Sephora Favorites: Skin Wonderland

Today I'm back with another Sephora Favorites set exclusively from Sephora inside JCPenney.  If you guys can't tell, I'm a huge fan of these sephora favorites set that are more skincare related and have purchased several of these throughout the year.  I know Sephora put out a bunch of these favorites set throughout the year as well but for some reason, I'm just not that drawn to them.  Maybe it's the fact that they don't come with a makeup bag or the fact that they're a bit more on the pricey side.

This time around, the set was a bit more expensive at $39 but it came with 11 products + a makeup bag.  I believe I wanted the set for the mainly for the FAB cream, Fresh Sugar lip balm, Glam Glow mask, Kate Somerville Exfolikate, and Josie Maran whipped argan oil body butter.  But more on the products later.

I was kind of disappointed that the bag that came with this set isn't as cute as those of the previous sets.  I feel like they were going with the holiday theme-ish bag so we got this light gold bag that resembles a worn leather.  I wish it were a different design but I can't really complain.  

The products that were included in this set are:

• Algenist Complete Eye Renewal Balm (7 ml)
• Peter Thomas Roth Rose Stem Cell Bio Repair Mask (15 g)
• Boscia Detoxifying Black Cleanser (30 ml)
• Shiseido Ultimate Power Infusing Concentrate (15 ml)
• Marula Pure Beauty Oil Foaming Cleansing Oil (30 ml)
• Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment (2.2 g)
• First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream (1 oz)
• Glamglow Youthmud Tinglexfoliate Treatment (15 g)
• Ole Henriksen Truth Serum Collagen Booster (0.33 fl oz)
• Kate Somerville Skincare Exfolikate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment (15 ml)
• Josie Maran Cosmetics Whipped Argan Oil Body Butter in Apricot Vanilla (2 fl oz)

Like I've mentioned above, I really wanted the Fresh sugar lip treatment in this kit for some odd reason.  (Yes, I am aware that a full size of the lip treatment would have cost less than this kit but this kit comes with so many other products!)  As always, I went straight to Sephora inside JCPenney after I heard about the existence of this kit and took it home with me without a hesitation.  I swear these Sephora Favorites sets from SiJCP are my weakness!  Whenever I see a new one, especially the skincare related sets, I have to go and get it.  I think it's a great way to venture into the high end skincare products that Sephora has to offer.  

Did you manage to get this set?  If so, what products are you most excited about?

First Aid Beauty | Peace, Joy & Fab Set

Today I am here to tell you guys about an awesome set from First Aid Beauty that is currently available at Sephora!  The Peace, Joy & Fab is the holiday set from First Aid Beauty that is an amazing deal that include five products that are worth twice the value of the set!

I decided to split this set with my sister since she was running low on her Ultra Repair Cream and wanted the Facial Radiance Pads as well.  I love the Face Cleanser and is always up to try the mist and a new sleeping cream.  So this set was perfect for us to split.  

The set comes with:

• Vitamin Hydrating Mist (2.0 oz) $16
• Face Cleanser (2.0 oz) $10
• Facial Radiance Pads (28x) $15
• Ultra Repair Hydra-Firm Sleeping Cream (1.7 oz) $38
• Ultra Repair Cream (6 oz) $30

If you add up all the values of the products, it ends up being $109, which is half the price of the set ($54).  If you love First Aid Beauty products, I would recommend this set to you!  It is such a good deal to buy this set because all the products are essentially half of the price if you were planning to buy them individually.  I'm really excited to try out the mist and the sleeping mask but unfortunately I won't be getting around to them for a bit; my face has been breaking out from unconfirmed reasons and I don't want to introduce new products to it yet.

With Black Friday around the corner, is this one of the products that will be going home with you?

Collective Haul: September & October 2015

Today I am back with another collective (aka HUGE) haul.  I wanted to stress that this was the results of buying random things throughout the months of September and October.  I was on a spending ban for the month of August, and I will do a super late update on that coming up soon.  Anyways, these are the products I picked up the past two months.

Like my last collective haul, I will be breaking up the haul into different sections.  And as you will see later on in the post, I've been on a huge nail polish kick.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to post swatches up here soon!

