Vegas & VIB Rouge Sale Hauls

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Aaargh, I wanted to do a video for this but I think I picked up some sort of bug during my travels (airports, ugh) and I’ve been so sick for about the past week. I doubt you want to sit there and listen to me sniffling for 20 minutes, so a post it is!

If you follow me on instagram then you probably saw that I went to Las Vegas a couple weeks ago. I was there for work, but that didn’t stop me from shopping in my free time! I hauled quite a bit of makeup, plus I picked up a couple things before I left that I’m pretty excited about.

Sephora VIB Rouge Sale

Unfortunately for me, the annual Sephora sale fell the weekend before I left for my trip. I was trying to save my pennies for that, so I decided to just get one thing (for me – I picked up a few gifts too). I’ve been eyeing the YSL Couture Variation Palette in #1 for a bit, but the price tag was a sticking point. Love me some nude eyeshadows but $95 is a little steep! Buuuut I had a $15 gift card to use along with the 20% off, so in the end I only parted with a little over 60 bucks. That’s a little more do-able. I took it with me on my trip and it was a fantastic travel palette! It’s pretty small, and I used it pretty much every day. The only minor gripe I have is that it’s very heavy on light shades – I was still able to get a ton of looks out of it though.

Pre-travel Hauls

I finished up my ORG Mineral Peel a while back (review here), and I definitely wanted to have some with me because I basically can’t live without it now. My makeup just looks so much smoother! I decided this time to get the body version ($34), which is similar to the face formula that I had, but without some of the botanical extracts. I do think the face formula works a little better, but the body version is a bit cheaper for a lot more product. I’m also planning to use it for self-tanner prep, so there’s that. Obviously the bottle is huge, so I just transferred a little bit into a small spray container to take with me.

The other thing that I got to stash in my travel kit was the Up & Up Precision Blender ($4.99), which is more or less a blending sponge on a stick. I didn’t want to take my Real Techniques sponge with me since it’s a little large and awkward-shaped, so I thought the Precision Blender would be a good alternative. It was not. The sponge part is really small and very dense, almost no give to it at all. It soaked up a ton of foundation (even though I used it damp) and didn’t really apply evenly. Normally I’d return it, but I don’t think I saved the receipt and Target happens to be right across the street from the mall (which is the major holiday shopping destination for all the surrounding counties). I’m not sure the $5 is worth braving the traffic.

Kiko

Visiting the Kiko shop at Fashion Show Mall in Vegas was one of the things I was most excited about when I was planning things to do! The only Kiko product I’d ever tried was the Mysterious Earth blush that was in my August favorites, but I’ve been wanting to try some more stuff. Going into the store I was a little overwhelmed because there’s a lot to choose from. I ended up getting a few things that are limited edition (I can always get other stuff later, right?), plus some newly released products and some stuff I’ve been looking for for a while. I ended up with:

Midnight Siren Face Brush (LE – $17) – Sooo soft you guys. I don’t normally go for synthetic brushes but this one is so dense that I don’t think it will have any trouble picking up powder. And it’s really soft.

Rebel Romantic Contouring Pencils in Light to Medium (LE – $14) – Not that I need anymore contour/highlight products, but the texture of these sticks seems really nice and creamy. Bonus points that the contour shade isn’t straight-up orange like a lot of them seem to be.

Infinity Eyeshadow in 270 ($8) – I’ve been looking for a fantastic green eyeshadow palette/quad and I still haven’t found it. This single is exactly what I wanted though, so for now the plan is to collect random shades that I can use together.

Lip Base Primer ($9)- Total impulse purchase here. I haven’t been really looking for a lip primer, but when I came across this in the store I immediately had visions of myself actually wearing the nude lipsticks that have been languishing in the drawer because they’re lighter than my lips and wear off oddly. We’ll see if it works out.

Gossamer Emotion Creamy Lipstick in 114 Litchi (I want to say $15?) – The SA said these are brand new, and it looks like they’re not on the US Kiko site yet. I haven’t worn this for a full day yet (I’ve been avoiding my makeup for fear of contaminating it with my germs) but when I tried it on in store it felt really moisturizing and comfortable.

Cupcake Nail Lacquer in Apricot – I didn’t actually buy this. The cashier said I should pick something from the freebie bin next to the registers, and who am I to say no to that? The choices were lip glosses or polishes, so I picked up this one. The texture is sort of odd (see the nail swatches below). I’m more of a plain Jane nails girl so I don’t really see myself wearing it much.

Louboutin

After the Kiko store I decided to swing by Saks to see what sort of things they had. FYI – Fashion Show Mall has Saks, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom. Heaven. I’ve been wanting a Louboutin polish in a nude shade ever since they first came out. I had Simple Nude, but ended up swapping it because it was a little too dark for me. Saks had all the polishes out for swatching, so I decided that Just Nothing ($50) is my color (middle swatch). The swatch on the right, btw, is Louboutin Popi, which I hauled along with the lipstick in Youpiyou a couple months ago.

Surratt

Even though the VIB Rouge sale was over by the time I was in Vegas I couldn’t resist going in Sephora at the Venetian because it’s just about the best one ever. I like browsing the MUFE Pro selection (they carry stuff that most Sephoras don’t have, like the body paints, glitters, etc) but what I really got excited about was the fact that they have Surratt in store! I’ve been considering the Artistique Blush ($32) in Ponceau for a while, but when I started swatching them I decided on Parfait instead. I also picked up Aureole so I can do a contour/highlight thing along with Grisaille (which as we all know is my absolute favorite).

Inglot

My veeeery last shopping destination of the trip (seriously, I was there at 10:30pm the night before I left) was Inglot. I had nearly forgotten about it actually, and was debating whether I really, really wanted to hike all the way over to Caesar’s. I was glad I did! The SA at the store was really chill, so that was a refreshing change from the pushy sales associates at most places. I swatched happily until it was just about time to close the store, and went home with not nearly as many things as I wanted (but still more than I needed, probably!). I got:

HD Sculpting Powder in 509 ($15) – Because I really needed another contour powder. I really wanted to try it out though because contour products in the mid-price range ($15, in this case) are pretty few and far between. Plus they have a bunch of different shades! So this one was mainly for review purposes.

Face Blush in 41 ($11) – This color is actually pretty unique in my blush collection – I didn’t have a russet shade for fall, and I felt like I really should. The only thing about this and the HD Sculpting Powder is I didn’t get a palette for them, but forgot that my magnetic palette is full. So, whoops. I need to sort out that situation.

Lipstick in 234 ($13) – I love how no-nonsense their naming scheme is! The 234 lipstick is a very overrepresented color family in my collection (pinky red) but that’s totally ok. This one has a slightly glossy finish and the lasting power is great.

Eyelash Curler BM ($11) – Another one that I got mainly to review. The Inglot curler is very narrow and very curved – a great fit for small eyes. I’ll try to get a review with measurements up before too terribly long.

So that’s that! Fall is usually my main makeup-buying season (mostly because sales) but I’m especially thrilled about this haul because a) I get to try out a couple brands that I had limited experience with and b) Kiko and Inglot are both very reasonably priced so I was able to get a ton of new stuff to try without breaking the bank! If there’s anything you’d like to see a review of first just let me know!

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