My New York Beauty Haul!

Hi lovelies!

I'm sorry for the absence of late...2015 has been such a topsy turvy year for me and it's been hard to keep up a consistent blog schedule without a regular routine! Hopefully 2016 will be more consistent so I can get back to my regular blogging routine. Thank you all for bearing with me this whole time and still bothering to read my posts!

In the meantime, I was recently in New York for a whirlwind ten days with a group of friends at the end of November. It was an amazing trip and I really loved New York, I could actually see myself moving there if it wasn't for the extreme cold and the incredibly long flights! It was a bit of a dream come true to be able to see the Big Apple, and naturally, to be able to do a bit of beauty shopping! The exchange rate is a bit of a killer at the moment, but a lot of the prices were still better than what we get in Australia, and also, it was amazing to be able to shop at Sephora. The first time I entered a Sephora, I felt like a kid in a candy store! The sales assistants were incredibly lovely, and so excited when they learned I was a beauty blogger/makeup fanatic from Australia. We spent quite a while excitedly discussing makeup! I even got my makeup done there once. Like all makeup counters, the makeover was redeemable on products purchased so it was good fun and I got to try out a whole bunch of products I had my eye on.

I promised to share photos of my makeup haul, so here it is! I'll apologise in advance for the lack of photo quality, I'm currently in Malaysia without my laptop or any of my blogging paraphernalia, so these flatlays are a bit rough! I stocked up pretty heavily on fragrances as you can't order these through mail forwarding companies due to the hazardous materials restrictions on fragrances and nail polishes.

First up, here are the four Black Friday deals I picked up. Each of these were $10 each. I initially ordered three packs as a trial and had it shipped to the apartment we were staying at, thinking the order would probably get cancelled, but it went through! I ended up returning one of the packs (the Smashbox primer duo pack) as it was a lot smaller than I had initially thought, and then picked up a further two packs in store from the limited stock they still had left.

NEST EDP rollerball trio pack (Verde, Dahlia, Indigo)
Tokyomilk Dark Femme Fatale pack with salted caramel lip balm and mini Tainted Love No. 62 perfume
CLEAN rollerball layering trio pack (Skin, Warm Cotton, Cashmere)
BUXOM Strut Your Stuff trio pack containing a deluxe Full-On Lipstick in Brooklyn, Lip Gloss in Rose Julep and eyeliner in Come Over.

I've always wanted to try the CLEAN and NEST perfumes, plus I adore Tokyomilk products, so I was very excited to pick these packs up for a bargain price.

Keep reading after the jump!

I'd also always lusted after the Sephora Fragrance sampler pack, so I made a beeline towards it when I entered my first store. There are several different types of fragrance packs, but I picked the Liquid Luxuries set which has 15 sampler vials inside. Essentially, you try out the various perfume samples and then redeem the included voucher for a full sized bottle of your choice from the selected range. I love Tom Ford perfumes so I had to pick Violet Orchid from all the choices included.

I also picked up a few other bits and bobs while I was there. I was lucky enough to be in New York when Sephora released their promotion where VIBs were given $20 off a $50 spend, so I picked up the Urban Decay Vice 4 palette. Long time readers will know I have a huge weakness for Urban Decay palettes, and although I think the Vice 4 isn't as good as the previous ones in terms of pigmentation and texture, I couldn't resist picking it up with the discount. I also got the Born This Way foundation from Too Faced. Beauty fanatics will know that Stila Patina and Kat Von D's Lolita and LolitaII are some of the most famous shades around, so I couldn't resist picking those up either.

In case anyone is wondering, Patina is a beautiful shade and REALLY lasts on the lips. I removed it with my Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil and woke up with a lovely stain still on my lips the next day! Lolita and LolitaII don't quite have the same staying power, but they are both beautiful shades I'm happy to add to my collection. Let me know if anyone wants to see swatches!

Here are all the freebies I got from Sephora! The Urban Decay shadow palette was a VIB 500 point perk I had been saving up for, and I literally got the last one in store! The two NARS lip pencils in Rikugien and Cruella are the Sephora VIB birthday gift for 2015 and the clutch with samples was an online freebie promotion that was part of the Black Friday online order.

This is everything I picked up from the drugstores, MAC and Macy's! I got 2 Wet'n'Wild lipsticks (one is Wine Room and the label from the other fell off), ELF blush palette for darker skin tones, Milani Color Statement lipstick in Violet Volt and Bella Eyes gel shadows in Gold, Copper and Navy from the drugstores. I also picked up a new MAC lipstick in Violetta, and a back up of my favourite nude lipstick, Fast Play. Last but not least, I've wanted a Tom Ford lipstick for years, so I indulged myself in Cary from the Lips and Boys range.

I love Bath and Body Works products, so I had to make a stop at the store to check out the offerings. I'm a huge fan of the lotions as they sink easily into the skin without leaving any greasy residue, in addition to being beautifully fragranced, so I picked up two small sets of shower gel/lotion, as well as two spare lotions in my favourite scent. I love having car fresheners in my car so I couldn't resist the cute owl holder and refills. Their hand sanitisers are my absolute favourites, so I picked up a few from their limited edition Christmas range! I also picked up a couple of small candles but some will be gifted for Christmas and the others are bubble wrapped for safe travel back to Melbourne, so I haven't included them in the photo.

There you have it, lovelies, everything I picked up from my beauty haul in the States. I actually didn't buy much else, but I couldn't resist a few good beauty buys when the opportunity presented itself!

Is there anything in particular you want to see reviewed? Let me know in the comments!

Also, I was thinking of sharing several non-beauty related photos from New York...would anyone care to see them?

Much love,
MM.
x