Coastal Scents 30% off EVERYTHING!

Coastal Scents is having a Mother's Day Sale this weekend until 05.05.2011. Everything online is 30% off!!! Here is the link: http://www.coastalscents.com/cfwebstore/index.cfm

If you are wondering what to try, here is what's in my basket:

Mirage Palette $24.95

Bronze Brush Set $39.95

Camo Quad $7.95 (Great concealer)

Rice Powder (Price dependent on amount)

Happy shopping everyone! I'd love to hear what you've purchased!

Coastal Scents Fall Festival Palette

This was my first Coastal Scents eyeshadow palette. The Fall Festival Palette is one of the 12-pan hot pot palettes. These 12-pan hot pot palettes are a great deal because typically one "hot pot" (a single color) is $4.49 (before shipping). So typically, you would pay about $60 for a 12-pan palette but these "finished" 12-pan palettes run about $21.95! Of course, the catch is that you end up with colors you may not use. So this Fall Festival Palette comes with the following colors:

In order from left to right, top to bottom row they are: M04, ME03, ME01, ME17, ME09, ME26, S14, S17, S30, ME15, ME23, M23

The colors that begin with an M are MATTE shades, the ones with a ME are METALLIC (high shimmer), and the ones with S are SATIN (some shimmer). You can also purchase hotpots that begin with a B, these are BLUSHES. If you are familiar with the MAC eyeshadows, these pans are the same size and will even "fit" into the Coastal Scents palettes and vice versa. HOWEVER, for Coastal Scents the magnet is in the palette and not in the hotpot pan; Whereas, for MAC the magnet is in the eyeshadow pan and not the palette so although they fit they do not "stick".

Now, onto the review of this palette. Out of all the 12-pan hotpot palettes I chose this one because it had the most variety in colors. If you look at the others, for example Think Pink, they have a lot of the same colors. This Fall Festival Palette has neutrals as well as nice darker tones for smokey eyes. Here are the swatches on my arm (without any primers):

These are high pigmentation eyeshadows and just a little will go a long way. Some of the metallic colors can have a little fall out but its avoidable if you tap off excess shadow before applying. All in all, I really like this product and can create different looks that match almost any outfit. The only colors that are missing are blues but there are some great neutrals!

This is only $21.95 on Coastalscents.com!

Target Beauty is My Bag... finally here!

Back in March, Target sent me an email for a free beauty gift bag! It was "tailored" to me based on my answers to questions on a survey. How awesome is that? Well it finally came in the mail today! Considering that it was completely free (no shipping charge either) I think its pretty awesome :)

Here's what it came with:

Everything came in a nice travel size beauty bag by sonia kashuk. I have several other travel beauty bags but this one will be great for keeping all my travel size makeup brushes in one place!

Inside were some products in travel size such as the new Neutrogena Naturals lip balm, Pantene Pro-v Fine Hair Solutions Shampoo, and Nivea Body Happy Sensation Daily Lotion:

The beauty bag also included a sample of Revlon Colorburst lipgloss in Hot Pink and Fekkai Shea Butter Shampoo and Conditioner:

And last but certainly not least, there was a booklet of coupons for over $25 in beauty products! Here are the ones I think I will most likely be using:

$1 off any Revlon item

$1 off any Cover Girl cosmetic item

$1 off Maybelline FitMe cosmetics item

$1 off Neutrogena facial care item

$1 off Neutrogena cosmetics item

$1 off Nivea skin care item

$3 off Nivea body care item

$1 off Burt's Bees lotion

$5 off John Frieda Precision Foam Colour hair color foam

$2 off L'oreal hair color item

Overall, I am very satisfied with this Target Beauty Bag and think it was an excellent marketing tool. I have already tried the new Neutrogena Natural lip balm and am liking it's smooth texture. Plus, I can't wait for my next trip to use my sonia kashuk beauty bag! I hope Target does this again sometime soon! I will post a link if they do!

Milani Blush in Luminoso

I used to never wear blush until I found this color that seemed to bring out the apples of my cheeks. Its Milani's relatively new baked blush in the color Luminoso, a beautiful soft coral color that is highly pigmented and therefore only a little is needed. It comes in cute packaging with a small brush and a mirror under the blush.

I have read on other blogs that some people found this to be a dupe of the widely popular NARS "orgasm" blush. I have not tried the NARS blush and so I can't comment as to how close a dupe it is to the "orgasm" color but here is a swatch to help you decide if you like this color too.

This is a long lasting blush, so much so that after my 8 hour work days, this blush seems to still be on my face when I get home. I have on a few occasions brushed on too much of this color on my fair skinned face and found it to be very easy to blend out with a finishing powder. Although it looks very shimmery on my swatch once you blend the color the shimmer fades out and you're left with a soft matte color. It was only $6.99 at my local K-mart! What a great deal!

Urban Decay Naked Palette deal!

Some days everything comes together and a beautiful thing can happen. Today was one of those days and I just have to share this story in hopes that others might get a great deal like this too :)

Many in the makeup/beauty community have been buzzing all about the Urban Decay Naked palette and I just had to get my hands on one. It's been sold out online on UD's website as well as Sephora.com and when you search for it on Ulta's website it is no where to be found. Amazon.com and eBay sellers alike are selling it at inflated prices!

Earlier in the week I had called Ulta to see if they had any of the UD Naked palettes in stock. Well, the wonderful sales associate at Ulta informed me that the UD reps would be coming in this week and would be bringing these Naked palettes with them. Well, not only did they have these Naked palettes in stock, they also had a special coupon that gave Ulta Reward Members 20% off! So I got this awesome UD Naked palette for only $38.40!

It comes with a small version of the UD Primer Portion (another awesome product) and instead of the 24/7 liners that these palettes used to come with it had a solid looking shadow brush.

Now, as if $38.40 for this palette wasn't already a great deal, it also came with a special UD gift bag to celebrate UD's 15th year anniversary!

This UD gift bag came with a full size eye shadow in the color "purple haze",

a lip gloss in "wallflower",

a mattifying gel and some small samples of UD Primer Potion and some eyeshadows. What a great deal! I think the UD gift bag was only for today but if I'm not mistaken the 20% off coupon may be available for a few more days and if you're lucky your Ulta may still have the Naked palettes in stock. I hope you're able to get this great deal too!