SEPHORA NZ ♡ Collective Haul ft. BECCA, Kat Von D & Marc Jacobs Beauty

Today I am sharing with you a collective haul of makeup products that I have purchased from Sephora NZ this year.

At the moment Sephora doesn't have any physical stores in New Zealand and all orders with them has to go through their online store, which I think is based in Singapore.

Although I've always had a great experience shopping from Sephora NZ, I find that it is nothing compared to Sephora USA as their pricing are either ridiculously expensive or too cheap that often makes me questioned about its' authenticity. Their reward program is a lot different too and it's not so great either, plus I feel like shopping from Sephora NZ is no difference to shopping from another online website based in America etc... because it takes approximately one week to process the orders and two to three weeks for the parcels to arrive, sometimes it is being shipped from Singapore and sometimes Australia. I mean, if it's a NZ website, wouldn't you expect your parcel to arrived within a week from the day that you have placed the order?

Anyway, let's begin with the haul ~

Sephora haul ft. Kat Von D, Becca x Jaclyn Hill & Marc Jacbos Beauty

 

SEPHORA NZ COLLECTIVE HAUL

Sephora haul ft. Becca x Jaclyn Hill Champagne Pop Face Palette

Ever since the success of Becca x Jaclyn Hill Champagne Pop collaboration, they have teamed up again and released a Champagne Collection which features the Limited Edition BECCA X JACLYN HILL CHAMPAGNE COLLECTION FACE PALETTE.

The palette has always been available on Sephora NZ, it's either never sold out or it's just not a Limited Edition product as Becca and Jaclyn Hill claims to be; either way, this has been my most used and my must have highlighter and blush palette this year.

The Becca x Jaclyn Hill Champagne Collection Face Palette features two shimmering skin perfector in Champagne Pop and Prosecco Pop, three blushes in Rose Spritz, Amaretto and Pamplemousse. Two of my most used shades from the palette is Champagne Pop and Rose Spritz, and I sometimes mix the two highlighter together to create that glow-in-ya-face look.

 PRICING: I bought this palette in July for $102.00 (no discounts code nor was it on sale) and I have notice that Sephora NZ has increased the price to $105.00 (as of December 2016).

Sephora haul ft. Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick Lolita & Lolita II

Sephora haul ft. Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick Lolita & Lolita II

Sephora haul ft. Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick Lolita & Lolita II

Sephora haul ft. Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick Lolita & Lolita II

I have written a first impression post on the Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Lolita back in September 2014 and at the time the product didn't give me such a great impression. I didn't like the formula and I thought the color was ugly; but my thoughts has obviously changed a lot within the years and I re-purchased Lolita in the hope that it would become a stable product in my collection. I also got Lolitta II just so I could compare the two shades.

KAT VON D EVERLASTING LIQUID LIPSTICK has a creamy and color-rich formula that glides on like a gloss, but dries to a smooth, matte finish. The liquid lipstick is packed with pigments that provides long-lasting coverage and it claims to leave lips feeling comfortable all day. LOLITA is a chestnut rose shade and LOLITA II is a terra cotta nude shade.

 PRICING: I bought these liquid lipsticks at $30.00 each (no discounts code nor was it on sale) and they used to be $40.00 each, not sure if Sephora NZ has lowered the price for the holiday season, or this is a new permanent pricing. I am definitely glad that I have waited until now to buy these because $40.00 is a lot.

Sephora haul ft. Marc Jacobs Beauty Air Blush Night Fever & Hot Stuff

Sephora haul ft. Marc Jacobs Beauty Air Blush Night Fever & Hot Stuff

MARC JACOBS BEAUTY AIR BLUSH is a powder blush that features two shades that merged together so you can create a customize natural looking glow. The blush is designed in a striped pattern that is inspired by a Marc Jacobs dress, the lighter shade highlights and the darker shade contours and it is designed so that you can customize the colors by layering and blending to your desire look. This blush claims to wear for 24 hours and it can also be worn from day to night.

There is five shades available from this range and I bought NIGHT FEVER & HOT STUFF, which is described as a cherry / deep plum.

 PRICING: I bought this blush for $39.00 and I thought that it is ridiculously cheap to the fact that I start to doubt its' authenticity. The Marc Jacobs Air Blush retails for USD $42.00 on Sephora US and the official Marc Jacobs Beauty website. Calculating the currency exchange via XE Currency Converter, USD $42.00 equals NZD $58.96 (as of December 2016). For once our pricing is $19.96 cheaper than official retailing prices on a product or a brand that is not physically available in New Zealand... Doesn't that surprise you?! 

