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?

Quick & Dirty Green Smoky Eye

After buying the palettes from Dollar Tree I featured previously, I played around with them a bit and I did an eye look with a couple of the shades from the Smoky Eye palette. These went on easily but had to be built up a bit to achieve maximum color payoff after blending. I only used UDPP as a base and I'd bet they'd be even more vibrant over a black base. This look isn't perfect. I didn't blend the edges since it was just a quick look that I quickly removed after (and I only did one eye!).

Aside from the palette I used UDPP, and a little Clinique Black Diamond Creamshaper in the waterline and Maybelline Lash Stiletto Voluptuous which I think is on its last leg. Sigh. Guess I need to throw this one away and open a new mascara.

I used the darkened taupe shade all over the lid and a little into the crease and took the green shade in the outer V and a little under the eyes as well. I applied the cream shaper on my waterline, curled my lashes and applied mascara and was done. This was really quick and simple and only took a couple minutes.

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?

Taupe Eye Look

I stupidly left the house today as we were nearly out of bread. Once again, I didn't learn that the week before Christmas everyone is out and stores are a disaster.

I used the taupe x-ed color from the Natural Eye palette, NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Iced Mocha as a base and some black mascara (recently opened up Revlon's Beyond Natural mascara and I quite like it!). Oh and I stuck a tiny bit of Clinique's kohl pencil in blackened taupe in the waterline but this was super easy. The rest of the face was nothing special, ELF TM and a little MAC Speed Dial pressed into the lips and Studio Fix powder to set.

How's everyone's Sunday? I just confirmed that I have jury duty tomorrow which from the stories I've heard, will prove to be either extremely boring or far too interesting and potentially disturbing. Fantastic.

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?

Review: Cover Girl Lash Exact

Oh Dollar Dollar Tree
Do have you a deal for me?
I've been good and you'll agree
Bet you have some pretties.

Wow, I'm apparently the biggest dork in the world because randomly, I'll start thinking of a song or jingle about quite random stuff. It amuses my husband but not sure how it'll go over here. Anyway, I'm sure by now you've figured out what this post is about.

I try to stop by at least 1 of the maybe 5 or so Dollar Trees or dollar stores around me a week. They usually get new stock on a weekly basis and you never know what you might find. In this case, I almost couldn't believe it when I encountered probably 40 tubes of Lash Exact mascara.

A side note: I'm well aware that the stock carried in dollar stores might be old. I'm willing to risk the $1 plus tax to try them out for myself and usually I stick to buying nail polish, which can be easily thinned out. 

Back to the fun stuff. I was so excited, I didn't really read the packaging and grabbed a few tubes for myself. I've never tried Lash Exact but I've heard fairly decent things about it and in the worst case scenario I'm out a couple of dollars and still about half the price that I'd be out at a regular drugstore.

 

Even though packaging can make me spend more money than I really should on other products, I tend to keep it simple with mascara. I generally only buy drugstore mascara and I really don't have a HG (holy grail) product. I use what's on sale. I do enjoy the simple, yet sturdy and lovely purple tube that Lash Exact comes in and I do really like the rubber brush. While I found Maybelline's Define a Lash (green tube) rubber brush a bit too floppy (it bended as it combed through the lashes which didn't yield me the most control), this one is pretty firm. It gives you quite a bit of control as you brush the mascara through your lashes and it does a great job of separating them while still giving them a bit of volume.

I was really pleased with the way this performed. Even though it's not marketed as a waterproof formula, for the week I've worn it, it didn't flake on me even when worn for upwards of 10 hours. I didn't get raccoon eyes even though my eyes are prone to watering thanks to allergies or the cold. I was quite pleased with the dollar or so I spent.

It also came off easily with makeup remover and I didn't wind up with little smudges of mascara around the base of my lash line the next morning (I sometimes have this problem with other waterproof mascara no matter what remover I use!).

Anyway, everything was great. I didn't even bat an eye(lash) when the cotton square I used to remove it was blue.

Then I looked at the wand.

Oh, I exclaimed! The wand just must be blue (after I had noted the wand was black when I first opened up the packaging - the wand comes separate from the mascara). 

Ok, well, in my excitement, I didn't realize that Dollar Tree had about 40 tubes of BLUE Lash Exact. Probably overstock that doesn't sell quite well from a drugstore. Or maybe Cover Girl has discontinued the color.

Not as though I'm complaining. It turns to a deep navy when it dries and you can barely tell it's blue (it's not electric blue or anything) and navy brings out my brown eyes. 

So even though I didn't realize what color I was actually wearing until 5 days into wearing this mascara, I'm still quite happy with it and would repurchase. Though next time I'll read the packaging a bit more carefully.