Collective Haul | January 2015

Sooo, I tried to put myself on a low buy for the month of January and I have to say, I failed miserably.  I thought I was doing fine, until I put all the products I bought together and realized I purchased a lot more than I had planned.  I will say a lot of the products I purchased were either on sale, or I had coupons for them, but that's just me trying to justify my shopping addiction.

(PS: I already failed my spending ban I put on myself for this month.  Darn you Sephora!  Let's hope there'll be no more slip ups for the rest of the month!  Only 23 more days to go!)

So here are the products I ended up hoarding in the month of January.

I've kind of organized everything into categories.  One thing I've noticed is that I tend to buy things in twos, especially lip products.  Anyways, let's jump into my new lip products.

Too Faced La Creme lipstick in Bumbleberry

Jack Black lip balm in Natural Mint

Wet 'N Wild Silk Finish lipstick in Hot Red

Wet 'N Wild MegaLast Lip Colo in Stoplight Red

Rimmel Provocalips in Make Your Move

Almay Smart Shade Butter Kiss in Berry-Medium and Red-Medium

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Monte Carlo

Maybelline Baby Lips in Melon Mania and Coral Crush

Garnier Fructis Damage Eraser

L'oreal Total Repair 5 Multi-Restorative Dry Oil

Pantene Pro-V Dry Shampoo

Garnier Fructis Full & Plush Root Amp Root Lifting Spray Mousse

Maybelline Fit Me powder in Translucent

Garnier + Clean Balancing Daily Exfoliator

Maybelline Lash Sensational mascara in Very Black

Hopefully this will be one of my bigger hauls for the year.  I believe I purchased everything on sale or with a coupon.  I think I should also put a disclaimer that these were not purchased in one huge shopping haul; they just slowly accumulated throughout the month of January.

Have you tried any of these before?  If so, what did you think of them?  Also, did you pick up anything new recently as well?

Collective Haul: October 2014

So, this post is about a week late because I wanted to have this up as the last post of October.  But life got to me.  Anyways, let's see what products I hauled during October.

Unfortunately I didn't keep my receipts organized so I don't really have the prices of these items anymore... actually I do but I'm just too lazy to go dig through my pile of receipts.  I've also grouped them into different categories.

Face Products:

• St. Ives Oatmeal Facial Scrub.  I'm currently using this and I love it.  Bought this for a backup since I had some St. Ives coupons.  Love it and would recommend it to everyone.
• St. Ives Green Tea Scrub.  I used this as a daily scrub a few years ago but it broke me out like crazy.  Since then I haven't really used scrubs but I'm more educated now and I know not to scrub my face everyday.
• Maybelline Dream Pure BB Cream.  Bought this because it was 40% off at Rite Aid.  Lame reason, I know.
• Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser.  I've always wanted to use this but was afraid if I purchased the big size, I wouldn't end up liking it.  Now this small size is such a great way to test it out!

Hair Products:

• Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine Moroccan Sleek Oil Treatment.  Currently using it and I like it.  It was on sale at CVS so I purchased a back up of it.
• Lush No Drought dry shampoo.  This is the first item I purchased/tried from Lush.  So far I'm liking it.  I will most likely blog about my experience in the Lush store, along with a review of this in the future.
• Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine Anti-Frizz Serum.  On sale at CVS, and I've been wanting to try it for a while to compare it with the oil treatment.

Nail Products:

• Wet 'N Wild Megalast polishes in So Berry On Trend & Distressed to Impress.  It was on sale and I really like that berry shade.  I'm currently obsessed with anything berry!

Skincare Product:

• Yes to Coconut Hydrate & Restore Head-to-Toe Restoring Balm.  Saw a review on nouveaucheap's blog a while back and I've been on the lookout since then.  Finally found it at Bed, Bath and Beyond!  It works wonders on my cuticles!

Lip Products:

• Vaseline Rosy Lip lip therapy.  Purchased it on a whim.... It's an interesting texture!
• NYC City Proof Twistable Intense Lip Color in Gramercy Park Plum.  The result of 40% off sales.  And its plum/berry shade!
• Neutrogena MoistureSmooth color stick in Rich Raisin.  Another result of 40% off.  And also emilynoel83 raved about this shade over and over again so I've been wanting to try it out.
• L'oreal Glossy Balm in Petite Plum.  I'm sure you've noticed a trend. 40% off and plum/berry shade!
• Palmer's Lip Butter in Sheer Berry Tint.  Impulse purchase.  Saw it, and was curious about it.  Not a big fan of it the two times I've tried it so far... :(

Eye Products:

• L'oreal Voluminous Butterfly Intenza.  I LOVE the original butterfly mascara so I was excited about this... I purchased two because Walgreen was having a BOGO50% sale... Those darn sales!
• Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze.  I've been wanting to wear a wash of color on my eyelid and I've heard everyone and their mothers rave about this.

