A Bit of Shopping: ULTA, Target, Sephora, and CCS (Collective Haul)

     It has been a crazy busy month of May for me, hence the lack of post. Work has been a bit stressful combined with the stress of preparing for my trip and just daily life, I've just been too caught up to blog. In a week I'll be flying out and most of my beauty stuff has been shipped out together with my other things ahead of time so I wouldn't have to deal with overweight suitcases, I'm honestly bad at packing! 

    Since most of the stuff I bought earlier has been shipped out already, what's left in terms of my beauty arsenal are the ones I just use regularly and most of my makeup brushes. It's so odd to see my makeup area a bit bare. Like I said most of my things are already gone and the ones I have left here were running low so I went ahead and bought some stuff through out the month as I needed it.

   

A Bit of Shopping: Sephora (VIB sale edition)

     Last April 11 was the preview day for Sephora's VIB sale, so of course I went to check it out! Sephora rarely does any sales so I do get excited when they announce that they're having one, granted its usually either 15% or 20% which is not a lot. For the high end brands that they carry though (which never really goes on sale at the department store) I'm just glad to have a little help on the savings department, every dollar counts after all.

     I know that I've been posting shopping entries this week almost consecutively but to my defense, I don't normally shop like this. It's just that the sales have been going on at different stores and I'm preparing for my trip this summer, so I'm buying mostly backups of products I generally use on a daily basis. These products might be unavailable, difficult to find (especially my skin tone shade), or more expensive if I were to buy them where I'm going. So that's that. 

A Bit of Shopping: Ulta

     I went to Ulta on two separate occasions, the first was a week ago with a former student of mine to go makeup shopping since Ulta sent us a 20% off coupon for our entire purchase. I actually used mine to buy some skin serum for my mom to take with me when I go home this summer. She loves using the Olay Regenersist Micro-Sculpting Serum, please don't ask me if it works because I've never really tried it. All I know is that my mother does not look her age, she looks pretty younger than her actual age so it might be working for her. 

A Bit of Shopping: Nordstrom Rack

     A couple of weeks ago, my dearest husband needed to go to our tax person downtown... I thought it'd perfect since I've been wanting to check out the Nordstrom Rack there because I've been hearing that they've been stocking up on some Urban Decay stuff especially the Urban Decay All Nighter Spray (they have a new packaging so I guess they're just selling of the ones with the older packaging) that I love and use every time I put my makeup on. 

Share the Love: theBalm.com

Share the Love: Sephora VIB Sale

My Daily Face Routine...

      After showering, I start of my facial routine by using Mario Badescu Glycolic Acid toner to make sure my face is well prepped for what comes after. 

     I generally put on my moisturizer after the toner has dried, my current favorite is Origins Starting Over with Mimosa, after which I apply my primer...

Starting out...

     I've always had an affection for things that are pretty and colorful, that's how my love for makeup came to be... When I started there really was nothing major with what I used, just your run of the mill faced powder or maybe a lip balm. That's all I used when i was younger. Simple and easy. 

     That was a long time ago, now I'm fully enamored with all the possibilities and choices laid out in front of me! It all started out in 2007, a couple of months of being here in the city by the bay. My dear husband took me out for a little trip to the mall, there I would get introduced to the world of makeup. MAC was the first brand that intrigued me, it was one of the brands (makeup wise) that was was highly sought after where I'm from. My dearest husband was so sweet and loving, he asked me if there was anything that I liked from the brand but the heavy foundations and overwhelming colors on the sales associates faces intimidated me so I declined his offer.

     My first ever makeup purchase was actually from target. It was a L'Oreal eyeshadow i think... from there I started to become more confident about what I wanted and what I generally needed. I was able to do some research and be able to begin my foray in middle/highend makeup. By mid 2008, I've accumulated a modest amount.

    
      Fast forward to five years later...

     Not too bad... ;p