Sparkled Beauty

I had shopping in the brain and found some good deals to share with you.

Over the last few months, I have become a frequent customer at the Bay - a Canadian department store. It all started the day I found out that they carried BCBGENERATION bracelets, which I had been searching all over the internet for.

From one of the hauls, in the middle is the Fearless Affirmation bracelet in mint colour, on both sides are the Pyramid bracelets (Beige and Teal, not blue as it appeared in the pic), reg. $18 each.

My collection has grown since the day I took this pic. There seem to be only 4 colours of Pyramid, but endless options for Affirmation. They just keep popping up online (my store doesn't have these).

Also since then, I ventured out to their Expression and Material Girl jewelry lines as well. Remember this pic from a clearance sale haul back in June? This stash has grown too lol.

I am really into fashion jewelry right now, and find their pieces are pretty on trend, also reasonably priced (between $16 - $40). They are on sale often enough, so I don't pay full price ever.

From jewelry, I moved on to clothes (Material Girl, Topshop, etc.) and shoes, all the fun stuff. Between online and stores, sales don't necessary run the same, so I normally check both.

These are my latest finds from the clearance bin at my the Bay, yellow tagged, extra 40% off. Using some discount/ special promo they were running in the weekend, I got a really good deal.

Excuse my use of stock pics, as I can't get a good angle to show you the whole gorgeousness of them with my camera.

This one is R&Em Percy satchel in Malt, reg. $95. After all the discounts, I paid $22. Light yellow on the outside, red on the inside. Pretty awesome.

I never heard of this brand, but the style just got me. The material is really soft, and the bag is of a good size. I'm a little worried about the light colour, easy to get dirty, but I couldn't pass it up. Notice the little knot after the buckle? I do my belt the same way when the end is too long to let loose. Instant connection lol.

The second bag is Chocolate New York Chantel in Black, reg. $70, cost me $17. I could not find a pic of the black bag, so beige it is lol. The lace detail on the flap is harder to see with black anyway.

I really take advantage of my Hbc Mastercard, as the Bay always offer extra discount for card holders. Plus you get free shipping with $45 purchases (or $29 with beauty department) instead of the regular $149 with other cards.

With all this talk, please don't assume that I am doing any affiliation work for this company. I'm just an obsessed customer, they took all my money :)

Another store that I all of a sudden shop so much at: Old Navy. Fun clothes and shoes, especially when they are on sale, pretty cheap. There is always a coupon somewhere - in their emails, FB, on their receipts, etc.

Happened to come across these wedges on sale online, never saw them in stores. I was actually surprised that they were comfortable lol. Old Navy offer free mail return, or you can return in stores. Shipping is free with orders of $50 or more. Not hard. Again, in store and online deals aren't necessary the same, so browse both. I am actually waiting for another order on its way to me :)

First pair is the Color Block cork wedges, reg $29.94, cost me around $9 after all discounts. They look pretty well made, and not heavy. Cool bright colours, the ankle straps are helpful too. Awesome deal eh?

Second pair: Scarf wedges, reg. $27.94, I paid $14. The back of the shoes only come up to where the heels are, then the ankle wraps keep them in place. Even more awesome than ankle straps lol.

Other stuff that I found worth noting: selected sport bras (reg. $19.50) are on sale between $9 and $11 online. Didn't see the same deal in store last time I went in.

That's it for some of my bday finds, celebrating the day I turned older :) Hope to give you a bit of info about sales and where to find them. No makeup, but I hope it's helpful nonetheless.

This is a mix of multiple purchases that I didn't feel like posting individually, hence got piled up into a big post. Sorry about that :)

This bunch was from the one and only Bath & Body Works outlet in Toronto, where most of the items were 50 - 75% off. Depending on when you go, you might see a few items on 90% off, I didn't this time.

- Winter Value 6-pack Wallflowers refills, in Creamy Nutmeg, Cinnamon Stick and Fresh Balsam, reg. $34.50, I paid $6.

