Birthday Beauty Haul

With my birthday being a few days ago, I finally had some money in my pocket. I knew exactly what I wanted to get, because i've had my eyes on all of these products for quite a while. I was also able to stop into Sephora and Ulta to pick up my free birthday gift!

I love having reward cards to both Ulta and Sephora. In addition to the points you can receive for making purchases (and the products you can redeem these points for), you get a birthday gift each year during your birthday month. This year at Sephora they had two options that you could choose from. The first was a skincare set from Fresh (containing a Soy Face Cleanser and Rose Face Mask) and the second was a duo from Marc Jacobs. Being the makeup junkie that I am, I chose the Marc Jacobs set. The duo included a Highliner Gel Eye Crayon in Black and a Le Marc Lip Creme Lipstick in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (check at the bottom of this post for a swatch of the lipstick). Ulta's birthday gift was the Roller Lash mascara from Benefit cosmetics in black. All birthday products are deluxe sized samples, this size provides the perfect amount to really get the feel of a product!

While I was in Ulta I stopped by the NYX section to pick up the four products that I have had on my wish list. I've heard nothing but great things about their lip products, so I decided to go crazy and get two different ones. The first one I picked up was the Butter Gloss in the color Creme Brûlée. This one is a cult classic and now I understand why; it's the perfect nude gloss that can be worn on its own or layered over a lipstick. I also purchased my first matte lip product, the Soft Matte Lip Cream in Stockholm. I was a little nervous because it looked quite brown when I swatched it, but I fell in love as soon as I tried it on my lips. It's a "my lips but better" sort of color. The HD Blush in Taupe is something I have wanted to use as a contour color. I only have one bronzer at the moment and it is way too warm to contour with. Finally, I picked up the Control Freak Clear Eyebrow Gel because my old gel had to be thrown away.

I also found a cute little The Body Shop gift set (pictured in the back of the header picture) in the clearance section! It's in the Shea scent which is a favorite of mine. The set, which regularly retails for $11 contains a bath pouf, travel size Shea body whip, and a travel size Shea shower cream. The best part- I scored this for only $1.97!

From Left to Right: MJ Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, NYX Butter Gloss in Creme Brûlée, and NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Stockholm. Along the top is the NYX HD Blush in Taupe.

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