What to buy and what to skip - Sephora VIB Sale and Holiday 2015 Makeup Collection!!

That crazy time of year has arrived. Even though holidays are weeks away, beauty industry is filled with holiday goodies from all the different companies. With limited edition sets and palettes of different types it’s easy to get overwhelmed. It’s especially difficult to control the spending if you are overenthusiastic about makeup, like me :-) Today I am sharing my thoughts on some of the holiday products and for a change I am encouraging my frugal and logical engineering brain to take over my splurge beauty addict heart! Much awaited Sephora VIB sale starts tomorrow (Coupon ROUGE20 for VIB Rouges) and I am hoping this helps you out in picking out products where your money is well spent :-) 

The main factor I am considering in reviewing these products are

• How much do I need it!? Do I have same products in full size? Do I have extremely similar items?
• Price. If it is not cost effective or not a much of savings then why bother?
• Quality. Research a bit. Does that brand puts good quality holiday products? Often these holiday sets quality are not at par.
• Will the item be a good gift? If yes, try to plan whom to give what! First plan and then buy, not the other way around.
• Reminder to self: Don’t buy 100 items in cute adorable holiday package. You don’t need all of them :-)

I have to share here that I did not buy everything in this list. The top three products from this list are Bite Beauty Best Bite Rewind, theBalm “In theBalm of Your Hand" Face Palette, Sephora Favorites Superstars" 2015 . But I have done extensive research, read reviews and watched trustworthy YouTubers and extrapolated my expectation from my experience with previous palettes.

Lip Sets: Let’s tackle my most favorite item first! Here are some of the lip value set available this year.

Bite Beauty Best Bite Rewind (Sephora, 4 deluxe size matte lip crayons, $25): Even though I am not fond of their slowly and constantly increasing price, I am a die-hard fan of Bite’s lip formulas. I have loved each and every item I have tried from them. I have last year’s set and I get a lot of use from it. This year the colors are much more universal, versatile and are flattering on a wider range of skin tones. These are super comfortable on the lips, very long lasting, matte but have a satin-y finish that I totally enjoy. Also these are easy to layer as well. I highly recommend this set. Read more on my review and swatches here.

Sephora Favorites Give Me More Lip (Sephora, 15 lip products-4 full-size, $59): One of the bigger multi branded set and definitely worth the money. Huge array of shades and finishes! If you are just starting out or are looking to expand your collection, then this is definitely something I would recommend. But I already have too many lipsticks that I can use up. Also, I know for sure that at least 4 of these colors will not look very flattering on me. And, even though I like dark lips I don’t wear them often. I am not a big fan of glosses either. Keeping all these in mind, I figured that this is not 100% useable to me. This realization has helped me in restraining myself from buying this set.

Bite Beauty Discovery Set (Sephora, 8 lip products-3 full-size, $55): Very nice assembly of best-selling products from Bite Beauty. If you have been curious about the brand and haven’t tried anything, do have a look into this set. The two lighter shades looked quite similar and might not be flattering if you are not on the lighter range of skin tones. I also have heard many people being allergic to the agave mask. If, like me, you already have a lot of Bite products, I would say skip this. But the set is definitely one of the better sets out there.

Kat Von D Mi Vida Loca Remix Studded Kiss Lip Set (Sephora, 8 studded kiss lipsticks-1 full-size, $42): I haven’t personally tried Kat Von D lipsticks yet, but this is a good value set. If you are adventurous with your lip shades and love experimenting with bold and uncommon shades, this definitely will intrigue you. Personally I see myself using only 2-3 shades from this set; so this is not for me.

TOO FACED French Kisses Melted (Ulta, 4 deluxe melted liquid lipstick, $25): I have only one melted lipstick so far and I love it. This set has 2 metallic shades and I am a little uncomfortable with the idea of them. Also the colors are not as wide ranged as the Best Bite Rewind Set. So it did not make it to my list.

Stila Eternal Love Liquid Lipstick (Ulta, 3 deluxe liquid lipsticks, $20) and Eternally Yours Liquid Lipstick Set (Stila, 6 deluxe sized liquid lipsticks, $39): These are some very interesting sets. They did a good job with the shade range. These lipsticks are incredibly long lasting. But for my lips the formula is not the best. I bought two from their summer collection; I did not enjoy the formula in “Venezia”. Hence I am passing up on this. But they are quite cost effectively priced, if you are eyeing Stila liquid lipsticks for a while now definitely have a look. The “Eternally Yours” set comes with Aria and Patina- two of their best-selling shades.

