I know what you’re going to say. “You said last month you weren’t going to buy anything makeup-related until March!” I know I did, but I’ve got an excuse! My birthday was this past month and I was gifted almost everything I’m about to include in this post. Everything will have prices just so you’ll have an idea if you’re interested in some of them, but I’m only taking blame for some of these items! 😉

On with the loot!

This item was actually a replacement (in my eyes) for my returned Illamasqua palette. I’ve been wanting to pick up a 3D, disco-like glitter for ages now. I had wanted MAC‘s 3D Silver Glitter, but never got around to picking it up. I saw this while at Sephora and decided why the heck not and picked up MUFE‘s Glitter in 13. I am eternally in love with this kind of silver glitter with a rainbow sparkle to it. This is the kind of glitter I always have painted on my toes and I definitely wanted something similar to use on my face. I’ve not had the opportunity to use it yet, but I’m excited to!

I picked up this Joe Fresh Beauty Rose Gloss in Peach while I was out one day and didn’t have a lip balm on me. THIS THING IS AWFUL. Run away. Run FAR away and never ever buy one of these. First of all, it smells horrible. Fake, plastic and completely unpleasant. It also clumps up on the lips and causes horrible strings when you open your mouth. This gloss has no redeeming factors whatsoever. I mean, just look at this horrible picture. It looks like something out of a horror movie. Ugh.

I quickly depotted it and threw the contents out. I’ll use the pot for something else. Bleugh.

I spotted these Neutrogena wipes on sale so I snatched them up. Adding to my stack of four other unopened packs of wipes in my bathroom linen closet. /facepalm

This stuff is amazing. A dear friend of mine made some body butter for me! (You can find her at www.alidoesit.ca, or you can find a direct link to her recipe here.) The label rubbed off, but I believe she said it was Orange Whip Lotion. She also indicated she “messed up” the recipe and it came out thicker than she intended. Well to hell with her mess up, because I really love just how thick this moisturizer is! It’s far closer to a body butter, which is just all the better in my opinion. To me, I don’t get so much of the scent of orange, but I do get the scent of a million wildflowers rolled into a single mason jar. It’s as if you got dumped into a field of flowers and sniffed them all up at once. The smell is incredible. Not to mention it feels wonderful on the skin. Because the ingredients are all natural, it won’t last as long as some storebought lotions simply because it doesn’t have all the chemical additives in it. That being said, it won’t matter because I’m about halfway done the jar already!

This is definitely one I bought with my own money. This Physicians Formula Shimmer Strip in Sunset Strip was marked down 60% off and the tag indicated it was on clearance and their stock wouldn’t be replenished. Having always wanted to pick up one of these but had always balked at the enormous price tag in Canada (seriously, these are over $20 at the drugstore here), I panicked and purchased this because I was worried I’d never get the opportunity to test it out since it was on clearance.

Having a rather nice gift card to Sephora, I picked up a few items I had been lusting over. The first was this Living Proof Full Thickening Cream for hair. I had used a small sample of it and loved the effects and the smell of it. I then went into the Sephora, picked it up, brought it to the counter and was floored at the price tag. $32 for this thing and it is SMALL. I should’ve photographed it against my hand to give you an idea of size… but seriously, it is really dinky. I do love it, and I’ll use it up, but I’ll have to see whether or not it’s worth repurchasing at that steep price.

Another one I picked up from Sephora and my very first NARS product is an eyeshadow duo in Mediteranee. I’m curious to see how NARS compares to other brands I’ve used especially when I consider the sticker price. I’m a sucker for oranges and the shade on the left is slightly gold tinted so I’m excited to use this one.

Annnnd my next item from NARS (from Sephora). This one was absolutely necessary – allow me to explain. In the last two weeks, I don’t know what the heck has happened, but suddenly my Urban Decay Primer Potion doesn’t seem to be working as well as it used to. I’ve had a few days in a row where my eyeshadow almost completely creased off by the end of the work day. I’m in kind of a slight panic about it because I’m used to being able to put on eyeshadow at 7 am with UD‘s primer and have it last until midnight if it was a particularly long day.

I’d heard that NARS‘ primer was the absolute best for oily eyelids so I figured this must be a step up from UDPP. I don’t have an especially oily face really – I don’t powder my face, I don’t even usually have to wear foundation or anything mattifying, but I figure I must have oily eyelids to cause all my eyeshadows to crease. I’ve only tried it a few times with inconclusive results (some days it didn’t crease, some days I had minor creasing). I really, REALLY hope this works for me because having to worry about creased eyeshadow after having had years of no problems with UDPP is making me really, really nervous.

I was in Winners one day and stumbled over some Real Techniques with amazing price tags attached to their shiny packages. I’ve mentioned my lack of brushes previously and had intended to pick these sets up while in the US, but when I saw that these were cheaper than even what they sell in the US, I decided it wasn’t worth waiting to spend the money.

Everyone’s seen these, so I’ll be brief. This is Real Techniques‘ Travel Essentials set. It includes a foundation brush, an eyeshadow blending brush and a large powder brush.

RT‘s Starter Set includes two eyeshadow blending brushes (seriously, they’re too fat to do anything other than blend stuff on your face), a very small detail brush, a liner brush (there’s no way you can use this one for liner by the way, it’s way too big) and an angled brush that they’ve labeled as one for your eyebrows.

I love my other Real Techniques brushes so I’m excited to use these!

The Summer, Sky and Air scents from Bath & Body Works are a new addition to their regular line although I’m not sure if they’re limited edition. As a result of them being so new, they’re all on sale for roughly half price. I’m not sure how long this promotion will last, but snatch them up quickly if you like the scent. I really love the one I grabbed which is the Violet Lily Skyscent. I’m not even going to try to describe it other than to say that I really like it. I picked up the diamond shimmer version because I’m a sucker for anything with sparkle or glitter. Unfortunately, I’ve been wearing it the past few days and the scent disappears really quickly which is frustrating (it seems to be gone after an hour or two). The small sparkles stick around for a while on your skin though, so that’s quite nice.

If you’re familiar with B&BW‘s previous shimmer mist, then you’ll wonder if the new bottle (this time labeled Diamond Shimmer Mist) is actually bigger. I know it sure looked bigger to me, but as it turns out both bottles have 236ml of product, so you’re still getting the same amount, despite the change in packaging. I will say that the previous Shimmer Mist I had, the Warm Vanilla Sugar one, lasts a lot longer on the skin and I think the shimmer particles are slightly larger than the new diamond mist ones. Either way, it’s a fun product to have!

For a “no buy” month I sure did end up with a decent number of products!