Thoughts on TARGET Opening in Montreal

Hey everyone! On Monday night I was fortunate enough to be invited to the friends & family opening of Target in St. Dorothee (which is a suburb of Montreal). Personally, I don't think Montrealers know about the awesomeness that is Target since this is the first one to open in the Montreal area. As an avid haul-watcher and reader, I know Target is the place to be for inexpensive but awesome clothing, shoes, and beauty stuff!

I only had one hour to shop around but I figure I'd let you know what the highlights were. The one thing I really wanted to buy when I walked in was a pair of tall fall boots. Unfortunately their shoe section was not yet fully stocked, but they did have some really cute combat boots that I was considering.

Across from the shoe section was the clothing section. I was really happy to see they were carrying the Phillip Lim for Target collection - a good sign since I wasn't sure they would bring in the American lines. Although I didn't pick up anything from that collection (and since I didn't have much time to try stuff on), I found this thin black blazer I thought might be a good staple to own. It was $25.

Then, I stopped off in the incredible snack section. Tons of selection, including stuff you could never find anywhere else in Montreal. Lots of health-food, like chip alternatives, nuts, oats, etc. I picked up a packet of oat clusters for $3.99.

And now for the good stuff: the beauty section. I was crossing my fingers for some brands that aren't available in Quebec, and low-and-behold, they carry NYX, Pixi, and Sonia Kashuk (amongst others, I'm sure)! Not only was I happy to see the brands, but the price-points were comparable to the American ones. Nothing ridiculously more expensive than in the States! In fact, some of the brands also available at Pharmaprix/Walmart/etc were even cheaper I believe.

I picked up the Tigi S-Factor Smoothing Lusterizer Defrizzer & Detamer for $19. If I'm not mistaken I don't think I've seen it this cheap anywhere else. It's $35 on the Canadian Amazon (...LOL). I also bought a NYX lip gloss in "Beige" which is one I've heard lots of good things about. It was $4.99 and it smelled really good so I'm excited to try it! The only disappointing thing is that I didn't see any NYX blushes, oddly enough.

Overall I can't wait to start shopping at Target. I was a little rushed this time around but I'll go again sometime soon so I can do some better shopping & price comparisons. Do you guys love Target as much as I do!?

FOTD: January 27th Edition

Hey everyone! Last weekend I went to my cousin's birthday party and pulled together a cute makeup & outfit look that I thought I'd share with you. It was a little bright and summer-y for this time of year but I was tired of wearing black!

Face & Makeup:

- Urban Decay DeSlick
- Stila One-Step Corrector
- Marcelle Hydra-C foundation in True Beige
- Rimmel Stay Matte powder
- NARS Laguna bronzer
- NYX blush in Desert Rose
- Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow in RSVP
- Stila In The Know palette (assorted colors)
- Lancome Artliner (black)
- Urban Decay Naked & Buck for eyebrows
- NYX soft matte lip cream in Milan
- Be a Bombshell lip gloss in Hot Mess

Necklace: Forever 21 from a 2009 collection
White shirt: It's actually part of my old high school uniform lol! Yay for reusing clothes!
Green top: TJ Maxx

Can we talk about how tall my brother is?.........

Anyway, sorry for not blogging too much this month! I just got back to school and it's been time-consuming. Hopefully February will be a little more productive blog-wise. Thanks for sticking around :)

NYX Haul & November Glam Bag

Hey everyone! I have a little haul for you guys today. After an address mix-up I finally received my November Glam Bag a few days ago, and I can't really tell if I'm impressed or not so I thought I'd do a blog post to sort out my thoughts lol! First, though, I'll start off with a NYX haul. I purchased all of these off of BeautyJoint.com. I've used the site before and I'm a big fan of it. I highly recommend BeautyJoint to Canadians because they sell brands that are difficult to get a hold of here, and the shipping is pretty cheap.

Soft Matte Lip Cream in "Milan": Love the consistency! I need more! Smells like vanilla too :)
Jumbo Eye Pencil in "Slate": Not my favorite but my mom really likes it.
Jumbo Eye Pencil in "Knight": I thought I would like this one more, but I'm not crazy about it. :(
Jumbo Eye Pencil in "Black Bean": Black eyeliner, pretty classic.
Jumbo Eye Pencil in "Purple Velvet": My favorite from the bunch!
Blush in "Desert Rose": Gorgeous color. I have yet to try it on the cheeks.

