My Black Friday Haul and some random little gift-y kinck-knacks :-)

I have a very fun blogpost today! I did a lot of shopping during Black Friday, Cyber Monday and few other sales around that time. I am totally addicted to value sets and this time of the year is particularly exciting. :-) :-) There are adorable and beautifully packaged gift sets everywhere! I had to blog about the ones that I picked up! I know for sure that these are going to be perfect stocking stuffers or awesome little gifts!

All of these cost me equal or less than 25$, individually. As of now, a few of these are going to cost you more as the sales are over. I am also aware that few of them are not available anymore but I still hope this post will be helpful. Also please keep in mind that the availability of these products are as of 12.18 only. So, here we go!

Makeup Sets

I have to start with some makeup products :-) I am including these three only but I got a few other ones that cost me more than $25. By the way, these first two sets I bought in full price way around August-September and I have been using them a lot. Obviously, I highly recommend them.

Bite Beauty Best Bite Rewind (Detailed review here): It comes with 4 deluxe size matte crème lip crayons in a charming red tin box. I have been constantly wearing these since I got them :-) Absolutely love the versatile color range; it suits a wide array of skin tones. And when it comes to formula and performance, Bite Beauty has never disappointed me. If you know of a certain lipstick lover in your life, this is the perfect little gift! 

Price & Availability: 25$, available on Canada Sephora, might be available in a few stores (the ones near me still have them)

Too Faced Most Loved Set (Detail review here): I have been really enjoying this set. It comes with deluxe sizes of Hangover Replenishing Face Primer, Shadow Insurance Eye Shadow Primer, Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer, Melted Long Wear Lipstick in Melted Fig and Better than Sex Mascara. This is a affordable set that has comprehensive products all in universal shade that everyone can use in some way. The lipstick is a very favorite of mine and I have using the bronzer a lot.

Price & Availability: 25$, available on Sephora. 

SEPHORA COLLECTION Wishes Come True Eye and Face Makeup Palette: This is a very adorable little palette. I am saving this for one of my cousins as an introductory palette to practice, when go home for vacation next. I have not tried it myself but I swatched it at the store and it felt awesome. The colors in this look very promising.

Price & Availability: $15 (I got it at $12). Available on Sephora and check similar palette here.

Hand Cream Set

I love them. I think they are some necessary luxury. And as a gift, you cannot go wrong with hand creams. It is quite hassle-free one-fits-all type of product.  Male, Female, Young or Aged everyone can use hand creams. There are a quite a few holiday value sets this year. You can separate them and build your own gift set by combining them with something else Or just use them as stocking stuffer. Here are the few that I found. To be quite honest, I am yet to try them myself. But I know they will be really good. :-)

Ahava Precious Mineral Crystals Hand & Body Ornament: Currently showing a price of $8.40 but I bought it at $12. Still available on Ulta.

OPI Planet Smooth Mini Avojuice Hand & Body Lotion: I bought because it was so adorable and the sizes are perfect to keep in my handbag! I bought it in Ulta but it is not available anymore, but I found it in amazon. Price: 9.95 $.

Tocca Crema Veloce Collection: My sister had tried these before and she loves it. I am excited to try this out. This particular set is currently out of stock in Sephora but they have a bigger set here. Also, check similar set here and here. Price 16$.

Skincare Sets

Skincare can get tricky! It is more personal thing, so I only prefer to get them as gifts only when I know the recipient’s skin situation. But these brands are very familiar to me and I know that they will have fun trying these.

Origins Task Masters: I love Origins. Everything that I have tried has impressed me. I use the charcoal mask at least once a week. This set is definitely a great way to introduce someone to the wonderful world of Origins Masks.  I bought it for myself for when I am travelling.

Origins Superstar Minis: Yes, I love Origins. And I have used all of these products before so it only makes sense if I have a travel size of each. I would highly suggest to suggest to keep this for yourself, for all all your travelling needs :-)

Price & Availability: $35 (I got it at 25$ during Black Friday), available on Macy’s.

Jack Black Comfort & Joy Duo: This is for all the men in your life. I have given value sets from this brand to my father, my friends and my cousins. They have a plenty of different set and all are excellent.

Price & Availability: $10, not available anymore but check out similar set on Sephora and Ulta.

