Sparkled Beauty

I like Benefit boxed blushes but find them a bit bulky to store or carry around. Then they go and pack 5 bestselling box o' powder blushes and bronzers into the Cheekathon blush and bronzer palette.

I already have a shade or two but wouldn't mind having all 5 in one place so I bought it. The only question is why they didn't do this sooner!

Would not have minded either if they put the 6th shade (Hervana or Sugarbomb) in place of the brush, as we all know we would travel with our makeup brushes anyway.

Packaging is pretty, Benefit style. The cardboard box is sturdy and comes with a mirror.

The tray that holds the blushes and bronzers is removable, so you can repurpose the box. I might look into depotting the colours even.

The shade names are luckily printed on the  tray and also on the clear plastic sheet that covers it.

The colours do look slightly different, depending on the lighting. All full sized!

First row: Dandelion (soft pale pink, 0.25oz), Hoola (matte bronzer, 0.28oz) and Rockateur (rose gold, 0.17oz).
Second row: Dallas (dusty rose, 0.32oz), Coralista (coral pink, 0.28oz) and the natural-bristle brush.

Swatches for blushes/ bronzers normally don't do them justice. The bronzers look natural on but are slightly light for me. Coralista looks the best on me among the 3 blushes. Dandelion is very cool toned, and Rockateur is shimmery, more occasion specific.

The $75 price tag is a steal, considering the size you get ($188 value, as each shade retails for $36). I do recommend this palette, unless you already have all the shades and don't mind them separately.

The camera was finally charged, so I could take some pics for this post. Stay tuned till the end for an exciting promotion.

In the weekend, I went to a Shoppers with a Beauty Boutique for their Spent Your Point event.

Finally getting this Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow brightening makeup (long name huh? lol), 1oz/ 30ml, CAD42. My shade is "I'm so money" Honey, a good match right now but might be a little dark in the winter.

Based on good reviews on blogs, I have wanted to try it but didn't like price tag very much. The GWP offer certainly helped.

The gift - "Right Now... Wow!" kit - has the minis of BADgal Lash mascara (0.14oz/ 4g vs full size 0.3oz/ 8.5g), POREfessional (0.25oz/ 7.5ml vs 0.75oz/ 22.5ml) and ChachaTint (0.08oz/ 2.5ml vs. 0.42oz/ 12.5ml).

Other products that I was waiting for a sale for:
- Quo Leopard kabuki brush from the summer collection, reg. $22, 50% off
- Revlon ColorStay Whipped foundation in True Beige, $18.99 and x10 Optimum points. There was only 1 tester on the display for Nude, so this was a wild guess of shade. Hate that!
-  Sally Hansen Natural Beauty inspired by Carmindy Natural highlighter in Gold Luster, reg. around CAD11, also on clearance for 50% off. The whole line was, actually. I would assume Shoppers is clearing it out
- Marcelle eyeshadow quads in Midnight Seas and Ultraviolets, reg. $14.95, on sale for $11.99, with $2 coupons I found on the display previously. If you plan to get these, I'd suggest grabbing the coupons when you see them, as the quads are/ will be moved to the regular shelf, and the coupon stacks will be gone.

I also redeemed for a Fossil Stella black resin watch with rhinestones (ES2157). I always wanted the rose gold (ES3003) but this location didn't have it. Since I was using my points, I didn't mind it too much.

Note that the free GWP of $75 purchase on cosmetics and fragrance is still on until Friday. It did not apply with point redemption, so they didn't give it to me lol.

I had some Bonus Bucks at Claire's to use ($10 off $20). Squirt found a set of Hello Kitty Bizus on clearance, so I grabbed some nail polish with it.

The first two were from the 2 for $6 sale: Lime-tastic and Galaxy, reg. CAD5.75 a piece. Lime-tastic is a neon lime green with multi-sized silver and green glitters, looks like an indie polish. Galaxy is a black with fine silver shimmers.

The two on the right are from the Starstruck collection with square bottles - Moon Dust and Cosmic, CAD7.25 each, BOGO1/2. This collection was created by Color Club, parallel with their own Take Wing collection, except the fact that Starstruck has Cosmic (purple) and Take Wing has Daisy Does It (yellow).

