I’m sharing my Sephora sale haul today! I bought a few things for my mom and then I finally purchased some products that have been on my wishlist for a few years.
Currently, I have Sephora VIB Rouge status, but I haven’t bought much makeup or skincare in the past two years, so my Rouge status will be downgraded next year. I decided to make some purchases with the 20% off while I still have it.
Charlotte Tilbury Darling Eyeshadow Palette | $72
I have been looking at eyeshadows for a while, this one was a bit of an impulse purchase, but the shades are so pretty. lately, I’ve been leaning toward warmer colours.
Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter in 2 – Fair | $53
I’ve had this on my wishlist for a long time. I hope it lives up to my expectations.
Hourglass Ambient Lighting Bronzer in Nude Bronze Light | $69
The bronzer came broken :/ I contacted customer service to get a re-shipment, so just waiting for the new one to come in. This has also been on my wishlist for a long time. It was sad to open it and see some powder on the outside of the packaging. I knew right away that it was probably broken.
MAC Cosmetics Mineralize Blush in Sweet Enough | $35
I bought this for my mom. She previously really loved the powder blush in Mocha, which I also bought. I thought she might like a baked blush more since she got hard pan quite often with the powder blush.
MAC Cosmetics Powder Blush in Mocha | $32
Sephora Collection PRO Powder Brush #50 | $45
I got this brush for my mom. She mentioned that her powder foundation was providing more coverage than she wanted. She prefers a more sheer coverage. Right now, she’s using a denser brush, so I thought a slightly fluffier one might do the trick.
Sephora Collection PRO Highlight Brush #98 | $40
I have a Sephora PRO powder brush and it’s one of the softest brushes I own. I currently have a highlight fan brush from Winners. I thought it was time to get one that had a name brand.
Today, I’m going to be taking a look at my expenses from last year. So, it’s going to get a little analytical and I have pie charts!! Earlier THIS year, I went through my receipts and I started an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my beauty purchases.
As you may have read before, I have an allowance of $25/month to spend on products to review for my blog. This allowance started this year. I didn’t really have an allowance last year. I think it’s a reasonable amount since I can buy 2-3, maybe even 4 products from the drugstore. I prefer doing drugstore products because it’s more accessible (financially) for everyone. The higher end products that I have reviewed are mostly products that I wanted to try myself, i.e. Lancome Skin Feels Good Foundation, Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation stick, etc.
With my receipts and some guessing, I logged all of my makeup, skincare and hair purchases from last year and this year. For some products, I just rounded up to the nearest 0 or 5. So, my total 2017 expense could be lower than what I actually recorded.
In the excel sheet, I am only including makeup, makeup tools (brushes, sponges), skincare for my face and extra hair products (like masks and styling sprays).
I did NOT include things like soap, body wash, toothpaste, mouthwash, body cream, cost for hair cuts, eyebrow waxing, manicures, etc. I didn’t include essentials like bathroom essentials because those are necessary for good hygiene. I didn’t include things like hair cuts, waxing or manicures because I don’t do them often enough to need to track them. For hair cuts, I get one once a year (if that) and I haven’t gotten a manicure since last year for my sister’s wedding reception in Toronto because I mostly get my nails done for special occasions only.
In 2017, I spent a little over $1900 on makeup items and skincare. I am going to round it up to $2000 because there could be products I missed in my tracker or maybe I underestimated a price of something.
I’m pretty proud that I haven’t spent that much on a single item. My most expensive individual items are about $50. My 6 most expensive purchases were:
Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Invisible Cover Foundation Kit – around $80
You receive the foundation, primer and a foundation brush
Foundation retails for $52
Tory Burch Eau de Parfum kit (had a full-sized perfume, a mini perfume and a bottle of hand cream) – $80 (at MAC Warehouse Sale)
Sephora Brush Kit (3 brushes) – $60
Laneige Water Bank Serum – $46
I gave it to my sister, because my skin reacted to it
Make Up For Ever Step 1 Equalizer Primer (Redness Correcting) – $45
Tarte Bronze & Glow Double-Ended Contour Brush – $41
I have no idea why I paid full price for this when I could’ve waited for a sale!!
I was going to do my top 5 most expensive items, but I wanted to add the Tarte brush to mention how dumb it was to pay full price for a brush.
I split up the costs to see how much was spent on makeup and how much spent on skincare.
