november/december beauty haul

Urban Decay Naked 3 eyeshadow palette, Sephora Job's Tears mask, Too Faced Chocolate Bar eyeshadow palette, Urban Decay Eye Potion primer, Hour Glass Lighting Blush in 'Etheral Glow,' Sephora mineral powder brush, Sephora smoothing primer, Sephora Brightening and Hydrating Foundation in 'medium,'  Sephora Microsmooth baked compact, and lastly,  & Sephora Colorful matte eyeshadow in 'Secret Boudiour No. 73."

November/December was a really great month for beauty and make up related purchases for me - in my previous post about my Sephora trip, I mentioned how I was excited to try new brands and products that would not have previously been available in Australia, and all of these products in this post are completely new to me, so it'll be exciting to try out these new beauties.

I'll give a quick run down of where I got these products from:

• Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette & Eye Potion primer were purchased from Beauty Bay - they ship to Australia, however they said delivery was 7-10 days (they didn't outline whether it was calendar days or business days) and I received my purchases in around 14 days, which really wasn't a big deal to me, but if you had something gifted or wanted it before a certain date, it's something worth thinking about.
• Too Faced Chocolate Bar was purchased from Mecca Maxima - I know that both Mecca Maxima and Mecca Cosmetica both stock Too Faced products, however I was lucky to get this palette when I did, as they sell out super quickly and they don't really have their collection available all the time. You can always purchase Too Faced products from their website or Beauty Bay. I did notice a difference in prices compared to online and in store, but if you're really wanting it, online is your best bet.
• Hour Glass Lighting Blush was purchased from a branch of Mecca Cosmetica which was inside a Myer store in the city - I haven't been inside a Mecca Cosmetica store but this collection is available in their online store.
• All Sephora items from Sephora (obviously).

I'm super excited to try out all these new beauties, especially coming up to my time overseas.

x

weekend splurges are the best kind x

nude palettes

Urban Decay Naked 2 palette, Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette, and ChiChi Glamorous Eyes palette in 'Nude.'

In the last couple of months I have been trying to expand upon my make up skills and trying to add a bit more to my every day make up routine, and I have found that I prefer a natural/nude eye shadow look, and using that as a starting point for more formal/going out make up.

I've seen plenty of beautiful shadows and palettes in a variety of price ranges, and I didn't really want to spend too much on a palette that I didn't know how to use properly or know what colours matched with what. Clarissa, I can safely say, was my eye shadow guide and taught me so much about matching colours, blending, how to apply shadow properly, priming, different brushes- so much stuff. She has an Urban Decay Naked palette and it's a stunning collection- really pigmented, very workable shades. I've wanted to try UD but unfortunately they aren't available in Australia, and to purchase them from overseas not only costs a lot, but is limited in availability.

So with the UD palette in mind, I wanted to find a collection to learn on and perfect. I came across the ChiChi Glamorous Eyes palette in 'Nudes' and I have been using this palette a great deal since I first came across it. The colours are great for my complexion and the looks I want to achieve, as well as being pigmented for some colour pay off but without being too heavy. I have used this palette for almost a year and it's about time to find either a new one to try or to replace my ChiChi one.

Over the last week or so I have been looking at the UD Naked 2 palette and the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette- I have seen such good things about both in terms of quality, pigmentation, shades, and cost. I know UD isn't sold in Australian stores, and I have only ever come across one Too Faced counter in Sydney, and they only ever had limited numbers of the Chocolate Bar, and of course they sold out quickly. The good news is that I have the option of both after finding out about Beautybar which do free shipping to Australia.

I met a friend of a friend who happened to have the Chocolate Bar palette and it's beautiful- the colours are mostly matte but some have an iridescent portion to them. Both the UD Naked 2 palette and Chocolate Bar palette are similar to each other in price range, and from the sounds of it, are similar in quality. These are both higher on the price range but I feel that it is something I would use often enough to justify the purchase. 

I'm super excited for either palettes and can't wait to try the winner out.