Going Back to School Haul

I went on an about-to-leave-for-college shopping rush and ended up spending way too much money. I did, however, get lots of stuff to blog about.

First off, I was at Rite Aid and saw a really cool display from Physician's Formula. All the packages were pink and the makeup itself rosy and heart-shaped, so I had to get something from the collection. I only have two blushes, a medium pink shimmer from Ulta (I forgot the exact name, and I don't have it in my dorm with me) and Physcian's Formula Shimmer Strips in Healthy Glow, both of which I like but may be a little too shimmery for some occasions in my future. I do love shimmery everything, but it isn't really professional to have your entire face sparkling. I use shimmering primer, shimmering liquid makeup and shimmering setting powder...plus shimmery eyeshadow and slightly sparkling mascara. I need to cut down. Anyhoo, I decided blush was the one thing I didn't already have too much of, so I picked Happy Booster Glow & Mood Boosting Blush in 7322 Rose.

As you can see, it is slightly shimmery, but no where near as shimmery as the other two blushes I already had in my collection. Plus, I wanted to try this new mood booster aspect. According to the back of the package, the blush is "infused with our Happy Boost Blend, featuring Happy Skin and Euphoryl, natural plant extracts whcih have been shown to promote a feeling of happiness by mimicing the effect of Endorphins and helping prevent the skin from environmental stress." Yes, mimicking is spelled incorrectly. The "happy boost blend" almost makes me think this is a badly translated product from another country. Obviously, however, it is not. The package also mentions the blush being scented like lavender, which "provides a feeling of joy" when you apply the makeup. The scent doesn't linger, but it does smell quite pleasant when you open the little case. I'm not in love with the packaging, only because I hate those stupid brushes they include. If I liked the brush, I would be completely satisfied with the packaging because I like when I can store my brushes with the product itself, but those brushes do nothing for me so the package is just unnecessarily bulky. I love the colors they use for this though, which is obviously playing on Valentine's Day. The blush itself it pretty nice and applies easily with the ELF blush brush I got for a dollar at Target. This is just so darn cute!

a close up of the blush itself. SO CUTE!

On the other side of the shelf, I found those Sally Hansen Party Packs. They were half price, so I bought one. Then came back and bought four more. I disgust myself. Anyways, four of them had the same polishes in them, so I plan on giving those away as birthday gifts.

All five of the packages included this paper. It was a little tip sheet, which I thought was cute. On the back it had step-by-step instructions for the perfect manicure and the perfect pedicure. The only part I didn't like was the that they suggested the use of cuticle scissors. NO. NO. NO! Cuticle scissors are not good!

All five packages also included a nail file (which I'm pretty sure was just hardware store sand paper glued on a piece of cardboard), a pretty pink cuticle pusher, smiley toe separators, hand scrub, nail growth treatment and nail clipper I would NEVER use on anyone's fingers or toes. My favorite were the little toe separators that smile :)

The first box I got had these polishes in it. These were also in three of the four I bought on my second trip. Left to Right: Sally Hansen Nail Color Pen in Midnight (I think. I don't have this in my dorm, either), SH Salon in It's a Sheer Thing, Insta-Dri in Orange You Fast!, No Chip in Infinite Natural, Lacquer Shine in Glow.  I like all of the colors, but the application on the nail pen was pretty terrible. Otherwise, it was pretty good.

One box had these in it. Left to right: Salon in Berried Treasure, Mangoes Loco, Pat on the Black, Dawn to Earth, Insta-Dri in Pink Breeze.
Mangoes Loco is definately more of an orangey coral in real life, whereas Berried Treasure is more of a deep pink. Pat on the Black is not black, but a very deep plummy puple. Dawn to Earth is a sandy, frosty nude that I'm pretty sure is the only polish I have ever tried that clashes terribly with my skin tone. Pink Breeze is just blah.The box was only five dollars for these five polishes plus the five tools/treatments, so it wasn't a complete waste of money, but man I hate Pink Breeze.

In my obsession with hair products that probably has to with me attempting to grow my hair out, I walked down the hair products aisle, and was very pleased to see the got2b products buy one, get one free. So, you know, I had to get two.

I chose the Smooth Operator smoothing lustre lotion, which I used today and am very pleased with. It does almost as good a job as my Samy conditioning serum, which I think is the only product I have ever bought three times because I used the entire bottle. Also, I got the smooth operator smoothing hair spray a while ago at WalMart and it does a wonderful job of controlling flyaway hairs. For my "free" product, I chose the Heat Protect 'n Blow Out blow dry lotion + gloss finish. I had been looking something designed to protect my hair from the heat when I blow dry my hair, which is quite rarely. I haven't used this yet because I had left my blow dryer at school and couldn't come back to get it during the break.