Sale Alert and Customer Service Note: Too Faced

Today I am writing you to report a sale alert and also to give you an account of my Customer Service experience with Too Faced Cosmetics.

Sale Alert:

Let's start with the exciting part: right now when you use the code TFSORRY you get 40% off most of the Too Faced Cosmetics website (I tried the Peanut Butter and Jelly palette and their Better Than Sex Waterproof Mascara and many other regular priced items that worked) including the sale item page (I picked up 2 sale eye shadow palettes, la creme lipsticks, melted metal lip and bullet proof eyeliner and received these for a stead of additional 40% off the 50% price) I'm not sure when this code will expire but I credit Nouveau Cheap for alerting me of the sale. I quickly went on the their site and made a hasty purchase. I'm very happy with the items I picked out and I feel like I got my items for a steal. This leads me into their Customer Service.

Customer Service:

I have been hearing many rumors lately with their Sweet Peach line launch in late December 2016 that their customer service has been atrocious with lost orders and being non responsive. I also suspect the sale with code "TFSORRY" is to make up for that snafu. Since I placed an order and heard from watching the YouTube Drama Channels John Kuckian and Karina Kaboom about the recent bad customer service I have was worried myself about what I might experience.

I will get to experience their customer service because in my excitement I made error when typing in the form for my email address I typed in an email address that did not belong to myself. So when I placed the order I realized just as it was too late that I had made the mistake. So first thing I did was pick up the phone and call their customer service number at 855-866-3223. I got a busy signal and assumed they would be swamped with inquiries from other customers and previous purchases. I saw a note "Due to incredibly high customer service email and call volumes, there will be an extended delay in response time. Please allow a minimum 24 hour turn around on all email and longer than normal wait times on hold when phoning in." and also when placing my order I saw that orders will be delayed for at least 7-10 days due to inventory being taken at the warehouse at this time. I have a really obsessive personality so I picked up the phone and dialed a few more times with the same result. 

I randomly dialed again about 1 hour later and to my shock I got a prompt with music saying I was in line. So I patiently waited for about 25 minutes while I multi-tasked and worked on other items. A woman answered the line about 25 minutes into the hold and I told her my problem. I provided her with the confirmation number I got from the last screen and she told me she was able to update my email address. I asked if she could re-send a copy of the purchase confirmation to me since I never received one but she told me she did not have access. But she told me that I should get future shipping confirmations to the updated email address. So far I am satisfied with my experience. As with my Aliexpress shipping experience I will update with the conclusion of how the rest of my order goes to completion. If I receive my shipping confirmation and when my order arrives. 

Too Faced Sale Update

So I couldn't resist checking out what the Too Faced sale had to offer. I clicked the email link again and this time I only had to wait 4 minutes. I took screenshots of the sale for those who did not want to wait but I was not impressed with the deals. I've seen better prices on their one website. Also you will notice there are a handful of sold out products. What do you think?

Too Faced Can't Resist A Juicy Sale Up to 70% Off

I received an email from Too Faced regarding this sale and decided to click, it says there are 18,492 people in line in front of me and 25 minutes left to wait. Excuse me? I feel like it has been 20 minutes and for fun I left the window open, there are now 6,922 people in front of me and 21 minutes left. Excuse me? Is this Ticketmaster? I am not waiting in a virtual line for discounted makeup. Everyone knows you can find discounted Too Faced at Nordstrom Rack and HSN frequently. I just thought this was funny and wanted to share my thoughts.

Deal Alert: CVS Semi Annual Clearance 50%-75%

Once again it is time for the semi-annual CVS clearance on drugstore makeup. It officially starts on November 14th 2014 but I heard some CVS locations were starting theirs early. Indeed a few were. I checked out 4 in the San Diego area and 2 has not started yet and the other 2 had. I here is my haul if you want to see what i got.

Lots of 50% off to 75% off I saw Physcian's Formula, Covergirl, Revlon, NYC Color, Wet N Wild, NYX, Rimmel, Neutrogena, Milani, Sally Hansen just to name a few. Note that many CVS's do not mark these things as clearance but if you use the scanner you can verify they are before purchasing.

