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.

Halloween 2013

I decided to put on a simple skeleton baseball jersey found at the clothing store "Q" in San Diego's Mission Valley Mall. On my lips I wore MAC's Russian Red.

If you didn't know, I love to take OOTD photos from this point of view. I wore my red leather flats from Me Too.

When I got home Ralph sported a little hat and I called him Pupseinburg ;) He is the one who barks!























We had a fun time checking out the house decorations around. Check out what this house did! I found it very creepy!

Wet N Wild Spring Forward 2013 Limited Edition 8 Pan Eyeshadow Palettes

The title is certainly a mouthful! I had been searching high and low for the Wet N Wild Spring Forward Eyeshadow palettes since February. Alas, I finally found them at my local CVS last week. I think they are starting to pop up more abundantly as my friend who has also been searching found them this past weekend.

The collection contains to 2 palettes called Nude Awakening and Going Into the Wild.

If you want to take a closer look at them check out my swatch video where I also compared the them to my Urban Decay Naked and Nake 2 Palettes and a few of my other MAC and Kat Von D shadows.

Also if you want to check out my haul, check out the video below where I got some amazing drugstore deals from CVS and Rite Aid!

MAC SE, Real Techniques and HD Ultimate Makeup Brush Review

Check out my review of the MAC Special Edition Makeup brush kit I got from Nordstrom as I compare it to my Real Techniques Core Collection and my High Definition Ultimate Makeup Face brush kit.

A Review: Makeup Brush Cleaners; MAC, Clinque, Cinema Secrets, Sephora andhome made.

Please excuse the empty, half empty and dirty bottles. As you can see, I love to clean my brushes!

I would categorize my brush cleaners into 2:

1) Quick Cleaner for in between makeup applications.

2) Deep Clean every once in a while.

Quick Cleaners:-

MAC Brush Cleaner, $13 for 7.9oz

Clinique makeup brush cleaner, $13 for 8oz

Cinema Secrets, $32 for 35oz

The MAC and Clinique ones work and even look similarly.  For both I spray it only the brush and use a paper towel or kleenex to and wipe the brush clean. These seem to wash off most of the product on the brush and you have to leave them a bit of time to dry before using them again. I tend to slightly favor the Clinque over MAC because it seems to be more potent in it's cleaning power. Maybe the formula is more concentrated.

Cinema Secrets dries very quickly after spraying the product onto the brush. So you have to work quickly to wipe it on a paper towel in order to get old makeup off the brush. A pro about this one is that the brush feels like it dries the brush completely so you could use the brush again immediately after cleaning. Probably good for professional use. It seems to take nearly of the product off however when it dries on your hand it leaves a white dry residue. it also has kind of a pungent chemical smell that seems to be masked with a vanilla scent. I'm not sure if this is related but this product has broken 2 spray bottles I've used to hold it in which has never happened with my other brush cleaners. 

Deep Cleaners:-

Sephora Collection Purifying Brush Shampoo,  $14 for 6.75oz

Baby shampoo

Youtuber EnKore's DIY brush cleaner (linked below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FwklwLsSSg

The Sephora Cleaner worked to me very much like a baby shampoo would. I pump out a little product into the palm of my hand and swirl my brush into it then run the brush under water. I may repeat this step until the water runs clear. I then squeeze the brush dry and make sure they dry in shape. A brush guard may help with that.

Baby shampoo worked pretty much the same as the Sephora cleaner in my mind. Maybe it doesn't contain any anti-bacterial to it though.

I personally wasn't too crazy about the EnKore DIY formula. It smelled chemically and I didn't feel like my brushes looked any cleaner than baby shampoo or the sephora cleaner. Although I initially thought it was a cool idea to make my own brush cleaner and possibly save a lot of money. I found my own mixture to be the least appealing in the end.