What are some of the things you have been buying lately?  Also, have you tried any of the products I've purchased?

Monthly Mission - September 2014

Happy September!  Holy cow, three quarters of the year already passed by and the holiday season is just around the corner!  Each month I want to start having five little monthly goals/missions that I want to work on, along with five products that I want to focus on using.  I figured this would be a good way to improve myself each month and a good way to incorporate something new into my daily routine.

So without further blabbering, here are my five missions for September 2014:

1. 30 Day Challenge.  More specifically, 30 day abs challenge.  I started something like this back in April but I didn't finish all 30 days.  I believe back then I got up to day 24 or something and I stopped.  Recently, I've been feeling a bit bloated, and I've noticed that my eating habits have changed (I've been eating out a lot more and eating random junk food in-between meals). I really want to tone my abs area, and if I get abs, that'll be a bonus!  I'll be combining two different challenges (abs challenge & beach body challenge) since I noticed that when I did the abs challenge by itself, I did not see any sort of results until after 20+ days.  This time, I am hoping that by combining these two I'll get to see the results faster, making the challenges a bit more rewarding.
2. Read one book a month.  I really enjoy reading but lately I've noticed that I haven't made time to sit down and open a book.  Recently, I started listening to various audiobooks and I found that it is a lot easier to just listen to audiobook as I'm going about my day rather than finding time to sit down and read.  This month I want to make some time to read a physical book along with listening to different audiobooks.
3. Take vitamins daily.  I have a bad habit of not taking vitamins daily.  I think it is starting to affect me because I feel like I don't have enough energy to carry me through my whole day.  I have the pack of gummy multi-vitamins from Costco and I haven't really touched it in a long time.  Hopefully this will start a habit of taking daily vitamins for the rest of my life (or is it a wishful thinking..?)
4. Make lists and schedules.  I think I have a lot of random thoughts in my head and I need to dump it all out somewhere.  I've read somewhere that some people take certain amount of time in their days and have a little brain dump session.  I think that can be beneficial to me to get everything on paper so that I'm not constantly afraid of forgetting to do something or forgetting some new ideas.
5. Blog schedule.  I want to into the habit of incorporating blogging into my routine.  And in order to do that, I really need to start setting strict schedule to myself and start planning ahead of time for me to achieve what I want to achieve with this blog.  Hopefully this month will allow me to get into the swing of things.

And now the five products I want to focus on this month:

1. Clean & Clear Moisturizer.  I've had this moisturizer for a while now and I need to start using this more now that I finished using up my Garnier gel moisturizer.  
2. L'oreal Lash Out Mascara.  This was so hyped up when it first came out a few months ago and I totally jumped on the bandwagon and fell in love with this mascara!  It is definitely my favorite mascara I've tried so far and I want to use this up so I can try some other ones I've purchased recently.  (plus, I have a few backup that I got a while back)
3. Elf Liquid Lipstick in Perfect Pink.  When I first bought this shade, I was a bit scared that the pink would be too blue based for my skin tone but I was decently surprised to find that I like how it looks on me.  The formula is a bit sticky but it does leave a nice sheer tint on my lips.  I don't think it's pigmented enough to be called a liquid lipstick but it is a decent lip gloss for $1.
4. EOS Lip Balm in Strawberry Sorbet.  This lip balm just won't quit!  I've been trying to use this up for the past several months and I can't wait to use it all up!  I don't remember taking this long with my first EOS lip balm but I am slowly getting through it.
5. Jergen BB Body Cream.  Another item that was hyped up in the beauty world, and I fell victim to the bandwagon.  I will say it has a nice scent to it and it does leave my legs nice and soft.  I don't think it leaves my legs looking magical but it does make a good daily moisturizer for my legs.

So these are my goals/mission for the month of September.  I hope to accomplish these and make these into habits to help me with my every day life.  

Sooo, what are some of your goals for this month and how do you plan to accomplish them?