The rest were 75% off:
- Stress Relief Body cream in Eucalyptus Spearmint, reg. $18
- 2-pack Winter Garland Wallflowers refills, reg. $14.50
- Wallflower diffusers - Snowman ( reg. $10) and Pink Ladybug (reg. $7.50).

I'm hoping to find more good deals there after Christmas, didn't go too crazy this time.

Also hit up Sears with my bff while I was in Toronto during their extra 50% off red-tagged promotion, topped up with the a group buy coupon, which resulted in a 75% discount the last ticketed price for most items.

Found these Madden Girl wedged boots in the style Virtual at the clearance table, reg. $69.99, red tagged to $44.99 before all further discounts. I was looking for some wedges lately, so happy to find my size in these for $11. My friend found a pair of boots that was 30% off (not red-tagged), still a good deal after the group buy saving.

On to the jewelry department, I found some awesome pieces with red tags.

The pair on the left is from Jessica, I'm really feeling the stone-like finish. The necklace was $32 down to $19.99 on the tag, the earrings were $19 to $11.99, again before all discounts applied.

On the right is from Liz Claiborne, also with stone-like beads. Necklace was $26 down to $15.99, earrings were $18 to $9.99. Can't wait to start pairing them with some cool dresses.

The last necklace by Nevada was very Jewelmint-esque, with connecting metal pieces, reg. $26, red-tagged to $15.99.

Also found a pair of owl earrings from the same brand. They are too small in the pic for you to see the details, but my friend also got the exact same pair, as she thought they were too cute.

These are a steal - reg. $12 down to $6.99.

We walked out the door very happy.

This was my Cherry Culture order during their recent 25% off sale.

- NYX Nude on Nude palette, $20.99
before discount - my alternative to UD Naked palette
- NYX Soft Matte Lip cream in Addis Ababa, $4.99
- LA Girl Glitter Addict in Flamboyant, Provocative and Aqueous, $3 each. I'm trying to complete my collection of Glitter Addicts, but they are OOS quite often
- NYX Girls Turks and Caicos $1.99
- NYX Advanced Salon Formula in Forever Young, $4. New line, interesting Lippmann-like bottle shape
- NYX Slim Lip pencil in Orange and Purple Rain, $2.49 each.

Zellers had Jules + James shoes on BOGO this past weekend. I had no idea this brand has such cute shoes.

You know I am so into wedges lately, and this is by far my favorite pair. Laced for show in the front with zippers on the side for practicality. A little army-inspired, don't you think? The style is Wyn, in black, reg. CAD39.97.

These also come in beige with the wedge part in brown, but they don't look good on my feet and also defeat the army look. Might be an option for someone who wants some colours.

For the free pair, I picked this one, with a bit of heels but not mile high. Lorraine, in brown (also available in black), CAD39.97.

I failed to show you in the pic, but the boots are lined inside with animal print material. Totally added value, even though I might be the only one that see the inside print lol.

More fashion stuff :) Old Navy is running F&F 30% (both online and in store, with coupon) until Tuesday, so you still have time to check it out, together with the 50% off selected outerwear (in store only, until Thursday).

I treated myself a Wool-blend Double-breasted coat, reg. CAD99.94, 50% off. With F&F discount, it came out to be around CAD35.

I know that Old Navy might have even crazier sale after Christmas or at the end of winter season, but I want to hang on to this coat. Don't have anything this red, and it feels really nice on. The buttons come all the way up the collar so I can be snugly warm if I want to, or leave the flaps hanging like in the pic for not too cold days. Plus it has pockets. I had to pass on a beautiful coat with fake front pockets. Why do they do that?

Spotted this Performance fleece Black animal printed sweater on on of the tables, reg. CAD24.94, on sale for CAD15. Don't think it was an advertise sale (in their newsletter). Online it was CAD20, so I would suggest a trip to the store if you can this time, and go early.

Not bad of a price, in the print I wanted, in my size, what not to love? I can't have enough sweaters, always wear one at work.

