Crazy Shopping Haul!

      Today was a much needed girls' day!  I spent the entire day with two of my best friends, both coworkers of mine.  I've known Roselle and Emily for about the same amount of time.  Roselle is 30, petite and engaged to be married next summer.  Roselle is actually our manager, but the three of us have grown very close and become good friends.  Emily is 23, but acts younger than me.  She's short, but only physically; not in sass!  These two girls are two of my closest friends.  We have similar personalities; most importantly, we love to laugh and have a good time.  We love shopping, but don't mind a casual night in with movies and wine.  We're all a little crazy, a little neurotic.  These girls are good people though, people I'm grateful to call my friends.  
      I swung by Emily's house and picked her up on my way to Roselle's house.  Roselle is originally from Wisconsin, which is where she received her cosmetology degree.  She had agreed to cut both Emily's and my hair.  She trimmed us up and then we headed for TGI Friday's.  We got a call on our way there from one of our ex-coworkers named Kat who needed a drink after a long, stressful morning at work.  She met us for lunch, as well as Roselle's fiance, Justin.  Afterward, Justin went home for a run, Kat went home and the three of us went SHOPPING! :D Zero shame.

      Charming Charlie has some decent quality jewelry and other accessories, at a reasonable price.  As someone with occasional OCD, this store makes me very happy; the entire store is separated by color!  I only bought two things; I was so proud of myself!

      I bought this set of beaded bracelets.  They came in a set of three, but attached for a stacked bangles look.  It came tied with a black organza ribbon-bow, which compliments the multi-faceted beads really well.  Something like this could look cheap, but it actually looks very sophisticated and elegant.  I may wear it on my birthday this Saturday!

       I also grabbed this necklace and earrings set.  The gold metal and teal jewels offset and enhance each other very well.  I'm excited to wear this one to work or out for drinks with the girls.

      Bath and Body Works is always a huge weakness of mine.  Hey, I like to smell good!  Would you prefer I don't?  B&BW candles are my absolute favorite candles and I love that they are constantly releasing new scents.  Their 3-wick Destination candles are currently $12 each for their summer scents, but select ones are on sale.  I caved and bought four!  
     

      Market Peach, an enormous hit in the YouTube beauty community, is the one scent I have been lusting after for some time now.  It was only ten bucks!  The descriptions says: "Fresh from the stand peaches strike a juicy note in a blend of vanilla featuring hints of citrus and raspberry".  The scent is very strong, but only overpowering if you stick your nose directly into the jar.  I hate vanilla (it's too icky sweet), but I can't detect even a hint of vanilla when I smell it.  It's seriously good!
      The Destination candles have creative patterned lids and gorgeous pictures, and I admit that part of the reason why I love these candles is because of the pictures.  London Calling gives me mixed feelings.  Don't get me wrong, I like the scent; I just question if I love it as much as the others I bought or if I just bought it for the picture!  "A royal blend of tea, lemon and sugar.  Great traditions from across the pond!"  It really does smell like tea and honey!  It reminds me of my trip (and makes me a little sad) 

     
      Rio Glow: Sizzle & Samba is "a tantalizing blend of tropical mango, papaya and guava as vibrant as Rio's Carnival.  Samba 'til sunrise!"  It's light and fruity, much less dense than Market Peach though; Market Peach is sweeter (I think it's the vanilla).  It does make me think of summer heat and samba dancing on the beach.
      Sea to Santorini: Blue Water and White Sails might be my favorite of the four candles I bought today.  "A refreshing mixture of Neroli blossoms, seawater and sparkling orange inspired by a day of island-hopping!  Ready for an amazing odyssey!"  To me, it smells like seawater and sunshine.  It smells soft, almost like cotton blossom.  It's like an ocean breeze, captured in a candle!  Santorini is at the top of my Travel-To-Next List and I can already tell this candle is going to be a long-time favorite of mine, at least until I get to visit the real thing!

      I went slightly overboard in Ulta, but in my defense, Emily had just given me a giftcard as an early birthday present!   My bounty was: two packages of cleansing wipes, one hair treatment masque, one powder brush, one blush, six lip products, one face powder, and a package of fake lashes!
  