Just for reference, if you are eyeing the Starstruck shades:
- Claire's Moon Dust = Color Club Sky High (blue)
- Claire's Drops of Jupiter = Color Club Metamorphosis (teal)
- Claire's Little Dipper = Color Club Sparkle and Soar (orange)
- Claire's Blast Off = Color Club Fly With Me (green), and
- Claire's Flying Saucer = Color Club Wing Fling (pink).

A quick note for locals who want to get Layla Hologram Effects (first release) and MagEffects - EDIT: and Mirror Effects, Lawtons had reduced the price from $15.99 to $9.99, a little easier on the wallet. No sign of the newer/ better Hologram Effects (second release).

Other awesome score in the weekend was the one-day $20 dress sale at Jones New York factory store. These dresses (Nine West, Evan Picone or their own JNY brand) were between $150 to $200 originally and on clearance for around $40 - $50 previously. I was able to find my size in a few style, even some Petites, really exciting.

We also did the Super Cash redemption at Old Navy. Found some cute long sleeved shirt for Squirt, a denim jacket (on sale) and pencil skirts, etc. for me. And if you haven't heard, Old Navy now has jewelry and hair accessories in stores (I haven't seen them online yet).

And while we are talking about hauls, Shoppers will be doing another 3-hour BOGO promo with coupon tomorrow for lipsticks and lip glosses. Lip balms, lip liners and prestige brands are excluded. I had fun participating in previous BOGO nail polish promo. Hope you will too.

EDIT to add: Metro has a full page ad today about "Metro Day at H&M". You show the copy of September 13 Metro (or your Metro News app) at H&M on that day to get 25% off one item.

EDIT TO ADD:














There is a Fekkai Shampoo Swap going on this Thursday, September 17, at both Nordstrom and Saks.

Rules: "Bring a full sized shampoo you currently use (can be full or empty) and exchange for a full sized complimentary bottle of Fekkai Advanced shampoo of your choice ($23 value). One per customer, while supplies last".

Looks like there are 3 formulas with this shampoo: Volume, Glossing or Technician Color Care. I never try any Fekkai product, but heard it's good. Have fun ladies!














This offer is from Ulta, but it is a good one, so I thought some of you might be interested.

Rules, directly from Seventeen website:
"Starting September 15, bring the October 2009 cover of Seventeen (or a printout of the seventeen.com home page) to any participating ULTA store to receive a full-size tube of Benefit BADgal Blue Mascara (retail $19).

8,000 will be given away, between 12 and 24 at each ULTA store location. One per person. Giveaway ends October 19, or while supplies last. Must be female, between the ages of 13 and 29, and a legal resident of the 50 United States, District of Columbia, or Canada. Void in Puerto Rico, Quebec Province, and where prohibited by law, unless otherwise noted".

I don't know why Canada is included, as we don't have Ulta around here. Even if we do, I'm out of the age range, lol. Can't people over 29 use a mascara now?But anyway, go get yourself a free mascara (I have been curious about it for a long time) and let me know what you think about it, please :-)

Soo... did you guys have some good buys at Shoppers x20 points event on Saturday? Shoppers was b.u.s.y. on days like this with bonus points and good sales.

I didn't get much.
- Sally Hansen New Lengths Ceramics in Mod Mauve, Seaside and City Lights (CAD1 each - clearance section).

- Benefit "that gal" brightening face primer (CAD35), a completely impulsive buy. I don't own any Benefit product and thought I could always use some brightening and primer in 1.
Would any of you let me know whether it works ok?

- Essie in Delicacy and It's Genius (CAD4 each). Shoppers is probably the only place that sells Essie here, normally around CAD9 a piece, not my price range for polishes. Found these near the cashier of the beauty section, clearance basket. They were all in the nude/ pink/ red/ purple family which sucked, but I managed to pick out 2 wearable shades. Essie at this price? I wouldn't mind!

I'm enjoying the extra day off, long weekends are so nice to have!