Sephora haul ft. Marc Jacobs Beauty #Instamarc Light Filtering Contouring Powder

Sephora haul ft. Marc Jacobs Beauty #Instamarc Light Filtering Contouring Powder

MARC JACOBS BEAUTY #INSTAMARC LIGHT FILTERING CONTOUR POWDER is a duo of silky contouring powders that sculpt, define and highlight the face. It features a velvety soft texture, sheer pigmentation and creamy powders that blends seamlessly with the skin for a buildable, natural coverage. The contour powder offers shadows to define your features and the highlighting powder offers to subtly illuminates and brightens.

This bronzer and highlighting powder duo is very expensive, but it is definitely worth the price because it has that luxurious feel when using this product. The powders are ultra soft and it has a sheer pigmentation that allows me to build up to my desire shadows and highlight and I love that the size of the pan is a lot bigger than expected! I bought the shade in MIRAGE FILTER 40 and it is described as a light gold / light bronze shade.

 PRICING: I bought the #Instamarc Light Filtering Contour Powder for $64.80 (price includes a 10% off Black Card Member discount). The retail price for this is $72.00.

Sephora haul ft. Marc Jacobs Beauty Kiss Pop Lipstick 606 Pop Arazzi

Sephora haul ft. Marc Jacobs Beauty Kiss Pop Lipstick 606 Pop Arazzi

Sephora haul ft. Marc Jacobs Beauty Kiss Pop Lipstick 606 Pop Arazzi

MARC JACOBS BEAUTY KISS POP LIPSTICK is described as a highly pigmented lipstick that provides a burst of long-wearing, kissable color that features an award-winning, covetable design. I bought 606 POP ARAZZI and it is a gorgeous electric rose shade.

 PRICING: I bought this for $35.25 (it was on sale) and the original price is $42.00. 

Sephora haul ft. Marc Jacobs Beauty Shameless Bold Blush 218 Tantalizing & 214 Promiscuous

Sephora haul ft. Marc Jacobs Beauty Shameless Bold Blush 218 Tantalizing

Sephora haul ft. Marc Jacobs Beauty Shameless Bold Blush 214 Promiscuous

Sephora haul ft. Marc Jacobs Beauty Shameless Bold Blush 218 Tantalizing & 214 Promiscuous

Sephora haul ft. Marc Jacobs Beauty Shameless Bold Blush

MARC JACOBS BEAUTY SHAMELESS BOLD BLUSH is one of the first products that I have tried from the brand and it is described as a vivid, silky blush in a stylish compact that delivers bold color and unprecedented vibrancy.

The first thing that pops into my head when I hear Marc Jacobs is... LUXURIOUS! and naturally I would expect the product to meet its' high-ends expectation. I will say that I love the formula of these blushes and I like that it has a soft and smooth texture that blends out beautifully on the cheek. These blushes are fairly pigmented and a little dip into the blush pan will deliver a natural flush.

The only thing that I dislike about this product is the packaging, I find that the compact can never shut properly, even when I tried to press the compact together, it just never shuts?!

 PRICING: *annoyed* when I bought these blushes, the original price was $44.00 and I bought them for sale at $35.36 each. Now the retail price has dropped and it is shown as only $34.00 on the website! (as of December 2016) I mean, how can I not be mad?!

 

have you shopped from Sephora NZ?
how is your shopping experience with them?
what is your favorite products from their website?

Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set ♡ Highliner | New Nudes Review + Swatches

Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set

Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set

Do you sometimes buy a lot of hand / pocket mirrors because the packaging are so cute and you could not resist? It's the same as beauty products to me, like when I saw that the Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set comes with a cute mirror, it's immediate thought that I must have it lol and I've already got a box full of unwanted mirrors at home.

The Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set also comes with a lipstick and an eyeliner and that's when I thought, you know what, I must must must have it!

Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set

Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set is described as a three piece collection for eyes and lips, it includes a mirror and pochette, an award winning Highliner Gel Eye Crayon and a New Nude Lip Gel.

♥ Marc Jacobs Mirror and Pochette comes in a nude shade and it is a well-designed product. I already own a Marc Jacobs wallet that lasted me forever and that is the reason why I've always loved Marc Jacobs' fashion accessories. I like that the pochette can be re-use as a card holder and the mirror is two sided without any borders. The mirror comes with one of those clear plastic sheet that stuck on the mirror for protection, that you can choose to remove before use or keep it as is. (I didn't remove mine as I never ever want to scratch the mirror hehe).

♥ Marc Jacobs Highliner Gel Eye Crayon in Blacquer is described as a gel pot eyeliner in a crayon style, it claims to make a bold statement with extreme-wear, waterproof eyeliner that glides on effortlessly to deliver instant color pay-off. Blacquer is described as the blackest black. While everyone is so crazy about this eyeliner, I feel like a gel eyeliner always works best in a pot with an angled eyeliner brush. When I first used this eyeliner, the tip broke the minute upon application, probably because the texture is so creamy, creamy textures tends to break easily if designed in a pencil style. I must say that Blacquer is so pigmented, the color is the kind of black you wanted in a smokey eye look and it's amazing.

