Too Faced A Few of My Favorite Things Review and FOTD

The Too Faced A Few of My Favorite Things palette was a limited edition Sephora holiday exclusive. The palette sold out pretty quickly in most places but you may be able to find it in a few Sephora stores. It comes with 20 eyeshadows, 2 bronzers, 2 blushes, a lip stain, a mascara, and a makeup bag.

What I loved: I find that a lot of palettes are usually missing transition eyeshadow shades for brown skin women but this palette has enough shades for a complete look, though out of habit I used my Mac shadows for the look below. I loved the makeup bag that accompanied the set. I think the packaging is simple, yet functional, and gorgeous. This set was a great value considering there were 20 shadows and the average palette has 12, and not to mention tons of extras. 

What I am not featuring: I appreciate palettes that include extras because it's a great way for customers to discover additional products from the company, so it's a win-win situation for both parties. However, I don't think bronzers should be included in sets because they aren't inclusive of everyone. The chocolate soleil bronzer included in this set works best on medium skin tones, excluding the girls with fair or deep complexions. I can probably use the bronzer for all over shimmer but I prefer to use bronzers as contouring powder, so my brown skin needs a deeper shade. I like the sun bunny as a highlighter so I feel that is an extra that could work for everyone. I can probably work with both shades of the blush but they aren't colors that I usually reach for. I have not tried the mascara. I don't know anyone that enjoys that lip stain. It's a lip plumping formula and the name of the color is Bee Sting. I think Too Faced meant that literally. When I applied the color my lips burned and quivered and felt as if I had been bitten by an insect. It was very uncomfortable and the sensation lasts for several minutes. A fellow blogger advised me to throw it in the trash and I could not agree with her more. 

Overall: though I wish the extras were better, I  can not complain as I simply love the product based on the shadows and the packaging. I paid $41 for this set with a coupon (retails for $56) so it was well worth the price for me. 

Here is how I used the palette:

To define my brows I used concealer from the Coastal Scents camo palette

To contour my eyes, I mixed Mac Texture and Swiss Chocolate 

From the Too Faced palette I used Buche de Noel, Honey Honey, and Dark chocolate

I used Mac Indigo on my water line

Lorac front of the line liquid liner on my lash line

Mac Zoomlash mascara on bottom lashes

747 L eyelashes

 

For this look I used the following products on my face:

Elf mineral primer

Smashbox under eye primer

Urban Decay Naked foundation in 11.0

Lamik Mineral powder in warm caramel to set foundation

Mac Pro longwear concealer in NW40 set with Ben NYE banana powder

MAC Perfectly Poised MSF as highlighter

 

Lips:

Dark lips - Mac liner in smolder applied all over lips

Fuschia tone - Mac Strong Woman lipstick with Mac currant liner

Deep Red - Mac Sin lipstick with Mac Currant liner

I hope that you found this review helpful. If you have additional questions or comments please feel free to leave them in the comment section below. 

December Couponing

I participated in some great deals for the month of December. Here is my haulage:

Sephora

$15 off of $50 or more coupon - purchased Too Faced A few of my Favorite Things palette. The palette retails for $56, and with the coupon I paid $41. Sephora mailed the coupon to me as a thank you for being a Beauty Insider. Some girls that spent more money at Sephora this calendar year received $20 off coupons. I did not hear of anyone receiving more than that. I guarded that little coupon with my life as it burned a hole in my pocket until the date that it was eligible for use! I have a thorough review of this palette coming up. 

Ulta

$5 off of $10 or more coupon  - purchased 2 Real Technique sponges (comparable to Beauty Blender) at $5.99 each, so I basically paid 99cents for one of the sponges. The associate allowed me to keep the coupon, so of course that meant another trip to Ulta. 

$5 off of $10 or more coupon - on my second trip to Ulta, I purchased two Real Technique shading brushes (for eyes) at $5.99 each, again receiving one of the brushes for 99cents. This time I went to a different Ulta where I was unable to keep the coupon.

20% off of all items (excluding high end brands) coupon - purchased Real Technique setting brush for $7.99. Thus I saved about $1.60 on the brush. (Nothing to get excited about but I felt that I needed to make the most of the coupon which was combined with the offer described below)

10% off of high end brands (excluding Urban Decay Naked palettes) coupon - I was so excited that a very friendly Ulta associate found for me the last Lorac Pro palette set in the store (it was always sold out online and in stores)! The individual palettes were completely sold out as well. The individual Lorac Pro palette retails for $42 and includes an eye primer. The set that I purchased retailed for $39 and included the full size palette along with an eye primer and a liquid eyeliner! To sweeten the deal, I received $3.90 off so that was a definite win for me!

As usual, I also got some great deals at Target but nothing new or interesting so I omitted that portion of the haul from this post. 

My overall savings for beauty purchases at Ulta and Sephora this month total to approximately: $30.50. I walked away with 2 palette sets, 2 blending sponges, and 3 brushes - all for less than $100!

If you have any questions or tips about couponing, please leave them below. I would love to hear about any holiday sets that you may have purchased.