Final 2017 Ulta Haul

It's gotten so cold in Florida that I've actually gone and emergency ordered Cupid a medium weight blanket from Amazon (thank you same-day shipping!!!). So, while I sit here and wait for it to be delivered I figured I'd write up my final Ulta haul from 2017. Thank you, platinum 20% off coupon! I got lucky and the box arrived on the 30th, but I had other posts planned for that timeframe. So the poor box has been sitting in my guest room/office, waiting to get unpacked and shared!

The first two items I received were the Clinique Quickliner for Eyes in Dark Chocolate and Really Black. Black and brown are the two eyeliner colors I typically wear during the week so to get these for 20% off was exciting!

The next two items I received were the Origins Checks & Balances Frothy Face Wash, and Origins Ginzing Energy-Boosting Gel Moisturizer. I had received these two items as travel sizes in one of my November orders and loved them. So when I received the 20% off coupon I knew that I wanted to get the full sizes of these products. The face wash really works at making your face feel clean, without feeling dry, and the moisturizer is perfect for the morning before you apply primer and makeup.

The freebies that I received in this box were a travel size of the Origins Drink Up-Intensive Overnight mask and the Clinique Pop lip color in Cherry Pop. Both of these are new items to me and I'm super excited to try them out!

Now, I've got to go dash out to the barn and throw Cupid's new medium weight blanket on her. Not entirely sure she'll appreciate it but I'll sleep well tonight knowing that she won't freeze. Florida ponies, can't stick them in the backyard, can't stand having them out of sight.

Ulta Cyber Monday Haul and NYX Lippie Countdown Day Eleven

I swear this is my final Ulta haul post of the year. Late last week I finally received my Cyber Monday order which was fairly small in purchases but heavy in samples and freebies.

The first items are the Stila One Step Correct and One Step Prime primers. I had run out of my Smashbox primers earlier and decided to try these since they were on sale.

 Because I purchased the primers I also received a sample of the Stila Magnificent Metals Liquid Eye Shadow in Kitten Karma.

The second items purchased were the Mario Badescu Chamomile Night Cream and the Mask & Mist Duo. The Mask & Mist Duo includes the Facial Spray with Aloe, Cucumber and Green Tea, and the Cucumber Tonic Mask. I have loved the Mario Badescu products that are currently in my skincare stash so I'm really looking forward to trying these.

Because I purchased the Mario Badescu items I also received two separate gift bags. The first back was the Mario Badescu Holiday Bag. This bag included samples of the Seaweed Cleansing Soap, Seaweed Night Cream, and Seaweed Cleansing Lotion.

The second Mario Badescu bag was the Mario Badescu Cyber Monday White Bag. This bag included samples of the Aloe Moisturizer, Cucumber Cleansing Lotion, Seaweed Night Cream, and Enzyme Cleansing Gel. Both bags contain products that I have never tried before so I'm excited to see how they work!

The final purchased item was the Body Shop Tea Tree Anti-Imperfection Night Mask. I have already used this several times and am super pleased by it.

Like always, I selected the skincare products for my free samples. I received the Vichy Laboratories Aqualia Thermal Mineral Water Gel and the La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Moisturizer. 

Because it was Cyber Monday, and I have a slight Ulta addiction, I also received the Cyber Monday Peppermint Beauty Bag. 

I received samples of the Becca First Light Priming Filter and Backlight Priming Filter, along with the All Nighter Liquid Foundation samples. 

The fragrance samples were Acqua Di Gio by Giorgio Armani, Sexy Ruby by Michael Kors, and Bloom by Gucci. 

The hair samples included Bed Head Screw It Curl Hydrating Jelly Oil, Sexy Hair Color Lock Conditioner, Hask Biotin Boost Thickening Shampoo and Conditioner, and Klorane Color Enhancing Anti-Fade Shampoo and Conditioner. 