Marc Jacobs Beauty The Sofia (Sephora, 5 deluxe Le marc Lipsticks, $45): Another set that I will highly recommend. I have two of the Le Marc Lipsticks. Absolutely impressive product. Glides like butter on the lips, provides single swipe creamy opaque application and has incredible wear time! The range of shades here is amazing. You get your everyday shades, a few playful one and one vampy shade perfect for fall and winter!

Eyeshadow Palettes: I am a big fan of eyeshadow palettes. My reasoning seems to be weak with all these mind boggling palettes. Let’s discuss the ones that I find irresistible; shall we?

Marc Jacobs Beauty Style Eye-Con No. 20 (Sephora, 20 Eyeshadow, $99): Its 99 dollars guys, 99 USD!!  But then again their 7 pan eyeshadow palette is $59. So value wise this is an incredible deal! I have their “The Siren” palette and I am quite impressed with the shades. They are all shimmers from them and they are pigmented, very smooth, the palette in very well built as well. I also love the sophisticated range of the shades. This particular palette has different finishes but it has many similar lighter tone shades. I don’t find a whole lot of usage for these lighter shades on my skin tone! Even though I am sure that the quality is excellent I am going to pass up on it.

MAKE UP FOR EVER 15 Artist Shadow Palette (Sephora, 15 deluxe sized eyeshadows, $59): When I first saw this palette, I was sure that I WILL pick it up. I am an ardent fan of blue eyeshadow and this has 3 of them. :-) All these shades are shimmer. Value wise, this is a palette that you should not pass on. The regular pan is $21 and these pans has just 0.01 oz. less than the regular size. I love MUFE eyeshadow; they are insanely pigmented, very easy to work with. But then I took a closer look at the shades and they are quite repetitive with what I already own. But if you are waiting for a while to try MUFE shades, this is something I will highly recommend. Also if you are not a crazy eyeshadow hoarder like me and slowly building up your collection, this is a nice palette because it has a very wide range of shades. Neutral as well as interesting pops of color. Definitely check this out. 

 Kat Von D Mi Vida Loca Remix Eyeshadow Palette (Sephora, 24 eyeshadow, $59): Now this is a palette I am still lusting after! I might pick it up with my VIB Rouge Code. This is a makeup palette but it is crafted as a piece of art- a true item for makeup collectors! Not very practical in packaging but Kat Von D designed it herself to mimic the look of an old record label. But just look at the colors! Aren’t they gorgeous? This is where I might be okay splurging a bit.

Value sets/All-Over-Face Palettes: This year I have fallen in love with face palettes, the ones that host most of your face products. The Balm palette is definitely my no 1 recommendation.

There are a few sets available from Stila, Smashbox and Tarte but I am not particularly keen on them. If you are interested I would suggest you to go check the products out in store. But I would like to talk about these sets and palettes.

Sephora Favorites Superstars" 2015: Sephora, 13 face products- 7 full-size, $75): If you want to try a bunch of goodies at a fraction of price, this is your set. I am totally enjoying the set barring the They’re Real Mascara. The eyeshadows from NARS and Urban Decay are incredible, Beauty Blender and Stila All Day Eyeliner are my Holy Grail products and I have fallen in love with the highlighters in it. Also that Smashbox Water Primer really works. This is a $212 value set :-) You can check my detailed reviews here. 

theBalm “In theBalm of Your Hand" Face Palette: (Kohls/theBalm/Unified Cosmetics, 10 Face Products, $39.50) theBalm did an incredible job in curating the items in the palette. 3 universal blushes, 4 eyeshadows, a beautiful red lip color, a nude lip/cheek cream, a matte bronzer and ever so coveted “Mary-Lou Highlighter” all in one palette, grab your base and mascara and you are all done. The products are incredibly smooth, so easy to blend, true to color and have super awesome wear time. If you have never tried theBalm, this is the prefect palette to get at a very affordable cost! Even if you already have some products, this is just the best all-inclusive face-palette that your money can buy! If you ask me, this is the best holiday product for 2015. You can check my detailed reviews here. 

Do let me know what you are getting :-) I would love to know :-)

Love,

~Arrru

Review and Swatches ::: Anastasia Beverly Hills Shadow Couture World Traveler Palette

First of all, big thank you to my sweetheart sister for summoning me to find her a “small” eyeshadow palette with silver, gold, light blue, pink, gold and black shades that would supposedly be perfect for travel! Pheww!! :-) After I bought this for her she was kind enough ;-) to let me use and review it here before giving it to her when I go home next :-) Suddenly I remember our childhood days; we did not let each other borrow anything at all!! We certainly have grown up :-)

So yes, I bought the palette for her considering it has majority of the shades she needed and like a real “evil big sister” I have been constantly using it from the first day :-) At a retail price of $30, you get 12 versatile shades in matte, shimmer and metallic finishes. Pink Champagne is 0.023 oz. in weight while rest are 0.025 oz. each. You also get a double ended brush which is actually quite useful. Compared to other high end brands this is a very affordable palette with amazing performance. I love the packaging. The design is very classy and minimalistic. It’s very compact too! It’s not extremely strong in built, so I will recommend you to take a little bit of care while you pack this in your makeup bag for travelling.