There were other colours and prints to choose from, if you are picky :)

Squirt was one happy girl at Old Navy too.

We were excited to find some Girls' hooded Frost Free, Polar fleece lined jackets on sale for CAD20 - down from CAD59.94 regular price. That's more than 50% off. Of course we went for the animal print, glad it was in her size, so we can be cheetah twins lol.

Again, quite a few colour/ pattern options for your kids' taste. The coat is not the thickest but is warm enough on top of a sweater.

Didn't plan to buy anymore shoes for her, but I noticed these on a mannequin in store.

Check out these Girls' Faux Fur wedge boots, CAD32.94, adorable! Still not sure about this purchase though, as it was not on sale (before the F&F) and only found Squirt's size in white - not the easiest to clean.

Note that Old Navy is still running the Super Cash promo. For each $20 you spend, you'd get $10 super cash to spend on a $20 purchase between November 17-22. I might check back in during that time to see if the boots are in stock again in tan.

Hope I give you a few shopping ideas with this post.

There are 2 types of sales at Old Navy that I consider "must check out": extra 50% off clearance and One Day Wonder. And today I have both for you.

Old Navy started their 50% off clearance sale before the weekend, supposedly went on until yesterday only. Now it is extended until October 12, so I figure I should post up what I found, in case some of you are looking for some new clothes.

Just a note: always bring the Barker's Bone coupon from their facebook page. I normally "dig" for the $10 off $50 coupon, as the better ones are hard to find.

So here are what I brought home with me Friday night. I will link the items from the Old Navy website if I could find them on there, for your reference.

On the left is the Bomber PU Jacket, paid $19 ($54.50 reg., on sale for $45.99 before the extra 50% off and the Barker's coupon). It is black, shows up grey under the flash :)

On the right is the Fleece Moto Jacket $39.50, on sale for $21.99, paid $9. You can zip it all the way up underneath the collar or zip half way. The website calls this colour "stainless steel".

Below are the Braided T-Strap Sandals $19.50, on sale for $11.99, cost me $5 and the Goga Duffle bag $24.50, on sale for $16.99, I paid $7.













I also found a Unif backpack for Squirt for less than $3 ($15, on sale for $6.99). There are styles for boys and girls to make all kids happy for school :)

And now about that One Day Wonder deal. According to Old Navy Canada Facebook, this Saturday (one day only), selected winter coats (for the whole family) would be $16. Stores will open extra early, so call first.

Also, as part of their 16th birthday event (October 8 - 14), some selected items will be on sale for $16 - Kids frost free vests (reg. $29.50), Adult sweaters (reg $29.50-$34.50), Kids and baby micro fleece tops (2 for $16, reg. $12.50-$16.50), etc.

Have fun shopping!

We went to Old Navy last night for its special "extra 50% off all clearance items" promotion. It was a 2-day thing, and I wanted to be there right on the first day, so I skipped gym for it. Bad, I know :-) Another reason was that I got a 25% off coupon of Old Navy Weekly, so why not?

The women's clearance section was sad, I couldn't pick out anything at all. It was already hard enough to find my size (XS), not mentioning colours or styles. I was hoping they had some dresses there, but I saw none. On the positive note, I got 3 summer dresses for Squirt from children's section. They were very cute, nice patterns/colours, even had some wooden beads on the straps. Orignially sold at CAD26.50, I paid $5.50 each. Scored! The bf also got some Ts for like CAD4 a piece, and a pair of jeans for CAD5.50. I love Old Navy sales.

A little disappointed, I went to Sally's :-) My mom wanted some more haircolour touch up sticks. I got her the Claudia Stevens Cover That Grey Temporary Touch-up Stick) last time and she liked it. But this time in store, the Roux Temporary Haircolor Touch-Up Stick were buy 2 get 1 free, so I bought those instead. They only had 2 sticks in stock, so I only have 2 in the picture :-) I'll have to come back to get the free one once they have more in storegave me a raincheck for the free one.

