August - October Haul 2023

 There is really a general theme for my purchases in 2023 - and the theme is called makeup brushes!! 

The main haul of Augsut - October 2023

Sephora makeup brushes

Testers from Sephora

Elf - Halo glow liquid filter - 1 fair (31.5 ml): This is supposed to be a dupe for the famous Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood flawless filter. I have never tried the CT one, but this one looks promising. I will for sure have to work on a primer in 2024 for my project pan as I seem to have accumulated quite a few throughout the last few years. 

Glow recipe x Barbie - Watermelon glow pink juice moisturizer (25 ml) and Watermelon glow niacinamide dew drops serum (15 ml): My friend asked me to grab one of these sets when I was in the US - and when I saw the packaging, a pink metal box I knew I had to grab one for myself as well. 

Generic Value Products - Color protecting shampoo, compare to Matrix biolage color last shampoo (473 ml): My friend recommended this brand in Sally's Beauty, so I decided to grab a bottle, as I knew Matrix was a good brand, as my mom used to use that brand in her hair salon. 

First aid beauty - KP smoothing body lotion with 10% AHA (170 g): I have the suspicion I suffer from keratosis pilaris (KP) on my legs, as they tend to be red and spotty. It could also just be eczema as in later years I have skin inflammation issues on my face, so it would be no surprise I have developed KP - so when at Ulta in Target I grabbed a tube with me to give a try. 

Neutrogena -  Rapid wrinkle repair regenerating cream, accelerated retinol SA (48 g): I seriously had a shock after one of my flights to the US in October - the lighting in the restroom in my hotel room was too good, so I was able to spot some fine lines I had never spotted before, I went straight to Youtube to find a good retinol for sensitive skin, and this one was one of the ones that came highly recommended. 

Glossier - Monochrome essential eyeshadow trio in almond (3.9 g): I am always drawn into small eyeshadow palettes (over bigger ones), and this came recommended by a few of the youtubers I tend to watch. I usually draw in a dark brown to complete the look, but I have one dark brown single laying around that pairs perfectly with this one, so I am not very disappointed by the fact that this is just a trio instead of a quad. Though quad for the packaging would have been nice. 

Goden Rose - Mega volume city style mascara (9 ml): this purchase broke one my rules for 2023 - not to buy any mascara, but as I was traveling around in Turkey, I just had to grab one of my favorite mascara on that trip. 

Sephora - Pro foundation 47: I got tempted to buy this brush and the following during the latest Sephora sale, on 30% discount.

Sephora - Pro shadow 14: I also got this one on a Sephora 30% sale - in retrospect maybe I should have gotten the smaller eyeshadow brush number 15.

Sephora beauty insider - Glow recipe - Watermelon glow niacinamide dew drops (15 ml) and Watermelon glow PHA + BHA pore tight toner (25 ml): I was gifted these products and the following while browsing in Sephora, Georgetown Washington.

JVN - Complete air dry cream (20 ml): I was also gifted this item in Sephora. I am not entirely sure what is the purpose of this product, do we need a cream in the hair to let it air dry now?

Did you buy something of late?

According to my calculations I have purchased 9 colored items of the 12 I set my self out as a maximum purchase of 2023 of colored cosmetics products - then to that number I can add 3 sample sizes:

Ilia - The necessary eyeshadow palette in cool nude

Maybelline - eyeshadow in nude glow

Inglot - matte eyeshadow in 356

RMS Beauty - Buriti bronzer

Kjær Weis - brown eyeliner

Nars - gloss in Turkish delight

Elf - Halo glow liquid filter

Golden Rose - City style mascara

Glossier - eyeshadow trio in Almond

Ilia - Multi stick in at last (mini)

Ilia - Limitless mascara (mini)

Rose inc - tinted serum (tester)

Total of 12 colored cosmetics, three of the items are testers/gift with purchase sizes, so I wonder if they should could towards the total 12 count? Still there is quite some product in those samples.

What of the items I purchased I could have skipped? Or which of these I did not like so much in retrospect? Number one that comes to mind, and most likely the only item on this list; the Inglot eyeshadow, it is superdry and almost no pigment comes off from it.

Best purchase? The eyeliner from Kjær Weis and the Turkish delight gloss from Nars - those two are amazing. 

Nota bene I have not started to use the following: Ilia multi stick, Ilia mascara, Rose inc tinted serum, Elf halo glow and the Golden rose mascara..

January - March Haul 2023

 So here is what I hauled in January to March, plus a few birthday treats....

Cosmetics and a hair oil

Skin care

Ilia - Multi stick - At last (2.5 g): This was a part of the Sephora birthday gift I chose for myself this year

Ilia - Limitless mascara - After midnight (3 g): This mascara sample also came with the Sephora birthday gift.

JVN - Complete pre-wash scalp oil (50 ml): I decided to pick this up, as I have been dealing with an itchy scalp in the last few weeks. Hope it will work some magic for me.

Ilia - The necessary eyeshadow palette - Cool Nude (6x1.5 g): I had been quite interested in a talc-free eyeshadow formula as my eyelids have started to feel quite dry, and borderline peeling at times. So this being talc free and with vitamine E sounded like a great idea. It was some bit of a learning curve how to use the shades, they are quite powder and at first they seemed hard to blend, but the formula requires me to put down the light color all over my eyelid as base, before working on the other colors.

Maybelline - Expert wear eyeshadow - 40S Nude glow (2.3 g): I got this one by a recommendation from Jessica Braun - and supposedly it is a close dupe to Mac All that glitters. 

Inglot - Eyeshadow matte - 356 (3 g): I grabbed this single shadow during an online discount with Inglot. But I had been eyeing the Dior Backstage Cool neutrals palette, as it had similar colors to the Ilia Cool Nude one, but the Ilia was missing a matte light pink shade. So I decided to order it online from Inglot to be able to get a similar look to the Dior palette. 