Closer look :-)

The best thing about this palette is the shade selection. There are peachy beige, black, medium and dark brown mattes which take care of your crease and blending shades. Then you have some vibrant pop of colors like azure and heirloom…and then some graceful shimmer and metallic shades that you can use for every day wear or even to glam up any look. I have travelled with this once or twice and it is so easy to achieve different cohesive eye looks using ONLY this palette! It does not even need a lot of effort to come up with different eye looks! I really cannot praise the Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH) team enough for creating a palette that truly is “travel friendly”!! Good job!!

For the price point, these shadows really perform very well! Matte shades blends effortlessly and without any fall out! The shimmers are gorgeous too! Metallic shades have some fall out when you use them dry but while wet they are very forgiving!! “Spoiled” is a bit weak but rest of them are quite pigmented. I always wear some kind of primer with my eye shadows. These stay on my eyelids for 7-8 hrs. without fading with Mac Paint Pot underneath it. And oh, they can be worn wet or dry. Keep on reading for more detail on individual shades!

Soft Peach (matte): Very pastel peach which appears “beige” to my eyes. Very blendable and pigmented; I use it to blend out my crease color as well as highlighter under the brow bone.

Morocco (matte): ABH describes it as deep burnt orange and I agree but I personally tend to view it as a very warm medium brown with a strong red under tone  :-) Nonetheless, it is a VERY beautiful and quite useful for my skin tone; I have been constantly using it as my crease color.  Definitely one of my favorite shades from this palette.

Heirloom (sparkle): Such a beautiful shade! A lot of pink-purple micro glitters on a medium purple base. It does not have a lot of fall out but you do lose a few glitters when you apply it on your eyes, the sparkle still shows though! Pigment wise it is just a tiny bit weak and it does not stay as some of the others. Little bit powder-y but the fall out does not occur when applying the eyelids. Quality wise it is not best in this palette but it’s a very pretty shade.

Bellini (Satin): Beautiful peachy gold! It goes on easily and stays on the lid for decent 6-7 hrs. This type of gold suits every skin tone; especially on olive skin tones like mine. I do have similar shades from other brands so I am not very very curious about this one hence have not used it as much the rest, but I do love the shade.

Pink Champagne (Glitter): Shimmery pink champagne with lot of micro glitters. It does need 2-3 coats to get opacity while applied dry and there are some fall out. But I wore it “wet” the other day and it looked incredible. It was easy to apply, there were no fall out and it stayed on the lid till late night after surviving a hot day of outdoor tourist-y activities! I did not think I would enjoy this shade as much as I have been!

Chic (Shimmer): It is just taupy grey, and it looks very similar to Pink Champagne in finish and appearance. Personally I am not a big fan of colors like this but it is useful for every day wear! This also comes handy when you want to add a little glam on your everyday look.

Spoiled (Metallic): Lots of gold micro glitters on Peach base. Pigment wise it is the weakest but I bet it will perform well when wet. It looks great as all over lid shade.

Fudge (Matte): Deep warm chocolate brown. Another one of my favorite! It can be used as crease color and also to intensify the outer v area to add depth to any look. It’s extremely blendable and incredibly pigmented.

Azure (Metallic): Very vibrant blue; and if you scroll through my Instagram profile you will immediately noticed how much I love “Blue”! It is one of favorite shades to wear, especially on my eyes. This applies well but it does need 3-4 coats to get a truly opaque coverage. I really hoped this would have been a little bit deeper and a little bit more pigmented.

Intense Gaze (Satin): Such a beautiful shimmery bronzy coral. I totally LOVE this shade. Applies very well, blends easily and it stayed strong from 7 in the morning till I reach home around 5.30 pm before starting to fade. This shade along with “Morocco”, “Fudge” and “Noir” makes such a warm and deep Fall appropriate eye look; I have been sporting that a lot lately.

Shades used: Morocco, Soft Peach, Fudge, Noir, Azure, Metallic and Spoiled.

Metallic (Metallic): This is such an intense unique gold; it kind of reminds me of “Liquid Gold” pigment from Makeup Geek. It’s overwhelmingly pigmented, applies really well and has the strongest staying power among the bunch. Because it is so pigmented it is a little difficult to incorporate in everyday look, but I do LOVE this shade.

