Very Small Haul - thebalm Balmsai Palette

I keep on forgetting that Kohls is carrying more high end makeup these days, and since I had $20 in their Kohls Cash and $15 in their "Yes 2 You Rewards" (which allows you to earn $5 back for every $100 you spend with no required spend amount per trip and in addition to the Kohls Cash with any payment method), I wound up having a pretty substantial sum to play with. I didn't feel like rooting around their store for the next bargain (a favorite pastime) so I asked if they had this new palette in stock, and they did! And it was brand new so it wasn't played with (an issue at my local Kohls). What palette you ask? TheBalm's Balmsai Palette which is a joint eyeshadow and brow palette with stencils. Not sure I'll use the stencils, but the colors deemed brow powders will make great neutral looks and unlike other palettes where the colors may work for brows, these were selected to work as brow shades. Plus, as with most thebalm products, the palette is super cute and slim and has just enough neutrals and brights to probably be what comes with me on my travels in the future.

For the record, the palette retails for $39.50, but with all my Kohls perks, I paid just about $5.

"We like our boys like we like our brows... in shape!" ohhhhhh thebalm.

The back shows and lists the colors

Inside you can see that it categorizes the shades. The first two rows are collectively called "in the buff (basics), the second two rows are called "mavericks (splash of color"), the fifth row is called "curve & angle (brows/shadows) and the last row is called "catch a wave (use wet or dry)".

Since I was feeling curious myself, I decided to swatch them. At first, I was going to do just a few but then I was feeling adventurous and well, forgive me for not being up on swatching as I was before I took my hiatus! These are all swatched dry with no base.

Starting at the top left is the first row, so Wipe Out (a matte, maybe leaning satin cream), High Tide (a shimmery cream - perfect inner corner highlight), and Hang 10 (more of a golden shimmer). Then I got a little excited and decided to swatch the whole thing. Below that is the second row Dream Boat which honestly was a bit disappointing - I was kind of hoping it would be a slightly cooler version of Hang 10, but it is slightly more bronzey and less pigmented; same disappointment with Sandbar which is a very sheer shimmery silver. Tubular impressed me more, it's a nice shimmery taupe.
Then jump to the upper right where I started swatching the Mavericks. Epic is a slightly cooler bronze shimmer, Surf's Up is a wearable greyish blue/teal and Big Kahuna is bright shimmery aqua with a bit of a yellowish green shift. The row below it is gorgeous. Kawabunga is a beautiful khaki green shimmer, Surfari is a purple shimmer with a bit of a pink shift which is more evident in the actual finger swatch than when swatched on the hand, and Pipeline is a darker truer blue shimmer (than say Surf's Up).
Then I ran out of space (oops!) but the last row starts with the brow powders which are all quite nice. Score is a warmer light brown (likely perfect for blondes), Dig It is a cool taupe (perhaps for most brunettes) and Woodie is a warmer brown (for the rest of the brunettes) Since all of these are matte, they could also serve as crease colors depending on the look you were going for. The only brow product that is missing is one that would be perfect for redheads that like to use very warm reddish tinted brow products.
Aside from one product in the last row, this is where the palette really shines for me, because it makes it complete. The first shade (which you can't see on my hand at all - sorry!) is Stoked which is pretty much MAC Beauty Marked. I own the MAC version and never use it, but it's basically a black with purple glitter. The glitter shows up on my hand, but not to the intensity it shows up in the pan, and though thebalm says you can use this row wet or dry, I'm hesitant as the pans are so small. But as I said, this is the row for me. It's because of the next two colors. The first, Ripper is a very pigmented matte dark brown and the last, Righteous is a very pigmented matte black.

Honestly, I haven't really had the chance to play with this palette much yet, but if my swatching is any indication, I am mostly impressed. I wish they had gotten rid of the second row entirely and either chosen more pigmented shimmers or added some other matte options and ditched the Beauty Marked dupe. But otherwise, you have neutral shimmers - an inner corner highlight, a brow highlight. You have a matte neutral shadow for all over the lid or blending or a brow highlight depending. There are some fun colored shadows that aren't crazy bold but definitely show up (and would probably be even brighter over a regular or colored base), there are brow colors (and crease shades) and then there's a decent deep brown and black. These days, I find that getting all of this in something that fits in a hand or travel bag is quite unusual, so as I mentioned, even though I haven't really played with these properly, I'm happy with my purchase.

