Review: Sephora Favorites Beauty to Go Prelude to a Kiss Fragrance Sampler

Sephora's 2012 fragrance sampler comes with five scents- one of which is bound to be your favorite. My issue with purchasing this is that I went into it biased- as my favorite is among those listed below. My hopes were to find a scent that could swing a close second to Viktor & Rolf's Flowerbomb. 

Five fragrances came with this:

Romance by Ralph Lauren. This scent is actually something that I've sampled at the spa I work at. This is also just classic & clean smelling- almost unisex. 

Flowerbomb by Viktor & Rolf. My all time favorite. The sweet floral notes & I think there's some cassava or something... It's to die for. If you hate candy sweet smelling fragrances, Flowerbomb is not for you. 

Collette by Tocca. I actually loved this the first time I smelled it. But as it worked with my body chemistry the several times I wore it, I scrubbed it off with soap & water because I couldn't take it anymore.  The smell was overwhelming. It's floral. 

L'Eau de Chloé by Chloé. Literally smells like a fresh mowed lawn. The grassy scent was a little overwhelming for me & I feel like it doesn't get any more organic than grass. 

Guilty by Gucci. A bit more traditional, sort of musky. 

Update: I finally decided on Guilty by Gucci.It grew on me. I wasn't crazy about it at first but after I went through the scents again as I do every so often, I fell for it.

The deliberation process went as follows:

I wasn't getting V&R Flowerbomb because I already have a full size. 

The L'Eau de Chloé was not for me- too grassy. 

Tocca's Collette became too overwhelming as the day went on and I think my body chemistry went insane.

Romance by Ralph Lauren was alright but not super unique- plus it was $20 USD I could afford to get it on my own.

Which left me with Guilty by Gucci.

Review: Urban Decay All Nighter & Primer Potion

Urban Decay has been a staple in my makeup design for the last 9 months, & I appreciate the light years they have afforded my skill... you can do a lot of damage with a great product.

I decided that I would see what else they had to offer. Looking in the primer section, I saw a spray I'd overlooked so many other times- their All Nighter spray. This spray is designed to be applied after applying full makeup... which I found weird bc it was the opposite of primer... I guess it had the same concept as hairspray.

I went into Sephora because the Eyeshadow Primer that I received with the Book of Shadows III is on its last leg. I had the um... 'caucasian' shade of ridiculously light beige- the BOS default- so I decided to switch it up & get the bronze one this time something a little closer to my natural color. Upon noticing the new packaging, I noticed that it featured 10% more product included. Score. The eyeshadow primer is amazing. It holds shadow overnight, makes cheap eyeshadow last and makes prestige eyeshadow more vibrant.

Urban Decay All Nighter & Primer Potion

Primer Potion looks amazing alone too!

After hours of wear at work, All Nighter has kept my makeup flawless.

The pictures of my face are after nearly 7 hours of wear. My foundation- the same one I always use & swear by, MAC StudioFix & by now I would've had to reapply twice already. This is not just after 7 hours of wear, but after taking the Mover, the metrobus, & working at the spa in the locker room, running around & getting flushed.

The only thing I've noticed is a little sheen from the oily parts of my combination face. Furthermore, the skin on my face doesn't feel heavy, weighed down or stiff. Sweat hardly effected me. My eyes look completely untouched. That's impressive to me. A small $11 spray bottle will extend the wear of and in turn save my pressed powder. Yay! I wonder how it will stand up against kickball activity though...

Ridiculous Deal: Victoria's Secret Semi Annual spoils Part One.

I swung by the Victoria's SemiAnnual to see if I could find anything worth merit since their store card was burning a hole in my wallet. Needless to say in two trips to VS my card was maxed out. This is the equivalent to having a crackhead going down to the trap. I need professional help. Having said that, here are the spoils of trip one.
I have spa days from time to time so the 3 for 11$ bubble bath was worth it. I'll have enough to last until the next VSSemi in January. Vanilla Lace (2), Strawberries & champagne (1) were surprisingly on sale... Two of my favorites. At $3 each I couldn't leave them there. They looked lonely.
Eau de toilette in Costco size from Victoria's costs an arm & leg or your first born child. I walked away with a giant Love Rocks eau for a grand total of $10.  It usually retails $45. Score.
Holiday sets usually go on sale during this time as well. Though I couldn't get a jumbo sized bottle of Bombshell (my favorite eau from their collection) I did find a stocking stuffer size, perfect for my purse, and the box set also came with a lotion that TSA would have no problem with.
I also purchased four swimsuits separates that I will do a separate post on. But, i'll have you know the retail value is worth more than what I paid for all this.

That about wraps up trip one to my downward spiral of debt.

Ridiculous Deal: Victoria's Secret Semi Annual spoils Part Two.

*pictured: Noir Love Me body splash, Vixen body splash, makeup brushes, VS Beauty lipstick in Wine.
Visit two was pleasant due to the fact that VSSemi is 10$ cheaper for Gemini & Capricorns. I fall under the former. I reevaluated what I really needed at that point... being a colored lipstick & makeup brushes.

I found some brushes that i'll probably end up leaving in my suitcase. The quality is nothing to rave about... My EcoTools brushes do a much better job & are environmentally friendly- and they were cheaper! The quality on these brushes make this a sad case of retail regret.

I've mentioned in prior searches for lipstick & lip color that I literally go to the end of the spectrum to choose a color, and this case was no exception. I saw what looked like a deep dark purple color that comes across as a vibrant fuschia on me. Sold. I bought it. Everyone always compliments it when worn.

The body splashes are both discontinued the the world of VS. Vixen (the pink one) is fruity. Noir: LoveMe (the clear one w the black top) is clean scent.

Review: Urban Decay Book of Shadows III

Urban Decay: Book of Shadows III

I realized that there was a need for primer, eyeliner & eyeshadow at the same time so I went over to Sephora & looked for a pallete that would suit me. My brown skin poses a challenge as I need truer pigments. so that they come out boldly against my skin. I also figured since I needed eyeliner & primer, I might as well buy a kit & holiday season usually brings them with decent prices.

A while ago I purchased the Sephora Mascara Deluxe Sampler & there are a few brands that I really respected as far as mascara goes so I went to those brands first. Smashbox, Urban Decay & Benefit made the cut so I went there first. Smashbox didn't have what I was looking for. Their colors were bold but the largest quantity I could get was a quad. Benefit was more disappointing since bold colors were nowhere in sight. So I made my way to Urban Decay & saw several options that were in the same ballpark of what I wanted.

Urban Decay sells several collections, some with 8 colors, some with 12 colors and the big guns with 16 colors. I deliberated between the Black collection (for smoky eyes) but it didn't bring eyeliner & I already have several smoky palletes from Physician's Formula. Then I saw the Book of Shadows III- the motherload, exactly what I wanted. This brings bold, vibrant colors, primer, and two eyeliners. I felt a little guilty spending 60$ on this but then I realized 16$ primer, 18$ Eyeliner & a 32$ Eyeshadow palette would be 66$ so in reality I would have spent more buying them separately. Can't wait to upload my experimentations with this!