Makeup included was the Too Faced Shadow Insurance Eye Shadow Primer, Dermablend Loose Setting Powder, Ulta Super Blender, Tarte Lights, Camera Lashes Mascara, Philosophy Time in a Bottle Repair Serum, and Stila All-Day Liquid Lipstick in Rubino.

For skincare, I received the Clarins Multi-Active Yeux & Multi-Active Jour, Proactive Green Tea Moisturizer, Bliss Grapefruit and Aloe Body Butter, and Cotz Flawless Complexion Mineral Sunscreen. 

Finally, I also received the Savvy Travelers Speakeazy Teeth, Lip & Mouth cleansing wipe, and Vitabath Asian Orchid & Coconut Body Wash. 

After yesterdays successful color, I was excited to see that today looked to be a reddish pink color. 

 After opening the tab, I was happy to see that this color was part of the NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream line I have really enjoyed the wear on the colors I've sampled from this line so far.

Today's shade is called Sao Paulo, which plays into the city theming in the Soft Matte line.

This color applies nicely and has a super pretty raspberry shade. It is easily corrected and does not settle into lines. This is a long wear color and only needed to be reapplied after lunch. I really like this shade and fully intend on repurchasing it after I run out.

Black Friday Haul and NYX Lippie Countdown Day One

If you follow me on twitter you'll see that I may or may not have gotten pissed at FedEx and UPS because packages scheduled for delivery on November 30th were not delivered by 10:00pm. FedEx stayed in contact with me and delivered at 11:00pm. That driver deserves recognition for going above and beyond. I also have to give the FedEx social media team credit for being immediately responsive and polite. UPS on the other hand didn't deliver until December 1st, didn't ever update their package tracking, and was only responsive on social media after I called them out for being MIA. If I had to pick a delivery service for my Christmas gifts based off the way they responded to the late deliveries FedEx would win hands down.

Anyways, onto my Black Friday haul. Asics had an amazing sale on running shoes and I was able to snag two pairs of GT-2000 for under $100.00! I love the GT line and these are no exception. My last pair of running shoes has made it through 3 half marathons and almost a year (possible over a year) of runs. They are well overdue for a well deserved retirement.

As you've probably figured out, I'm addicted to makeup. If they could my friends would probably throw me into rehab for this addiction. But they can't and my local Ulta would probably be confused if I didn't show up for every other new release. So, once again I went and ordered a ton of makeup on Black Friday. In my defense, this should be my main stock for the year along with the Fundays sale and the Cyber Monday sale.

The first Ulta item is the Clinique Party Favours set. This set includes trial sizes of the Quickliner for Eyes Intense, High Impact Mascara, All About Eyes, Chubby Stick Moisturizing Lip Color Balm Take the Day Off Makeup Remover, Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief, Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion, and City Block Purifying Charcoal Cleansing Gel. Some of these items I've tried before, like the Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion. Other items like the City Block Cleansing Gel are new to me.

The second Ulta item is the Ecotools Highlight & Glow Brush Set. I saw that this set included a spoolie for eyebrows and jumped on it. Currently, the only eyebrow brush I have is included with my eyebrow gel so a dedicated dry brush will be nice The other brushes will honestly be a surprise for me after I open the box. 

The next item is the Laura Geller New York Gilded Goddess collection. Last year I received a baked highlighter from Laura Geller and fell in love with it. When I saw that this set includes a baked highlighter and an illuminating stick I knew I had to have it! 

The fourth item from Ulta is the Origins Skin Bests Black Friday Set. This set includes a travel size of the Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask Checks and Balances Frothy Face Wash, and Ginzing Energy-Boosting Gel Moisturizer. I've eyed the Origins line for awhile and was excited to see this set, it should be a nice intro to Origins and help me decided if it's worth splurging on. 

The fifth item is Julep Stars of the Show set. Julep is another brand that I've been interested in but haven't made the jump to try yet. This set includes a nail treatment, gel eyeliner, and lip mousse. All three products are full size which is better than the standard holiday set! 

The final paid Ulta item is the NYX Lippie Countdown Advent Calendar. Last year I bought the NYX Advent Calendar with the Lingerie collection and loved it! So I knew when I saw this calendar that I had to have it!

