Dollar Tree Haul

Every so often, I pop into Dollar Tree to see if they have any makeup goodies to be had (though mostly all I find are either ELF products that are already a dollar or no-name brands I'm not interested in). This time, however, I hit the jackpot and I've heard others in different states finding similar items so get thee to your local Dollar Tree!

I go through bronzer at a glacial pace since I'm so fair, but I couldn't resist picking up one when I saw this! Physicians Formula Healthy Wear!

More Physicians Formula, if you can believe it! I wonder if other stores got different stock, but there was only one colorway at mine. This is the Shimmer Strips in Smoky Hazel Eyes #1150. You can still find this packaging at places like drugstore.com from $8.71 - $9.59!

I also found some Milani, but there wasn't a whole lot of variety and some of the items had been tampered with. I managed to find two that were still safely secured, a Shadow Eyez in Royal Purple and a lip liner in Rose Pink (I hope this works well with my Revlon lipstick).

 

In the nail arena, I found two packs of the Sally Hansen Salon Effects in unusually bright cheery spring colors #520 Spring Fever and #560 Tie-Dye For (usually it's neon greens or seasonal collections only- but these will actually be season appropriate soon - before they have dried out - both of the colors are on drugstore.com though on sale from their normal $9, so there's hope they haven't completely dried out!)

And finally, I found 1 lone pack of Essie nail appliques, for $1 of course! This color is still on beauty.com for $10.25!!

Have you seen any awesome Dollar Tree sightings lately?

Channeling Too Faced II

The next palette in the Dollar Tree Too Faced look a likes is this smoky eye palette and as all Dollar Tree items go, this was only $1!

This palette is my favorite of the two as there are a couple gorgeous taupey shades and this runs more cool than the Natural one.

One again, what appears to be silver shimmer is just overspray.

The shades in this palette are gorgeous! The formulation of the eyeshadows in this palette are slightly harder and less powdery but still very pigmented. These swatches were done (as usual) without a base.

The shades actually look better when swatched in my opinion than in the pan. We have a medium toned brown that borders slightly more bronzey with a bit of silver in it, a silvery taupe, a gorgeous dark olive green which looked nearly black in the pan, a dark black grey, a silver and a blackened taupe/brown. Gorgeous shades!

All in all, I'm really impressed by these though I haven't worn them on the eyes yet. Just from swatches them, I think the texture will work well and I don't tend to have a problem with eyeshadow not lasting on my normal to dry lids. I would pick these up if you see them, they are after all only a bucks!


Have you seen these at your local Dollar Tree?

Channeling Too Faced

I was in another part of town going to an allergy doctor (by the way apparently it is possible that I am not allergic to anything yet I have all the symptoms of allergies all year long - lucky me, right?). Anyway, this particular area has a Dollar Tree as well as a Big Lots, discount shopping heaven I tell you!

I obviously walked down the cosmetic aisle and found these.

Remind you of anything? How about these from Too Faced?

 

Something tells me the shades aren't exactly the same and I don't own the Too Faced palettes to compare (not withstanding the fact the palettes don't look the same at all, just the pictures used). However, for $1 a piece, I thought I'd at least give them a shot. The brand is called Almar and it looks like they produce a lot of off-brand products but I haven't heard of them before.

The palette includes 3 warmer shades (top) and 3 cooler shades (bottom), each looks like it is glitter city, but the silvery pigment is actually over spray.

You can kind of see the colors better after I swatched them.

In this palette we have a peachy coppery shade, a gold, a buttery yellow highlighting shade, a bronzey brown shade, a taupe and a slightly lighter bronzey brown shade. 

I'm actually really impressed with these. The shadows are buttery soft, highly pigmented and are a softer metallic (if that makes sense). All swatches were done without a base. My only complaint is they are a bit powdery but other than that definitely worth $1! I'll be swatching and posting the shades from the Smoky kit shortly.

Have you seen these at your local Dollar Tree?

The Case Of The (Missing) Polish Collector

If you're anything like me, you hate the idea of parting with your nail polishes, even if they may have icky chemicals in them but the thought of missing out on the Zoya nail polish promotion is equally as upsetting. So, therefore I bring you... *cue dramatic music* The Case Of The (Missing) Polish Collector!

Sorry, I'm dealing with an awful sinus infection and thus I probably make no sense. Either way, you all love me so you put up with my silliness.

Anyway, yesterday I went to The Dollar Tree and Big Lots. I don't usually go to Big Lots because it's not in the best area of town and I try not to go there after dark. Thanks to summer, I get a few more hours of sunlight in which to go bargain shopping. Anyway, while I'm not a fan of being wasteful (money and otherwise), I don't see how I could possibly part with many barely used polishes that I likely paid a pretty penny for (my initial plan was to use up - hahahaha so not happening - 6 polishes - the minimum - for the trade in). Nor do I generally like the idea of buying polishes solely to swap them out, but desperate times call for desperate measures people.

Enter my solution:

On the left we have a lovely set from Big Lots containing 4 polishes and an emery board from Markwins for $2 and on the right we have a 4 East Cosmetics french manicure set from Dollar Tree for $1. The first set comes out to $.50 per polish sans emery board and the Dollar Tree set comes out to $.33 per polish.

Here's the deal I gave myself. Before sending these off to be disposed of, I said I would give them a fair shot. If they were crap, fine. If not, I would keep them.

The set from Big Lots contained a rather unremarkable pale pink with shimmer, a red that nearly painted itself (opaque in nearly 1 coat - I used 2 for all these swatches), a silver that left bald spots while trying to add coats and a nice shimmer charcoal color. I'm tempted to keep both the red and charcoal. What do you think?

Note: I didn't swatch the clear
Wow, well these are definitely going to Zoya. Streaky messes, the lot of them. This was 3 coats for each. The white looks like I tried to paint glue on my nails, am I right?

If you're interested in these sets, the Big Lots had a bunch of these near their Mother's Day display (lots of bath stuff too).