I spent about $450 on skincare, $250 on makeup tools (brushes, sponges, makeup wipes), which means I spent about $1300 on makeup. If you’ve read my MAC Warehouse Sale haul, you’ll know I spent almost $400 in September and then I went again in December and spent about $200, I think. So, almost half of my makeup expenses were from the MAC Warehouse Sale. I’ve decluttered quite a few of the products I bought at the sale because I just went so crazy buying lipsticks and I came home and realized the shades weren’t the same as when I swatched them. I’ve learned my lesson since then…the swatches will look very different from the actual shade because it’s hot in the warehouse and tons of people are touching them. Most of the shades looked more sheer when I swatched them. I bought a lot of shades that were too coral for me. Luckily, I could Back to MAC the lipstick tubes to get a full sized one (after returning 6 empties).
I bought 135 items in 2017. Only 29 of those purchases were (21%) planned purchases. After seeing this, I was shocked. When I say ‘planned purchases,’ I mean it was something I had wanted for a while and actually read reviews on it. That means the other 79% of my purchases were impulse buys where I was at the drugstore/Winners/MAC Warehouse Sale and decided, “I’m going to get this.”
Here’s a breakdown of where I bought the products:
It’s really interesting and eye-opening to track your beauty purchases. I know I can definitely cut down on the impulse buys. The makeup goals I set for myself have helped me a lot. When I was adding things to my cart for the Sephora sales, I went through and reviewed the products asking myself, “Do I really need this?” and “Let’s check out the reviews for this.”
Today, I will be comparing two different brands of oval brushes: Simple Glam Girls and iBeauty (that I bought from Winners). Oval brushes are the brushes that resemble toothbrushes, made popular by the Artis brushes. I’ve never tried an Artis brush so I can’t compare the quality of the Simple Glam Girls and iBeauty brushes.
I’m going to start by saying that I prefer damp beauty sponges to apply my foundation and concealer, even though sponges absorb a lot more product than a brush. Comparing oval brushes to regular brushes, I feel like it’s harder to clean them because the bristles are packed so tightly.
Lush Rose Gold Oval Brushes (set of 10)
10 high-quality oval shaped brushes made with grade “A” synthetic nylon hair.
Contoured oval shaped brushes with different sizes allow you to blend makeup onto any part of your face effortlessly.
Rose gold neck handle & a firm & anti-slip holder for that extra hold when applying makeup
iBeauty Oval Makeup Brushes (set of 3)
Very easy and comfortable to use for putting on your daily makeup
Used for: contour/setting powder, contour/blush, & concealer
Gives a flawless air-brushed finish of all types of skin makeup formulas
I have 3 brushes that are similar to the ones in the link, but they are slightly different (same sizes though). Even though it says it can be used for setting powder, I wouldn’t use an oval brush to set my makeup because it would blend out all the foundation and concealer I just applied. A fluffy brush is best to set your face.
Both sets of brushes are very soft. The Simple Glam Girls brushes are packed more tightly than the iBeauty ones and therefore less streaky. You can tell from the picture above, the top brush is the iBeauty one and the bottom is Simple Glam Girls.
For the swatches, I used liquid foundation and a powder bronzer, the top swatches are the iBeauty oval brushes and the bottom ones are Simple Glam Girls brushes. The liquid foundation swatches look similar (although the iBeauty brushe absorbed a lot more of the liquid). For the powder bronzer swatches, you can tell the top swatch is a bit more patchy and uneven. The smallest oval brush in the iBeauty set is a bit thicker than the Simple Glam Girls brush so it gave a thicker swatch.
Since the iBeauty ones aren’t packed as tightly, it absorbs more of the liquid foundation and when you clean the brushes, it takes longer to clean them. When I run my finger along the brushes when they’re wet from cleaning, the Simple Glam Girls brushes’ bristles spring back into place, whereas the iBeauty brushes’ bristles clump together. The neck of the brushes is also sturdier on Simple Glam Girls brushes. The iBeauty ones, the neck of the brushes bends really easily. The oval brushes are so soft, I can’t wait to try the Unicorn or Perfect 10 brushes from Simple Glam Girls.
WINNER: Simple Glam Girls Lush Rose Gold Oval Brushes
The iBeauty brushes do a decent enough job, I think they are better with powdered products (like for contouring) since it absorbs so much liquid.
Have you tried oval brushes? What are your thoughts?
Love,
*I received the Simple Glam Girls brushes for free (just paid shipping) as part of their ambassador program, but I was not paid to write a review of any sort nor do I receive any commission if you use the discount code.