Skincare products: 

• First Aid Beauty Face Cleanser
• First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream
• Pixi Glow Tonic Exfoliating Toner
• Nip + Fab Bee Sting Fix Lifting Mask
• Yest to Blueberries Face & Neck Oil
• Formula 10.0.6 Get Your Glow On Tightening Peel Off Mask

Body Products:

• Bath and Body Works French Lavender Honey Shower Gel
• Bath and Body Works Pink Chiffon Shower Gel
• Bath and Body Works Pink Chiffon Fragrance Mist

Lip products: 

• Sonia Kashuk Liquid Lipstick in Vintage Wine
• Sonia Kashuk Matte Lipstick in Crushed Petal
• Makeup Revolution lipstick in Rebel with Cause

Random: 

• Softlips Cube in Passion Fruit
• Maybelline Volum' Express Falsies Push Up Drama Mascara in Very Black

And now a crazy selection of nail polishes I've managed to get my little hands on... #sorrynotsorry

Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy: 

• Diamond Top Coat
• Ace of Spades

Orly: 

• Mirrorball

Chinaglaze: 

• Take a Hike
• Ruby Pumps
• Fairy Dust
• Sleeping Under the Stars

Sinful Colors: 

• Sinful Shine Top Coat
• Sinful Shine Haute Shine
• Rich in Heart
• Aubergine
• Ruby Gusten

Sooo... That was a pretty big haul, that's really heavy on nail polish.  For some odd reason I've really been on a nail polish kick and I like to buy nail polishes but I haven't found a good time to paint my nails.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to paint them soon and put swatches up!  (Especially of Orly's Mirrorball!).  And so far for the month of November, I've only purchased 5 things... and I hope it stays under 10...

What are some of the things you guys have purchased recently?

Empties | 2015 Vol. 2

This is a really belated empties post that was meant to go up sometime in September... and as we can all see, that never happened.  Anyways, the products in this post were used up during the months of May to August of this year and sadly I only used a few more items than I did in my previous empties post.  

Like usual, I've separated the items into different categories, starting off with packet products.

Packet products:

• Up&Up Cotton Rounds.  Purchased this at Target and it seems like a regular cotton rounds.  Nothing extraordinary, but goes on sale often at Target so it makes it really easy to stock up during the sales.
  Repurchase?  Bought multiple of these cotton rounds when it was on sale.  Might not repurchase after I finish using them, only because I want to try some from Korean brands.
• My Beauty Diary Strawberry Yogurt Mask.  This is one of my older sheet masks that I want to get through before they get bad.  The mask came with a lot of essence, which is nice, but I remembered the actual mask being really poorly fitted.  The piece between the nose and the mouth was really awkward and just didn't sit will on my face.  I don't remember if it did anything spectacular to my face since it's been a while.
  Repurchase?  Most likely to try again in the future if/when I get through my collection of sheet masks.
• Garnier Ultra-Lift Miracle Sleeping Cream.  I received this sample in my spring walmart beauty box.  The packet contained enough product for me to use at least three times, which was really nice.  It honestly seems like a regular cream that they just marketed as night cream.  I did like the thin texture of it and luckily my face did not break out from it!
  Repurchase?  Have already purchased the full size using the coupon that came with the sample.
• Simple Micellar Cleansing Water.  This was a wasted sample because I thought the sample would come in a small bottle that I could use multiple times instead of a tiny rectangular cloth soaked in the micellar water.  So it's safe to say I wasn't expecting the cloth so I ended up wasting that sample.
  Repurchase?  Purchased the full size using the coupon that came with the sample.

Lotions and moisturizers:

• Nivea Extended Moisture.  I believe this came in one of the first Target beauty bags ages ago, that actually came with a makeup bag!  I used to use it as a hand cream, which took forever to use up so ended up using it as a body moisturizer and it went by a lot faster!  My sister was not a fan of the scent but I didn't mind it.  It had a thin texture and soaked into the skin relatively fast.  I still have another one of these samples but in a different scent somewhere in my collection.
  Repurchase?  Most likely not
• Lubriderm Advanced Therapy Lotion.  Wrote about my thoughts in my previous empties post.  Still feels the same about the product.  I thought I used this up pretty fast since I had it next to me at work and applied it several times throughout the day.  I'm currently on my last tube of it and it's almost done!
  Repurchase?  Nah, there are other ones in the market that I want to try.
• Jergens BB Body Perfecting Skin Cream.  This is one of those Youtuber-made-me-buy-it products.  I heard Tati and several other youtubers raving about it so it was only logical for me to go out and purchase some for myself.  Yes, you read that correctly... purchased some.  Anyways, I did not see it perform any life changing tricks on my legs but it did a nice job at moisturizing them.
  Repurchase?  Already have several of them in my collection.
• Bath and Body Works Fresh Picked Hand Cream in Strawberry.  This is actually the same product I went through in my first ever empties post.  I decided to go back and squeeze every drop of product from that tube, and there was quite a bit of products left in there!  I wish Bath and Body Works didn't discontinue it though; I don't even know if they even sell this line of products anymore, but it is one of my favorite hand cream ever!
  Repurchase?  Definitely would in a heart beat if I ever see it again!

