dry skin, and my skin has felt super parched. I also picked up a black eyeliner from Ulta. It's not waterproof, and the one I'm used to is, so I'm reserving judgement on it until after I open it, but I'm not opening it until after my other one is used up.

And I almost always opt to get the variety sampler, and this is what I got. I just put it with my other samples I get like this, to try out "one day".


I am intrigued by the Deodorant Wipe, though.


FTC: All products have been purchased by me with my own money.

Birchbox Brag Haul #1

It came to my house in a white and orange box. 


I was pretty excited to finally spend my birchbox points, and get the shampoo and conditioner I've been wanting to try, along with quite possibly my favorite hair oil ever. 



I received the Agave Smoothing Haricare Trio, the Tweezerman Procurl Lash Curler (I really wanted to try a "high end" lash curler and figured since I have the points, I might as well spend them!), and I also got the Mystery Sample pack, which is normally $10.00 but I received it for free since I spent $35.00. It came with the Vasanti BrightenUp! Enzymatic Face Rejuvinator and a sample of Follie de Joie eau de parfum, both of which are samples I've received before, but I like them both so I wasn't too disappointed.

For all of this, I only spent $9.00 because I used 500 birchbox points (which is $50.00). 


FTC: These products were purchased by me with my own money, and with the use of birchbox points which were received by doing reviews of samples received in my monthly subscription. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This post does not contain any affiliate links.

Sally Beauty Supply Haul #1

I renewed my Sally Beauty Club Card last month, and with my renewal, I received $5.00 off a $5.00 purchase, which is the price of the card, so it's like the renewal was free. So I went in to Sally's at the end of July to check things out, and I'm so glad that I did!

I have been needing a new flat iron for quite some time. I have one, but it's not that great, and hasn't been heating up properly for at least 6 months now. And I know the CHI is a great flat iron, but there's no way I could afford to spend that much money on a hair straightener when my hair is straight. I use a flat iron to make my hair sleeker, not straighter. But I had seen the GVP straighteners that are suppose to be the same thing as the CHI at Sallys. I have used a couple of their GVP products before (like shampoos and stuff), so I knew they were good stuff.

But they're also $59.99, or $54.99 with the club card. Which is still more than I was willing to spend. So I just figured it would be something I might find on sale at Christmastime, or I would just make due.


Then, at the end of July, I went to Sally's to spend my $5.00. I was just going to see if they had an OPI polish (they didn't), but noticed they had a bunch of straighteners and curling irons on a table. So I picked up this one, and it said reduced to $34.99. And in my head, I was subtracting $5.00 and figured that was about as much as I would spend on basically one similar what what I already have that I bought at Target, and then I noticed the sign. The sign that said everything on this table is an additional 50% off!
So, including my discount, I spent $12.99 on this straightener! Score!



And that's all I got- so my haul is only one item this time. But I definitely wanted to share! It seems like my Sally's does a lot of deals like this (it's right by the grocery store my husband and I frequent, and I'm always seeing deals written on signs posted on the door) that I don't also see online or in their catalogs, so it's definitely a good idea if you're really eyeballing an item there to check out your local Sally's to see if they're running a special. Because if I had not stopped in when I did, I would not have known they were on sale!

I will definitely do a review of this once I figure out the best way to go about doing that, and have a chance to use it for awhile. I'm excited to plus it in and see how it works!


FTC: This product was purchased by me with my own money. I am in no way affiliated with Sally Beauty Supply. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Lush Haul #1 (and a brief explanation on my Hauling plans)

Here's something I never did in my first year of blogging, but thought it might be fun to try out during my second year- Hauls! Some of my favorite YouTube videos to watch and blog posts to read are Hauls, because you get people's first impressions and excitement about the products.

I plan on trying to do hauls now as often as I feel like is okay. I'm not an avid shopper by any means, but usually when I buy cosmetics or something, I buy more than one thing at a time (usually it's three or more), and I feel like that will warrant a blog posts.
Hauls will also be posted on "off" blog days- so, not a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. I personally don't feel like they should take the place of a normal blog, because hopefully they won't take as long!

My town finally got a Lush towards the end of last year, and I just went on the 25th. I'm not sure why it took me so long to get over there, but now that I have been, I will definitely be going back again and again.

It's not my first time at a Lush- I went with my sister-in-law during one of my visits to San Diego. But I actually like our Lush a lot better than the one we went to- it's bigger and the people were way nicer. Especially the girl that helped me- she really went out of her way to demo the products I was thinking about on my skin, and explained everything throughly. It's so rare that you get that amount of customer service anymore, and I'm hoping when I go again, she's there to help me.
I'm also probably going to go at least once a month to get something new. We'll see! 

I went in there with a list of things I wanted to smell or try (it was about 10 items in total), and ended up leaving with 5 things- two bath bombs, a lip scrub, a shaving soap, and a soap. And the soap wasn't something I initially even thought about, but it smelled so good I couldn't not take at least a little sample. Plus, the girl totally sold me on it!

I knew I needed to pick this up on my trip when I saw Musings of a Muse raving about it. D'Fluff is a shaving soap, and so far, I've used it twice (legs and underarms), and I'm really impressed. My legs are so smooth, even two days after my initial shave.
I bought the small container, but I am almost positive I will be picking up a big size later. And my husband couldn't believe how smooth my legs were, and might be going with me on my next trip to see if they have a scent that he would like for shaving.



This Mangnificent soap is the item the lady talked me into, and I haven't used it yet. It gets good reviews on the Lush website, the sales lady just raved about it (and said it's good for stretch marks?! I don't see that anywhere online but it doesn't mean it wouldn't work!), and it smells pretty good. I might stick it in my shower. I got a sample that cost me about $3.50.

















                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
Mint Julips is another thing I knew I wanted when I walked in. I needed a lip exfoliator, bad. My lips being kind of chapped and chewed on are a big reason why I don't wear a lot of lipsticks.
I will say I used this once already, and again, I'm totally sold on it. My lips are so incredibly soft, and this stuff tastes AMAZING (like Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream!).



I also got a Butterball to try. It's a bath bomb, and it smells so wonderful. I used to wear exclusively vanilla scents a lot in junior high, in addition to my still beloved Cucumber Melon, so this smell definitely took me back. And it has chunks of cocoa butter, so it should be super moisturizing! But I haven't used it yet, because I wanted to use this guy first...



... Dragon's Egg! I LOVE the smell of this- it's like citrus candy. And it fizzes and pops and feels so good, and then there's the golden center that makes the water (and your skin) kind of shimmery. Not like Twilight Vampire shimmery, but you will come out of the tub with some on you. It's extremely refreshing and really takes all the stress away. I've used this before, and I used the one I bought the night I got home, and it was also the first time I had taken a bath in my new tub! It was wonderful.



I'll do a more complete review of all of the products once I get the chance to use them. And I'm already planning my next trip to Lush!
Is there anything I absolutely have to check out on my next trip??