The wonderful Blog I reference in the video is from Nouveau Cheap.

*One interesting note and this has never happened to me before for the CVS Semi-Annual clearance before but the CVS closest to my house has nothing on clearance! I triple checked on three different trips and days to the one on Scripps Poway in San Diego. Rest assured fellow Scripps Ranch and San Diego people the rest of the CVS' I visited clearanced now (November 21. 2014)

Freeman Beauty 2014 Mystery Bag

I received an email this morning regarding the 2014 Freeman Beauty Mystery Bag. I was so excited I ran to the website to see the bag is $30 and free shipping. But I started to lose my excitement when I thought to myself, wasn't this bag only $20 last year in 2013? And to get to my free shipping last year I pretty much got to pick out my own extras? After logging into my account I indeed confirmed to myself the mystery bag was only $20 last year. My immediate thought was whether or not the 30% price increase will be justifiable. So do I wait to see what other people get and if it possibly sells out? Or should I try it?

The offer claims to include up to $100 in product this year. What do you think? Did you get one last year and will you go in on it this this year? Let me know. I still haven't decided. I will say that I loved everything I got last year. 

See my 2013 Spooky mystery bag from last year in the video below. 

Physicians Formula Haul

The deals I mentioned are time sensitive though you can probably catch a deal in the future too.

Deals the week of 2/9/2014 - 2/15/2014
CVS 40% off Wet N Wild
Rite Aid Physicians Formula this week--spend $15 on any PF products and you'll get $10 back in +UP Rewards (limit 2 on this offer). If you can find products that have a $ off coupon or Try Me Free rebate on the box, even better!

Here is Nouveau Cheaps blog that I referenced.

I bought 13 Physicians Formula products but didn't spend more than $20. I explained during my haul how I got such a good deal.

I got a Try Me Free Va Va Voom mascara from Rite Aid and I also got a lot of my items 75% off so I was able to couple the deals in many ways.

 

How to try Physicians Formula Sexy Booster Va Va Voom Volume Mascara Free

While shopping at Rite Aid I stumbled along a display with a bunch of the new 2014 Physicians Formula products. I'm used to seeing these products with a $3.00 off peel off sticker but when I came across this "try me free!" sticker I was intrigued! I looked it up on my phone and saw a rebate form available on the Physicians Formula website. The promotion runs until November 30th 2014. Please note: rebate only works on products that come with the sticker, you need to send in the sticker along with other rebate materials.

It looks like Physician's Formula has a few other Try Me Free rebates on their website too. Might as well check it out!

Deal Alert: ELF 150 Geometric Eyeshadow Palette

I Deal Alert! I saw that Target was having a clearance of all their holiday sets for 70% off. So this might be time sensitive for those of you hoping to catch the deal. Thank you to my friend Jenn for letting me know about the clearance.

My video gives more detail but these are the prices I saw at 3 different Targets in San Diego California.

The 2 things that I forgot to take pictures of but you'll be able to see them in my video above.
14 pc Nail Polish set $7
10 pc Essential Brush set $3

 Eyeshadow Geo Palettes

6 pc for $0.90 

18 pc $1.50

32 pc & 36 pc $1.80

96 pc $3

150 pc $4.50

Product Spotlight: Miracle Skin Transformer

My first time coming across Sarah McNamara's Mircale Skin Transformer was from buying a deluxe sized sample that came in my 2013 Sephora Sun Safety Skin from inside JC Penny. Interestingly enough the Sephora Sun Safety kits differed between free standing Sephoras and JC Penny locations (that should be a blog post on it's own).

I quickly fell in love with my sample that came in the shade medium. This product claims to do 5 in 1 things: hydrate, prime, mattify, enhance and protect your skin. I certainly feel like this product makes my skin look more air brushed and flattering. It comes in 6 shades: translucent, light, medium, medium tan, tan and deep. The medium shade reminds me a little of Benefits POREfessional except without the strange smell that POREfessional leaves. It is also a slightly cooler tone than POREfessional.

