Boxing Day 2013 Haul

Woohoo, time for another haul! As with every other Boxing Day, I went shopping at Toronto Eaton's Centre since I like those stores better and although the sales weren't too good (mostly just 50% off), I still ended up buying quite a lot...

I don't remember the exact prices for each but here were the deals:
- Express 50% off entire store
- Hollister 50% off entire store
- Lindt 50% off holiday chocolate
- Sephora $12 deals
- Bath & Body Works $3 hand soaps/holiday items 50% off
- aerie 50% off store

Since this is somewhat a beauty review blog, here's a close-up of the Sephora items :)

- Caudalie Winter Moisture Kit
- tarte clean slate deluxe primer trio
- boscia Intensifying Moisture Pack+
- Make Up For Ever Aqua Shadow duo
- Ole Henriksen The Naked Truth Kit
- Sephora + Pantone Universe makeup bag (promo code: VIBEMERALD)

The display in the store was quite barren and the website only had 10 deals so Sephora was quite disappointing. Black Friday was definitely better and last year, the stores had a bunch of $9 and $12 deals! I remember the display was swarmed with makeup obsessed girls but this year, I was able to walk around the entire display without interference.

Besides there being a lack of good deals at Hudson's Bay and the disappointment at Sephora, I am quite satisfied with my purchases. Hopefully everyone else's Boxing Day went as well as mine!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas (or other holiday) and a Happy New Year :D

Black Friday 2013 Haul!

This is quite delayed but here is my Black Friday Haul for this year. Since we live in Canada, this is still a new concept for us so the deals are not as great as the States, but it's still better than nothing. I'm not sure when we first got Black Friday, but I remember a few stores having sales last year. I was waiting until my Sephora online order came in to make a post and it did last week so here's my Black Friday haul:

From Sephora:
- Josie Maran Argan Hand Healer
- Lorac Fan Favourite Duo
- Clean Rollerball Set (bought in store)
- Philosophy's purity made simple (bought in store)
- Boscia Pore Perfection Set

These were $12 CAD each and using the VIB 10% off code (V436CB), I got them for $10.80 woohoo! I took this opportunity to buy some gifts for my friend and to let other friends get in on the discount too but most of those are wrapped so no pictures, sorry! The purity was sold out online before I could get on so I went to get it in the store. It was advertised as 12 oz. for $12 so I didn't look at the bottle when I grabbed it. Turns out, I only got 8 oz.! My friend managed to get 12 oz. so it seems like they just ran out of that size. Since they will probably have it again during Boxing Day, I'm going to try to get the 12 oz. then ;) They gave me a sample of Benefit's Hello Flawless foundation, which was nice, but it was in a light shade even though I'm a medium...

This is my haul from other stores (sorry for the Sephora repeats):

- Aritzia's TNA Verbier Parka 10% off
- 3 tops from aerie 40% off entire store + free tote
- Nano Vidal Sassoon hair dryer $10 (returned this because it wasn't hot enough)
- WD Elements 1 TB External Hardrive $59.99 Future Shop door crasher
- Hollister sweater 40% off entire store

Oh I also got about $50 in Lindt chocolate! oops. They were having 50% off boxed chocolate so I got 2 boxes of specialty truffles, a small box each of the snowman truffles and regular milk truffles, as well as 2 boxes of assorted truffles :D

All in all, this seemed like a great haul since I managed to get some clothes and a new winter jacket! Aerie was also giving out a free blanket along with the tote for purchases over $45 but they ran out by the time I got there :( It actually looked like a nice blanket too, which makes me kind of regret not going to the mall at lunch, but at least I got a tote right?

