Christmas in July: 20% off Sigma Beauty and Haul!

Sigma Beauty has given their affiliates a special 20% off discount code to share with their followers and a bonafide user of Sigma products I am sharing this code with you. The code is SBAP20 and will be valid for one week, starting tomorrow July 22nd at midnight (CST) and ending Monday, July 29th at midnight (CST).

I recently order some Sigma Products and thought this would be a great opportunity to share my thoughts on my order. First off, the free gift with $30 or more purchase is great! I have enough travel E25, E05 and eyeshadow samples - the free gift this month is a mini Spa Glove in one of four colors. I was super excited about this since I have been contemplating purchasing the Spa Brush Cleaning Glove.

Sigma recently started selling their Performance Eyes Kit individually, so I picked up 3 brushes from the set: E21, E46, and E56

The E21 (Smudge Brush) is the little sister of the E20 (Short Shader). The E20 has always been my favorite brush for smudging liner or shadow onto the lid or lower lash line, but the E21 has replaced it for the lower lash line. This brush is amazing for smudging!

The E46 (Shader - Inner Corner) and E56 (Shader - Lid) have been a disappointment, unless I just don't fully understand how these are supposed to work. I have tried these brushes for the last two weeks and not been satisfied with the results. I do not have super small eyes, but they are not big, so I thought these would be great - no they are not. But who knows, I may figure these out and love them one day.

The last brushes I picked up were just extras, an E35 and E40 - both Tapered Blending brushes. I use these brushes daily, so its nice to have extras.

The last item I picked up is the Brow Kit Value Set in Medium, they have four shades/sets to choose from. The set includes 5 essentials for flawless brows, at a great price point. For $48 ($60 value) you will get the following:

• Brow Powder Duo - in medium ($14)
• Dual-ended Highlighting Pencil ($12)
• Dual-ended Brow Pencil - in medium and dark ($12)
• E75 Angled Brow Brush ($12)
• E80 Brow and Lash Brush ($10)

I have been very happy with all of my Sigma products, if I wasn't I would not continue to purchase or endorse the brand. I hope you take advantage of the 20% off sale, they have some great makeup, brow and brush products!

Until next time XO

Shannon

Collective Haul: MAC, Sephora, Ulta

I have for you guys a little, well maybe not so little, collective haul from the past few weeks. It’s the beginning of a new month and MAC has launched 3 new collections, so of course I have to check them out! While the Reel Sexy and Tres Cheek were nice collections, they just were not colors for me. So I chose four items from the MAC In Extra Dimension.

MAC In Extra Dimension is a collection of 3 Extra Dimension Skinfinish and 10 Extra Dimension Eye Shadows that are from a new formula from the brand. MAC describes this “extra dimension” formula as a liquid-powder hybrid with prismatic reflections that instantly sculpts, highlights and models the face to the desired effect – extra dimension.

I picked up 2 of the 3 Extra Dimension Skinfinish, Whisper of Gilt and Superb. They both have a metallic finish and are 9 grams, where a regular mineralize skinfinsh is 10 grams. I was only going to pick up one, but I could not decide so I bought both. These 2 will be amazing highlights!

Whisper of Gilt - Light, soft white gold with shimmery sheen

Superb - Soft peachy nude with multi-dimensional shimmer

I picked up 2 of the 3 Extra Dimension Eye Shadows, Rich Core and Modern Pewter. I was really drawn to these 2 and there were 2 more I may go back for, Warm Thunder (a silvery grey) and Grand Galaxy (a bright purple). These, like the mineralize eye shadows; can be worn wet or dry. These 2 colors are like none other in m collection and I could not be happier.  I really wish this collection were a permanent one.

Modern Pewter - Metallic, Dirty Olive Gold

Rich Core - Metallic Eggplant

The other items I purchased from MAC were a blush, sheen supreme lipstick and a lipglass. The blush I chose was Fleur Power; it is a satin finish and is a soft, bright pinkish-coral. The lipglass I picked up was in Spirited, which I would describe as a champagne taupe. And the last item is probably my favorite, sheen supreme lipstick in Supreme Style. Supreme Style is the perfect spring/summer color for me, it’s a soft pink flecked with beige and champagne shimmer.

Fluer Power Satin Blush

Supreme Style Sheen Supreme Lipstick

Spirited Lipglass

L-R: Supreme Style, Spirited, Fleur Power

Then during Chic Week at Sephora I used my 15 % coupon to purchase the Laura Mercier Silk Crème foundation that reviewed before, click here, a NARS duo and a Bare Escentuals Ready Eye Shadow 2.0.

Since I reviewed this already I am not going to go into detail over the foundation since you can go here to read, so I will jump to the NARS duo I picked up in Kalahari. This is my first NARS eye shadow product and I really wanted a simple wearable color, which this is since the colors are described as bronze pearl and milk chocolate.

The Bare Escentuals Ready Eye Shadow 2.0 I selected was The Scenic Route. It contains two shades that are individually named Breathtaking and Spectacular. Breathtaking is this golden white with a beautiful sheen and Spectacular is a brilliant sage, both have amazing payoff! (Photos coming, thought I uploaded them)

I then ran into Ulta to check out the sale they were having on Revlon, Physician’s Formula, and NYX, which was an amazing 40% off. I picked up 4 Revlon Colorburst lip gloss and 2 shimmer stripes products, gel cream eyeliner and an eyeliner trio.

Two of the Revlon Colorburst lip gloss that I picked up were on clearance and one of them was my all time favorite in Rose Gold, so I picked that one up, and Gold Dust. The other two permanent shades I picked up were Rosepearl and Peach Sunset.

