Major Ulta Points Redemption Haul!!!!

Hi all! So I was a good girl (or naughty, depending on how you look at it LOL) and saved up my Ulta Rewards points and went on a bit of a spending spree. I was saving to get the new Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette and I still had points left over so I just decided to blow them all and get some other new stuff to try out! Most of this is high end but I did get two drug store eye liners and a peel off mask. On to the haul!!

Freeman Feeling Beautiful Cucumber Peel-Off Mask: I'm kind of addicted to these Freeman masks, $4.99 for a lot of applications and your face feels amazing afterwards. This one is a calming mask that also clarifies your pores at the same time. 10/10 so far in my book!
Urban Decay Revolution High-Color Lipgloss in Scandal: I was just randomly swatching these lipglosses because I wanted a new lipgloss and as soon as I got to Scandal, I just stopped swatching and grabbed one off the shelf. It's a slightly sheer hot pink that's a "your lips but brighter and better" color and it instantly screamed summer to me. After I bought it, I put it on in the car and was disappointed in how sticky it was. It's extremely off putting to me BUT I love the color so much I'm going to suck it up and wear the hell out of it.

New Releases!!!

Rimmel Exaggerate Smoke n' Shine eyeliner in Purple Craze: Love the color but it has like no staying power. I put it on my waterline and it was gone in the 20 minutes it took me to get to work...I haven't tried to use it as a top lid eyeliner yet, I stick with my Kat Von D Tattoo liner 90% of the time. Still working with this product, I love the color too much to just return it.
Maybelline Eyestudio Lasting Drama Gel Pencil in Cashmere White: I saw this in an ad in a magazine at work and just had to get my hands on at least one of these. There's not a lot of shades (5 in total: white, cobalt blue, charcoal, black and brown) and I've always wanted a white eyeliner so I grabbed this one. The pigmentation is amazing AND when you blend it out the color still stays pretty well, doesn't sheer out very well. It stays all day (haven't used in my waterline, yet) but removes easily at the end of the day.

Top to Bottom: UD Revolution Lipgloss in Scandal; Rimmel liner in Purple Craze; Maybelline white gel pencil liner

Now, the two new high end products I've been dying to get my hands on: Too Faced Born This Way Foundation and Urban Decay's Naked Smoky Palette.

I was really skeptical about this foundation because I haven't really heard much about it besides that it's "amazeballs" and I "had to get my hands on it" from other beauty bloggers I follow. Usually when everyone says it's amazing, it's usually a fail in my book. This was one of those rare occasions that when everyone says it's amazing, I think so too! It blends in beautifully and the finish looks almost identical to bare skin! I've been looking for a foundation that does that my whole makeup life! I barely need a pump to cover my whole face in a light to medium coverage but you can build it up to full coverage by adding more layers. I'm not really a full coverage gal tho so I haven't built it up to that level of coverage, I'm just going by Too Faced's claims. I got color matched in the store and I'm the shade Nude which is a 98% match for my skin tone. This does pull more of a yellow tone to it so if you have pink undertones, definitely go get matched in a store.

That packaging gets me every time *sigh*

Ahhh...the highly coveted Naked Smoky Palette. How I love and yet hate thee....

We'll start with the cons: most of the shades are glittery or have a sheen to them, you only have 4 matte shades out of 12 and I personally would have liked a light warm toned matte to use in my crease. With the glittery shades you do get fall out, so be careful using them if you do your face makeup first. Overall, I would like more warm tones but I'm a warm tones kind of gal but that sure didn't stop me from cashing in my points on this!

Pros: they do give you a lot of good color combos to make a really cool looking smoky eye. All the shades blend well and don't really disappear too much when you blend them out (blending is key to a good smoky eye!). The brush is amazing too, the smokey smudger definitely comes in handy when blending out the bottom lashline and smoking out any part of your look.

Hope these first impressions help you in your decision making process! Which of these new products are you most excited to try? Let me know in the comments below!!

xoxo

Shell