Swatches of the products mentioned above

I have to admit, because the Jumbo Eye Pencils goes on so pigmented with just one swipe, it's really hard to get a precise line with the darker colors. I'm gonna have to work hard to master this I think.

Alrighty, so here's the Glam Bag. There are two products that I absolutely love, two that suck, and one that I'm indifferent about. Here goes.

Startlet Eye Pencil in "Chocolate": This stuff is terrible. You need to drag it across your skin to make it appear. Don't recommend.
Benefit They're Real mascara: LOVE this stuff! The wand is absolutely amazing. The spiked top makes it easy to grab inner and outer lashes. I might splurge on the full size...
Eclos Anti-Aging Serum: Why do I need an anti-aging serum? Hate it when sample bags resort to this.
MyGlam Glam Gloss: This is the product I'm indifferent about. It smells like watermelon which is nice, but for some reason I got this instead of the Bare Minerals lip gloss... Not cool, MyGlam.
Nailtini Lacquer in "Millionaire": This is such a unique glitter polish and it's so great and festive! Love it!

Nailtini Lacquer in "Millionaire" over Essie "Bahama Mama" 

Overall, I'm going to continue my subscription for the Glam Bag. The December one looks pretty promising (NYX and Urban Decay are going to be included). I'll keep you guys posted on that!

October 2012 Beauty Favorites

Hey everyone! I'm a little late to the monthly favorites party, I know, but here they are finally!

St. Ives Apricot Scrub: This has been a beauty classic over the Internet, I think. I picked one up for my giveaway and one for myself (both travel size, just to test out), and I really ended up liking it. I ended up buying a full-sized version, except the one meant to eliminate blemishes. I might like it even better than my LUSH Ocean Salt because it doesn't leave you with that plastic-y, tight feeling as much. It just leaves your skin soft! :)

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in French Fries: This is also an item I'm giving away, and 'tis so for a reason. I absolutely adored mine so I had to pick it up for you guys. It glides on amazingly and it's perfect for casual days where you don't want crazy eye makeup. I'm fine with just a swipe of this and some mascara. Although I must say, it's important to wear a primer underneath otherwise it might move around.

Evian Fresh Water Spray: Now. Okay. I received this in a Glossybox a few months ago and I was like, "Water in a spray can. Nice", but I've finally found a use for it. It serves as a toner, but I use it as a "lazy girl's moisturizer". On days where I'm running late (ahem, most days), I'll quickly spray this instead of using moisturizer. My acne cream is really drying to it's important for me not to neglect moisturizing, but I feel like this is okay to use as a substitute. Obviously it doesn't moisturize like crazy, but it makes me feel better lol.

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder: Tanya Burr uses this all the time and it looked like a great product so I picked it up for myself. Guys, let me tell you, this is a life-saver if your skin tends to get shiny. It does the job so, so well. My mom is usually skeptical about every single product I buy, saying they're all scams, but she actually loves this one. I highly recommend it.

Lancome Absolue Eye Premium: So this is an eye cream... I can't believe I actually got into eye cream. Who am I!? Anyway, this feels really nice before bed after you just washed your face. It's a sample size, by the way. Would I buy the full size? Maybe. We'll see.

Stila "In the Know" Palette: I picked this up at the Pharmaprix VIP Day and I've been using it all the time since I got it. It's an all-matte palette, which I think is really great. I've been using one of the lighter colors all over and a brown or grey for contouring. I pop on a winged eyeliner, some mascara, and call it a day. The only problem I had is with the Stila Smudge Stick that came with this palette. It wouldn't twist back down so it broke off... Lame.

Lancome Artliner in "Aubergine": So I totally forgot to include this in the photograph above, but I also picked this up at the Pharmaprix VIP Day (well actually, my mom did but she's too inept to use a liquid liner, so it's my now muahaha). It's an awesome eggplant color and I love pairing this with my matte eyeshadows. Highly recommend!

So there you have it! October favorites. IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!

First Ever Collective Haul

I never have enough products to do a proper haul on this blog, but yesterday I felt like I had gathered a good bunch of products lately so I figured today would be the day: my first haul post!