Noir (Matte): Thank you ABH for not forgetting to include a black shade in the palette. Every palette needs a black shade. It is a tiny bit dry but very pigmented. Blends well and stays well :-)

Shades used: Morocco, Fudge, Soft Peach, Intense Gaze, Heirloom, Metallic and
absolutely "no mascara" :-)

Doble Ended Brush: One side is a stiff small dome brush which can be used to add crease colors. Because of the smaller size, it is easier to control it and add the shade exactly where you want. Other end is more like a blending brush with longer brush. The bristles are very smooth and very useful. I am very happy about the fact that I was able to create a whole look with only this brush. The small ribbon does not seem much, but it is actually useful in pulling out the brush from the slot very comfortably. This might be the only brush included in a palette that I have truly love. 

I have been never been interested in any of the previous palettes ABH released. I felt like they have been putting out the similar shades in different variations. I am sure some of the shades in this palette are repeat occurrence too, but they did a real good job in curating the shades. At a price point of $30, I definitely think it is one of the best well-rounded palettes to come out this year. It is a Limited edition palette and looks like it is not available in Sephora or Ulta anymore! But it is still available in ABH website. Grab yours while you can - I highly, highly recommend it!

Love,

~Arrru

BECCA Limited Edition Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in "Blushed Copper"

I took pride in not falling for cute packaging for beauty products! As an Engineer I think of myself as a practical person; while I do buy more makeup than I may ever need, I still like to think that I am able to handle my temptation when it comes to cute packaging. If the product does not suit me or it’s not a quality product, but it is UBER CUTE to look at, I think I can still be reasonable and restrain myself from buying it.  

But, I recently proved myself wrong! YES, I bought this ginormous skin perfector from Becca Cosmetics! Don’t get me wrong! This is a SPECTACULAR product but will I ever need or use-up such a giant highlighter? Absolutely not!  It’s a crazy pigmented product; even if I wear it every day it will take me at least a few months to even make a dent in it! :-) But, please, look at this beautiful piece of art!! I just had to surrender to my temptation and I told myself that it is a gift to me from me for passing the Engineer-in-Training Exam. (So you know it makes sense  :-) )

Ok. Enough of introduction :-)

This is retailed at a price of $38 for 8 g (0.28 oz.). It seems to be a very steep price for a highlighter but Becca has excellent quality cheek products and I truly believe that for the amount and quality of the product, the price is justifiable.

I already told you that I fell for the packaging. The engineer in me adores Becca’s UFO/technical looking blushes and highlighters. “Blushed Copper” comes in a limited-edition packaging. It is a stunning rose-gold coppery-metallic compact that is essentially has the same design as the regular line. Very sturdy too! I love the look; this is how a $38 blush should look like! The product itself is however a very very finely milled powder; so you have to be extra careful not to break it while traveling with it! Apart from that, I give 10/10 for packaging!

Applied as highlighter

As you can see in the Sephora site it is described as “A creamy powder luminizer that absorbs and reflects light for a superb natural glow”. The color is described as “warm copper infused with rose gold tones” and I totally agree! It is heavily pigmented! The shimmers or the micro-glitters in “Blushed Copper” looks a tad bit chunky compared to “Moonstone”. For the pigmentation I have to be very very light-handed while applying it otherwise it takes just a few seconds to make me look “funny” :-) It stays on me forever! The shimmer kind of fades away after 4-5 hours but the color and pigment stays on beautifully. I actually prefer the look after 2-3 hours of wearing into; it blends into my face and looks much smoother and “naturally” glowing! I love using it as eyeshadow as well; for one shade eye-looks. I use my Bare Minerals fan brush to apply this. And I actually rather enjoy it using as blush topper than as highlighter.

Applied as a blush topper                                  Applied as eyeshadow

Pros:

• Beautiful product.
• Pigmented
• Big size, so never have to run out of highlighter.

Cons:

• Crazy pigmented! Have to be very very light handed.
• Not the best for travelling or for rough use.

For the strong pigmentation it took me a while to get used to! But now I have really started to enjoy it; I specially have been really loving bronzey-corally monochromatic looks with this as the star of the look!! This will look gorgeous on an Indian Bride too…it will be perfect with all the shimmery-glittery Indian bridal wardrobe! By the way, the beautiful sheen in this blush was so hard to capture! I had to do it over and over again! Here are some failed swatches :-) Hope you enjoy them as well! 

It is a limited-edition Sephora Exclusive product and is still available (Here is the link)! If it interests you, go ahead and pick it up! It truely will be a beautiful addition to your vanity! Have a lovely weekend folks!

Love
~Arrru