Vacation Beauty Haul, Part 1

First of all, I want to apologize for disappearing for over a month. I hate using the excuse of being busy and blah blah blah, but between hell breaking loose at work (we did major layoffs last month) and stepping up the wedding planning, my brain has been too scattered to blog. Anyways, I’m really hoping to get back into a regular blogging routine.

Part of the reason why I disappeared was because I went on vacation this month to Toronto and Montreal – more on our wonderful trip in a separate blog! Today is all about the hauling I did while I was there. I was very happy with what I bought (except for two items which I will be talking about), and I feel like I didn’t go TOO crazy. With that being said, I still had to separate my haul into two separate posts, otherwise this post would be way too wordy. My makeup low-buy budget was $40.68, and ahem, I may have blown that budget a little. And by a little, I mean a lot.

My main focus on this trip in terms of buying makeup was to only get things that I couldn’t get in Calgary – it doesn’t make sense to buy something I can get at home when the tax rate in Ontario is 13%, versus 5% in Alberta! The stores I was most excited to hit up were H&M’s Beauty section, Muji, and NYX (which is now sold at Shoppers Drug Mart, but the selection is small and the shelves are always half empty), as well as The Bay for their Beauty Underground section.

On the second day of our time in Toronto, I met up with Stashmatters, who is just as lovely in real life as she is online! It was my first time meeting up with someone from the blogging world, and I thought it would be nervewracking, but Stashy is so animated and personable that it’s impossible to be nervous. She was kind enough to take me around the Eaton Centre as well as the surrounding area for some beauty shopping (of course). A quick disclaimer: many of my purchases were influenced by things that she has hauled in the past, because let’s face it, she has great taste!

Surratt Artistique Blush in La Vie en Rose

We met up outside of Sephora (because where else would two beauty lovers meet?) The Sephora stores in Calgary don’t carry Surratt, and it’s a brand I’ve heard so much about and wanted to see their products in real life.I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to buy any of their products because they are a bit pricey, but knowing that I wouldn’t have access to see it again in person, I couldn’t resist. I ended up getting a blush in the shade La Vie en Rose ($35), which is a shade that Stashy hauled back in January. It’s a beautiful neutral warm rosey shade with slight shimmer, and surprisingly I don’t already own anything similar!

Rock Oyster, Foiled Again, Intergalactic, Cinnamon Spark, and Cashmere

H&M Eye Shadow in Shiitake

 

Our second stop was at H&M Beauty. I already did my research of what I generally wanted, so I had a game plan going in: I was going to get the nail polishes in Cashmere (another shade that Stashy bought earlier in the year), Cinnamon Spark, and Intergalactic (which I also peer-pressured Stashy to buy…hehe). They were having a BOGO 50% off sale, so I also picked up an eye shadow in the shade Shiitake. I like to mull over products before I buy them, so I always have to do at least two visits – the first to see the selection, and the second to actually buy. This is why I went back a few days later to get two more polishes: Rock Oyster and Foiled Again. I was close to buying more eye shadows (they’re soooo beautiful!) but I had enough self-control to stop myself because I had already purchased enough shadows (more on that below) AND because I find that I don’t often reach for single shadows. The total spent at H&M was $32.44.

 

The third store we visited was Muji. The two main items I wanted to get here was the Cleansing Oil ($6.50), which Stashy says performs comparably to the MAC Cleanse Off Oil (my HG makeup remover) but for a fraction of the price, as well as the bleached cotton puffs, which I’m hoping are a dupe for the Shiseido cotton pads ($3.50). I did buy both items, although I only bought the travel size of the Cleansing Oil and not the full size, otherwise I would’ve had to check in my suitcase at the airport. The cotton pads look a little worse for wear because they were squeezed into whatever corner of my luggage I could fit them in! I also wanted to go home with a bunch of storage units, but I would have needed to buy another suitcase in order to do that! 😦 Honestly, I really am interested in some of their storage units, but they are more expensive online AND I’d have to pay for shipping! So not impressed by that.

That is it for now! Now that I’m done with this post, I’m so excited to go and swatch all of these products. I had to have self-control and hold off on swatching everything until I took pictures, and it was a serious struggle.

The total spent in my Haulage Part 1 was $77.44. Already blew my budget in the first few days of the trip…whoops! Stay tuned for Part 2!