Bath & Body Gift Sets

For gifting purpose, personally I favor these sets over skincare products. I have a lot of friends who are not beauty savvy and they would not really venture into exploring different bath products. But, I strongly believe that in today’s stress ridden life, simple pleasures like a long- pampering bath session once in a while is very important. It is, for me at least! So, whenever I get a chance I tend to try these sets myself and if I like the products I get similar sets for later to use as gifts!

L'Occitane Shea Butter Festive Ornament: It comes with Ultra Rich Lotion, Shower Cream, Extra Gentle Soap and their Dry Skin Hand Cream, all in tiny adorable sizes wrapped in a gorgeous golden packing sheet. I have been using this hand cream for a while and I love it. I am really excited to try the other products here. It will be a tiny gift, but it is very delightful and very beautifully packaged.

Price & Availability: $14. Not available in Sephora, but available on Loccitane website.

Ahava Starter Kit: I bought it at 14$ during Black Friday but it is now priced at $20. It includes Mineral Botanic Cream Wash, Mineral Hand Cream, Essential Day Moisturizer and Purifying Mud Mask. I have given similar sets to my friends and they tend to like them, but I will surely report back when I try them. 

Price & Availability: $20, available in Ulta

Philosophy Online Only Amazing Grace Set: It comes with shower gel, whipped body crème and a rollerball; all in Amazing Grace fragrance and all are quite hefty size. It cost me just $22 bucks during one of Ulta’s pre Black Friday sale. I bought 3 sets, 1 for me and rest for two of my girlfriends. This definitely makes a very good gift. 

Price & Availability: Not known for this size. Check similar but bigger set here.

Bliss Lemony Trinkets: This comes in a cute little festive package with a shower gel and body butter. I got 2 of this and they are going to be mix-and-match gift. I have had great luck with Bliss products that I have tried till date. :-)

Price & Availability: $10, check similar set on Bliss.

Deluxe Perfume Sets

Without any doubt, these are my favorite type of holiday set. Look, how adorable these are! And I love anything miniature size! They are nice substantial gift for when you are looking for a simple gift or if you are on a pinch but still want to gift something luxurious. I personally will always want quality over quantity, so this will be perfect to gift me :-)! Unfortunately, a lot of these are not currently available. But you can definitely get similar set in a lot of stores!

Macy’s 6-Piece Perfume Sampler: I think this was the best beauty deal I got during these sales. This as a set is definitely wonderful as one gift or you can break them up and put it into different friend’s gifts. These are very niche brnads for perfumes plus these bottles are so pretty/adorable.

Price & Availability: $50 (I got it at $15), available in Macy’s.

TokyoMilk Dark Femme Fatale Duo, CLEAN Rollerball Layering Trio and Tocca Beauty Piccolo Tresoro Giulietta-- all these sets were $10 Black Friday deals on Sephora. They are not available anymore, but Sephora has some really cute mini set for luxury perfume brands (check here), I gave the Tory Burch min duo set (which is also sold out now) to one of my friends and she loves it.

Bvlgari Eau Parfumée White Tea Gift Set: This is a tiny little delightful set. The items are not big in size, but it is packaged very beautifully. I usually prefer to bundle up 2-3 small gifts like this; instead of a large gift because I think this way the recipient has a better chance of liking something :-)

Price & Availability: $20 (I got it at $10), Not available anymore.

PHILOSOPHY Amazing Grace Spray Fragrance Mini: Mini bottles, rollerball or travel sizes of perfumes make excellent gift. I happen to have this one only to photograph. :-)

Price & Availability: $18, Available on Ulta, Sephora.

Random Gift-y Knick-Knacks

Before I started blogging about beauty products, my go-to gift item was jwellery. Every girl loves them; the trick is to figure out if the she likes statement pieces or dainty ones. The ones, shown here are bought from Baublebar.com. All of these were $15 or less, individually.

Also, candles make wonderful gifts. They look so pretty and sophisticated. The Volupsa ones I got from Nordstrom a few months back. They are not the best-performing candles but they are so luxe!

One new thing that has been so interesting to me are the tiny little accessory tray or jwellery holders. I would love to get these gifts :-) The flower tray is from Umbra.com and the box is from Target. 

