Shoppers Drug Mart Redemption and Fall Beauty Bonus Bag (Pt. 1)

Last month was mega redemption time at Shoppers Drug Mart which meant that instead of the usual $170 worth of product for 95 000 points, it was $220! I had enough points for TWO redemptions but decided against redeeming all of my points as $440 of product is quite a lot of stuff and my redemption from my birthday in July is still sitting in mint condition all wrapped up…

This was a particularly fun redemption because all cosmetic purchases over $75 included a rather large Fall beauty bonus bag jam packed with oodles of samples!

Oyatsu Cafe | Edible Japanese Goodies!

Living in Vancouver gives me access to a fair number of Japanese goodies, but there are definitely still items that I either have to really hunt down or when I do are quite expensive. A few weeks ago, I was reading a post from Elisa of Memorable Days about an online Japanese candy store called Oyatsu Cafe that had reasonable international shipping (it’s by weight so if you’re just getting candy, it should be quite light) and a good selection of those rare Japanese candies you might be looking for (i.e. Kracie Poppin’ Cooking sets!). For those of you who are unaware of this Japanese candy phenomenon, you HAVE to watch RRcherrypie’s YouTube channel! It will get to the point where once you hear the packaging rip, you’ll get excited! When I play her videos and my fiancé hears the *crackling* noise, he knows what’s coming!

Here are the goodies I picked up!

Treats from Beijing!

I have a few treats to share with you all from a friend’s visit to Beijing! When it comes to Asian goodies, I always look forward to the excessive yet wonderfully attractive packaging of everything from food to beauty products! Shall we check out the goods? 

You all know my love affair with face masks especially sheet masks so on the left is an MG sheet mask box set consisting of: one Honey Oats Nourishing & Brightening Mask, two Emerald Grape Moisturizing Masks, two Oxygen Spring Water Purifying & Hydrating Masks, one Ocean Ice Spring Hydrating Mask and two Dynamic Hydrating Eye Masks. On the right are four Chamomile Anti-Allergy Repairing Masks which are meant for redness. I just can’t use these, the packaging is just too perfect with its metallic sheen and sheet mask plushness that I can feel through the packaging…the experience is all so magical. 

Lush UK Sinnage-2nd Edition!

With the release of Christmas products in the Lush product line, I knew that I was not going to be able to resist and that an order was imminent. I also had a few things to pick up for my beauty swaps so I ended up making a very large order and boy did it feel good! ;-)

L’Occitane Happy Hands Haul and Bonus!

I know I said I wouldn’t use the word “haul” anymore, but the alliteration in the blog post title was much too fun to pass up! I often wait for L’Occitane to have GWP events before purchasing because their little goodie bags are some of the best I’ve seen.

I had received a sample of the new limited edition Mango Flower Hand Cream in the mail and immediately fell in love with the scent so I knew that everything in that scent was coming home with me! I picked up the Ultra Rich Body Cream ($28) which is very moisturizing and quite thick in consistency. I love the little tin it comes in too! 

Next, I picked up the limited edition Happy Hands Trio ($32) of hand creams which included the scents: Rose Petals, Mango Flower and Date Bouquet.

I’ve talked about these Amande Exfoliating and Stimulating Soap ($6 each) before in my July Empties post and although they are pretty expensive, I love the scent and the amount of grittiness in each bar. 

And of course, the bonus! This was actually a bonus from last month and I’ve just been so tardy in posting about it…sorry! I am a huge fan of the Shea Butter line so this bonus was a must-have for me!

Inside the gift bag are:

1. Dry Skin Hand Cream (10mL)

2. Dry Skin Foot Cream (10mL)

3. Shea Butter Ultra Rich Face Cream (15mL)

4. Shea Butter Fabulous Serum (7mL)

5. Milk Extra Gentle Soap (100g) 

6. Shea Butter Ultra Rich Body Cream (8mL) 

I’m a little afraid of the next couple of weeks because there are going to be so many Christmas gift sets coming out and I feel like all the posts I have for you will be sinnage posts! Dear God…I’m afraid for my VISA…

I Swear, I Don’t Know How These Got Here…

Last month, Cult Nails was having a sale on quite a few of their polishes making them $7 each. Free shipping happens at $75 so I did “beauty math” in my head and came up with 11 polishes to purchase. Hehe, now that’s my kind of arithmetic!

L-R: Untamed, Scandalous, Captivated, Spontaneous and Seduction

L-R: Deal with It, Let Me Fly, Time Traveler, I Got Distracted, Cruisin’ Nude and Power Thief

I’ve barely made it through my last Cult Nails haul and now with the 31 Day Nail Challenge I will have to be creative and try to find a way to work these guys in!

Cosmetic Love Haul!

Yes, I know it’s another haul post, but I am so incredibly excited to share with you this awesome site for Asian makeup products that was recommended to me by a friend of mine . Cosmetic Love is from South Korea and has some of the best pricing I’ve seen for Asian BB creams and quite a selection of well-known Asian makeup brands like Etude House, Missha, Skinfood, Lioele LaNeige and Skin79. Two of my favourite brands are Skinfood and Etude House because of their ultra cute packaging and product quality. There is FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING and it only took 9 business days from when I placed my order to when it was in my hands! Cosmetic Love was also VERY generous when it came to samples as you will see below!