Opening up the Calendar you see the 24 boxes all nicely lined up. This year instead of doing random spaces each day is in order. This makes the organizational freak in me happy because there's little thought that will need to go into where the next day is and it means that the sides will be even. 

As you can see, each day is nicely nested in the associated day which creates a nice display when you open it. 

The first day includes the NYX Matte Lipstick in Eden. 

Eden is a nice blue toned red that is soft enough for day wear but would transfer nicely to a night look depending on the eye. When I went to wash off the swatch on my hand this didn't budge or smudge. It took two rounds with soap and water to wash off Eden. Because I received the Ulta package so late I was unable to wear Eden during the day, but after seeing how hard it was to wash off I would bet that this is a good half day lipstick. I look forward to wearing this for a full day and playing around with this color. 

The final items in the Ulta box are the freebies that I love to get during these sales. The first two are from the standard skincare sample that I always select. They included Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Foaming Mask, and the Bliss Fabulous Drench 'n' Quench Cream-To-Water Lock-In Moisturizer. I'm excited to try the Foaming Mask, but a bit freaked out about the idea of a Cream-To-Water Moisturizer. 

Like most years, this Black Friday sale included the option of a gift with purchase. I selected the Fringe bag in Bone because it seemed like the most neutral color. 

This bag included all Ulta branded makeup which I have recently come to appreciate. There was a double ended eyeliner in Blackout and Plum, a Tinted Eye Primer, a sharpener, and an eyeshadow kit in Sunshine, Plum Drop, Desire, Say What, Buzzword, and Fearless. 

This bag also included a blush brush lip gloss, Matte Lip Crayon, and highlighter kit in Warm, Radiant Diamond, and Translucent. 

Pre-Thanksgiving Ulta Haul

It's no secret that I'm a makeup addict. I love playing with different types of makeup and experimenting with different looks. So, every year around Thanksgiving I take advantage of the Ulta Pre-Thanksgiving, and Black Friday sales. This is my time of year to stock up on makeup and treat myself to more expensive brands. This year I might have taken advantage of two different days of sales before Thanksgiving (then the Black Friday sale)!

Day 1:
The first sale was my smallest order for the year. The Urban Decay Nocturnal Shadow Box was on a pre-sale for the Cyber Fundays event. Ulta discounted the Shadow Box to $17.00 from the regular price of $34.00. I debated about skipping this offer and seeing with the Cyber Fundays price would be but ultimately decided to go with this sale. After seeing the slightly more expensive price on the Cyber Fundays event I'm glad I went with the pre-sale.

The second item that was in this order was NYX Beyond Basic Look Set in 18. I saw this set and thought it would be fun to add some red eye shadow to my collection. For the Latin Music concert I just performed in I would have loved to have access to red eye shadow to do a dramatic, sassy, tango type look. This set looked like it would cover all my criteria and add in another fun lip color to my collection. The addition of a matte liquid eye liner helped convince me that I needed this set.

The third and final item in this order was a simple sharpener from the cheap item section. I have needed a large sharpener for one of my highlighters and at $2 I figured this would be a good investment. There isn't a picture of this sharpener partially because I'm not sure if I actually like it or if it's pure trash.

Day 2:
Day 2 was the Cyber Fundays event. I was curious how much the Shadow Box would be, and what other items might be discounted or offered.

The first item was the NYX Meet the Metallics Vault, which includes 12 different lip creams. There are 6 metallics and 6 matte versions of the metallics. I'm super excited to try the metallics and glad that they're small in case they look horrible. Just glancing at the box I can already tell that two colors, Dubai and Rome won't be good shades for my skin tone.

The second item is actually once I forgot I ordered until I saw opened the box today. It's the bareMinerals Naturals Eyeshadow Kit. This includes 14 different eye shadows and one double-ended eye brush. I typically love the bareMinerals line and was happy to see a kit with mostly natural type colors. I'm excited to try this kit and use the style guide that was included.

