A little mall hopping and a little haul loving

Last week, I was saying how I wouldn't be able to go shopping until mid-December because I'll be hibernating in the library to study for my finals starting this week. Plus I thought I was done shopping after
Black Friday sales. But nope, I was wrong! I started receiving SO many DEALS, COUPONS, FLYERS, GIFT OFFERS with purchases, etc... all advertising MORE sales! What was a girl to do?? With my finals ending on December 21, I wouldn't be able to take advantage of these deals anymore. I figured, it was now or never right?! So off I went to the mall... to check out some of the sales! This is the result of the damage...

I received this from Sephora in my e-mail the other day.

They were offering a $15 discount on a $35 purchase.

My mini haul from Sephora.
I took the chance to pick up some products from
Make Up For Ever that I've been eyeing.
I was also given samples of the MUFE HD Foundation
in two different shades to try out.


Now for the actual purchases, I got...

Make Up For Ever
HD Microfinish Powder.

Finally able to get my hands on this.

I have been using one of my favourites,
MAC's Prep + Prime
Transparent Finishing Powder
for the longest time but was finally reaching the bottom. So I decided I would try the MUFE HD Powder next as everyone has been raving about it. MAC Prep + Prime Transparent Finishing Powder retails for $25 CAD at MAC Pro stores and comes in an 0.28oz jar while MUFE HD Microfinish Powder sells for $34 CAD at Sephora and comes in a 0.35oz jar. For just slightly more product, you're paying a lot more for the MUFE HD Microfinish Powder. However, if it works as well as everyone says, then it would make it worth the price. I liked MAC's Prep + Prime as it did a good job at oil control and gave me a beautiful finish in photos, never making me look chalky/white as other powders may. But it did make my skin look sorta flat/dull sometimes. I'm excited to start using the MUFE HD Microfinish Powder and test how well this powder holds up on my oily skin and see what this "HD Microfinish" is all about! :)

Next, I picked up the
MUFE Smoky Lash Mascara.
It is advertised as "a mascara that gives the lashes curl, volume, length, and intense pigment."

What the wand looks like.
My first impression of this was its familiar shape. The wand is similar to those of other volumizing mascaras I use. However, I could easily tell that the brush is more dense and appears to have more bristles than any other mascaras I've used.

Two of my favourite volumizing mascaras.

L'oreal Voluminous and
Cover Girl Lashblast,
both in the waterproof formulas.

Comparison of the wands up close.

MUFE Smoky Lash has a wand that looks a lot like the L'oreal Voluminous one, except it is more dense. L'oreal Voluminous works well to grab all my lashes from the bottom to the tip and after a few layers, I can achieve a "false lashes" sort of effect - it is awesome! Cover Girl's Lashblast looks nothing like these other two. Its bristles are short, stubby and extremely stiff. Surprisingly, it provides volume almost just as well as the L'oreal Voluminous, despite it's funny-shaped wand - except with a few more strokes so it takes a bit more effort. What I really like about Cover Girl's Lashblash is that out of all the mascaras I use, it is the one that can hold a curl the best. I can rub my eyes and not worry about smudging or ruining the shape of my lashes.

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On my straight asian lashes, I don't expect any mascara to be able to curl my lashes with out the help of an eyelash curler, but I do expect it to be able to HOLD a curl after application. I mainly look for either volumizing or lengthening properties. Currently, to achieve my desired full, long lashes, I actually use layer TWO mascaras. I use L'oreal Voluminous for volume and on top, Maybelline's Lash Stiletto on top for lengthening. This combo works well for me. I have yet to find a mascara that can give both volume AND length so this MUFE Smoky Lash mascara is intriguing. I'm excited to try it out!

Lastly, from Sephora, I grabbed another of these
Rosebud Salve just because my other one is running low. I love this stuff! It works great on any flakey skin I get on my face. I just leave it overnight and wake up with NO more flakey skin. It's like magic! I especially LOVE it for my lips. I usually get chapped lips in the winter but ever since I started using it, my lips have stayed moisturized and happy. :)
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And now for some drugstore goodies.

