HAUL: MUFE, MUG, MAC, Catrice and Rimmel

I know you all got the silent treatment these past few weeks but if you think I didn't do any beauty shopping during that time, you're dead wrong.  And I'm ashamed to admit that I've gone a bit overboard the past week as wel, think concealers (two different brands!), moisturizer, some lip colors  and eyeshadowpalettes.  That's right eyeshadowpalettes, as in more than one.  Don't judge,  it's not like I'm hurting anyone here and in my defense the eyeshadowpalettes are limited edition and one of the concealers was restocked after being sold out for a couple of weeks so I had no choice but to buy it now.  You know I'm right about that!

So here's a little* haul with some first impressions and reviews.

First up I ordered some plastic make up bags from Make Up Forever.  Nothing really special about these but I really love plastic make up bags.  I use them when I travel to put in liquids because they are just so easy to clean and if a liquid was to explode the plasic would keep the product inside (as opposed to a cotton makeup bag where all your clothes would be affected).  I ordered 3 because I couldn't make out the size online.  

The material is really sturdy, which isn't a bad thing necessarily because it shows that these aren't made of some crappy cheap plastic but they will take some breaking in to get them more 'easy going'.  The largest one is a different model than the other two and I was hoping that this one was a bit taller and I could put some MUFE Ultra HD foundations in there standing but that's not the case.  

I recently discovered the charms of palettes you can customize.  Buying a prepaid palette is usually a lot cheaper than buying all the colors separately, but there are always a few colors in there that you'll hardly (if ever) use.   Making your own palette is a solution to that.  I bought a large empty Mac palette with the blush insert.  

That's one lonely Sculpting powder in 'Sculpt' you're seeing.  Sad isn't it?  Maybe I should go out and get her a new friend so she's not lonely anymore ;-)

I couldn't just order the makeup bags and in all fairness, I am lacking in the lip pencil department so I bought 2 Make Up Forever Aqua Lip Pencils.  I love these!!  I used them every day when I did my course at MUFE and they are so easy to work with but because they are water resistent they stay on like forever (unless you're eating oily stuff but since oil dissolves all makeup that's normal).  Safe to say I will be getting more of these babies soon!

I got the color 2C Rosewood (top swatch) and 18C Coral (bottom swatch). 

The iconic 5 Camouflage Cream Palette has been on my wish list for a while.  I'm not the biggest fan of camouflage but sometimes you just need a bit extra and this palette provides that.  A very creamy consistency and not tacky at all makes that these are very easy to use (when you know how to use them anyway).

I already said that I would gradually be expanding my Makeupgeek collection and this month these 3 beauties joined the ranks.  

From left to right: Grandstand (foiled), Americano and Beaches & Cream.  Like the other shadows these are great quality.  The foiled eyeshadow really surprised me, so creamy and blendable while being very pigmented.  Nothing but love for these!!

Another lip pencil but by Rimmel this time.  They recently launched new lipsticks and their lip pencils are the same (or almost the same) colors.  I had bought a few before but really wanted this color.  The only bad thing about these lip pencils is that they are really soft and therefor they break easily while applying.  It's a system where you turn and the product comes up and you really have to make sure you don't turn it too high because it will just break off.  But other than that they apply easy and are a great base for your lipstick.  I went out to dinner with this one as a base and the matching lipstick on top and after dinner the lipstick was almost completely gone but the pencil was still there.

I got the color 018 Addiction.

Lastly I got me some Catrice eye pencils.  3 Kohl Kajal colors and one Longlasting eye pencil waterproof.  This may surprise you but I don't have that many eye pencils and I wanted some Kohl pencils to use as a base for a smokey eye.  

From left to right: Longlasting Eye Pencil Waterproof in 100 Pearly Bird, Kohl Kajal in 210 Brownzer, Kohl Kajal in 140 Chocwaves and Kohl Kajal in 010 Ultra Black.  I haven't tried the Longlasting Eye Pencil yet but if it is indeed waterproof I will get some more colors, you can't go wrong for 2,39!  I do have mixed feelings about the Kohl Kajal pencils, they worked great for the smokey eye I had in mind but when I used Bronwzer at the roots of my eyelashes to accentuate them on a normal working, the color didn't stay put at all.  Not even until noon!  I usually wear an Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencil and they stay put all day.  I think I'm going to get a dark brown Longlasting pencil to see how that one holds up.

So there you have it.  It turned out to be a bit of a longer blogpost than I anticipated but hey, it is weekend so there's plenty of time to read.  If there's anything you see that you want to know more about just leave a comment.

* little is open for interpretation ;-)

Where to buy:

Make Up Forever: makeupforever.be (or your local MUFE website)

MAC: maccosmetics.be (or your local MAC website)

Makeupgeek: Beautybay.com (Europe) or makeupgeek.com (internationally)

Rimmel: at the local drugstore

Catrice: Kruidvat.be

Shop log Lille, France

Rule one of friendship: make time for one another.  Easier said than done most of the time.  Working full-time, having a household, a man that needs his attention … everyday life is just filled with time-consuming "must do’s".  But making time for friends is a top priority for me and combining girlfriend time with a day of shopping, well that’s just the perfect day.  Time to wander around, talk a lot, eat and drink, do some shopping … what more does a girl need really?  So yesterday I went to Lille, France with a friend to do just that, enjoy some much needed quality time.  