Black Friday Promos

The internet has been a bit reluctant to work out here in the country side (but boy is it beautiful and peaceful) so I haven't been so successful with posting, but I thought I'd check in nonetheless. The household has gone to bed leaving me in post turkey nap alertness alone - well unless you count a orange kitty fuzzball to my left. Somehow the multitude of e-mailing regarding Black Friday sales have continued to come in even though other websites refuse to load so I'm going to share some.

Bloom (perhaps one of my favorite websites ever) isn't having a sale per say, but they are offering 40% back in Bloomdollars (regularly 10%) with every purchase now through Monday, November 28th. I may have already put in an order which says a lot consider the slow state of the internet and my utter lack of patience.

The Body Shop is also having a great Black Friday offer. Not only are they offering practically the entire store at 3 for $30 (including things like fragrance and skincare lines) but with a $30 or more purchase, you can buy the "mistletote" for $25 which contains quite a few additional full sized products. Use code FREEJOY for free shipping on your order if you have a Love Your Body card (you'll save $5.50 which will put you just under the free shipping mark). There's also JOY10 for 10% off your order, but I didn't use that one so I'm not certain it works. Now is definitely a time to try some of the more spendy skincare items or a fragrance or two which will normally set you back $24 or more dollars and rarely get that discounted otherwise.

Missha is offering 40% site wide as well as their infamous Perfect Cover BB Cream at a very sweet price of $8.99.

asos is offering an 20% off everything (including sale items) through Monday, November 28th with code HAPPYBLACKFRIDAY. I highly recommend you check out the beauty sale section here.

TheBalm is offering 40% everything on their site with code BLACKFRIDAY. This particular sale is only for 1 day and ends at 11:59 pm EST on the 25th.

INGLOT is offering 15% off online as well as free shipping. There doesn't appear to be a code and it should be good through Monday.

For even more options, Nouveau Cheap and Temptalia both have super comprehensive lists. Happy shopping!

Review: TheBalm Balms Away Eye Makeup Break-Up

There had been talk that quite a bit of The Balm products, or theBalm per the packaging, had made their way to TJmaxx. Well, given that I love a bargain, I took a look and managed to find theBalm Balms Away Eye Makeup Break-Up cleansing balm. I don't think I've ever used one of these softer-solid oil based cleansers to remove my makeup, but I know they are quite popular (Egyptian Magic, straight coconut oil and Albolene are ones I've heard of).

Who could resist the retro packaging, the cute reusable tin or the price? It looks like I missed the majority of theBalm items as this was was on clearance for $8 (regularly $20 at Sephora). Thankfully, I visited a TJmaxx that locks away all of their makeup and skincare items in clear boxes that can only be opened at the cash wrap so everything is pristine (this also comes sealed for those wondering).

But a deal isn't a good deal at all if the product doesn't work. While the texture of this is quite emollient and a bit strange for me after using the cooling gel/lotion texture of the Makeup Forever Sens'Eyes, I was pleasantly surprised that this took off my Makeup Forever Smokey Lash Aqua mascara (which is the true test for makeup removers). I applied a small dollop of the Balms Away, massaged into the eye area for the recommended time frame (30 seconds), took a slightly wet cotton round and held it over the eye and wiped away and everything looked gone. But the true test was I then took a q-tip and applied some of the Sens'Eyes, expecting that there would still be a bit of black on the white tip. Nope. Nothing more came off.

After removing the balm, my eye felt as though it had a bit of residue but in a pleasant way. It felt as though I had applied eye cream that sunk in. Honestly, my eyes would probably prefer if I switched to this remover as my skin breaks in the line under my eyes which feels like a paper cut and is very painful if I'm not careful. 

The packaging is absolutely adorable and even though the ingredient list doesn't have the most expensive ingredients (mineral oil is the first ingredient), the product is made in the US which gives me some assurance. Really, it's absolutely adorable and even if I don't repurchase as I prefer the texture and feeling of the MUFE, I'm definitely going to use this quite a bit this winter when I know my skin is going to crying for some much-needed moisture.