The first thing I ordered were the most adorable looking hand creams I have ever seen! These cute little guys ($9.49) are from Etude House and even have their own back stories because they are part of the “endangered animals” series. I purchased the Harp Seal (smells like green tea) and the Fairy Penguin (smells like baby powder). The packaging may not be the most user friendly, but I’m willing to overlook that for the sake of Asian packaging cuteness.

Next, I purchased two BB Creams that I have been dying to try: Skinfood Good Afternoon Rose Lemon Tea BB Cream ($7.58 each) and the identical product in Honey Black Tea in the colour Natural Beige. There were only two shades to choose from, the other being Light Beige so I had my fingers crossed that Natural Beige would be a match.They both have SPF 20 in them and also smell just like their descriptions!

To be honest, I actually forgot what this product was because the writing was in Korean! This is the Etude House SHINI STAR Clear Pact #2 in Lavender ($12.61). This is a pressed powder that “subdues facial oil to promote soft, luminous skin”. This also comes in a Peach shade and can be used right after applying BB Cream or foundation. It comes in a cute, blue compact that is sure to bring out the girl in every woman

Holy samples! I didn’t expect this many!

After such a wonderful experience with Cosmetic Love, I will most certainly be shopping with them again! Has anyone else shopped with them?

Shopper Drug Mart MEGA Points Redemption Event!

Hello!

If anyone has yet to take advantage of the mega redemption event, today is the last day! It feels like I haven’t done one in awhile, but then when I went through my blog entries, it turns out I just did one in February! Hehe, oh well! Same as last time, I went with a friend of mine and just made it a girls night. I had was able to get $200 of product and I got away with just paying the taxes! Love redemption days!

I picked up the Korres Cool Summer Set which contained Yoghurt After-Sun Cooling Gel and travel-sized sample of their Guava Body Butter because I always like slathering on something cooling after being in the sun and Korres definitely made this cooling gel sound very appealing!

Then came the Quo by Orly 5 Ombre Nail Lacquer Set because I really wanted that second to last royal blue colour (no name) and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Glass Slipper which I have been eyeing since it came out. After reading some positive reviews and having a good sniff, I finally picked up Taylor Swift’s Wonderstruck and even though I’m turning 29 next month, I look forward to smelling like I’m 19. The bottle was also just too cute!!

Next on the list was Biotherm Softening Exfoliating Cleansing Gel which will be my first Biotherm product! I don’t know whether I got this because it’s pink or whether I really needed a cleanser, but at the new price of $19 (before it was $30) I thought it might be worth a try. Too further add to my collection of Maybelline Baby Lips, I picked another one up in Pink Punch.

I ended up my little shopping spree with Benefit goodies of Benefit Ultra Plush Lip Gloss in Coralista and Benefit Hoola Boxed Bronzer! I wanted a colour brighter than Sugarbomb so Coralista was perfect and I was looking for a bronzer that didn’t have shimmer to it making Hoola a great option! I walked out of Shoppers a VERY happy gal!

Did anyone else take advantage of mega redemption weekend? If you did, I want to see your hauls! I showed you mine, now you show me yours

Lush Goodies!

Hello! This is for all the Lush lovers out there (which now includes me)!

After seeing so many Lush hauls and must-haves, I decided that I had to go out and try all of these products that Lush Lovers like Steph at Canadian Beauty Reviews constantly rave about! I have picked up the occasional bath bomb and I have two lip scrubs, but I’ve never tried anything else. I needed some recommendations on what to get, so who better to ask than Steph?! She was so helpful in recommending both her favourite products and products that she thought I would like that I literally walked into Lush with a huge list of things written on Hello Kitty stationary!

I walked out of Lush with: BB Seaweed Fresh Face Mask, Coconut Deodorant Powder, Ocean Salt Face and Body Scrub, Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub, Sweetie Pie Shower Jelly, 4 soaps (Sultana of Soap, Sexy Peel, Ice Blue and The Godmother), Buffy Solid Body Butter and the Comforter Bubble Bar (pink and white candy goodness)! 

And of course, there are always samples! More to add to my Glossybox sample storage boxes

So far, I am LOVING Coconut Deodorant Powder, Rub Rub Rub and Ocean Salt! This haul made me so happy so thank you Steph for all the great suggestions and I will gladly welcome more!

Thursday Nail Mail!

Hello!

Normally nothing particularly interesting happens on Thursdays, but today the postman rang and said I had “a couple” of things to pick up! *squeals*

Nail Polish Canada just started carrying a-england at the beginning of this week and I had signed up for an early access code on Monday, proceeded to then forget about signing up and by the time I remembered, a number of my lemmings were already gone…but I did manage to snag Tristam from The Mythicals Collection! I already own Princess Sabra and Order of the Garter which I have yet to wear so I think an a-england swatchfest is in order!