Sephora VIB Sale Haul 2013

This is the first year that I have ever been Sephora VIB (thanks to my other make-up obsessed friend and my mom with her skincare products) so I was able to get the 20% off a few weekends ago. Even though it was the same weekend as IMATS, I still managed to make two online orders over $75 to get free shipping :P

It took a while for everything to come (too many orders were placed I guess) but the second and final package came today. I was a little disappointed to see that most of my samples were substituted because that has never happened before, but oh well. Here is the haul:
- Urban Decay Naked Palette (woo finally! long debate between 1 and 2)
- Ole Henriksen Power Peel 2x treatment
- Benefit Gimme Brow in light/medium
- Too Faced Primed & Perfected To Go Duo
- Too Faced Tan Without the Twinkle
- Tarte Smooth Operator Amazonian Clay Finishing Powder
- Tarte Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer (to get a friend the discount)

I have yet to try it all, but I'm sure it will be great. Black Friday sale is coming (not really sure why Canada needs this) and there will be some Sephora deals for $12 and under $20, so hopefully I don't go too crazy then too.....

EDIT: Some Black Friday deals have been posted ($12 CAD) and I kinda want 5 or more things oops.

IMATS Toronto 2013 Experience and Haul!

After seeing many beauty guru vlogs about it, I finally got to go to IMATS! It was last weekend on November 9 & 10 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Since I have another friend also into makeup, we decided to go together and got an early start by trying to get there right at 8:30 when it opened :) I did a lot of research on the vendors and previous IMATS beforehand so I knew which products I wanted and what prices to estimate. This was my first IMATS and my first time in Metro in a while so I didn't really know what to expect. Let's get right to the haul! Sorry I only have a phone camera picture.

I came with a list of stuff to get and I got everything on it :) Plus a few more...so I kinda went over my budget haha. This is what I got:

	IMATS Price	Regular Price
Beauty Blender Duo	$24	$37.29
Make Up Forever Aqua Liner in 6, 13, and 14	3 x $18 = $54	3 x $30.51 = $91.53
Bdellium 940 pink	$7	$10.80
945 green	$7	$9.68
781 green	$5	$7.92
942 green	$7	$9.68
785 green	$5	$7.92
934 green	$5	$7.04
Royal & Langnickel brush roll	$10	$29.99 USD
MAC Chromaline in Black Black	$20.79	$25.99
OPI full size polish	6 for $30	6 x $11.13 =  $66.78
OPI mini size polish	$0.50 x 7 = $3.50	$2.83 x 7 = $19.78
Beauty so Clean brush cleaner in Cake Pop and Candy Cane	2 x $5 = $10	2 x $10 = $20
Total	$188.29	$344.40

Wow I actually saved a lot more than I realized. The best savings were probably at MUFE, where everything was 40% off! Classique Nails had good deals too since they were selling full size OPI for $30 for 6 and a bunch of minis for just $0.50! I definitely got more nail polish than I should have. They also had really good deals on Essie, China Glaze, and other top brands.

How far did I stray from my list? The main stray was at the nail polish because I only intended to get OPI Scatter the Scales and Essie Good to Go but they had neither of them :( At MUFE, I had only intended to get an Aqua Eyes and the travel size HD Finish Powder but since I once got Aqua Eyes for $12 at boxing day, I decided to just wait and they did not have the powder in travel size there. I did somewhat intend on getting an Aqua Liner...but getting 3 was too excessive :P Bdellium Tools was a problem for me too because the brushes were so colourful and tempting! I had a list of 5 brushes but ended up not liking 2 yet somehow still got 6 brushes haha.

Aside from the massive amounts of money spending, it was really fun! I got to see make up artists at work during the show and even sat down for a few demonstrations/talks. One was the 50 years of Doctor Who, a special effects sculptist, MAC session, and Battle of the Brushes. It was really fun to explore and look at all the different brands since a lot of them didn't have easily accessible shops in the GTA. There were a lot of special effect makeup and make-up artist tools as well so it was interesting to see all the different kinds. Now for some pictures!

My favourite one of the day! She was also really awesome at her model poses as well.

To summarize, I had a great day and really enjoyed seeing everything at IMATS. It seems to me like it is only a thing to go to yearly if you really have expendable income and are super crazy about makeup. Every 2 or 3 years seems like a better thing since girls only need so much makeup :P Will I go again? Definitely! but probably not until 2015 :)

P.S. I also made two Sephora orders that weekend (with the help of my friends) and thoroughly abused the 20% off VIB sale. Get ready for another haul when those packages arrive!