I didn't do a great job of taking pictures of purchases this month (again; I hope this doesn't become an ongoing problem...), but my empties are so numerous that it's probably for the best not to have more to write about! I went through my makeup stash and gathered up all the stuff I don't use/want, as well as all that had gone bad, so there's a number of things from that. I also finally got around to ridding myself of all the nail treatments/base/top coats that are too old or didn't work––I'd been holding on to them with the intention of someday doing a round-up post, but it looks like that's not gonna happen so I'll just give quick notes here, which will accomplish the same task without the added (self-)expectation of being super thorough. I still need to go through my polish stash, and I'm in the process of sorting through and labeling all my perfume samples, so I'm sure there will be more for the discards pile come the end of October, but for now, here's the sitch:
The Empties
I finished MAC Matchmaster! Though there's still a little left at the bottom, but the pump won't get it and it's too much effort for me to try to pour it out (I'm a terrible reductionista, I know!). I haven't rebought it yet, though I might––I'm currently considering Kat von D Tattoo Lock-It Foundation after reading a few reviews from people with skin similar to mine who praised its longevity, pale skin options, and oil control, but I'm holding off on that until my current combo of Revlon Colorstay liquid (mixed with primer, all over) and Revlon Colorstay whipped creme (applied with buffing brush on spots that need more coverage) runs out.
The empty MUAC French Green Clay mask sample. Shan't be buying again (for why, see here).
I also finished my tube of Herbal Essences Totally Twisted conditioner; the boy bought me a huge one back east that I brought home with me (Jet Blue has free checked bags, y'all!) and I also saw Suave Captivating Curls conditioner at Fred Meyer, which I snatched up as well––don't know how long it will remain on shelves!
Finally got done with this Body Shop Mango body butter, yay! I used it as hand cream at night and a couple times on my legs. Very mango-y and rich; too moisturizing for my body, but it worked really nicely on my hands. I would happily use it again, but I won't be rebuying because I have a bajillion and a half body butters and hand creams left to use.
I received some sample packets of Eve Lom products when I went to Barneys with L, including this Rescue Mask. I'll have a full review up at some point (I plan to review all the Eve Lom stuff together, and I haven't used half of them yet, so it'll probs be awhile), but for now, let me say: I really, really liked it, and depending on how my skin goes, I may consider forking over the $50 for a tube.
I love the Meow concealer (in Frisky Siamese, this time) samples for being portable, generous, and effective. They give me great coverage, though I noticed that it may be a little grey for my current skintone, weird. I get pretty comparable coverage from the Colorstay combo described above, augmented with NYX HD Concealer (review to come, eventually), so I don't feel the need to order more samples, but I'm sure I will again someday.
And lastly, my beloved Armani Eyes to Kill mascara. It lasted me a good 4 months of daily (sometimes twice-daily) use, and I managed to drag it out for another month after that, though it started flaking towards the end there. I adore this mascara, as regular readers know, but for $30, it's a major purchase. For now, I've found a mascara that's almost as good for 1/5 the price, so I'll be sticking with that (and my numerous mascara samples) for the time being.
The Full-Size Rejects
All the items above were not thrown out, but rather stuck into my giveaway drawer to foist off on friends.
I decided I was tired of WNW Petal Pusher taking up space on my vanity and offering so little in return, so away it went!
The Sally Girl eyeshadow was okayish, though quite sheer, and with my Inglot, I don't really need a blurple anymore.
And, these two Tarte LipSurgence pencils. The hot pink one barely got used, because I didn't find the color flattering, and while the coral one looked nice, I have more moisturizing, less gritty alternatives now, so adieu.
The Sample Rejects
Now, the Make Up For Ever HD primer is not really a reject, per se; it did help keep my oiliness at bay, but it wasn't nearly as effective as my Cover FX Clearprep FX, so I figured there was no point in finishing it.
The Benefit Porefessional, however, is a true reject, as I tried it and found it broke me out (surprise!). But it's a hefty little sample tube, so it's going in the give-away drawer. (Pretend that the perfume vial up there is Porefessional, because I was too lazy to rephotograph with the right products. Bad blogger, I know.)
The tiny button sample of Perfekt Lip Perfection Gel in Melrose was so cutely packaged, but such a fail in product. The color made me look dead (too nude, not enough rose––so much for all the shades being "universally flattering"), and the texture was quite slimy and definitely not moisturizing. Toodle-oo!
The Nail Treatments
These are some of the many, many nail treatments/base coats/top coats I've tried over the past year. From left to right:
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails treatment, which does help strengthen nails, but does not extend the wear of polish. One of the few that worked, just not well enough.
Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle, which I have a newer bottle of since this one got too thick. I find it helps my nails grow faster, but they don't grow stronger, so it's not a great solution. It does get along really well with Zoya polishes, though!
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, which I've also rebought. This is a thick fast-dry top coat, much like Seche, but unlike Seche, it doesn't smell terrible or cause shrinkage. It doesn't dry super fast, but my nails are pretty much functional after 10 minutes.
Nailtiques Formula 2 Plus, which is the most effective nail strengthener I've used. I rebought it at the beginning of the month (my nails stayed good for a couple months, but they've not been so happy lately), brought it back east with me because travel is always terrible on my nails, and apparently lost it somewhere in New York. I forked over the $10 for a new bottle again, though I wasn't happy about it! But seriously, this stuff is great, and the tiny 0.25 oz bottle lasts 3+ months with bi-daily use. I found it got thick before it got empty, so I definitely recommend getting the little bottle.
The infamous Seche Vite, which I found to be extremely fast-drying but stinky and it always, always caused shrinkage, even when I applied it on extremely wet polish. Lots of people love it, though.
Seche Rebuild strengthener/base coat, because I saw a review of it on KarlaSugar. It was fine, but nothing remarkable, and it didn't make much difference in the condition of my nails. My nails are a complete disaster, though, so keep that in mind when reading any of these!
Orly Nailtrition. Found a tiny adorable bottle of this at Sally's on clearance, so decided to pick it up. Another one that didn't make much difference in my nails, though that may be due in part to the fact that I didn't use it as religiously as I should have. I liked the light shimmery pink, at least for the first couple days, but I didn't like that you're supposed to reapply every day for a week before removing, because a) I'm terrible at doing things on a daily basis, and b) it started to look really pink and frosty after too many layers.
INM Out the Door, which is a thin fast-dry polish, better for non-glitters/anything that has texture. I actually really liked it and found it to be very fast-drying, but it didn't help my polish last any too long. Even so, I would rebuy.
Color Club clear polish which came with one of the sets I got. It's a clear polish. I have no need for clear polish. I think I used this as top coat on my nail sticks, but really have no further need for it.
Brucci Miracle Nail Hardener, which was meh. Didn't seem to make much of a difference in my nails, nor did it extend the wear of my polish, so I didn't use much!
I'm currently using the Sally Hansens (Nailgrowth and Insta-Dri) and a-england The Knight and The Shield, which I'm not terribly thrilled with––I may write a post about it, or it may just wait until I use them up and ramble about them in an empties post. I plan to try Zoya's soon, but if you have any other suggestions for HG base and top coats, let me know! I'm willing to try pretty much anything. Also, does anyone know how to get rid of unwanted polishes? I know I'm not supposed to throw them away because they'll kill everything ever, so right now they're just chilling out in a box.
The Perfume Rejects
Guerlain Le Petite Robe Noire is perhaps the most disappointing perfume I have ever smelled. I adore Guerlain perfumes––Mitsouko, Jicky, Shalimar, Samsara, Habit Rouge, Derby...––and refuse to believe that this piece of overly sweet, synthetic berry, shrill and cheap disaster could possibly come from the same house. Bear in mind that perfumes tend to pull really sweet on me, and that I loathe "berry" in my perfumes, but I honestly cannot recommend this to anyone. It was a scrubber on me, particularly insulting coming from such a good house.
Coach Poppy Flower and Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy, which are both generic synthetic fruity florals. That's pretty much all I can say on them.
FREE PERFUME
ETA: Perfume's been taken!
And, if you've managed to make it all the way down here, Armani Code pour femme. This is a half-full 1.7 oz bottle that I would like to get rid of. The scent is nice; not particularly remarkable or excellent, but wearable and long-lasting, but it reminds me of a time I would rather not remember (senior fall at Swat, urgh), and I just can't wear it. If you want it, it's yours, just leave a comment or send me an email (beyondjustbeauty at gmail dot com), the cost is shipping––and I'll send it the cheap way, no worries.
So I don't think I did too shabby this month! Still have a fair amount of fall cleaning to do in my nail polish and perfume samples, but my makeup stash at least is looking pretty good. As far as my guidelines for September went, I didn't quite manage to meet them (darn), but I was really close! I picked up 5 nail polishes, but only paid for 4 (haha, that makes it sound like I stole one––much more mundane, though, I just used a coupon code). I got 1 non-essential beauty item, a lip gloss (review to come), though I suppose you could argue that the Real Techniques brush sets I picked up aren't essential (which would be pretty true). I was at my $120 budget until Surrender to Chance had 20% off everything, which I used to pick up a few samples of things I smelled in New York (and which also put me over the 1 perfume order by 1). So I ended up $25 over, but I'll hopefully do better next month, because: I have a list, and I'm sticking to it. My collection at this point is really nicely rounded, in my opinion, and I no longer feel much of a need to buy new products and try stuff out, particularly from the drugstore. I do have things I would like to add, but it's very much a curated list:
––A pink blush. There will be a Currently Coveting describing this further, and I hope you all can help me!
