Bad, Better, Best

The search for a usable, inexpensive and pretty color brown eye pencil continues... it's just one of those things that since I noticed I'm lacking, I just couldn't live without.

My first attempt was very bad, it was WNW double sided automatic pencil, which was not pigmented, flakey, and creased a lot, then broke after I used it twice.
Price: $4

Second attempt was much better, a light golden brown that came as a part of a 5 pencils set from e.l.f. They are all quite shimmery, and could be a little more pigmented, but overall, it's pretty great. The shimmer doesn't show so much on my eyes, and the result is pretty casual, perfect for day time make up.
My main problem with it, is that I don't like eye pencils that needs to be sharpen, I always manage to drop them, and then unable to sharpen them without breaking the tip. I do like it that each pencil comes with a sharpener on the cap.

Price: $5 for the set (I got it for $2.5 because of e.l.f spring sale)

I could totally stick to the e.l.f pencil, but a walk through CVS and a very pretty display of Physician's Formula got me to by a set of 3 automatic pencils for brown eyes. BINGO! those are everything I wanted them to be! soft and opaque, easy to apply without mess. The black is very nice, the purple is OK but not pigmented enough, but the brown is absolutely amazing. Dark rich color, and stay on all day.
It's a little strange, since the company market those under "shimmer stripe" but on me, they all look matte.

I liked those so much I already got a second set. Now I want ll of them.

I wish they sold them separately, because each set has one black pencil and I don't need so many blacks, but considering that 3 pencils costs a little over half of one pencil from Urban Decay, maybe it's not the end of the world.

Be Pretty Box from Vita Cost

I think I've mentioned before how ambivalent I am about beauty boxes. On one end, the idea of getting a box full of surprises, as well as scoring expensive stuff for cheap sounds extremely appealing. On the other end, almost every time, I real a blog that covers one of those boxes, I'm disappointed - it just never seem to be worth the money and expectation.

And so, the compromise that I found with this is going for a box from a supplier that I already had good experience with. It started with Julep Maven, a box of great nail polish and beauty products which is all from the same company, than I got the pretty wonderful coastal Scents mystery box was was also really nice (especially, since one of the eye shadows became my favorite blush in the past week).

And now, I got the Vita Cost "Be Pretty" box. I order t mostly because Vita Cost have my favorite toothpaste at 2/3 of the price and I had to order that anyway.

For $14 including shipping, I got a not very sturdy cardboard box that felt very heavy. I was very curious to see what's inside, since it felt quite full.

And this is what was inside:

2 little bottles of Kiss my Face liquid soap. not too exciting, though I do like this company, especially their sun block. At any other time I'de be disappointed, but I'm going on vacation in a couple of weeks, and so, this is just perfect. I'm very pleased.

A full side bottle is $7 on Vita Cost for 17oz. so this is about 2$ worth of soap.

4 little saches of eye serum and face serum by Desert essence. I've never used this, but I do like this company, so I'm happy to give it a shot. 

Coral active moisturizer for acne prone skin. Never heard about this company before, but it sounds good, I do suffer from acne and always looking for that one product that will actually do something.
This is priced at $13, which is pretty cool since this was the price of the whole box + shipping.

Deep Steep moisturizing stick. I'm not quite sure if this is a lip balm or what, but the packaging is really cute. I like everything passion fruite and though I have more then 20 open lip balm at the moment, I'm always happy to try a new one. 

Price: $3

2 small unscented soaps by Out of Africa, again, a company I never heard about, and again something I wouldn't usually be too happy about, if it weren't for my upcoming vacation. those would be perfect for that. 

A full size of this soap is $3, so thought 2 minis are about 1$ each. 

Eye Gelee by Reviva Labs. I adore this company, I only tried their Glycolic acid peel and it's one of the more effective facial treatments I've ever used. I'm so excited to try another product by them. the bottle say "use in the morning" but I just tried this in the evening after a long day of sitting infront of computer screens and found it really soothing and refreshing. For me, this is the highlight of this box.

Price is $6.5

Last is some color! Yay! Lip plumping lip gloss is a really beautiful color! at least in the tube, I haven't tried it yet. It's nice to get some makeup after all the skin care and soap. And I'm glad they went for a color that's really pretty and doesn't feel like a chance to get rid of all the lavender brown horrible gloss no one wanted. 

Price is $5

Over all, I'm really excited to get this package. The total value is about $28 or maybe a little more. All of the products are totally new to me. I can see how for someone this can be disappointing, but since I needed a bunch of travel size products and I'm super happy about any acne products and any Reviva Lab products, I feel like this box was made for me.

I don't know if I get this every single month, but I'm excited and curious to see what's in the next one. 

Spring Fever

Remember my rules for the shopping diet? I forgot to mention one rule which is sort of silly and personal, and I've been keeping it for so long I forgot to mention it.

I really don't like it when my husband smokes, for a million reasons. He stopped a few years back, but when he's stressed or when we have a big shoot, he'll ask me to go get him a pack. One of the many reason I hate this (aside of the obvious health reasons and the fact that it's stinking our home) is that it's such a tupid waste of money. So, in order to not get too annoyed I made up a rule which goes - if he spend $12.5 on a pack of cigarettes, I spend $12.5 on something silly and unnecessary.

And so, between being sick and not spending my beauty allowance and a pack of cigarettes my husband got for a shoot a couple of weeks back, I suddenly had $25 to spend.

I've been sick for almost 2 weeks now, and it sucks. Also, being that I'm mostly home in bed I didn't get to wear a lot of make up, or feel like I need anything in particular. However when E.L.F spring break sale it was just too good to pass.

So, this is what I got:
1) Mineral Foundation + brush - haven't tried this one yet, I do have one of E.L.F mineral foundation in a color that's great for summer but doesn't work for me now, and I love it.

2) 3 pieces mineral eyeshadow set - really pretty natural tones.

3) Zit Zapper & Concealer - Haven't tried this one either, I like my other E.L.F concealer and though I've never seem to have any luck with those zits products, I'll give it a shot.

4) 5 eye pencils set. Actually the main reason for the whole order, Since my failed attempt at colorful eye pencils, I've been wanting to find and inexpensive alternative. I've tried the teal and the black, and though not as vivid as I might wish for, they glide really nicely, and very easy to use.

5) BlackBook EyeShadow set - I got it, cause the packaging is really cute. Yes, I admit it, it's pretty shitty, not very pigmanted palette. As with most cheap palettes, shimmer shadows seem better then matte. It's quite usable, and the colors are pretty, but nothing special or wonderful.

6) Natural palette, Haven't tried it yet, but that shadow seem to be slightly better then the BlackBook.

The special sale was half off everything in the spring collection. E.L.F is already super affordable, and the spring collection is already a little extra cheap, and so at 50%, the prices were really ridiculous. 

Natural palette was $3, Mineral Foundation and brush were $2.5, 3 mineral eyeshadows were $2.5, BlackBook was $3, concealer and zit zapper was $1.5 and pencils were $5.

With tax and shipping I paid for this giant care package to myself $24.17

As usual with E.L.F - some products are magical and some are crappy, but when it's that cheap, it's always fun to discover new cool things. Honestly, if the only great discovery from this spree will be the color pencils, I'm totalyl satisfied.