The Thing I Had to Have SO Badly...

...that as soon as Sephora gave me 20% I snatched it up along with a few other things - because who could possibly not get as much as possible when it's Sephora and it's 20% off, duh - that I spent (again) entirely too much money on shit I probably won't use.

Anyway, I promised swatches of the Too Faced Sweet Dreams palette and here they are. I've never done this before and I used my cell phone, so sorry for the slightly crappy quality. I'm lazy and I find my Droid easier than breaking out the camera...

It looks like a lacy book the flips open to reveal eye shadows and there is a palette that slides out of the bottom with the blushes, bronzer and highlighter, plus some goofy, unhelpful cards on how to create looks. Yes, that is a mirror on the top flap, it's getting the ugly marlite in my mom's bathroom HAHA.

Ok...

The Shadows:

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Flash

From left to right, vertical swatches: In the Buff (matte vanilla), Peach Fuzz (sheer, shimmery peach with golden/coppery micro sparkles), Copper Peony (metallic copper) Teddy Bear (matte medium neutral brown), Lovey Dovey (dark bronze with micro sparkles), Satin Sheets (sheer light pink with a golden sheen), Cut the Cake (light lilac with a subtle golden sheen), Party Girl (rich violet with sparse glitter), Nice Ash (gunmetal shimmer), Smolder (almost black matte navy)

Across the top from left (sorry, ran out of arm): Honeymoon (antique white gold metallic - possible dupe for UD's Maui Wowie without the annoying glitter?), Label Whore (dark reddish brown with teal sheen - duochrome!!), Nice Stems! (yellow toned bright green shimmer with slight gold sheen), Cop a Teal (dark, dark teal shimmer), First Dance (Deep matte purple/eggplant)

Thoughts


In the Buff is the perfect end of shadow to brow filler (or highlight if you will) for those times I am using super bold or dark colors or going for a monochromatic look and I don't want a shimmery or frosty highlight color to take away from it.

Peach Fuzz is sheer but the sparkles are nice and don't give horrid fallout (think UD midnight cowboy, ugh!) and it's perfect for a sparkly overlay that won't change the base color too much (on lighter colors) or a nice sparkly highlight.

Copper Peony is one from their new Midnight Garden (? I think) collection. I have the full size and it gives much better color payoff if I remember correctly. Lovely color regardless.

Teddy Bear is my go-to brow color.

Satin Sheets and Cut the Cake both are a little sheer but have a lovely sheen to them.

Label Whore is one of my favorite shadow colors. I have a Loreal HIP loose shadow in the same color and I LOVE it. This one has the best payoff of all of them.

Nice Stems! great color, disappointing payoff.


The Cheek Drawer:

Top to bottom: Chocolate Soleil, Cocoa Rose, Sweet Pink, Candlelight Glow


Thoughts:


Chocolate Soleil smells like freaking chocolate, holy crap! Totally wasn't expecting that. Other than that, it's a matte brown color that makes my skin (at least on my arm) look bruised. And not like, "ouch my kid left legos on the floor yesterday and I hurt myself" bruised. More like, "I used my arm as a hammer 3 weeks ago and it's just now fading away" bruised. Maybe it will look better when I have a tan, but then, who needs bronzer?

Cocoa Rose is a dusty brown rose color. Perfect blush color for me. And it's matte, which I love. I'm not big on the NARS Orgasm shimmer (thought I do wear it and it looks good).

Sweet Pink speaking of NARS Orgasm.... Same concept, more pink and less shimmer.

Candlelight Glow I believe Too Faced meant this to be used as an all over face color. It's a tad too shimmery for me to do that. It makes a decent highlighter, but, as you can see, it doesn't show up really well. This is good (and you can partially blame my bad pic) for the most part, but I'd like a tad more payoff with this.

Overall, I really like this palette. Though, unlike last year's palette, this one seems to have slightly less pigmented versions of the shadows (which you often see in palettes like this). For $52, though, there are enough shades in here that I will use regularly and this had replaced last year's (with the shitty pull-out thingie for the shadows) as my travel staple. (This also came with a full-sized Shadow Insurance tube).

Still available at Sephora.com!

Proof of My Addiction (AKA BIG Sephora haul)

So I've been thinking about how much money I spend on cosmetics. I even had a convo with a fellow beauty hoarder. We've come to the consensus that this is "Collector's Mentality" combined with a little Retail Therapy. Stuff looks cool, we buy it, we admire it, we stash it and we may or may not ever use, or even look at, it again.

Who cares, though? On to the HAUL!

As proof of my above assessment, I bought this sweet lipstick sampler from Kat Von D, and I don't even particularly care for or wear lipstick:

How could I resist? These things are quite tiny, but that's actually perfect because I have yet to ever use an entire lipstick. The only one I know I will NEVER wear is the second one from the left. It's called Backstage Bambi and makes me think of a cheap hooker (as does the word "Bambi", which makes the name perfect). I am going to try to actually swatch all of this stuff later, but I wanted to at least share it now.

Next up, something I have been drooling over since I saw it and also something I will actually use:

Ahh, the Too Faced Sweet Dreams palette. I bought the holiday palette last year... some deal with all kinds of glittery pin-up style fairy ladies all over it... and I use it ALL the time. I think I use that one more than my Urban Decay. One of the shadows, Teddy Bear, is the perfect matte color for my brows.

Anyway, look how AWESOME this is! Some of the colors are dupes from last year, some seem to be exclusive to this palette (unlike last year, they have names instead of just being labeled as "Exclusive", duh) and some are from their new shadow collection (Enchanted Garden or some similar fluffy crap).

There are 15 eye shadows, 2 blushes, a bronzer and their "Candlelight Glow" powder (which I am pretty stoked about because I've been looking for a good highlighter). It also came with a full sized shadow insurance (YAY!!! My other one that I got last year is almost gone). I can't wait to try this!! Particularly, Nice Stems! (the green).

Then I got one of the new Urban Decay travel sized 24/7 Liner sets (The bright one):

I got it mostly for that green one. Forget what it's called but the swatches looked amazing (and it is). Perversion (the black) is a SUPER black matte. I can't wait to try it.

This was my 500 point perk. Boxum Passport thingie. It's in a shiny, pleather looking passport case. It's got a mini lipstick, full-sized gloss and mini mascara. I've been wanting to try their lipstick (and this one is a great nude color). I did try this mascara and I really like it so far. The gloss was a bit on the pink and sparkly side, but I actually liked it, so did my boyfriend, even though he ended up with sparkles all over his face (we kiss a lot, that's why I don't wear crap on my lips, usually).

And last, the only thing I was really disappointed about: LaVanila Vanilla Blackberry. I have 2 LaVanila perfumes and LOVE them both (Pure Vanilla and Vanilla Passionfruit). Awesome Boyfriend calls the Pure Vanilla (of which I also have the body butter and deodorant) "The Secret Weapon". This one? Blech. Seriously, it smells like old lady. I smell some blackberry, no vanilla and lots of old lady. Oh well, that's what I get for buying a fragrance online. I do plan to do a review of my other ones, as I do really really love them. Mostly because they smell good, but also because they are natural, don't smell synthetic and don't make my eyes water.

I also got 4 Illamasqua Polishes: Load, Force, Jo'Mina and Rare. All of which will be reviewed separately (aside from Load, which I did in my last post).