Body washes:

• The Body Shop Sweet Lemon Shower Gel.  This was an older Christmas gift I received several years ago that also included a loofa and a body lotion with it.  I've already used the loofa but haven't gone through the body lotion yet.  I don't know if it's the current loofa I'm using but I don't remember this shower gel lathering up that much.
  Repurchase?  Would not go out of my way to purchase shower gels from The Body Shop, but if I ever see them on sale, I might purchase them.  
• Bath and Body Works Georgia Peach & Sweet Tea Shower Gel.  This is one of BBW's summer scent and it's one of my favorite out of the collection.   It smells like Peach but not quite full on fruity peach.  I found that this shower gel lathered up so much better than the one from The Body Shop.
  Repurchase?  I have a collection of these travel size BBW shower gels to go through!

Miscellaneous products:

• Elf Brush.  This is the brush that came with Elf's cream liner.  The liner dried up ages ago and I've been using this brush to clean up my manicures.  It does a decent job but I didn't take care of it well so it started shedding and I decided to retire it and purchase another elf brush as a replacement.
  Repurchase?  I don't think I'll be purchasing the Elf cream liner just for the brush, but might purchase it to try it out in the future if I ever get into cream eyeliners.  
• Aussie 3 Minute Miracle.  This is probably my most used hair mask and it's the most affordable one too!  I really love how you only need 3 minutes for this compared to 5-15 minutes for other hair mask.  It's really convenient for me to just put it on and put my hair up into a bun while I wash the rest of my body.  And by the time I'm done washing the rest of my body, I can just rinse this out and be all done.
  Repurchase?  Already have and will buy more once I run out.

Face products:

• Garnier Clean+ Purifying Foam Cleanser.  This face was took forever to use up!  I thought the bottle was interesting because it seems like you would push down on the pump to get the product out, but you actually squeeze the body of the bottle.  It comes out as a foam and cleansed my face alright.  I don't think it left my face feeling dry, but I could be wrong since I finished this 5 months ago.
  Repurchase?  Most likely won't because I like to try out different products.  
• Nasarang Rose Balancing Toner.  I received this in my first ever memebox and I really enjoyed using this.  It felt like a very light moisturizer and absorbed into my skin relatively fast.  I don't remember the scent bothering me at all, so it must not have been a strong scent.  I remembered feeling sad when I finished using this product.
  Repurchase?  Most likely not but it was nice to use when I had it.
• Verikos Advanced Power Tightening Cream.  Another product I received in my first memebox!  This was a thicker product, kind of like a mixture of gel and cream and had a light lemony scent which I liked.  I don't think I observed any tightening properties but it was a nice cream to layer on top of my other skincare products.
  Repurchase?  Probably won't because I don't need anything with tightening properties yet and I like to try different things.

So, I'm quite embarrassed that I only used up 15 products from May to August.  It was a little bit more than the first four months of the year but it's still shameful.  I really don't know how many more products I'll be able to finish by the end of the year but I'm really embarrassed that I'll be using up less than 50 products for the year of 2015.  I'll definitely have the total count along with the next set of empties up either at the end of December or beginning of January.  And hopefully I'll be able to go through more products in 2016.

What are some of the products you've gone through recently?  Did it take longer than you had expected to go through those products?

Unboxing | Target Beauty Box October 2015

Another day, another unboxing.  This time it's the Target Beauty Box from October 2015!  (I'm only a few weeks late... right?)  

I wasn't planning on getting this box until I saw the content of the box.  This time around, the box was $10, instead of the usual $5 or $7, but it also came with 10 different products!  What made the box sweeter was that one of the product in there alone retail for almost $20 so that's definitely a good deal.... right?

I definitely love Target's black box and red tissue paper together!  The box also came with a card had a list of products inside, along with a $5 off coupon for $15 purchase, which I already used for something!  

This box came with:

• Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Suede Lipstick in Backstage
• Roc Retinol Correxion Deep Wrinkle Night Cream
• Hello Supermint Fluoride Toothpaste
• Skinfix Ultra Rich Body Butter
• Acure Organics Moroccan Argan Oil + Argan Stem Cell Triple Moisture Shampoo
• Acure Organics Moroccan Argan Oil + Argan Stem Cell Triple Moisture Conditioner
• CoverGirl Intensify Me Eye Liner in Intense Black
• Olly Undeniable Beauty Grapefruit Glam Vitamin Gummies
• Goody SlideProof Flat Elastics 
• S.W. Basics Exfoliant

The two products that had me interested in this box was the Skinfix body butter and the Roc product.  I believe they advertised a Roc eye cream but I received a deep wrinkle night cream instead.  I don't really have a use for the night cream right now but I might give it to my mom, who will get a better use out of it.  I'm really happy with the shade of the lipstick I received; it was a nice darker red shade, and not some crazy bright pink that I would never wear.

This box was a steal for me because I can see myself using every single one of these products, except for the night cream which will be going to my mom!  Did you end up getting this Target box as well?  Do you think Target will put out a possible Holiday themed box?