I also jumped on the Batiste dry shampoo wagon with the Original version. It was the last one in stock, so I didn't even have a chance to try any other scent. I was able to use my $5 off coupon, so I wasn't too cranky about the product being quite a bit more expensive than in the US (USD5.99 vs. CAD7.99), lol. I never use a dry shampoo before, don't know whether it's gonna take some practice.

In the background is my free GLOW magazine from Shoppers. Just a fun read about beauty, cosmetics, hair, etc. They sometimes have articles about relationship, health and stuff too.

The bf is flying to NY tomorrow for more than a week, so Squirt and I will spend our holiday (Natal Day) by ourselves. Don't know whether I want to fight traffic to take her to see fireworks that night. Fellow Canadians, any plan for this long weekend?

I have planned a few posts on Friday but didn't end up finishing them, so they are not up until today and tomorrow. Saturdays are normally "running around" days for me, so I don't get online that much, and therefore Sunday nights would be my posting time, often enough.

This pass Saturday was my bf's birthday, so we spent time shopping for some new clothes for him. As you probably heard, Old Navy has been doing 50% off all men's stuff in store (exclude clearance items)until Sunday, so we had to get some shopping in before too late. I have to say, Old Navy has some good basic stuff, good price (especially when they have sales on), not mentioning a few good coupon if you are lucky enough to score them on Old Navy Weekly. As I mentioned in my Old Navy haul post, the coupons are offered on first come first serve basis, and they are normallly reset on Thursday nights. If you have some free time and enough patience, you might find a coupon as good as "$75 off a $100 purchase". Amazing huh? My first coupon was $10 off a $50 purchase, and the one I used on Saturday was 25% off $50 purchase or more. Not bad. As it was all my bf's clothes, I wouldn't take pictures of the haul here :-)

We spent the night having Dairy Queen's blizzards (our favorite dessert) and watching "Drag me to hell". Don't ask me why I am into horror movies. I wasn't before I met my bf, but now I could basically go see any horror movies with him, if he wants to see it. But honestly, "Drag me to hell" was the kind of movie that makes it hard to sleep at night, so consider yourself warned :-) It wasn't a bad movie, I was just surprised how it ended. Don't want to spoil the movie for you, if you haven't seen it, so I'm just saying it is quite a good one to see, if you like horror movies. The music and sounds were a bit loud at times, I had to cover my ears here and there.

Sunday shopping, how I hate the hours. 12 to 5, that was it. That wasn't enough for me to browse around the mall and take my times to look at and try things out. We hit Old Navy at Micmac, as there were a few things we could find the right size at the first Old Navy, and we were in deed happy to find them today.

The Disney Store is one of our favorite stores to visit at Micmac. The stuff there is overpriced, obviously, because of the brand name, but they are decent when on sale. I got a pair of princess PJ for CAD10, a Ariel swimsuit CAD13, a Minnie Mouse costume with tutu CAD25, and a Daisy hat CAD5. The last 2 items were extra 25% off. It's the best time to shop when they have extra 50% off on top of discounted items. I just don't know whether the stuff I wanted will be there when they finally have extra 50% off, so I hauled. Also at Toys R Us, I got a few toys on sale for Squirt - a King Arthur lego (70% off) and some Bling Domino and Bling Bingo - sparkly and pink - just right for Squirt - for half price. Squirt left the stores very happy.

The Body Shop has "up to 50% off" sale going on for their Winter/Spring lines. I bought 2 Warm Amber body scrub and a Cranberry body shimmer. And I have my reasons - not that a girl needs reasons to shop, but these are like the must haves. First, Warm Amber and Cranberry are the LE winter lines that are no longer available in store (except when they have sales like this). Second, they are the only items that were actually at 50% off - as you can see from the stickers. I was interested in the Roseflower shadows and Roseflower blushes, but they were only 30% off, still quite out of my range/budget. After "Love My Body" 10% discount, it came out CAD26 which earned me one point. I have 3 points after this purchase, so my next purchase would qualify for CAD15 off.