Hope, everyone had wonderful time shopping for the holidays and I sincerely hope this was of some use to you! Let me know what you picked up :-) :-)

Love,

~Arrru

Holiday 2015 : Limited-Edition Birchbox Exclusive "Luxe List"

I don’t find much appeal in beauty subscription boxes and I have already talked about it before. If I am spending any amount of money on anything, I want to be in control of what I buy. That is why I have never given any sincere thought on subscribing to Ipsy, Birchbox or any other subscription boxes. Anyway, Birchbox is a beauty subscription service that starts at 10$ per month. They have a whole lot of products in their website which you can directly buy. They also have an online store and physical stores in New York and Atlanta.

Today, I am sharing my quick thought on “Limited Edition: Luxe List”; it is one of their exclusive limited-edition gift boxes and is currently available on their website. 

This Black Friday and during Cyber Monday, I might have been possessed by some shopping demon. I was that crazy shopaholic girl with a laptop on Thanksgiving so that I can continue online shopping. Over the last few years that I have been here in the USA, I have never actively participated in Black Friday shopping, and it looks like this year I compensated for all of those missing years! Birchbox had 25% off coupon and with that discount, investing in this box seemed profitable. Laura Mercier, Tata Harper, Ilia Beauty, Oribe, Rituals – all these are very luxurious brands and I know for sure that they are a bit pricey for me to buy at a regular price. This was really appealing to me :-) This was my first Birchbox purchase and overall I am quite happy with it. It was fast, free shipping and they were very responsive to some of the questions I had. Like I said, it is still available here if you want to check it out. Before discussing the products, let’s first take a detailed look at the price.

Product	Amount in Kit	Amount in Full-Size	Full-Size Price (USD)	Value in Set (USD)
111 Skin Space Defence Bright Eye Lift Gel NAC Y2 (CRAAAAAY price)	0.5 oz/15 ml	5 ml	190	63
Candlefish Travel Candle	3.5 oz	3.5 oz.	$8	8
Cynthia Rowley Beauty Makeup Bag	Assumed	-	$15	15
Laura Mercier Caviar Stick Eye Colour	0.5 oz./1.64 g	0.5 oz.	$28	28
Ilia Beauty Tinted Lip Conditioner	0.14oz / 4g	0.14 oz.	$26	26
Oribe Supershine Moisturizing Cream	5 fl oz.	1.7 oz.	$49	16.66
Smith & Cult Nailed Lacquer	0.5 fl oz./14 ml	0.5 fl oz.	$18	18
R+Co DEATH VALLEY Dry Shampoo  (travel size)	1.6oz	1.6 oz.	$17	18
Rituals Ginkgo’s Secret Hand Balm	2.5 fl oz./75 ml	2.5 fl oz.	$17	17
Tata Harper Repairative Moisturizer	1.7 fl oz./50 ml.	10 ml.	$100	20
Umbra Magnolia Jewelry Dish		-	$10	10

The price for this box is $65 and it is a one-time purchase only. With these highly coveted brands in full-size and generously sized samples already makes the cost of this box quite reasonable. But with my 25% off it cost me $48.75; I think I scored quite a good deal here.

Ilia Tinted Lip Conditioner in “Bang Bang”: Let’s start with something that has been on my wish list for quite a while. Ever since I opened Beautylish account, I have been browsing their shop section from time to time and I have been mesmerized by these incredibly suave and royal looking products from Ilia Beauty. It’s also a natural brand. I am very much interested in their lipsticks but their steep price has always prevented me from biting the bullet! The product looks as gorgeous as I hoped. The lipstick bullet overall is sturdy but the cap could have been better! Being a luxury splurge-y item, I expected a bit higher quality. It is a lip conditioner; it is not meant to be super opaque pigmented. This has decent pigmentation and like mentioned in their website, you can build up the intensity gradually. “Bang Bang” is a sheer red that pulls of a more orangey tone on my skin. I have been using it since last week and I am amazed to see how long it can keep my lips protected from the drying and flaking up. I will admit that I don’t achieve the prettiest looking lips; it cannot hide the fine lines on my lips nor is it ultra-moisturizing. It’s very light weight and I actually don’t feel anything on my lips. On an average, I reapply my lip balm around 3-4 pm. But with this I don’t feel any need to do so! I think that’s incredible! While I don’t love sheer lipstick enough to go out and buy a full-size regular product, I am quite sure this is going to be a staple in my collection.

