About three times a year Ulta mails out a 20% off coupon that you can use on pretty much everything, including most prestige brands. About three times a year I drop a good bit of money at Ulta only to get the coupon in the mail the next day, which happened to me last week. Luckily, I got the coupon the same day I went on my little spree and the store graciously refunded me some money when I came back with the coupon.
Anyway, what's important here is that I came back with some amazing beauty items that I am over the moon about, and surprisingly enough I even bought something from Bare Minerals, even though most of the time we have a hate/hate relationship. I grabbed a few of my regulars, which you can see in the picture above, but also snatched up a few new goodies that I wanted to share with you today!
The first thing I did was ask the girl at Ulta (who graciously spent at least an hour with me trying on makeup) was to give me a look that I could wear everyday that would make my eyes pop. Man, did she deliver, and I can finally say there is something of Bare Minerals that I like!
The Happy Place quad is a set of beautiful colors and I think the coppery pink color (upper right hand side in pic) is what really seals the deal in making the blues in my eyes come out. The color lasts all day (I do use a primer or cream shadow base) and the color payoff is great. The first day I wore this quad to work, I got so many compliments on it, which sealed the deal in it becoming my newest favorite item!
My first experience with Tarte's amazing blush was in a sampler pack. The color provided was Thankful which was a gorgeous golden apricot pink color. The problem is that Thankful is not part of their regular blush line, so I asked the Ulta girl (sorry I have no idea what to call her) for the next best shade for my fair skin. She grabbed Tipsy which was a coral pink color. The color seemed a bit much for me at first but when I put it on, it looked really great. I do have to be careful though, since it's such a strong blush and color, I have to make sure I apply it lightly or blend it well, otherwise it's a bit clownish looking.
IT Cosmetics No Tug Waterproof Gel Eyeliner
Okay, so Ulta's gel eyeliner still is and always will be my favorite gel eyeliner. But they were out of stock of my color and IT Cosmetics had one with a built in sharpener (the only downfall to Ulta's eyeliner is that it doesn't have that). I figured I would try it out since I love gel eyeliner in the pencil form, and I really like this product. It goes on with great color and is smooth like buttah. My only problem is that it's tough to get off at the end of the day and flakes when I try to remove it. To be clear, it only flakes when I try to take it off, not during the day, but holy cow is it a pain in the butt to get off.
Lacome Gloss in Love in Lily en Lame
I wanted to try and find a lip color and told the girl to just give me a bunch that she thought would look good on me. I tried this one on first and we both agreed that I didn't need to even try the other ones. It's a little sticky, which I expect in a gloss, but not unbearably so. I like that even though it is a gloss, the color is still bold enough to stand out on it's own, don't let the "gloss" aspect fool you. The color lasts about 2 hours for me, which I think its pretty good for a lip gloss. I would say that I'm stuck on this color but not on this specific product, if I find a dupe in a cheaper brand, I would go for that instead.
I took a picture of me using all the products purchased, sorry for the iPhone quality picture....haven't figured out selfies on my new camera yet!
Did you get your 20% off coupon? What did you get with it?