For some of you who are not familiar with TBS's membership program: Basically you pay CAD10 for a "Love Your Body" card that offers 10% off all purchases for a year. You earns 1 point for every CAD25 spent. You get a CAD10 credit if you shop in the month of your birthday, and could get 20% off on the Love Your Body days. When you earn 4 points, you'll get a CAD15 gift, and at 8 points, you get CAD25 gift and free membership renewal for the next year. Note: I am not advertising for TBS, I am just sharing the info about the store so you can save some money if you are interested in their products.

EDIT: I just found out that the whole Warm Amber and Cranberry is on for CAD5 each on TBS's website, so I'll be returning this haul to the store. The site charges CAD5 shipping each order, but considering the items are half what I paid at the store, it's still a better deal than getting them from the store.

My last stop in Micmac was actually a very good one - La Senza, a Canadian lingerie store. Don't worry, this is not a rated R post :-) They are having semi annual sale on undies and bras, but I wasn't interested. I was there for their body products. Since La Senza was bought by Victoria's Secrets a few years back, they started carrying Victoria's Secret Secret Garden and Beauty Rush body products, no makeup though :-( In Toronto, La Senza has come out with their own body products that are similar to VS's, but in Halifax, the stores don't get them yet. I actually prefer the packaging of VS's lines better (haven't tried La Senza body producs, so I can't comment on the quality). Last week, I passed by a La Senza at the mall and saw a little shelf of Secret Gardens at 10 for $20 (normally 4 for $20). There were only 2 scents though (Endless Love and Pear Glace), and I didn't want to get 2-3 of the same items to make 10 in total, so I didn't get anything. The La Senza today I went in is the largest one of all, as it has everything, including the new Beauty Rush summer LE Pool Party items (on for 2 for CAD20). And the shelf has lots of scents at 10 for $20, so I got Endless Love (body butter, mist, wash and lotion), Pure Seduction (body butter and lotion), Love Spell (body butters) and the never-before-seen Tease Sweet Sugar (body mists).

Simiar to TBS's Love Your Body, La Senza has the Prestige card (CAD20) that saves you 10% off every purchase for a year. Came with the card was a coupon book (save $5/10/20 with $25/50/100 purchase, $5 off card renewal for the next year, etc.). I always have my card with them, as I'm a frequent there, especially on Boxing Day when the sales are too good to pass.

Hope you all have a good weekend. I'm so not ready for getting back to work tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by.

It has been a really busy weekend, but I am so excited of a few finds that I can't wait to blog about.

Saturday was such a long day. All of a sudden, there were so many things going on and I didn't want to skip anything :-) We started out at Old Navy as it was $3 graphic Ts day, plus I was able to snag a $10 coupon off $50 purchase off their Old Navy Weekly website.
There had been some great coupons, like $75 off $100 purchase, etc. but those were gone way too fast, as you can imagine. There were only adults' Ts that were on for $3, so I grabbed 5 for me first. It wasn't easy to find my size in the pile, but it was probably a good thing, as there was a limit of 5 per person. It'd be hard to decide what not to get if I could have more options. It was also the day of extra 50% off on discounted items, so I could get some great clothes and shoes for Squirt. I made it to $50 and got $10 off. So awesome. I like Old Navy!!!

I got a free ticket to go to Family Expo, and it was free for Squirt to go, so I decided to drop by. It wasn't very good last year, but I had my hope up as this is their 5th year celebration. But no, it wasn't any better. Squirt got a few balloons, and a poster of "Night in the Museum" from the exhibitors, and we sat down to watch a few performance on stage. Too bad they couldn't get the event back to where it was 2 years ago. I really enjoyed it the first time I went.

