January Haul

Hi everyone!

As I mentioned in my last post, I've collected quite a few new additions during the month of January.  I haven't had any of them long enough to make a 'January Favorites' post but I figured I'd throw them together into a small haul.
Some of these were things that I'd been lusting after for quite some time and others were nice surprises. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do face-of-the-day posts with some of them because so far I've been absolutely loving everything!  Go get a cup of tea though, this is gonna be a long one.

Despite the fact that I have a beauty product problem, I have never owned a foundation that wasn't from the drugstore.  Actually, I hadn't even used foundation up until about a year and a half ago.  I didn't mind the foundations from the drugstore but I'm so freakin' pale that they never quite seemed to match my skin tone.  They were usually too pinkish and most of the time, even the lightest shades available were too dark.  After watching my favorite beauty gurus it dawned on me that many of them also sport a banshee-esque pallor.  I decided to bite the bullet and splurge on the Nars Sheer Glow Foundation in the color (you guessed it) Siberia.  

Now I don't need too much coverage but my one concern was that it would enhance my pink undertones rather than conceal them.  After the girl matched it to my skin, I took one look in the mirror and thought "Wow, my pale skin actually looks kinda...pretty", which is something I never thought I'd be O.K. with.  The slight yellow-hue cancels out my redness completely and gives me an all-over glow as the name would suggest.

This foundation is best applied using your fingers to warm-up the product and spread it easily onto the skin.  The Verdict?  I don't know if I'll ever go back to drugstore.  Well O.K., I might go back to drugstore, but I'd feel knots in my stomach cheating on this bad boy.

I never thought I'd purchase makeup from the Body Shop, but after killing time in their small cosmetics section over the holidays I realized that some of their products are pretty great.
I picked up their All-In-One Cheek Colour in the color Bubblegum, which swatches beautifully and can be built up or applied more sheer (bonus for all you other pale girls).  It's a gorgeous, babydoll pink, perfect for spring.
I also checked out their eyeshadows which are so finely-milled that they feel like butter and blend better than some I've sampled from the high-end brands.  I picked up the shade Oh, Honey which has just the right amount of shimmer in it for that eye-brightening, no-makeup look.  I'd wear this as a brow highlight or on it's own as a all-over lid colour.
P.S. They've got a 'buy one get one 50% off'/'buy two get one free' deal going on, I suggest you move your butt and get on that.

I'm not usually one to ask for take-home samples, I either like something or I don't.  When it comes to the GlamGlow Supermud Mask however, I'm ashamed to say that I returned several times before special occasions to grab a sample with enough to cover my problem areas.  This mask is crazy pricey but I'm siding with the majority of people who have tried this when I say that it is worth the hype.
I've got dry skin with clogged pores and most masks that suck all the crap out are way too harsh for my skin.  This one however, uses the magic of "insert long-ass ingredient list here" to vacuum out all the evil skin trolls that clog up your pores.  Even better, the mask dries to a light grey but the "skin baddies" remain dark grey...so you get to see them.  When the awful day comes I will be scraping this pot dry.

If I do a haul there's a 99% chance I went to Victoria's Secret.  Long story short, their makeup bags were 75% off.  Need I say more?

As much as I tried to convince myself that I didn't want to spend this much on soap, I smelled them again and spent a lot of money on soap.

It makes for sexy-scentsy shower time.

One thing I love about the Victoria's Secret PINK line is that they make clothes that are crazy comfy yet acceptable to wear outside the confines of your cave.  This crewneck is perfect to wear with the "every day tights and boots" uniform.

I wore this for several days straight before someone brought it up.

The last item is a sneak peek at something that I received for my birthday.  I thought it a little much to dedicate a post to a birthday present but this is special.  Rather than giving it all away up front, I figured I'd slip it into an outfit post, so stay tuned for that!

My fingers are out of breath.  After this it has now occurred to me that this could have been broken up into several posts.  

Maybe I'll do a makeup look with the some of the products I purchased?  Would anyone be interested?

If you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading!!

I'll be posting again shortly!

xo, J :)