Now, some of my friends accuse me of encouraging them to buy things and coming home empty-handed myself.  That’s not entirely true.  I like to shop but I work in Leuven, a lot of things I want or need I can get there and I’m out in the city every lunch break (I need my fresh air).  A lot of my friends don’t work in the center of a city, they go on a shopping "day-trip" once every two months or so and come home with bags filled with clothes and things.  I don’t, simply because I come home with a (little) bag at least once a week.  So when I go on a shopping trip, I usually only buy the things I can’t get in Leuven.

Back to yesterday and our day in Lille.  I wasn’t the one suggesting Lille but I immediately jumped at the idea because Lille to me equals Sephora and cheaper Pharmacies (the beauty beast in me awakened in a sec).

long lasting stick (8 hour no-transfer eyeshadow) in 06 €6,90

power pro nail lacquer in 82 €4,90

purifying pads (66 pcs) €7,90

First stop: Kiko Milano.  For those of you that aren’t familiar with the brand.  Kiko is an affordable Italian makeup and beauty brand.  I got the purifying pads (because I love my acids and the ingredient list on this suggested that it’s packed with acids - the good kind), a nail polish (duh) and a long lasting eyeshadow pencil.  I’m really excited about the eyeshadow pencil, I swatched a few colors on my hand and several bathroom stops later (and I’m a good girl so I wash my hands after every bathroom visit) they were still on there, they hadn’t even fade a bit.  So big hopes for this one!

Galeries Lafayette nail polish from left to right: Hubert n°63, Felix n°15, Germain n°12 €3,90 

Wallet €9,59

Next stop: Galleries Lafayette.  Strolling around their beauty department I noticed that they had their own nail polish range.  Lots and lots of colors to choose from and all of them have French men names.  I took home 3 colors and a much needed wallet.  I really needed a new wallet to replace my old travel-to-the-USA wallet.

That’s right, I have a special wallet for when I go to the USA and as you can see it’s only hanging together by a thread. There are some left over dollars in there along with my Sephora VIB card.  Next time I’m going to apply for more fidelity cards, my address might be in Europe but I don’t want to miss any deals while I’m over there.  Since I only use this one for traveling I didn’t want to pay a lot for it.  Original price for this one was €29,99 but it was on sale for €9,59, good deal huh?

Benefit They're real in brown €25,50

Sephora nailfiles €3,50

Too Faced Chocolate bar palette €44,00

Formula X nail polish in Ignite €12,90

And then it was off to Sephora!!  There are 2 Sephora stores in Lille, one on the Place du Gal de Gaulle and one in the shopping center Euralille. The one in the city center is very small, so I only picked up 2 Benefit They’re Real Mascara’s in brown.  One for me and one for the bestie.  I did look for Marc Jacobs nude lipstick in Understudy but it was sold out.  

On our way back tot the train station we stopped at Euralille and did some more Sephora shopping.  I finally, finally, finally caved in and bought the Chocolate Bar eyeshadow palette by Too Faced.  It’s one of those palettes that I always want when I see it on the net but for some reason never buy it when it’s in front of me.  This time was no different, I started to think (always a bad idea when you’re in Sephora) but when I saw there was only one left I told myself to get it.  Understudy was sold out here as well, but I got Sephora Formula X nail polish in Ignite as a comfort present instead (not quite the same thing but oh well).

Bioderma photoderm bronze spf 50 & 30 €15,39 (vs. €18,09 on newpharma.be, €20,10 on IU.be)

Klorane eyeshadow remover 200ml €6,96 (vs. €8,99 on newpharma.be, €9,10 on IU.be)

Bioderma Sensibio H2O solution micellaire 100ml €3,04 (vs. €7,64 on newpharma.be, €5,4 on IU.be)

La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo 40ml €9,29 (vs. 14,31 on newpharma.be, €14,45 on IU.be)

La Roche-Posay Redermic Yeux R 15ml €22,79 (vs. €21,78 on newpharma.be, not for sale on IU.be)

Last stop for me was Pharmacy De La Déesse (26 rue Esquermoise).  This isn’t the most comfortable pharmacy to shop in, it’s very small and since it’s one of (if not the) cheapest pharmacies in Lille there’s always a crowd in there.  But you have to get over that, the prices make it really worth your while.  I got 2 travel size bottles of Bioderma Créaline Micellair water (I still have plenty of back ups of the big size at home but this is so easy for traveling), my favorite eyeshadow remover from Klorane, some sunscreen products (wasn’t planning on this but the 2nd one was 50% off) and then 2 La Roche Posay products: Effaclar Duo (holy grail to many on the internet) and Redermic eye cream.  The La Roche Possay products were in the 50 best beauty buys under £20 list by Sally Hughes so I just had to bring them home (you can find the list here).

I compared the prices with 2 big pharmacy online shops in Belgium, usually they have lower prices than in pharmacy stores so retail prices in store should be higher.  I was surprised to find that La-Roche Poasy Redemic Yeus R was more expensive in France than on newpharma.be but overall you can tell prices are so much lower in France.

And that was it.  I think I kept it pretty decent.  I kept back a bit because I have another quality day time in Antwerp planned with my bestie (you can visit her Dutch blog here) in August and unfortunately, money can only be spend once …