There were also some great hair products on the shelf – Moroccan hair oil which is great for strengthening hair and shine (I use it all the time now) and the Bumble and Bumble products.  I did notice though that the Bumble and Bumble products were full price and I didn’t look closely enough at the other hair items there to know if they were the same way or if it is just Bumble and Bumble.

So Stila & Philosophy lovers – check out Nordstrom Rack for some savings on your favorite items.

For the past few years I have been using Benefit’s Lemon Aid.  It is primer/concealer.  I have been very happy with it but was curious to see what else was out there and I had a free sample of Too Faced’s Shadow Insurance.  So for the past two weeks I have been using my sample since my Lemon Aid was out to see what I thought.

So what did I think?

As far as the Shadow Insurance went I really liked it.  It was very light and easy to apply.  It grasped my shadow and it held it for all 15 hours that I wore it to work.  By the end of the day, my shadow looked as if I had just applied it.  What I didn’t like was that it wasn’t a concealer so it did not hide the dark circles under my eyes like Benefit’s Lemon Aid does.  Since I don’t have dark circles all of the time it isn’t a huge deal but I think I will be shopping for another shadow base/concealer for when I do wake up looking a little less rested than I should.  As luck would have it, Sephora did send me an email right after I bought the full sized Shadow Insurance.  Apparently Benefit has come out with a shadow base/concealer stick called Stay Don’t Stray.  I think I’ll be checking it out when I go to the mall next weekend.

It can be super frustrating!  I was shopping the other day though and found a moisturizer made by Clean and Clear that looked interesting.  It is moisturizer + acne cream.  I decided to go for it and wear it every night to see if it would do anything to my skin.  It has been working fantastic.  I no longer have burning, itching or redness when wearing a moisturizer and acne cream. I can moisturize my face and prevent breakouts.  The only thing I am disappointed in is that there is no sunscreen in this moisturizer so I definitely can only use this one at night and will need to buy a daytime moisturizer.  So in short thumbs up for the new Clean and Clear Advantage moisturizer.

Note: I was not paid for this blog post nor was I given any free samples. This is just my personal experience using a new product that I bought through drugstore.com and wanted to share. If you would like to try it out it is around $7 on drugstore.com. You can get 5% back on your purchase by using the Sunshine Rewards link in my side bar and signing up for the program. It is 100% free.

So enough of the back story.  How is Sephora celebrating this monumentus ocassion?  With limited edition makeup and gift sets of course!! My Christmas list, which wasn’t going to be very much, is quickly growing as well as my friends and family wish list.  (Each November right before Thanksgiving a Friends and Family code for 20% off is released.  You can use this and shop through SR for the cash back so make sure you are signed up with Sunshine Rewards – click the link on the right if you aren’t!).  A few things on my list include:

The Lash Stash – a set of 10 mascaras by various brands for just $35.  Why settle on one mascara when you can have 10??

Make Up Forever’s new HD Invisible Coverage Foundation – this is a new medium to full coverage oil-free foundation that is made for photos and spotlights.  The coverage and finish of this foundation leaves your skin smooth and flawless under any light conditions.  $40 and available only at Sephora in 25 various shades.

For the Bare Minerals fans there is a new gift set -> Extreme Glitters which contains 3 fun eyeshadows in silver, purple, and bronze shimmer, a shadow brush, and eye lid primer.

These are just 3 of the new items available at Sephora to help celebrate their tenth birthday.  I am very excited and might just have to take a small detour to the mall this weekend to start scoping things out and to see what the colors look like.

Happy Beauty Shopping and Happy Birthday Sephora!

By including verbal instructions in their new smoky eye palletes.  There are 3 color families to choose from – traditional smoky, sapphire smoky, and any occassion (muted colors) smoky eye palletes that are retailing for $40.  With the click of a button located in the middle of the inside cover, instructions are read to you on how to apply the colors and where on your eyelid you need to apply them.  I think this is an excellent alternative to the video I posted months ago because you can’t always bring a laptop with you when you are travelling and want the smoky eye look.   I haven’t seen this in stores or even picked one up for myself because I just received the email notice this afternoon but I am super excited about the possibilities.  I will be putting this on my Christmas list so I will report back what I think in the upcoming new year.  If you have tried this already please let me know what you think and how you like it.

Pros:

• Hydrated skin – less flaky dry skin, acne, and oil in general on your face
• decrease in water weight – yup, drinking water actually helps decrease the water weight you are carrying after a night of salty foods
• Decrease in calorie consumption each day – on average drinking water cuts 200 calories out of your daily calorie intake
•  Water drinkers tend to drink less soda and fruit juices – both of which are high in calories and salt
• Water drinkers tend to eat more fruits and veggies in their diet and consume more low fat dairy products.

For more information check out WebMD and continue to increase your intake of water to see benefits specific to you!

Smoker’s lips (those fine lines around your mouth) is on the rise, even in nonsmokers. Why? Apparently, too much pursing as you sip on a water bottle or sip through a straw, can cause the same wrinkling around your lips.

Eeek! I drink the equivalent of 4-5 bottles of water each day! I think I will be bringing a large plastic cup to work to drink out of instead. If you want to avoid these wrinkles, the tip suggested either trying a wide-mouthed bottle (try the HEB branded water) or switching to a glass.

Two years ago, I discovered the art of using brushes to apply pieces of my makeup – mainly eye shadow, blush, and eyeliner.  I have to give the beauty experts credit.  They were and still are right that when you use a brush you can blend your makeup better and you use less product.  Taking that into consideration, I finally purchased a foundation brush from Sephora and have been trying it out.  At first I felt like I was painting foundation on my face.  I wasn’t sure how much foundation to dispense nor how much to apply onto my face using a brush.  It took a little playing and practice before I got a handle on using a brush with foundation and I am really glad I made this purchase.  I find the brush helps to spread the foundation all over your face and gives a smoothing effect.  I also find that I am now using less product than even before I started using a brush.  It really is similar to painting and finding the right amount of product to “paint” on your face.  Definitely two thumbs up on this beauty trend/technique!

But… you knew it had to be coming… I am only 50% happy with the products I have tried.  I love the Urban Decay eyeshadow in Mildew and you can either layer it thinly for a spring look or thicker for a fall look.  There is no glitter in this eye shadow so there are no worries about having glitter all over your face.  The blending ability and ease of use help me to give this 5 stars.  What I am less than impressed with though is Stila’s tinted moisturizer (SPF 30).  This is a product that has been out for a few months now.  I was curious to try it since I am fair and can use all of the SPF I can get on a daily basis and I tend to break out if I’m not careful with my makeup routine.  I had never noticed before but the other Stila tinted moisturizer (SPF 15) is not noted as being oil-free.  So I paid the extra $6 for the newer version and have tried it out about 3 times.  I find this formula to be thicker and darker than  my usual tinted moisturizer.  I really had to work hard at blending the moisturizer into my skin and spreading evenly.  I have never had this issue with the other version and I just find the thickness to be strange being that this is moisturizer.  Due to the difficulty in applying from thickness as well as the darker color I am giving this a 2 star out of 5 star rating.  I have it packaged back up in the box and ready for return.  My face does pretty well with the older version acne wise so I’m not going to change it up just because this product is being advertised as “oil-free”.  I have a sneaky suspicion the other one is oil free but they are trying to get you to spend the extra few dollars on the newer version.