I saw this flyer on Friday and was super excited. If you're in Canada and have a Shopper's Drug Mart where you live, you'll know that Shopper's offers an Optimum Rewards Program where if you become a member, each time you purchase anything from Shopper's (whether it's a sale item or not), you collect points for your purchases. These points add up to give you discounts on future purchases and can be worth anywhere from $5 to $150. I've managed to score quite a few free products just from collecting points.

Image source: Shoppersdrugmart.ca

It's a fantastic program because these points can add up very quickly, especially with bonus points! This weekend, Shopper's was giving away 15,000 bonus points ($25). I knew I had to take advantage of this.. and so I did!


There are many ways 
to get bonus points:
ONE)  Sometimes, Shopper's Drug Marts offers deals like the one show in the above flyer, where they will give you bonus points for spending $75 or above. 
TWO)  Other times, for particular items, they will mark their prices down for sale AND offer anywhere between "100-5000 bonus points" for buying that specific item.
THREE) Or they will give you "5-20x" the points for the item. So if you normally only get 50 regular points for buying say, a $10 item (I'm not actually sure what the ratio of points to dollar value is), but they are offering 10x the points today, then you will get 500 points just from this one purchase.

This is what I ended up buying from
Shopper's Drug Mart.

The $25 bonus points was already a great deal in itself, but they had some GREAT discounts for a lot of their products as well.

I picked out 4 of these
Maybelline Expertwear
Eyeshadow Quads,
1 in the regular collection, and 3 in the new Stylish Smokes collection that a lot of people have given good reviews about.  These days, I am really loving shadows that come in trios and quads because they're convenient and I don't have to dig around for separate shadows or worry about matching single shadows together. I just pick up a trio or quad and I'm good to go.

This is Maybelline's Expertwear Eyeshadow Quad in
Amethyst Smokes
from the Stylish Smokes collection.

Swatch of Amethyst Smokes.
I am loving the lid colour in the top left corner.

Here, we have Charcoal Smokes
also from the Stylish Smokes Collection.

Swatch of Charcoal Smokes.

This is Natural Smokes, the last of the 3 quads
I got from the Stylish Smokes Collection.

It was either going to be this quad
or the Chai Latte quad but I found that Chai Latte
was too orange and bronze for me so I chose this one.

Swatch of Natural Smokes.

Again, I am really liking the lid colour here.

Lastly, I got Sapphire Ice from the regular line.
I'm not sure if they carry a blue quad in their Stylish Smokes collection but I saw this one on sale for $5 so I grabbed it.

Swatch of Sapphire Ice.

The shadows in this quad are just as smooth and pigmented as the ones
in the Stylish Smokes quads. However, I would've liked if
the lid and crease colours were a bit more distinctive from each other.
Either way, at $5 this was still a good purchase I thought.

Next, I saw this shadow quad in their flyer.

I have never seen this before so I guess it's one of the newer lines. It's called the
Maybelline Eye Studio Color Plush
collection and they offer a variety of quads like the above. I tried to do a search online for these but there really isn't any advertising for this. I did find out that they originate from China and Taiwan under a different name and are called the Maybelline Diamond Glow Eye Studio Palette.

There wasn't much selection left by the time I found these at Shopper's Drug Mart. The one I selected was the purple quad in Purple Icon.

In comparison to the Maybelline Expertwear Eyeshadow quads, the shadows in these quads are smaller in size.

*click on image to enlarge*

Swatch of the Maybelline Eye Studio Color Plush quad in
Purple Icon.

On the display, these shadows claim to have a 
"soft smooth texture" and 
"easy to blend rich colour". 
I have to say that I do like the texture of these. It is indeed very soft and almost creamy. I found that when swatching these onto my arm with either my fingers or the applicator provided in the quad, these shadows came out nice and pigmented. However, to my surprise, when I dipped my eyeshadow brush into the pan, the colours came out quite sheer and there tended to be fallout. So I think that you do have to be careful how you apply these shadows. I have yet to wear them on a day out to give a full review. I'm looking forward to picking up another of these quads in blue called Sapphire Siren. 