I was looking to buy the full size from Sephora during their next friends and family discount. But luckily for me Costco carries 2 shades currently for $29.99 for a full size.

So let me break it down for you (regular retail in black, 20% in red)
From Regular Retailers
Miracle Skin Transformer 1.7 oz retails for $48 ($38.40 or $22.59/oz)
Benefits POREfessional   0.75 oz retails for $30 ($24 or $32/oz)
                                or a 1.75 oz jumbo size for $42 ($33.6 or $19.2/oz)
From Costco
Miracle Skin Transformer 1.7 oz retails for $29.99 or $17.64/oz

The best value can be found at Costco but the caveat being the limited selection.

Check out my YouTube Review!

Deal Alert: Ulta Friends & Family

Ulta has a Friends and Family 20% off deal that runs from January 12th - January 18th 2014 if you go to their linked Ulta website. They will email you a unique code to use, remember exclusion apply and you can get free shipping if your purchase is over $50.

I have played with a few things in my cart and it seems that my items that were marked as "Excluded From Coupons" still works. For example check out my screen shots below. I have blocked out my coupon code simply because it is my unique code but you can get your own code if you click my link above. Happy shopping friends!

Coastal Scents Deal Alert and Haul

I received another email alert from Coastal Scents regarding the 40% off sale going on now. This sale ends January 2nd 2014.

I took part in the Black Friday Cyber Monday sale and if you would like to see what I picked up from that purchase then check out my haul.

I am extremely impressed with this brand and I actually find their "dupe" for the 217 MAC brush to be pretty comparable performance wise. Below is a casual photo I snapped using my iphone after washing and drying my new brush. MAC 217 on the left and the Coastal Scents PRO BLENDING FLUFF BR-250 on the right. I feel confident in saying I will be buying the Coastal Scents version going forward. My love for the 217 is huge in that I even have a backup of that one. So it is saying a lot that I no longer feel the need to repurchase that item from MAC.

Coastal Scents Revealed Palette 50%

Last month from Black Friday to Cyber Monday I made my first Coastal Scents purchase. They had a whopping 50% off the entire site and free shipping on orders over $50! My Black Friday purchase just came in and I had a chance to fall in love with this brand! I will be sharing my buys in a future haul either on YouTube or here as well. The product quality is phenomenal! One of the items I thought about picking up, Coastal Scents Revealed Palette during that sale was out of stock. But I just received an email saying it is back in stock. 

Freeman Beauty Best of Beauty Seasonal Set

If you missed out on the Freeman Beauty Mystery Spooky Bag or their Black Friday sale. Don't fear, there is always a sale in the future. I just received an email about this deal below.

According to the email this set comes with the following:-

Feeling Beautiful™ Cucumber Facial
Peel-Off Mask 6 oz.
Bare Foot® Peppermint & Plum Foot Lotion 5.3 oz.
Bare Foot® Repair for Cracked Heels 3.4 oz.
Vita-K® Professional for Spider Veins 3.0 oz.
Psssst!® Original Dry Shampoo 5.3 oz.
Eclos™ Instant Radiance Facial Scrub 5.0 oz.
c. Booth™ Walnut Shell Body Scrub & Cleanser 16.0 oz.

1 sachet each of
• Feeling Beautiful™ Avocado & Oatmeal
Facial Clay Mask 0.5 oz.
• Feeling Beautiful™ Charcoal & Black Sugar Facial
Polishing Mask 0.5 oz.
• Feeling Beautiful™ Dead Sea Minerals Facial
Anti-Stress Mask o.5 oz.
• Bare Foot® Peppermint & Plum Foot Scrub 0.5 oz.
• Freeman® Beauty Socks

If you want to see the awesome finds in my Freeman Beauty mystery bag from this past October check out my video below.

Tarte Decemeber Friends & Family Sale

I just received the Tarte Cosmetics Early Access email to the friends and family sale. Use code DECFF for 30% off and free shipping on orders over $40. 

The items that catch my eye are the 'bright eyed and beautified eye enhancing tool.' Meant to help in the absorption of your eye products. My mother owns the Clarisonic Opal that runs at $185 so at $18 then 30% off of that, this cheap "dupe" might be worth a shot. 