I have never had purchased anything from Physician’s Formula, since I find it expensive for drugstore makeup, and 40% off was a good deal. I picked up the Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Gel Cream Liner in for Brown Eyes and the Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Eyeliner Trio in Nude Eyes. I am excited about trying these out! Reviews coming on the Physician’s Formula and the MAC In Extra Dimension products!

Have you hauled lately? What have you picked up? Until next time –

XO Shannon

Small MAC Haul

I recently went to my local MAC store, not to purchase anything from the new MAC Shop, MAC Cook, or Vera for MAC collections, but to pick up the new Viva Glam from Nicki Minaj. I never can step foot in MAC and only walk out with one item, that would be too easy. So I picked up a lipstick, a lipglass, a lip liner and a brow pencil.

So first thing... Viva Glam Nicki. I was super excited about this lipstick. Its not a normal, everyday color I would wear. Its a bright, I mean BRIGHT, coral-y pink (I'm not the best at descriptions). The finish is a satin, which is one of my recent favorite finishes. The only previous Viva Glam I have purchased, by a celebrit, was the first Viva Glam Lady Gaga Lipglass. I do own Viva Glam 5 lipstick and 6 lipglass.

Viva Glam Nicki Lipstick $14.50

The second thing I purchased was the Pro Longwear Lip Pencil in "In Anticipation". The makeup artist said it would pair nicely and it does. It is described as a soft yellow pink, it really is lovely and quite wearable, glides on so smoothly. And let me tell you when they say long wear, they mean it. I swatched the products around 4 pm and when I went to take a shower in the morning it was still there!!! That is long wearing!

In Anticipation Pro Longwear Lip Pencil $18.00

Then I wanted a new lipglass and was looking for something springy, so I chose "Pink Lemonade". To me it is a coral pink. I really do like it, it has minimal sparkle or shine. It also pairs nicely with the "Viva Glam Nicki".

Pink Lemonade Lipglass $14.50

The final thing I picked up was a brow pencil. My eyebrows have been thinning along the tail and was looking for something nice to fill in and add to my brows. The makeup artist suggested "Lingering", it is a great shade for my brown hair. I was a little worried about using a pencil, powder, etc. incase it rubs or fades off throughout the day, or looked unnatural. But it looked quite nice and like my real brows.

Lingering Brow Pencil $15.00

Then when I got home I had a package waiting for me, not from MAC. I had recently accumulated some Birchbox points, for those of you not familiar with Birchbox it is a company that you can sign up monthly for $10 and receive 4 to 5 deluxe samples of beauty and skincare products. Each month you can review products to earn points, for each product you get 10 points and 100 points equals $10. With my points I chose the BeautyBlender. I have never had one and have always wanted to try it out. The one I selected was the dual set and had free shipping. I do like it and the natural finish it gives my foundation, I don't think it will take the place of my Sigma F80.

BeautyBlender - $24.95 (double set)

With Flash L to R: Nicki, Pink Lemonade, In Anticipation

Without Flash L to R: Nicki, Pink Lemonade, In Anticipation

Have you hauled lately? Picked up any of the new Viva Glams? Until next time - Shannon XO

Free for Haul Friday!

It's been a while since I really hauled anything, mainly due to holiday shopping... I really didn't have time to shop for myself. So Thursday, January 5, 2012, MAC released the Naturally Collection, along with the MAC and Iris Apfel Collection. I am pretty much attracted to anything called naturally, so I had to check it out in person. So aside from MAC I also checked out the new cream shadows from Maybelline.

The collection itself is medium in size. It contains 4 lipsticks, 4 lipglass, 5 mineralize eye shadows, 2 mineralize skin finishes, 2 eye pencils, 3 mineralize blushes, and 2 duo fiber brushes. I picked up a the blush in Early Morning, 2 of the eye shadows Twilight Falls and Summer Haze, and a lipglass in Naked Space. I will post a separate review of these products once I have truly tried them out, other than just swatching.

Summer Haze - Mineralize Eye Shadow 

Twilight Falls - Mineralize Eye Shadow

Early Morning - Mineralize Blush

Naked Space - Lipglass

After I went to MAC I stopped in Walgreens to see of they had any of the Maybelline Color Tattoo cream eye shadow. They had all 10 shades at Walgreens and they were buy one and get one for 50%, but I only wanted 5 of them. They had a really bright purple, green, blue and orange, and plain white. I have NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk, so I didn't feel the need to get that one. The orange was too bright and I would never wear it, so I passed on it too. I passed on the purple and blue because I have some 24/7 shade sticks from Urban Decay, and I passed on the green because I wanted a darker green and not quite so bright.

Bottom: This is nice, because you can see the color through the bottom clearly.

Top: I love this because it has the name on the top of the jar.

The ones I picked up were, Audacious Asphalt (grey), Bad to the Bronze (bronze), Bold Gold (gold), Pomegranate Punk (burgundy-ish) and Tough as Taupe (matte taupe). These are very comparable to the MAC paint pots. The prices are $5.99 to $6.99, I paid $6.99 at Walgreens, but they are $5.99 at Target. The are 0.14 oz or 4 g, where as MAC paint pots are 0.17 oz or 5 g and they run about $17.50 each. I will post a separate review of these products once I have truly tried them out, other than just swatching.

Top L-R: Pomegranate Punk, Bold Gold, Audacious Asphalt
Botton L-R: Bad to the Bronze and Tough as Taupe

Have you hauled anything from MAC or the drugstore? I am always looking for suggestions on products! Thanks for reading and don't forget the Sigma discount code 0112XJML is good until January 31st!

XO Shannon