--- Note: I did notice that the Maybelline Eye Studio Color Plush quads are not available at all Shopper's Drug Mart locations yet. It just happened to be available at the one I went to, which probably explains why they were almost all gone. I also noticed at a second Shopper's Drug Mart I went to, that some of the sale prices were different for certain items. For example, the Maybelline Expertwear Eyeshadow Quads were not on sale at this second location! I was surprised to see the price differences because I assumed that the sales would be the same across all Shopper's Drug Marts but apparently not!

I heard that sometimes sales and price drops can depend on each store's inventory and available stock. So if you're looking for particular products, it's best to shop around at several locations to get the best price.

Physicans Formula Talc-Free Mineral Face Powder
I saw this powder on sale for $15 from it's regular price of $21 and immediately grabbed it as a backup. I already have one and have been using it for a while. It's my favourite powder at the moment!


*click on image to enlarge*

This is a mineral powder that's advertised to be
good for both sensitive
and/or breakout-prone skin.
I have both and it really has been an excellent powder for my skin. This mineral powder used to come in a loose powder form but its packaging was very messy and there were a lot of complaints. Taking this into account, Physicians Formula have created this pressed-powder version of it and it has been all the rave since. A big plus for this powder is that it includes SPF 15.

I got this powder in Translucent Light.
For some reason, this shade is not offered in many places and is hard to find. It is perfect for my NC20 to NC25 skin. So when I saw this available at the Shopper's Drug Mart I went to, I knew I had to pick it up as a backup. I love this powder! It is so easy and quick to apply with either a powder, kabuki or buffer brush and never looks cakey on me. I use it everyday <3

Next, I found this
Cover Girl's CG Smoothers Concealer.
Again, this is a shade that is hard to find called Neutralizer. I heard great things about the texture and coverage for this drugstore concealer and wanted to try it. As you know from my previous post, I'm currently on the lookout for my favourite concealer and am trying out a bunch of different ones.

Swatch of the CG Smoothers Concealer in Neutralizer
and Physicians Formula Mineral Face Powder in Translucent Light. Both offer very smooth application which I like.

Next up.. more concealers!

Vichy Dermablend Skin Concealer
I saw these on sale for $18 (from the regular price of $25) and so, to add to my concealer hunt, I picked these up as well. I've seen these before but never bothered trying them because I thought they were too pricey. This time, I tested the concealers on my hand in the store and was amazed by their texture.. so creamy and smooth and very pigmented! So I grabbed two of these to try out, one in a lighter shade for my undereye circles and one in a darker shade to match my skintone.

Comparison between the two shades for the
Vichy Dermablend Skin Concealer.
As you can see from the edges, they are both capable of being blended in nicely with my skin. I can't wait to try these out! :D

Wet n Wild Mega Eyes Creme Eyeliner in Black

I've heard good things about this in terms of it's durability and texture. I think that the texture of this is slightly softer than MAC's Fluidline so a little bit of this goes a long way. I don't have to redip my eyeliner brush into this to line across my eye but I do find myself redipping for MAC's Fluidline.

This is a swatch of the
Wet n Wild Creme Eyeliner
with the brush it comes with. It's cute but is obviously not stiff enough to produce a narrow line the way I prefer. To text the durability of this liner, I rubbed vigorously right after applying it to my hand and.. WOW! This liner sets FAST! I literally tried to rub it away right after swiping some onto my skin. You can see the before and after above. The after picture looks slightly less dark in colour BUT the liner is ultimately still there with NO smudges. I was impressed. Usually with MAC's Fluidline, it takes a few seconds for it to set and sometimes I will add a powder shadow on top to set it. I'm looking forward to trying the Wet n Wild Mega Eyes Creme Eyeliner and see how it fares against the Fluidline. For the price that I paid for this at $2, this looks like a great deal so far.