In addition to Tristam, I also picked up Color Club-Revvvolution which is a gorgeous black holo and the Out the Door Topcoat which I’ve heard is quite good. I also received my “free” nail strips from PERL who had a promotion going on a few months back where you filled out a survey and then it return, provided a promotional code for a free box of nail strips. I use the term “free” loosely because I still had to pay for shipping which was $5.25, which all in all for a box of nail strips is still not a bad price.

Oh, and yesterday a friend of mine sent me the picture below saying I just had to get one! I think the real challenge would be convincing my fiance to sleep under a nail polish-covered duvet! If anyone is interested in actually purchasing one, the company is DENY Designs!

Have a great day everyone!

Well.ca Mini Spree!

Hi Everyone!

I know I am certainly not the only one who went shopping on Well.ca a week or two ago! So many of you guys were telling me about the sale they were having on the Milani Liquif’Eye Eyeliners and I hope those of you who picked some up love them as much I do!

Here’s what I snagged!

Alba Botanica Cream Shave in Aloe Mint

I love mint especially when it makes my skin feel cool and tingly! It also smells like peppermint candy which makes me very happy !

Sally Hansen Cuticle Eraser and Balm

I saw a review of this and then tried to find it in my local London Drugs and Shoppers, but none of them carried it so I was pleasantly surprised when Well.ca had it! This is supposed to remove excess cuticles and hangnails while conditioning cuticles at the same time. It also has the scent of refreshing cucumber! (I don’t want to destroy the pretty green and white swirly pattern!)

Milani Liquif’Eye Metallic Eye Liner Pencil in Brown

I just wanted to have a brown one for the times when black seems a little bit too harsh.

Maybelline Color Tattoo in Too Cool

After having such a good experience with these little pots of eye shadow heaven, I realized I didn’t have a white cream shadow. This one has a bit of shimmer in it as well so I think it would make a great highlighter.

Care to share what was in your Well.ca package?

BeautyJoint Wallet Damage

Hi Girls!

This is just a quick post on my latest shopping adventure with BeautyJoint. I love getting nail polish and makeup from this site! It’s my resource for NYX products at good prices, which aren’t the easiest to get in BC. Beautyjoint also has a great selection of China Glaze nail polishes (even the Hunger Games collection!) that are quite well-priced. Personally, I just love being able to try out brands like Milani and L.A. Girl that are hard to find. I get so jealous of the US sometimes! When it comes to makeup, I don’t know what I would do if I lived around the corner from a CVS!

Anyway, onwards to the haul! I’ll be more thorough and do swatches later on each product. So, first up is the famous Milani Liquif’eye Eyeliner Pencil in Black. I have heard way too many good things on YouTube about this product to not give it a try!

 

Next, I picked up some Seche Restore, L.A. Colors Art Deco Striper in Red, L.A. Colors Scented Nail Polish Remover Pads in Lemon and Strawberry and L.A. Girl Glitter Addict in Uninhibited.

For the makeup part of the haul, I picked up three NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils in Sparkle Nude, Strawberry Milk and Purple Velvet, three NYX Slide On Eye Liners in Purple Blaze, Sunrise Blue and Esmeralda and finally two NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams in San Paolo and Amsterdam.

I fell in love with the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil when I received the colour Milk in my December Luxe Box. I find that they don’t really work well alone, but do work well as a coloured eye primer. And the Slide On Eye Liners…sigh…I’ve never been so in love with the smoothness of an eyeliner in my life! And that’s all folks!

Shoppers 20x the Points Midnight Mini Spree!

Hello hello!

Last Saturday, Shoppers Drug Mart had their 20x the points on $50+ which I actually wasn’t going to go to because we had dinner plans, but when dinner ended at 11pm, I knew that the Shoppers by my place was still open for another hour so off I went! I was out of there by 11:45pm!


I picked up Oil of Morocco Argan Oil Shampoo and Conditioner which were on sale for $6.99 each. I wanted to see how these two compared to the Moroccanoil products I had used last month. The one thing I did notice was that the actual argan oil ingredient Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil is the 14th ingredient out of 28 so in terms of how much argan oil is actually in the product is probably negligible…I should have been a bit more discerning, but I was rushing to get out of Shoppers by midnight!

After years of thinking about it, I finally picked up Aquolina Pink Sugar (50mL) after years of eyeing it. I think it has been around for awhile right? The thing is, it was on sale for $17.77! I knew I couldn’t turn it down at that price! It’s a wonderful vanilla-based perfume that is very girly and sweet and smells like fruit. Speaking of a great deals, I also picked up some nail polish minis from Bourgois Paris in the set Paris Holiday. These guys were only $8.99!


The last two things I picked up were fairly mundane and boring, some Quo Brush Cleaner and a refill of my Clarins Multi-Active Day Early Wrinkle Correction Cream. Anyway, I don’t get to do late night makeup shopping sprees very often so I definitely got a kick out of this one! Maybe one day I’ll go to the 24 hour Shoppers and see what happens then ;-)