The next three items have been staples in my routine for a few years. They are the Plump for Joy Thickening Shampoo and Conditioner, and the In A Heartbeat Blow Dry Accelerator Spray from Not Your Mother's. Because these were all on sale and things that I'm currently out of I decided that they were worth including in my order.

The final two items in this order were from Clinique. They are the Luminous Glow Kit, and a travel size of the Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel. The Luminous Glow Kit includes a Foundation Buff Brush and Chubby Stick Sculpting Highlight stick. I've recently fallen in love with highlighting and figured that the Chubby Stick would be a nice upgrade from my typical powder highlighters. The Moisturizing Gel was honestly purchased to bump my Clinique order from $39 to $40 so I could get the Clinique gift.

Freebies:

I am a sucker for freebies. As seen above in my Clinique purchase I have no issues bumping a purchase slightly to ensure that I get the freebie. These two orders included a satisfying about of freebies that will be fun to try out!

The first freebie is the above referenced Clinique bag. This included a travel size Take The Day Off Makeup Remover, a travel size All About Eyes cream, a travel size High Impact Mascara in Black, and a Quickliner for Eyes Intense in Intense Ebony.

 Both orders included the usual Ulta sample of which I elected to choose skincare. I'm not a huge fan of fragrance samples partially because I usually end up spilling them when opening. The skincare samples I got were for the Benefit Porefessional, Olay Tone Perfecting Cream, Skin & Co Whipped Cleansing Cream, and Skin & Co Facial Oil. These are super small samples but should each have enough to give me one application of the product. 

The rest of the freebies came from the Candle Light Beauty Bag. This was an item that was included because my second order reached a specific purchase value. To break up the samples easier I have divided them into a few different pictures.

Included in the Candle Light bag was  small tube of Origins GinZing Peel-off mask, a packet of Bliss Lemon+Sage Body Butter, a packet of Vitabath Cool Spearmint & Thyme Body Wash, and a packet of Nyakio Red Ginseng Line Smoothing Eye & Lip Cream.

There were two primer samples in the bag. One primer was the Smashbox Photo Finish Primerizer, which I've wanted to try for awhile, and the second was the Too Faced Hangoverx 3 in 1. The Too Faced primer advertises itself as a Primer and Setting Spray, that can also be used o refresh skin during the day.

 Two highlighters were included, one Ulta band and one Tarte. The Ulta highlighter is the Liquid Illuminator Starlight which appears to be a cream or gel highlighter. The Tarte is the Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Highligher in Stunner. I love the Amazonian Clay products by Tarte so I'm super excited to try out this highlighter. It looks like it's highly pigmented with a ton of shine.

The bag included two face creams, the Perricone D Multi-Action Overnight Treatment, and the CliniqueFit Post-Wokout Mattifying Moisturizer. Also included in this picture is the Alterna Haircare Caviar Cream because I just saw CC Cream and didn't bother to actually read the package. 

The only foundation sample was for the Urban Decay All Nighter Liquid Foundation. This sample includes 6 little pods of foundation. I would consider this more of a "find your match" kit as opposed to a true sample. 

In addition to the Caviar Cream there were also four additional hair samples. These include a bottle of the It's a 10 Miracle Silk Leave-In, KMS Hair Play Molding Paste, Phyto Paris Phytoelixir Intense Nutrition Mask, and the NIA114 Technology StriVectin Hair Max Volume Shampoo and Conditioner. 

Much to the dismay of my carpet, there were also three fragrance samples included. These consist of Gucci Bamboo, Sweet Like Candy by Ariana Grande, and Versace Man Eau Fraiche. The Versace will most likely end up as part of my brother's Christmas gift. 

Finally there were two coupons included. One for $5 off a $15 purchase from the Ulta Beauty Collection, and another for $15 off an online purchase of $75 or more. 

Overall, I am very pleased with my pre-Thanksgiving haul for this year. The freebies are pleasant and my purchases will be extremely fun to play with!