Next, I selected this
Wet n Wild Ultimate Brow Kit 
in Ash Brown.
I usually stick with brow pencils but this was on sale for $2 as well so I thought why not? I've always wanted to try brow powder like the Anastasia  ones but didn't know how I would like powders as compared to pencils. So I just grabbed this out to play around with first. Obviously, it's not the same as the Anastasia ones but at least I can get used to applying powder first.

I like that it comes with this cute little tweezer.
This is going to go into my everyday makeup bag.
I can't say too much about the brush because
I don't have anything else (i.e. other brow powder brushes) to compare it to.
We'll see how this works out for me later.
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Lastly, from Shopper's Drug Mart, I already had
$25 worth of Optimum Points collected from my previous purchases to spend. So I used it towards this cream blush from Lancome that I'd been curious to try.

This blush costs $35 and for its size, I didn't think it was worth it so I never bought it. But now with the discount, I only had to pay $10 for it so I thought, why not?? Plus, I didn't see anything else I wanted at the moment.

Lancome Color Design Blush in Model Mocha.

I like cream blushes a lot as I find it gives me the most staying power on my skin, especially when layered either under or over a powder blush. What attracted me to this particular blush was its cute size! It is the most compact packaging for cream blushes that I've seen, compared to the other two below (which I'm also looking to try later on). I can just fit this right into my purse or makeup bag.

Image source: Sephora.com

Clinique Blushwear Cream Stick

I really like the colour pay-off in this, especially for the colour Glow (not pictured here). But the entire stick itself came in very heavy packaging. I could not see myself carrying this around in my purse.

Image source: Sephora.com

NARS Mini Multiple Set

This set features 3 mini sizes of NARS The Multiple
in 3 of their popular colours: Orgasm, South Beach and Copacabana.
I really like the size (they are not too big nor heavy) AND colours of these (who doesn't love Orgasm?? and Copacabana makes for a gorgeous highlight) and I would've picked this set up as well from Sephora but unfortunately, they were out of stock. :(
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Lancome was offering this gift set at a discounted price with any purchases $35 and above.

Image source: Shoppersdrugmart.ca

I have a friend who's obsessed with Lancome's products

so I thought this would be perfect for her and ended up buying this.

What's different about this particular gift set compared to Lancome's usual ones is the train case that comes with it. Usually, with these sets, you get only a small makeup bag. Here, you get a huge, sturdy traincase that can hold a LOT of stuff in it so it's perfect for a makeup junkie like my friend.
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Now for some shoe shopping!

I saw this in my e-mail from Aldo and went online to check out the website to see if the two pairs of shoes I'd been looking at were on sale. Lucky for me, they were! So off I went to Aldo.

I picked up these two pairs of flats which were
They were just $35 each. I know that with Aldo sales, there is always a potential for a further markdown later on, but these were quickly running out of sizes so I decided that I've waited long enough and snagged them up while I still could. I absolutely adore wearing flats. For me, they are comfortable and because I am tall, I can't usually wear heels so I find flats that will work for me on all occasions.

I love both of these flats. I like their design and the fact that they aren't quite like anything that I've seen before or have already. A big plus for me is that these flats appear to be made with stronger, sturdier material than some of the other flats I've bought from Aldo. It's so sad to wear a pair of shoes I like for just 8-12 months and have them break or wear out on me after. So these two look somewhat more promising! We'll see what happens :)
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And that's it for my mall shopping this week.
I picked up a lot of items but didn't end up doing as much damage to my wallet as I expected thanks to all the sales and deals! So I'm happy :)

I must apologize for the ridiculously long post! But starting tomorrow I'll be slaving away at FINALS and I'm not sure when I'll be able to post again. I will be testing out some of the products above, I know, so I'm looking forward to doing some reviews after.

Until next time,
thanks for reading. :)
Have you all have a great weekend!!
Happy sales shopping!
♥