RMS Beauty - Buriti bronzer (5.67 g): My friend gave me a credit in Elira, a relatively new beauty store in Iceland. They sell amongst other brands RMS and Roen. So it was a hard choice between this bronzer, an RMS blush or a Roen quad. And I decided with the Buriti bronzer as I would get the most use out of it. 

Kjær Weis - Eye pencil - Brown (1.1 g): I picked this up in Blue Mercury in NYC for a ridiculous price for an eye-liner, due to it not being a "refill" but as it came with the silver cap. The brown color is beautiful, and I will for sure buy a refill going forward. It is supposedly organic and I assume better for your eyes. 

Neutrogena - Cica-repair hand mask (1 pair): My friends gave this to me as a part of a care pack - when we went to Copenhagen for my birthday trip. 

Up & Up - Advanced scar gel skin protectant (20 g): I was on the hunt for a Mederma in Target, but I spotted this one next to Mederma, and it has exactly the same ingredients in it, and was considerably cheaper than Mederma. So I picked this up for my chapped knee, hoping it will diminish the likelihood of a permanent scar.

Biotherm - Aquasource gel (1 ml): This sample also came with my birthday care pack.

Biotherm - Aquasource Aura concentrate - Intense regenerating serum moisture and glow (2 ml): Also a part of the birthday care pack.

Biotherm - Aqua glow super concentrate (1 ml): Part of the birthday care pack.

Biotherm - Aqua pure super concentrate (1 ml): And lastly, also a part of the birthday care pack. 

So with these purchases, I have managed to use up my color cosmetics shopping quota for January - May - and it's only March!!

November - December Haul 2022

It's time for the last haul of the year - I will really have to put more effort into scaling back my purchases next year - as I have backups upon backups of skin creams, serums, mascaras etc. in my stash. Anyway here comes the haul for the last two months of the year.

Serum, color makeup, testers and a makeup brush

Eyeshadow palette, hair products and eye serum

Five Caudalie testers (one missing in pic)

Milk Makeup - Pore eclipse mattifying primer (4 ml): This item came in a pack from Sephora; Sephora favorites sparkly clean set. 

Taramar - Night treatment (10 ml): We were gifted this item at work, as we met one of the Taramar representative on his way to launch the brand in Dubai!! Super cool, I have been on their email list for over a year, but still had not tried anything out yet - now I have the perfect opportunity to test this brand out and he also gave us a few other samples: Day treatment, Purifying treatment and The serum.

Biossance - Squalane + omega repair cream (15 ml): This came in the Sephora favorites set, and is perfect for work to take abroad or to put into my gym-bag :)

JVN - Complete conditioning mist (60 ml): I was super curious about this hair leave in treatment, but given my laziness to use hair products, I decided to go for the smaller size

Caudalie - Vinoperfect - radiance serum complexion correction (10 ml): this serum came with the Sephora favorites set, and is perfect for the work or gym bag! 

Saie - Mascara 101, black (5 g): Perhaps the only thing I do not need is a mascara, given the fact that I have at least 3 backups, but I think all of the un-opened ones are some version of a sample size.

Ilia beauty - Balmy gloss, only you (4.3 ml): I have been super curious about this brand, as it is apparently a clean one, and this as many products in this haul came in the Sephora favorites set. 

Rose Inc - Lip and cheek color, Heliotrope (4.5 g): This also came with the Sephora favorites set, and with the lip gloss from Ilia, were the two products I was most curious about. And after swatching the blush in store - I just had to buy this set. 

Hourglass - Vanish seamless concealer brush: A lot of my purchases these days are due to recommendations, usually someone from Youtube, this being no exception, this time it was Maree, who recommended this brush, but it was exactly what the dr. ordered as I had been having some issues blending my concealer under my eyes of late. And it works perfectly!

Jason Wu - Flora 9 - 01 Matte Agave (5.85 g): I had planned to purchase a different palette in Ulta on a black Friday offer in store, but when I swatched "Too faced Born this way the natural nudes" I found some of the shimmer colors to be too chunky for my taste, and just picked one up for my friend. So when I found myself in Ulta one hour later, feeling sad I did not fall in love with the Too faced palette, I decided to buy this on a whim and as a somewhat of a compensation for not buying the other one. It performs over average for a drugstore matt colors, and has a selection of matte colors perfect in the crease. 

Big Sexy Hair - Volumizing conditioner (1000 ml): This I picked up in Ulta during black Friday week - as it was on generous discount, and I was running out of conditioner and needed to pick one up.

Mac - Fix+ stay over alcohol free long-lasting setting spay (30 ml): I have for a long time wanted to try the MacFix+ and when I knew they had this one, an alcohol free version it sounded perfect. So I decided to buy this one in it's smaller version as well. 

Perricone MD - Essential Fx Acyl-Glutathione Eylid lift serum (15 ml): This I got tempted to buy after seeing it featured in a video from Tiffany D on Youtube. And as it came highly recommended by her, and I am starting to feel my age is catching up with my hooded eyelids I decided to grab it as it was on a 40% discount on the Perricone webpage.. but it was still expensive, even with the discount.

Eva Nyc - Mane magic 10 in 1 primer (160 ml): Yet another recommendation from Youtube, this time it was Jessica Braun, and with my hair being unusually long these days, the ends are super dry and brittle, so this is amazing to spray into my hair before I brush it through - and it does indeed prevent further hair breakage. 

Caudalie - Vinoperfect - radiance serum complexion correction (5 x 1.5 ml): I got these testers with my purchase of the sparkly clean set at Sephora - perfect for travel! 

That sums up the makeup, skincare and body care purchases for 2022.