Tag: Coupons
You Shop with Me, You Shop Hard
If my husband is crazy enough to go to the grocery store with me, then it’s his own fault that he has to stand there in the makeup aisle, while I decide which polish I want.
This is Cover Girl Outlast Stay Brilliant Glosstinis “Violet Flicker”. (Why such a long name for a line of nail polish?) It was a movie tie-in with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which I have not seen and will probably never see. But the colors are awesome and it was on sale for $1.99. Of course, I had a $1 off coupon, so 99 cents is a pretty good deal, even if it is the smallest polish I have ever bought. I might be able to paint my nails with it 3-4 times, tops.
I’m thinking that this will be a good polish for my toes…
My 1st Birchbox Purchase
Don’t you love it when you get home and there is a stack of shipments? I came home to 3 today…some Victoria’s Secret Yoga Pants, some Julep polishes and a Birchbox order!
My Birchbox points had been adding up and I had $20 in credit, so after hemming and hawing for 3 days, I ordered the Cynthia Rowley Beauty Collection No. 2. It came with Cynthia Rowley’s Eye Shadow Palette – No. 2, Mini Creamy Lip Stain in “Valentine” and Mini Eyeliner in Black, all in a Neoprene Confetti Bag. List price was $35, but I got an email with a code for 20% off of my first purchase. With $20 in Birchbox points, my total was $8 – what a steal! I was supposed to get 2 free samples, but for some reason, I only got one…more StriVectin Night Cream with Retinol. That shit WORKS. In another 10 years, I’m really gonna need it…
Even though I’m excited to try out my Cynthia goodies, it’s bittersweet. I wish I had waited a few days to use my points…I want that Modern Mermaid box in the WORST way. I need more points! Click my referral link – https://www.birchbox.com/invite/5453f – I’ll get 50 points if you join!
Priscilla & Kathy
I am loving Julep’s Birthstone Collection. They’re like Pokémon – gotta catch em all.
“Priscilla” – Emerald for May is a full-coverage Emerald glitter. It’s named for Priscilla Presley. She hardly stacks up to Rosa Parks or Coretta Scott King, but they’ve got to be running out of names?
“Kathy” – Pearl for June is a pearl shimmer. It reminds me of mother-of-pearl, more than a regular pearl. It’s named for Kathy Bates, possibly the best thing about this past season of American Horror Story. I picked up 2 – one for me and one for my mother-in-law, also a “Kathy”.
I had already used my “BOGO” code, so I used “$10 off $30”.
Sinful Sickness
I couldn’t resist adding a few more Sinful Colors to my collection while they were still on sale…
“Green with Envy” doesn’t look green to me, it’s more of a teal jelly with holographic bar glitter.
“Mimosa” looks like a tasty alcoholic beverage…with red glitter floating in it.
“Nirvana” is a beigey, grayish creme. I had a poop this color once.
“Ice Dream” is ice blue and silver glitter.
I also had $1.00 of rewards on my Walgreen’s card, so my haul was $3 and tax…don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Girls Day
Saturdays are quickly turning into “Girls Day” for Lily and I. Since I take her to Gymnastics on Saturday morning, we usually end up eating and shopping afterwards. It reminds me of the infrequent “Special Days” that my mother would alternate with my sister and I…except I get to do them every weekend. (Don’t worry, I spend one-on-one time with my son, too. We just don’t anything Beauty related…)
After Taco Bell, Lily finally screwed up enough courage to get her ears pierced. The girl at Claire’s tried to tell her it wouldn’t hurt, but I stepped in and told her that it WOULD hurt, but only for a second. Lily actually haggled with the girl for 2 suckers if she didn’t cry. That daughter of mine is TOUGH. No tears, she just said, “Ow.”
Of course, after Claire’s…Ulta. Physician’s Formula is still “Buy 1, Get 1 50% off”, so I picked up Mineral Wear Face Powder to replace the one I am almost out of and Mineral Wear Correcting Powder, hoping it is similar to the stila Correcting Powder. I also picked up a clearance Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear “Sea-ly String” for 79 cents. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my 20% off coupon…
The day was going so well that I even gave into Lily’s begging to visit PetSmart to look at the adoptions. (Why bother with the zoo when PetSmart is a ZOO every Saturday?) Although it was inevitable that she would end up begging to get another dog, we managed to leave without a tantrum. Saturday with Lily was an awesome day!
Extreme Bathroom Makeover
Makeup. Makeup everywhere. Makeup on the counter. Makeup in makeup bags, stacked and hanging from the towel rack.
Did I mention that this is my husband’s sink? My sink is surrounded by face wash, deodorant and hair crap.
My makeup collection had outgrown the bags and had spilled onto the counter, even after “the purge”. Even though he rarely complained about the fine layer of powders and streaks of eye shadow in his sink, I was much more vocal about the prospect of beard hairs sprinkled all over my stuff. My stuff that was technically in his area…
Last Sunday was a monster trip to Target to take advantage of an additional 5% off coupon that I had been awarded via my son’s frequent and varied prescriptions. (I guess I can thank Impetigo for my coupon?) I decided on a plain white armoire and a cadre of wire mesh baskets, drawers and bins.
The bottom shelf has two large bins. One holds foundations, BB Creams and Primers; the other has powders and blush.
The middle shelf has a compartmented basket, with lip and eye stuff in the front and all of my shadow palettes in the back.
The top shelf is my favorite. I have random stuff in the drawers, like individual eye shadows and sharpeners. The reason that it’s my favorite part is that I get to display my mother’s jar. She used to keep eyeliner and brushes in this jar and so do I. It’s a milky white glass cold cream jar – you just don’t see those anymore. The jar has ELCAYA in relief on the side and ELCAYA NEW YORK on the bottom. Google told me that Elcaya Creme was a fancy cold cream sold in the 1910s and 1920s. It was $4, which is like $50 in today’s dollars.