––A lilac blush, but I'm making do with CARGO Tonga for the time being.
––Numerous liquid lipsticks/lip glosses, but I'm restricting myself to no more than 1 a month. I'm leaning towards YSL Glossy Stain in 4 Mauve Pigmente for October, since I have no vampy lipsticks (shameful!), but that could change depending on the Armani and Burberry options, and whether I can find a shade I love in Hourglass or MUFE's versions (so many choices).
For October, my usual $120 limit applies, and I'm going to try to limit myself to 1 indie perfume order (Sonoma Scent or Tauer) and 1 Aedes order (though, at a mere $15 for 7 samples, I have a terribly hard time not ordering from there every day). School will be picking up soon, and I won't have time to do my usual product stalking, which hopefully will cut down on the lemmings!
Oy, these posts always end up being opuses (opi?). I'm all talked-out at this point, so tell me: how did your September go? And do you want that bottle of perfume?
The Empties
The empty MUAC French Green Clay mask sample. Shan't be buying again (for why, see here).
I also finished my tube of Herbal Essences Totally Twisted conditioner; the boy bought me a huge one back east that I brought home with me (Jet Blue has free checked bags, y'all!) and I also saw Suave Captivating Curls conditioner at Fred Meyer, which I snatched up as well––don't know how long it will remain on shelves!
Finally got done with this Body Shop Mango body butter, yay! I used it as hand cream at night and a couple times on my legs. Very mango-y and rich; too moisturizing for my body, but it worked really nicely on my hands. I would happily use it again, but I won't be rebuying because I have a bajillion and a half body butters and hand creams left to use.
I received some sample packets of Eve Lom products when I went to Barneys with L, including this Rescue Mask. I'll have a full review up at some point (I plan to review all the Eve Lom stuff together, and I haven't used half of them yet, so it'll probs be awhile), but for now, let me say: I really, really liked it, and depending on how my skin goes, I may consider forking over the $50 for a tube.
I love the Meow concealer (in Frisky Siamese, this time) samples for being portable, generous, and effective. They give me great coverage, though I noticed that it may be a little grey for my current skintone, weird. I get pretty comparable coverage from the Colorstay combo described above, augmented with NYX HD Concealer (review to come, eventually), so I don't feel the need to order more samples, but I'm sure I will again someday.
And lastly, my beloved Armani Eyes to Kill mascara. It lasted me a good 4 months of daily (sometimes twice-daily) use, and I managed to drag it out for another month after that, though it started flaking towards the end there. I adore this mascara, as regular readers know, but for $30, it's a major purchase. For now, I've found a mascara that's almost as good for 1/5 the price, so I'll be sticking with that (and my numerous mascara samples) for the time being.
The Full-Size Rejects
I decided I was tired of WNW Petal Pusher taking up space on my vanity and offering so little in return, so away it went!
The Sally Girl eyeshadow was okayish, though quite sheer, and with my Inglot, I don't really need a blurple anymore.
And, these two Tarte LipSurgence pencils. The hot pink one barely got used, because I didn't find the color flattering, and while the coral one looked nice, I have more moisturizing, less gritty alternatives now, so adieu.
The Sample Rejects
The Benefit Porefessional, however, is a true reject, as I tried it and found it broke me out (surprise!). But it's a hefty little sample tube, so it's going in the give-away drawer. (Pretend that the perfume vial up there is Porefessional, because I was too lazy to rephotograph with the right products. Bad blogger, I know.)
The tiny button sample of Perfekt Lip Perfection Gel in Melrose was so cutely packaged, but such a fail in product. The color made me look dead (too nude, not enough rose––so much for all the shades being "universally flattering"), and the texture was quite slimy and definitely not moisturizing. Toodle-oo!
The Nail Treatments
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails treatment, which does help strengthen nails, but does not extend the wear of polish. One of the few that worked, just not well enough.
Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle, which I have a newer bottle of since this one got too thick. I find it helps my nails grow faster, but they don't grow stronger, so it's not a great solution. It does get along really well with Zoya polishes, though!
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, which I've also rebought. This is a thick fast-dry top coat, much like Seche, but unlike Seche, it doesn't smell terrible or cause shrinkage. It doesn't dry super fast, but my nails are pretty much functional after 10 minutes.