      Face products:  I love Simple Skin Care, especially the Cleansing Facial Wipes.  They're gentle and yet remove all my eye makeup!  I like getting my face really super clean, but not tear apart my skin.  I had run out after my vacation so I grabbed a package and also decided to pick up the Oil Balancing Cleansing Wipes.  I have never tried these ones, but I'm willing to give them a shot!  

      Real Techniques makeup brushes are great quality for a bargain price; the bristles are crazy soft!  I will probably never buy another kind.  I've been lusting after the Expert Face Brush, but since my Ulta didn't have it, I picked up the Powder Brush.  

      I accidentally dropped my Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder in my sink the other day and because I recently hit pan, it shattered.  I scooped it back into the container but I didn't exactly love using the broken fragments to powder my face.  I previously had picked up the shade "Translucent", but it was not "translucent" at all!  It was far too pale, even before I tanned this summer.  I got the shade "020 Nude", but I have a feeling I will soon be too dark for this shade too!

      Hair, Nails, Eyes and Cheeks: I recently ran out of my Macadamia Deep Repair Masque and I realized when I was in Ulta how much I missed it!  Roselle had also remarked how dry my hair was when she had trimmed it, so I decided to give my hair a treat!  This will probably only give me one or two treatments, but it's a nice little indulgence for $4.  

      The entirety of last summer I wore "Lapis of Luxury" by Essie on my nails.  I love it far more than "Bikini So Teeny", but "Lapis" is so much harder to find this year!  When I found it, I pounced!

      Katy Perry lashes have always seemed fun and flirty to me (the asian girl with thin, stick straight lashes that point straight down).  I got the "Oh, Honey!" lashes, the most subtle of the options.  I figured I should probably ease myself in.

      I'm attempting to teach myself to wear blush on a regular basis (I usually just wear bronzer during the summer).  I picked up the NYX blush in "Mocha", a pink-brown that seems fairly wearable.  I already own "Bourgeoise Pig" and I actually bought another one by accident.  Tomorrow I plan on exchanging it for another color.

      Lips:  Okay, I went a little nutty on lip products, but hey, it's my birthday!  Plus, it's been forever since I bought myself anything lip product-wise other than chapstick.  I have been lusting after the Revlon lipgloss in "Kiss Me Coral" so once I saw it, I had to have it!  And of course, I couldn't just buy one!  I need multiple colors, duh!  

      The Maybelline Baby Lips was a birthday gift from Em (a giftcard AND Baby Lips - what have I done to deserve such a good friend??).  It's one of the new neon ones, in "Pink Shock".  Don't let the color frighten you; it's very sheer like the rest of the BL.  I actually ended up going out and buying the one in "Strike A Rose", I loved it that much!

       Rimmel Lip Lacquers kind of have a story behind them.  In England, where they were only available until about two weeks ago, they are called Apocalips.  They come in a variety of colors, from nudes to bright red.  When I left for my trip across the pond, Emily begged me to get her one because beauty gurus alway talk about them on YouTube.  I bought hers in "Luna" and I bought myself one in "Stellar".  Emily nearly exploded when she found them a few days ago at Walgreens under a different name, Show Off.  On the left is Show Off in "Aurora", while on the right you can see my Apocalips from England in "Stellar".  You can tell it's the same packaging and simply just a different name from one country to the other.

On the top is "Aurora", while the bottom color is "Stellar".  "Aurora" is definitely a more subdued pink/coral, whereas "Stellar" is a bright pink/red color.  

      NYX lipglosses remind me of my Aaron Carter/Backstreet Boys fangirl years.  They smell sickly sweet like Starburst candy and are somewhat sticky, yet I keep buying them because as I attempt to teach myself to like pink lip gloss, they are an affordable, well-pigmented option.  "Beige" (above) is a milky pink and "La-La" (below) is slightly more coral, with added shimmer.  I've found they last on my lips, but only because I don't mess with it to avoid the stickiness.  They are the thickest of the lip products I bought.

      Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Glosses are officially my favorite!  They're not sticky and while they are sheer, I like the little tint of color and gleam they add to my lips.  "Pango Peach" and "Kiss Me Coral" were the only two shades I picked up, but I will definitely be getting more soon!

     Judge me if you will, but I believe it's okay to indulge now and then, especially when it's your birthday!  Happy Wednesday!  More posts to come soon, I promise!