We rushed back to Empire Theatre where Squirt had her birthday party. We waited till this week to have the party so that the kids could see UP. It was a good time but I was exhausted having to watch 7 kids for 4 hours. I'm not used to the running around screaming act of the boys Squirt invited, not mentioning the bathroom trips that they pulled in the middle of the movie. I even missed the last 20 minutes of the show as one of the girls didn't feel well and wanted to go out to the lobby. It sucked, but all in all, Squirt got some presents that she really wanted (i.e. the Cupcake maker and a few Barbies, etc.), so she was very happy. I was glad the party went well. I spent the rest of the day resting with a nice meal and a beer (Keith's Red, if you want to know - it's a Canadian brand), haha...

Sunday, I woke up with really nice weather, 20 degrees. Unbelievable, considering it was just about 11 yesterday. It's probably unheard of, but here where I live, Sunday shopping isn't very popular. Not until recently (I guess probably about a year ago) that shops started to open on Sundays, and only from noon to 5pm. I wasn't very happy with the limitted hours, but had to deal with it. This was the reason why I normally sleep in on Sundays :-). We went to Globo Shoes, as they had some sales on, but didn't end up getting anything.


Icing was just across the street, so I came in to browse around. I love their clearance section, as sometimes some nail polishes and other cool items for some reason landed there with really cheap price (like 5 for CAD10 if the original price is less than CAD15, or CAD5 otherwise). This earrings and headband holder was original on for CAD23 and I got it for CAD5.
I already bought 2 earring holders and a necklace holder from Claire's but because of their crazy sale (10 for CAD10) that they had once in a while, my earring collection grew quite big. So this 3rd holder would come in handy perfectly. I wish they sell polish racks too, as I really need one to organize my bottles. As you see in my previous post, the polish collection was overflowing as well.




As I was complaining to Recessionista at Nouveau Cheap a few weeks ago about shipping cost from the US to Canada for some beauty items I wanted to purchase, she mentioned that she had to probably pay the same crazy amount if she got some of her favorite items from Canada. And she mentioned Fruits & Passion. I have a F&P store where I live but honestly never shopped there. She got me curious about the brand, so I went and purchase this Fragrance kit for CAD38, as a gift for my sister.
I had second thought a few days later, considering the small size of the samples (2ml each) and how much I had to pay for them (approx. CAD10, as the full size bottle I could claim with the gift card attached to the kit was between CAD28-30). So I brought it back. The nice thing was they let me keep the free GWP. It was a Foot Care Duo of a Cooling Cream Gel and a Foaming Exfoliant in the picture. Wasn't it exciting? I was impressed with Customer Service and would definitely be back when they have some nice sale on.

Another exciting news. Superstore was having the newly displayed HIP product line on for half price. I wasn't sure whether it didn't sell very well or they just wanted to promote it with a big sale. I certainly couldn't miss this deal.
The display was almost empty at the time, so I only got 2 Jelly balms (I think Canada stores only got these 2 shades anyway, sucky I know) and the eyeliner in Eggplant. I wanted Teal as well but they didn't have any left. I previously got some $2 coupons from the display at Shoppers, so I only paid CAD3 for each Jelly balm and CAD4.50 for the liner. Believe me when I said this was a great deal. I don't know whether you know, but Canada does not have BOGO deals on cosmetics that often (if not very rarely) like the US, so when something was on sale for 50% plus a few coupons to use, I was more than excited. And I have been waiting to try out the rest of HIP products (I only owned the shadow duos which were the only thing from this line available to us, Canadians until recently), so this worked out great in my favour.

Also at Superstore, I found certain shades of Sally Hansen's polish on for CAD1, so
I grabbed 3, showned in the first row in the picture. The 4th shade was too light to show up on my nails, so I left it alone, haha... I don't know what's going on with this line, as a few weeks back, I only got a few of them at Lawton on clearance for CAD1.80 each (showned in the second row). I wouldn't complain, but hope they didn't cancel the line or anything like that. The extra lip gloss in the picture was Hannah Montana's, for Squirt, on clearannce for like CAD3.

So that was it for this weekend runs. Sorry for the long post. And if there're any Canadians out there reading my blog, hope you can find these great products at great price like I did. Thanks for stoppy by.