The reason why I haven't done a haul before is because I've been desperately trying to save up my money. If you've been a reader of mine since the very beginning, you'll know that I spent a portion of my summer in Italy, wherein I literally drained my bank account to $0 (come to think of it, it might be interesting to do a blog post on what it's like to be completely broke lol!).

However, upon entering tons and tons of giveaways, I have been able to keep up this blog solely on giveaway wins (incredible, right?), so I'll go through the products and let you guys know how I acquired each of them.

Benefit "Benetint" Lip & Cheek Stain: I've always been super intrigued by this product because it's the one that Benefit Cosmetics built its company from. It originally started out as a nipple stain for a stripper (!?) and then a whole line of cosmetics grew from there. Being a big fan of Benefit, I knew I had to try this product at some point in my life, so when @BenefitCanada was doing a Twitter giveaway, I entered immediately and won! Yay! :D

Aussie 3-Minute Miracle Conditioner: If you read my previous wishlist post, you will know that this product, along with the Revlon balm stain and Rimmel Stay Matte powder were on there. Well, I was having a terrible day on Sunday, and yesterday, my mom surprised me with them! She literally came on my blog, wrote down the products and went out to buy them for me! Best mom award. Anyway, I'm going to write a proper review of this product in the next few days (I'll try it when I shower later today!).

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in "Honey": Again, this a product my mom surprised me with. I'd been looking for this baby for weeks and weeks and could never find it in-stock. I should also mention that, according to my mama, this product is marginally cheaper if you buy it at Wal-Mart as opposed to Pharmaprix (or Shopper's Drug Mart if you don't live in Quebec).

China Glaze "Prism": Alright, so I purchased this product along with the NYX eyeliners using $25 PayPal I won in a giveaway. The giveaway was originally for a Sephora e-gift certificate, but because those aren't eligible for use in Canada, Meredith (the girl I won from), was nice enough to wire me some PayPal money. I should also mention that she doesn't advertise her giveaways very much, so your odds in winning are very good: http://nycmakeuplover1.blogspot.ca/p/giveaways.html. Surprisingly, I have a total of 0 glitter polishes so I knew I should invest in a good one!

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils in "Pacific" and "French Fries": So I got these with my $25 PayPal money as well, and the website I purchased them from is BeautyJoint.com. I can't remember how I found this website, but they sell brands that are difficult to get in Canada (or at least Quebec) like China Glaze and NYX, and they only charge a flat rate of like, $3.50 for shipping. Incredible. I'm definitely going to be purchasing more of these because I can already tell I love them.

Essie "Bahama Mama": In addition to my wishlist surprises, my mom also picked up this nail polish for me. Now... How on Earth did she know that this is the fall nail color? I have no idea. Anyway, can't wait to wear this because I've heard so many great things about it.

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder: Tanya Burr talks about this product non-stop, and I'm running out of my current pressed power, so I'm very excited to try this out. I love the way it makes her skin look in her tutorials!

Maybelline Color Tattoo in "Pomegranate Punch": This is probably the only product on here that I purchased with my own hard-earned money (not bad, huh?). I got this one at Shopper's about a month ago when I was in Ontario. It was about $9 as opposed to $3.50 at Wal-Mart (insane), but it was out of stock there and I was dying to have this shade after seeing Amarixe's swatches.

Sally Hansen Kwik Off (not photographed individually): This is kind of boring, but I like using this product as a nail polish remover and we were out so my mom picked up a new one. Not very exciting but I thought I'd throw it in lol.

Here are some swatches and initial impressions of these products...

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in "Honey": It's a little more on the brown side than I hoped for. Have yet to swatch it on the lips.

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils: These babies glide on amazingly. I'm probably going to use French Fries on a daily basis, and save Pacific for spring and summer. Also, I may or may not have picked one up for an upcoming giveaway.......

Maybelline Color Tattoo in "Pomegranate Punch": I adore this color for fall! I can't believe I haven't seen any beauty guru use it in a tutorial yet. Maybe I can be the first? :O

Benetint Lip & Cheek Stain: Admittedly, this isn't a life-changing product and the color is very, very subtle. I'll use it on a day where I'm feeling a little pale.

I hope you liked my first ever haul post! Let me know if you want to see in-depth review of any of these products in particular because I would be happy to do so.