ULTA Mini(-ish) Haul!!!!!

Sigh...

I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I have a justification problem.
I walked into ULTA just needing (and honestly, they were NEEDS) a few things but then once I got inside my head kept filling with "well, it is your birthday tomorrow..." or "you finally graduated (with high honors!!) after four hard years..." or, the most typical, "oh, what the hell!!"

Needless to say, I've got a little haul for you guys:

Not too overboard, right!? Ugh, there I go justifying again...

See what I got by taking the jump below!!

I'll start with nail polish! 

It's taken me a long time to find a top-coat that works for me; many get that crackly look, some aren't glossy enough, some just plain don't work, etc. Now, I'll be honest, I have a top-coat that I'm fairly pleased with (it's just the O.P.I. one) but I'm still semi-on-the-lookout for a new one.

So I got two different Revlon top-coats to try since I'm a pretty big fan of Revlon cosmetics in general (many of their nail polishes are, in my opinion, of higher quality than O.P.I and at a fraction of the price!). I got the one on the right because, let's be honest, I'm a sucker for a pretty package and I'm always in a rush so the frosted glass bottle and promise of a quick dry time had me throwing this in my basket quicker than the dry time probably will be. The one on the left I got for two reasons: because of a recommendation and also because of this:

Double brush???

So intriguing. I'm not sure what the double headed brush is supposed to do, but two heads are supposed to be better than one, right? At least that's what my teachers used to tell us.

The other two nail polishes I got were these guys:

china glaze - Electric Beat

Revlon (Colorstay) - Buttercup

I was honestly looking for Essie's "Bikini So Teeny" but I haven't been able to find it anywhere!! Target, ULTA, everywhere is sold out. So I settled and got a blue that I'm actually fairly positive is similar to one that I already have BUT I'm excited to try it since I've never had a china glaze nail polish before!

Electric Beat - a soft, pale, cornflower blue

I also got this Revlon Colorstay polish merely because of the color. I've never seen such a soft and buttery yellow in nail polish before and I think it'll be a great neutral pop on my nails this summer!

Buttercup - a very pale buttery yellow

Going with the Revlon theme that I seem to be on, I'll move onto the blush I got. 

I've never tried a cream blush before so I thought I would give my favorite drugstore brand a shot.

Revlon Photoready Cream Blush - Flushed

I'll be honest, this color scared the crap out of me in the pot. It is such a bright (almost neon?) and true magenta with cool blue undertones that I wasn't sure I could pull it off...

In the light...

In the shade (much more true to life in color)

You can see in the lighted photo above how good of a size this product is. it fits nicely in the palm of the hand and feels expensive to hold. 

I'm not sure how I'm going to like it though... when first applied, it has a very wet, almost greasy*, feel and that doesn't go away unless you really take your time blending it**.

*

**

However, the color pay-off seems quite good and is thankfully much more subtle on my skin than it is in the pot. This might be a winner but I'm scared to try it in this heat!! Won't it melt off my face?

Speaking of melting off of my face, I needed a new foundation for the summer.

With the combination of sweltering heat, humidity, and hours of steam facials (washing dishes at work, don't get too excited for me), my foundation has not been able to hold onto my face and ends up being mopped off the floor at the end of the night.

This was one of the reasons I went into ULTA: to find a light, tinted moisturizer!!

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Glow Sheers - Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer with SPF 30

For Light to Medium Skin Tones (#30)

What drew me to this tinted moisturizer was A.) the SPF, B.) The promise of illuminating my skin, and C.) The squeezy tube!! I hate pumps, wands, bottles, or anything like that for the housing of my foundation. I like an easy-squeeze tube so that I can control the amount of foundation I get out for each application and, if I accidentally squeeze too much out, I can just suction the excess right back into the tube (no waste!).

This color is the perfect match for my skin and I am so excited to try it out when I work next!! It is the perfect smooth consistency and the illumination that they were talking about is just a VERY SUBTLE shimmer added to the tinted moisturizer. You can see in the last photo that it is not in-your-face apparent, but rather just a soft glow that is added to your skin. Lovely!

Another thing that I needed was a new tube of mascara. While I love my current mascara, and have repurchased it many times over, it is just not doing what it used to do for my lashes; I'm not sure if they changed the formula, but I'm afraid I need to start searching for a good replacement. L'Oreal has never let me down in terms of mascaras so I decided to try out the Voluminous Extreme Volume Collagen Mascara. Hopefully it holds up to my standards!!

L'Oreal - Hydra Collagen Volumizing Mascara in Blackest Black (Waterproof)

I love, and I mean LOVE, NYX; they offer some high quality cosmetics at a very low price. One of my favorite products they make are their Studio Liquid/Crystal Liners. They are SO pigmented and last all day, no questions asked. So I decided, since I love the look of gold eyeliner (and, okay, I'll admit it: I just want to be as cool as Cinna in The Hunger Games...) I decided to add these two puppies to my arsenal:

Dramatic Sparkle - Crystal Gold (SCL 101)

Dramatic Color Payoff - Extreme Gold (SLL 107)

Left - Crystal Gold

Right - Extreme Gold

You can see in the photos above how wonderfully pigmented these are and how shiny they are in direct light. Imagine that sparkle on your eyes!! I really love layering the two of these on top of each other. In fact, I did that for my makeup today, haha!

Up next are these two beauties: the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Precious (050) and Honey (001). 

I wanted to try these because I luuuuuuuurve the Tarte LipSurgence stains but since they have such a hefty price tag I was really excited that Revlon came out with what seemed like a very similar product. 

So how do they compare? 

Well, these are definitely more of a balm than my beloved Tarte pencils but I should have expected that; they live up to their name of a lip balm stain as they moisturize but because of that the stain sits more on top of the lips rather than sinking in. This means that they don't have a ton of staying power, but they are still lovely little lip pencils!! I only wish they had more of a color range because these were, in my opinion, the only two day colors in the line.

Here are the swatches!

Left - Precious, a warm pinky peach

Right - Honey, a lovely rose with a slight mauve undertone

And last, but not least, a section that some may want to skip over if they have problems with looking at or thinking about feet.

You've been warned!!

And my feet aren't even that bad, haha! Either way, the last product that I actually needed to pick up was a foot cream. Since I moved back from school, my foot cream that I already had got lost somewhere in the boxes of stuff stored in the basement. So I figured, rather than digging through that disaster, I would just buy something new. Since I've already told you about my love for coconut, it's no surprise that I indulged in this sucker:

Seriously, my room smells of coconut now that I'm using that Coconut Body Butter and this Coconut Foot Cream every night... not that I'm complaining. Onto the actual cream!! ...which isn't actually a cream. Which is very confusing to me. This should have been called a foot OIL. However, this stuff kind of works a small wonder when applied to the dry spots of my feet/heels. Here's a look:

There's my heel... not so bad for someone who is on their feet all day washing dishes and has waitressed for seven years, right?

And here's the "cream". It's more of a solidified gel/oil though as it liquifies immediately once you heat it up by rubbing it in your feet.

See the oil after you've rubbed it in? And also see how the roughness goes away? Yessssss.

This is a pretty nice product. It doesn't last into the next day but I'm hoping that if I use it long enough then my feet will see lasting results!

And that's it people!! 

I hope this wasn't too long of a post and that you may have gotten some ideas for products you have either been searching for or could treat yourself to.

xoxo - Cassie