Laura Mercier Caviar Stick Eye Colour in “Gilded Gold”: The name of the product itself sounds so lavish! Ever since I started exploring this wonderful world of beauty products, I have heard everyone love and applaud these pencils. This is another quite expensive product, though. I don’t know why Laura Mercier as a brand has never intrigued me! But I got their baked highlighter in 2015 Sephora Favorites Superstars set and I love it. So I am very ecstatic to get this. I have worn it twice and the staying power is phenomenal. It applied so smooth and quite easy to blend. I am very happy with this by far. And as the name suggests it is striking gold and will be flattering on a variety of skin tone.

Smith & Cult Nailed Lacquer in “Dark Like Me”: What a beautiful shade! It’s a luxury nail polish brand and it’s definitely a very luxe looking bottle. It feels quite heavy too. This is a vampy, seductive deep berry shade in cream formula. I have similar shades from different brands, but when I wear this, it looks so beautiful and feels so sensual; I love it. It does need 2 or 3 coats; also it needs a bit of work to get an even layer. It does not stay as long as I would have liked. But I do love the look. I appreciate it being in here because I would otherwise never buy it on my own.

Cynthia Rowley Beauty Makeup Bag: I have accumulated countless number of little makeup bags, thanks to my rather unhealthy obsession with value kits. But they are not of the greatest quality. I currently use a flat cube-type bag I got from Ebags for travelling and I love it. But this bag is excellently made. It’s big enough to contain products for a 3-4 day trip. It also has a side pocket which can be quite convenient. I think this might be the new travel makeup bag for me.

R+Co DEATH VALLEY Dry Shampoo: I tried dry shampoo for the first time earlier this year. I don’t have much of a problem of oily scalp, but now that I know what dry shampoo I have suddenly have lot of respect for the product. I was not aware of this brand so I don’t have a lot of expectation. It smells awesome and that’s such a good thing. But I am not wowed by it. It’s not any better than the Batiste that I use which is just $3.99 for the travel size. I will keep on using it and will report back.

Oribe Supershine Moisturizing Cream: I am not big into trying hair products. But I have heard many good things about Oribe. I have used it twice and I am really liking it so far. First of all, the smell is wonderful and it immediately brings a lot of shine to my hair. It keeps it healthier and smoother till my next wash. I am really loving it. It is not full-size but will definitely last me at least for few weeks.

Rituals Ginkgo’s Secret Hand Balm: Another brand that I have been intrigued by for a long time. But I never really researched about it. I believe this brand is more readily available in Europe. It’s a nice hand balm with a very invigorating smell that lingers for a long time. It’s not oily and absorbs quickly. Also, that tube is so handsome :-)

Candlefish Travel Candle: It is in the number 082. Very spiritual, simple and refreshing smell. I have never heard about this brand but who would not appreciate a nice smelling candle? :-) It’s not super strong and it will burn out quite quickly but I do love it in this box.

Umbra Magnolia Jewelry Dish: Such a cute little piece of accessory. It is a jewelry dish, it will definitely hold some dainty pieces of jewelry, but I love it. It is so elegant looking :-) I have already used it my blog photography and I am 100% sure that it is going to be reoccurring quite often. I love this!

The next two products are skincare products!  Tata Harper Repairative Moisturizer for face and 111 Skin Space Defence Bright Eye Lift Gel NAC Y2 for eyes. These are also two smallest sizes in this box. And the price for a regular size is just insane. I have just tried them once or twice just to get a feel. So I am not quite comfortable about forming my final opinion as skincare products need some time to show their affect. And given the price, I really need to put good time in reviewing them. But they have not broken me out yet and I will report back once I am done with them :-) 

So, holidays are just right around the corner! If you are looking for a special substantial/hefty gift to someone and yet you are unsure and don’t want to stick to one big product, this could be a great gift! These products in here definitely will prove useful for almost every skin tone! “Bang Bang” is a very subtle red that can be built up to look flattering on a lot of skin tones, “Gilded Gold” is going to look flattering on almost everyone, the jewelry dish is just too cute. Also makeup bag is very well built. The dry shampoo, hand cream, hair cream and nail polish and the candle are all something that is definitely going to get used, no matter who end up getting this gift :-) The more I used them, the more I fell in love and wondered how good this box is! I am definitely going to get very good use out of everything in here. I highly recommend this!

Love,

~Arrru