was it a steal at stila?

the stila sample sale waaaaassss....fruitful. i guess after standing in line for almost 2 hours, you HAVE to pick up something, don't you think? smh. oh man! the line inched really slowly and it felt like waiting for a bus that you have NO IDEA when it would actually arrive, so you wait and wait worried that if you give up and leave that it will magically show up just as you turned the corner. yup, that's my long version of saying we waited so long, we HAD to be "all in."

here's some "while we waited in line scenes" which was quite interesting since it was held at our local roller derby training facility. can you spot "ghetto stilleto" or "gori spelling?" muhahaha.

.....and back to the sale. needless to say, organized mayhem. lots of full boxes held by folks stocking up. perhaps to be given as gifts, to be resold at another venue, cuz their mugs be needing it? there was everything you can think of, eye shadows, blushes, foundation, eyeliners, brushes, etc....but you really don't need all that, right?

i went a little crazy, but not THAT CRAZY. a lion's share of the budget went to buying gifts. it's the little make up pouch and set of lip glosses you see on your left. i'm giving them away as a christmas set. for myself, i purchased the products on the right: lip gloss set, glitter eyeliner (yes, i am way too old for that), liquid liner, eyeliner, mascara, a small bottle of foundation, an eyeshadow brush (not pictured), and some lip liners. if they rock, i will blog about it. till then peeps, have a super wonderful, safe, and beautimous holiday!!

totally tokidoki

i first noticed tokidoki during their collaboration with lesportsac. they designed a ton of these bags which became crazy popular. i personally wasn't a huge fan because the bags looked too busy but i can see why people were enamored by it. if you look closely, the characters are pretty cute and the colors are vibrant.

even though tokidoki means "sometimes" in japanese, an interesting fact about this brand is that the artist is italian and the brand developers are american...nothing about tokidoki is japanese except for the name and the inspiration behind it. they sure fooled us with that one now didn't they?

other than the bags, i also began seeing tokidoki makeup and makeup accessories at sephora. i always steered clear from them because i thought it was pricey and "kiddish." but apparently, sephora will be parting ways with them and is currently having a huge sale right now to get rid of inventory. if you slash their prices, i'm gonna totally be all up on tokidoki's grill. here's a few things i picked up at sephora before the items go poof.

makeup bag. i really don't need another one, but this was so cute and in purple too! i am such a whore for cute packaging. the front of the makeup bag is clear with passport stamps printed on it. there's also cute details like that heart skull and crossbones and the zipper.

the back of bag is solid white with lots of colorful characters.

i also picked up trio of glosses. again, the packaging was cute. you slide the glosses up to get access to them, but the gloss itself is ok at best. sticky and gloopy. not the best quality gloss out there, but for a sale item, oki toki. i got the ones in "pink" and i'm determined to use them.

fyi, after a quick convo with a sephora employee, i learned that their makeup wasn't profitable enough for sephora to continue to carry in their stores because their make up quality is just "ok." most people buy tokidoki for their design and not necessarily for the quality of their makeup. after swatching their makeup and using this gloss, i totally get her point.

i really, really wanted these brushes though. totally not practical because of the big headed figurines on the top and no support for the synthetic brush tips at the bottom but i got them anyway because they were cute and on sale. the packaging here totally rocks. super duper cute!

there's a few more tokidoki items still left on the sephora website if you are interested. i also think the brush set and the bag is available so if you want to grab them at their sale price before they go, i say do it now!

ballz to the face

on any given day at my work, i look pretty worn out and bleh. some might say i have a hobo-esque quality to my outfits cuz i'm not much of a "dress up for work" kinda gal. i prefer using the few extra minutes in the morning with my dogs or to slam down that snooze button on my alarm clock JUST-ONE-LAST-TIME. looking runway ready is the LAST thing on my mind. besides, my line of work and the way i work requires comfy clothes, a pony tail, and a lot of coffee...make up and all that jazz just don't work for me when i work. besides, i wouldn't know what to do with my face anyways.

but recently, i found myself in a "make up for beginners" class taught by my engagement/wedding make up artist. i really wanted to support her cuz she's so good. besides, WHY NOT?!?! at my ripe old age of eighteen :0 , i really wanted to learn how to apply more stuff on my face than just eyeliner and lipstick. anyways, the class was super informative and highly inspirational. soon afterwards, i began jocking beauty products like an obsessed freak. OBSESSED.

the first product i started obsessing about was guerlain's meteorites. there are three shades and i bought the medium one, the teint beige. i felt an unexplainable attraction to their ballz.

[informational blurb] guerlain is a french perfume house that was founded in 1828 and was recently acquired by LVMH (aka louis vuitton moet hennessy, a luxury goods monster company that controls a lot of name brands out there like louis vuitton, marc jacobs, fendi, SEPHORA, etc...). it is a rather respected perfume and make up brand because of its long history and reputation.

beautiful, beautiful packaging. the thin embossed tin container is so freaking cute! i swear i thought about it for weeks and weeks before i ended up getting it since it was rather expensive and not quite justifiable for a makeup newb. but i loved that container and those dang ballz so much.....

anyways, people use these meteorites in different ways. some use it as a highlighter, some as an all over face powder which is how i prefer to use it. i just get a super fluffy powder brush and swish it around these ballz and then brush the powder over my face after my foundation. there's a slight glowy effect and if i stare into my 10x magnifying mirror, i can see a bit of shimmer. do i look magically gorgeous? no. but it sure is fun to swish that powder brush!

[informational blurb] each ball serves a purpose to cancel out discoloration in skin tone, reflect light, or add warmth. personally, i just love the floral scent, kinda like hugging an old white grandma.

so was the price justifiable? hmmm, probably not. but i like it and there are no retail regrets with this one.