This year's QVC offering on the tarte website is the "what has your makeup done for you lately" 6 peice collectors set. 

This limited-edition set includes:

(From company website)

• LipSurgence lip shine in vivacious, a pink shade
• maracuja oil rollerball
• maracuja miracle foundation broad spectrum SPF 15
• Amazonian clay finishing powder in white
• gifted Amazonian clay smart mascara
• modernEYES waterproof cream shadow and liner duo in moss and black

Last year during this sale I picked up a great QVC kit (glow your way to gorgeous best of the amazon essentials set) and worth every penny. If want to see what I picked up during this same sale last year check out my video

It's really hard to go for something when previously the value you received was just so amazing. Still, I might pick something up! 

If you want to check them out you, head over to their website here.

CVS Beauty Clearance Sale

It is the wonderful time again when drugstores clearance out their old makeup and make room for new. My favorite is always the CVS sale and this season's offerings seem to be fabulous! Watch my 2 haul and deal alert videos below!

Haul & Deal Alert Video #1

Usually when these sales happen things fly off the shelf so I would hurry up and go there if you want to find something. I saw Physician's Formula, Covergirl, Revlon, NYC Color, Wet N Wild, Nicole By OPI, Kardashian Beauty, Lumene, Rimmel, Neutrogena, Milani, Sally Hansen just to name a few.

The items I picked up were 75% off but there are several 50% off items at CVS as well. Note that many CVS's do not mark these things as clearance but if you use the scanner you can verify they are before purchasing.

Haul Video #2

Anticipating Black Friday: Sephora

Every year I look forward to seeing family and a few friends on Thanksgiving. Over 30 of us usually gather around for the feast. Afterwards we play games, catch up and look through ads. Not many of us actually brave the black Friday crowd and for myself I actually have to work in the office on Black Fridays. But I do like to check out the online sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

If you take a look at what has been revealed for Sephora's 2013 it does not seem that exciting. The only thing that slightly peaks my interest is the Josie Maran set. The picture clearly show the nail wipes which were in last year's set and the tube looks like it could be the Argan Infinity Intensive Creamy Oil, Whipped Argan Oil Intensive Hand or their Aqua tinted moisturizer. My guess is on the hand cream. The Josie Moran set I bought last year came with the nail wipes (haven't used but seem great for travel) and facial cleansing wipes. I was extremely disappointed in the wipes and felt cheated, but an oil might be worth my while. More Black Friday Specials will be revealed on Sephora's Facebook fan page tomorrow 11/23. What are you interested in?

If you're interested in what I got last year then keep on reading. Last year (2012) was my first time participating during Sephora's $10 Black Friday deals. I actually got my hands on a lot of things.

Tarte MultiplEYE™ & Gifted™ Lash Enhancing Primer & Amazonian Clay Smart Mascara: A full sized primer and mascara.

Too Faced Coco Glow Duo: Deluxe size Too Faced Chocolate Soileil and mini brush

LORAC Behind The Scenes Eye Primer/Eye Shadow Duo: Full sized primer and single pot shadow

Josie Maran Bear Naked Wipes Duo: Full sized Josie Maran Bear Naked Wipes both Facial and Nail

A year later looking back, I didn't find any of the things I picked up to be amazing. I was caught up in the hype and bought overpriced makeup remover wipes and deluxe sample sizes of the Too Faced Chocolate Soilel for which I already have the full size and deluxe size in my Bronzed and the Beautiful Palette. (I ended up returning one and giving one to my mom). I would probably not have made most of the purchases after trying the products or considering their value. The Tarte mascaras would be an excellent deal if you like their mascara but I was not a fan. Of the bunch I grabbed, the best to me was The LORAC set.

Note: I also picked up a few other things that were not part of the Black Friday $10 deals to get my free Cinderella gift bag and free shipping.

Deal Alert: Real Techniques Brushes 50% off

This is the best price I have ever seen Real Techniques Brushes. If you have been wanting to these this line. Right now is the time to do it.