Every day, I think of a question that I wish I could ask my mother. Today, I wish I could ask her the story of this jar. It couldn’t have been used by her or even her mother. If I had to guess, I’d say that she picked it up at a flea market. Most weekends, we would go flea marketing, looking for furniture to refinish. I never thought about why until now. The “cynical me” says that it was because we were poor. The “whimsical me” says it was because my mother preferred things with a history. The “realistic me” says that it was because of “blue laws” and flea markets were the only place really open on Sundays back then. It’s probably a combination of the three…
It’s not fancy or anything, but it works. My husband gets his side of the sink back…kinda. I still do my makeup on his side, I just put my stuff up after I use it. Everybody wins!
Womanly Wiles
3rd post today…I’m out of control…
No one felt like cooking tonight, not even enough to shove a few frozen pizzas in the oven, so we went to IHOP. After IHOP, my husband wanted to run by Auto Zone to get something for his car project. I waited in the truck with the kids. I had an idea…I whispered something in Lily’s ear.
As soon as my husband got back in the truck, Lily leaned over and said, “Daddy, can we go to Ulta?” He just looked at her…and then looked at me and said, “Really?!?!?”
Yes, I totally attempted to use a six year old child to persuade my husband to take me to a makeup store at 8 o’clock at night….AND IT WORKED. He made me promise to make it a quick trip and I agreed, seeing as they close at 9. His eyes got BIG and his mouth set in a firm line…I asked if he would come in with me, but like me at Auto Zone, he stayed in the truck with my son.
All I picked up was Physician’s Formula Super BB Cream in “Light” (I mistakenly ordered “Light-Medium” a few months ago) and Nude Wear Glowing Nude Powder in “Light”. Physician’s Formula was “Buy 1, get 1 50% off”, plus I had a 20% off coupon, so I ended up saving $10.
With that purchase, I’m about $20 away from Platinum Status at Ulta. Yeah, I’m kind of a big deal…
Getaway VIP
I don’t normally get all pumped for the VIP Tote, but this one had some really good stuff. The Getaway VIP Tote is valued at $113.50 (yeah, right) and features the new scent “Morocco Orchid & Pink Amber” – fine fragrance mist, body lotion and shower gel. It also comes with a “French Lavender” mini candle, “Forever Midnight” mini eau de parfum, “Lavender Blossom” gentle foaming hand soap, “Wild Passion Flower” hand cream and a bath pouf. Surely I could find $40 worth of stuff I needed…
Although I try to only buy during “Buy 3, Get 3”, I’ll sometimes settle for “Buy 3, Get 2” if I have a coupon…since I had a “$10 off $30”, I decied to try out another scent – “London Tulips & Raspberry Tea”. I got fine fragrance mist, body cream and 2 shower gels. I also picked up an extra “Morocco Orchid & Pink Amber” Shower Gel. A second after I realized that my total was $39.50, Lily ran up demanding I come smell this new scent she had discovered – “Hawaii Passionfruit Kiss”. She wanted the shower gel, but I opted to get her a travel spray instead – PROBLEM SOLVED. I shall call her “Mini Me”.
I got everything in the picture for just under $60 – nearly $200 of stuff. I’m kind of a badass.
Is Ulta Addiction a Thing?
The DSM-5 needs to be updated to include the very first case of POCD – Polish Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I could make some psychiatrist’s whole career!
Ulta is a weekly thing with my BFF and I, but while in DFW for Texas Frightmare Weekend, we realized that our other friend had never stepped foot inside an Ulta. We had to remedy that immediately! (To be fair, I passed 2 Ultas while I was walking around in Downtown Chicago and I did NOT go in – most of my co-workers were dudes, so I controlled myself…)
While my BFF had her eye on stila concealer, I was content to browse the clearance aisle. The Irving Ulta has a kickass clearance section. I picked up 4 polishes…
Sally Hansen Gem Crush “Lady Luck” – fuchsia and silver holographic glitter – for 69 cents. I really LOVE Gem Crush and will own them all someday.
Orly “Purple Poodle” – fuchsia with a blue shimmer – for $4.99, and Orly “Masked Ceremony” – Steel with silver shimmer, fuchsia highlights and silver chunks – absolutely spectacular and $3.99. I’ve never tried Orly polish, so I’m intrigued.
Seche “All Lit Up” – fuchsia with gold shimmer – for $3.99. I’ve never tried Seche either.
So on top of saving approximately $18 on the clearance polishes, I also busted out a $3.50 coupon from my email. My total was $11 even. Now THAT made the OC in me REALLY happy!
Easter Shopping
Remember when stores used to be closed on holidays? Easter is one of the few holidays that still closes some stores – HEB and Target are closed today, but Ulta was open. Do a lot of people go buy makeup after Easter Sunday service?
I got a ladyboner yesterday when I got an Ulta sale mag in the mail yesterday. Most of it was fragrances for Mother’s Day, but there was one special that caught my eye – Buy 2 Zoya polishes and get a free Zoya “Monet”, a multi-colored, cellophane holographic special effect topper. Plus, I still had a $5 off $15 coupon. I picked up “Cassedy” (full-coverage celestial pewter metallic from the Zenith Winter Collection) and “Dillon” (full-coverage green mint metallic with silver shimmer from the Awaken Spring 2014 collection). I also got a sample of it’s a 10 miracle leave in product – what does that even mean?
I couldn’t wait to try “Monet”, so I used it on my middle fingernails, over Julep “Tatum”. NOW, my Easter Grass nails are complete.