Nailtiques Formula 2 Plus, which is the most effective nail strengthener I've used. I rebought it at the beginning of the month (my nails stayed good for a couple months, but they've not been so happy lately), brought it back east with me because travel is always terrible on my nails, and apparently lost it somewhere in New York. I forked over the $10 for a new bottle again, though I wasn't happy about it! But seriously, this stuff is great, and the tiny 0.25 oz bottle lasts 3+ months with bi-daily use. I found it got thick before it got empty, so I definitely recommend getting the little bottle.
The infamous Seche Vite, which I found to be extremely fast-drying but stinky and it always, always caused shrinkage, even when I applied it on extremely wet polish. Lots of people love it, though.
Seche Rebuild strengthener/base coat, because I saw a review of it on KarlaSugar. It was fine, but nothing remarkable, and it didn't make much difference in the condition of my nails. My nails are a complete disaster, though, so keep that in mind when reading any of these!
Orly Nailtrition. Found a tiny adorable bottle of this at Sally's on clearance, so decided to pick it up. Another one that didn't make much difference in my nails, though that may be due in part to the fact that I didn't use it as religiously as I should have. I liked the light shimmery pink, at least for the first couple days, but I didn't like that you're supposed to reapply every day for a week before removing, because a) I'm terrible at doing things on a daily basis, and b) it started to look really pink and frosty after too many layers.
INM Out the Door, which is a thin fast-dry polish, better for non-glitters/anything that has texture. I actually really liked it and found it to be very fast-drying, but it didn't help my polish last any too long. Even so, I would rebuy.
Color Club clear polish which came with one of the sets I got. It's a clear polish. I have no need for clear polish. I think I used this as top coat on my nail sticks, but really have no further need for it.
Brucci Miracle Nail Hardener, which was meh. Didn't seem to make much of a difference in my nails, nor did it extend the wear of my polish, so I didn't use much!
I'm currently using the Sally Hansens (Nailgrowth and Insta-Dri) and a-england The Knight and The Shield, which I'm not terribly thrilled with––I may write a post about it, or it may just wait until I use them up and ramble about them in an empties post. I plan to try Zoya's soon, but if you have any other suggestions for HG base and top coats, let me know! I'm willing to try pretty much anything. Also, does anyone know how to get rid of unwanted polishes? I know I'm not supposed to throw them away because they'll kill everything ever, so right now they're just chilling out in a box.
The Perfume Rejects
Coach Poppy Flower and Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy, which are both generic synthetic fruity florals. That's pretty much all I can say on them.
FREE PERFUME
ETA: Perfume's been taken!
So I don't think I did too shabby this month! Still have a fair amount of fall cleaning to do in my nail polish and perfume samples, but my makeup stash at least is looking pretty good. As far as my guidelines for September went, I didn't quite manage to meet them (darn), but I was really close! I picked up 5 nail polishes, but only paid for 4 (haha, that makes it sound like I stole one––much more mundane, though, I just used a coupon code). I got 1 non-essential beauty item, a lip gloss (review to come), though I suppose you could argue that the Real Techniques brush sets I picked up aren't essential (which would be pretty true). I was at my $120 budget until Surrender to Chance had 20% off everything, which I used to pick up a few samples of things I smelled in New York (and which also put me over the 1 perfume order by 1). So I ended up $25 over, but I'll hopefully do better next month, because: I have a list, and I'm sticking to it. My collection at this point is really nicely rounded, in my opinion, and I no longer feel much of a need to buy new products and try stuff out, particularly from the drugstore. I do have things I would like to add, but it's very much a curated list:
––A pink blush. There will be a Currently Coveting describing this further, and I hope you all can help me!
––A lilac blush, but I'm making do with CARGO Tonga for the time being.
––Numerous liquid lipsticks/lip glosses, but I'm restricting myself to no more than 1 a month. I'm leaning towards YSL Glossy Stain in 4 Mauve Pigmente for October, since I have no vampy lipsticks (shameful!), but that could change depending on the Armani and Burberry options, and whether I can find a shade I love in Hourglass or MUFE's versions (so many choices).
For October, my usual $120 limit applies, and I'm going to try to limit myself to 1 indie perfume order (Sonoma Scent or Tauer) and 1 Aedes order (though, at a mere $15 for 7 samples, I have a terribly hard time not ordering from there every day). School will be picking up soon, and I won't have time to do my usual product stalking, which hopefully will cut down on the lemmings!
Oy, these posts always end up being opuses (opi?). I'm all talked-out at this point, so tell me: how did your September go? And do you want that bottle of perfume?