As per usual my deal alerts are super time sensitive so I post them ASAP. Today is October 24, 2013. This deal is probably time sensitive. It is 50% off Real Techniques. Go to their website and type in the promo code 'girlsnightin13' and in addition to that, you can get free shipping with orders over $50! Watch me do it in this video!

http://realtechniques.com/

I am in no way affiliated with Real Techniques. I just own a bunch of their brushes that I bought myself and was excited about the deal I saw on Nouveau Cheap's Instagam

Tarte Amazonian Clay Foundation VS Revlon Colorstay Whipped Foundation

Tarte Friends and Family is going on right now until August 6th if you use the code FFAUG at:- http://tartecosmetics.com


Tarte Amazonian clay 12-hour full coverage foundation SPF 15 - in Medium and Tan
Revlon Colorstay Whipped in 370 Natural Tan
Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Waterproof Concealer in medium
Revlon Photoready Concealer in medium

Revlon just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain Haul & Review

Makeup Haul:-

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Stain Balm -Rendezvous

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Stain Balm - Crush

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Stain Balm - Honey

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter -  Berry Smoothie

L'Oreal Telescopic Explosion Waterproof

I was so happy to find this L'Oreal Telescopic Explosion on clearance at CVS! I don't pay attention to negative reviews on makeupalley for mascara because a lot of the time the ones with low marks end up working great for me! I've been wanting to try this type of wand since YSL came out out with theirs. The funny thing is that this was the absolute last one at my CVS and I have a girlfriend who is just as crazy about her mascaras as I am. I texted her my photo one evening after the gym and a few minutes later she texted me back the same photo (except it was hers). She ran out to her CVS to pick up one too. A review on this one to come later. I find that waterproof mascara's from the drugstore work like a dream in holding curl. This is the most essential quality I look for in my mascara that I would use as a base. If that holds true, your mascara shouldn't budge and you will have raccoon free eyes for the day!

Onto the Reviews
I have been so excited to get my hands on these Balm Stains as they seem to have taken the YouTube community by storm.

Rendezvous. So Tango Tangerine is the color of the year. I thought this color would be perfect for that theme. It watches tangerine orange on m hand. And every watch on youtube and on other blogs have looked gorgeous. Unfortunately, I can't pull this color off. It looks like I've been sucking on a cheery popsicle or cherry icee. 

Crush. This color pulls way too vampy and I can't pull this off with my skin tone or hair. However, it fades into a nice berry tone. It's nothing special. Unfortunately, I forgot to swatch this one before getting rid of it! Sorry about that.

Top: Rendezvous Bottom: Crush

Honey. This color is the most wearable out of the 3 that I picked up. I am content with this color and may only pick up more of these Balm Stains if Revlon releases more wearable shades.

Honey

Philosophy & Revlon Mini Haul

So I just watched emilynoel83's youtube video published June 2nd about what is new at the drugstore.

Her post linked:- What's New at the Drugstore -Makeup haul!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joirn16FE2I&feature=g-all-u

And she mentioned a few Philosophy cosmetic products that she picked up for only $3 at her Big Lots. I always think of bath of skincare products when i think of Philosophy as a brand so I was a bit surprised to even hear about them having makeup. I decided to research and it seems as thought Big Lots did have sell Philosophy stuff at the beginning of May. I feel like many makeup bloggers were on top of that and grabbed a bunch of stuff at the beginning. Being a month ago I was pretty certain it would all be gone. I was too busy vacationing with family to be entirely up to date on make up deals. I called 2 nearby Big Lots (live in San Diego) and found that one claimed to have a little bit left. So in the same day I saw Emily's video, I went out to seek it for myself!

There was a tiny little section of it left and unfortunately the eye shadow palette that looked so appealing on some blogs were gone =( I did however pick up the items pictured below.

Philosophy the color of grace. eyelighting shadow duo in heaven and earth.

Philosophy the color of grace. are of blushing in pink dreams.

Revlon ColorBurst Lipstick in Lilac.

  

So far I have only tried the lipstick (my first experience with a ColorBurst) and the color was ok for my NC35 skintone but it felt nice. More like a chap stick than a lipstick so I liked that aspect.