♥ Marc Jacobs New Nudes Sheer Gel Lipstick in Role Play is one of those products that I have saved into my Sephora wishlist for the longest time, but cannot bring myself to buy it because it's not in my price range. New Nudes Sheer Gel Lipstick is described as gel formula lipstick that glides on effortlessly, giving subtle shades and a sleek shine finish with a delicate vanilla scent. Role Play is described as a dusty rose shade, it's a mauvey rosey shade that I absolutely love everyday wear. The formula is creamy and it glides on smoothly with a high color pay-off, unsure of why this is called a "sheer gel lipstick", it is actually super pigmented. It feels lightweight and almost not there during wear and it wears well for at least five hours on me.

Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set - New Nudes Sheer Lip Gel "Role Play"

Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set - New Nudes Sheer Lip Gel "Role Play"

Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set - New Nudes Sheer Lip Gel "Role Play"

Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set - New Nudes Sheer Lip Gel "Role Play"

Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set - New Nudes Sheer Lip Gel "Role Play"

Comparison of a mini size of Marc Jacobs New Nudes Sheer Gel Lipstick and a full size of the Le Marc Lip Creme Lipstick. I've always loved mini size products because they do last me for a long long time (coming from a makeup obsessed that owns hundreds of lipstick), I like that I do actually finish the products, as for full size lip product I haven't finished a single one since I become makeup craze years ago.

Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set - Highliner Gel Eye Crayon "Blacquer"

Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set - Highliner Gel Eye Crayon "Blacquer"

what do you think of the Marc Jacobs The Nude(ist) Set?

Birthday Haul ♡ ft. Guerlain, Hourglass, NARS & More...

I blow out twenty something candles last week and I spoiled myself rotten hehe, today I want to share with you my birthday haul and what I did to celebrate my birthday. I have always kept my birthday date a secret, for privacy reasons; so no one really knows when my birthday is and no one celebrates it with me, except for my parents.

So I first celebrated my birthday in a restaurant called Latitude 36, it was like a hotel-restaurant kind of thing and we had this three course meal deal that we purchased from Grabone. The food were really nice, it wasn't expensive with the Grabone deal and the customer service was good too. 

Then the following night I had dinner at Hansan, it's a Vietnamese restaurant and it wasn't fancy like the night before; but guess what?! I much prefer this than anything else! I LOVE rice noodles soups and rice noodles everything! It reminds me of home. ^^

NOW ONTO THE EXCITING PART

Smith & Caughey's had a sale in-store last week and of course their sales never applies to beauty items. =.= Lucky I visited the store anyway, cause most of the stuff I wanted wasn't available online and Guerlain was giving out gift bags worth over $200 if you spend over $80 or something. Guerlain is already very expensive, so it wasn't that hard to score yaself a gift bag. ^^ 

I purchased a few Guerlain items that has been on my wishlist for a long time and I was glad to finally cross off these items from my wishlist, *ahh that feeling you get when you cross-off something you've been drooling over for a long long time*. 

GUERLAIN Meteorites Light-Diffusing Perfecting Primer

This product is described as a smoothing liquid makeup base for an ethereal complexion. It's not like I need another primer as I already have plenty Korean ones that came with my Memebox beauty boxes, but I just had to have it, especially after seeing it in person. The outside packaging is so elegant and beautiful and the inside, the pearls are just so pretty! 

GUERLAIN Gloss d'Enfer - L'Oiseau de Feu #901

I think this lip gloss is from the Christmas Color Collection 2014 and it is a limited edition product (please correct me if I am wrong). I was so SO glad I picked up the last one in-store! You guys know how crazy I am with LE products! L'Oiseau de Feu #901 is described as a sheer top coat for the lips, heightened with gold pearl particles, can be used on its own or over a lipstick to create an ultra-sparkling shine.

Guerlain Meteorites Pearls - Clair

GUERLAIN Meteorites Pearls - Clair

This product is described as a illuminating powder made up of light-diffusing pearls that minimize flaws and add brightness to the skin. I actually got this one online a few days before I did my purchase in-store, I couldn't wait any longer, knowing that this isn't a limited edition product so it isn't going any where haha. #NoRegrets! 

I have came across so many pictures of the Meteorites Pearls on Instagram, it's like almost every makeup obsessives owns one and that's when I decided I need this in my life! I also wanted the LE one (Perles d'Etoile?!) that was released not long ago and I remember saving it to my cart on the Smith & Caughey's site that morning and I was deciding if I really need it as it's very expensive... and then that night I went in-store and they all gone.. G O N E wahhh :( so sad ~

GUERLAIN Meteorites Brush 

I have only just started to get into Guerlain makeup, so I am not that familiar with the brand. I purchased a meteorites brush on a Facebook destashes group not long ago and that left me wondering if it's the real thing?! I think it's one of the old version with a black handle and the bristle is a bit rough when I swirl it on my face. I have read loads of review on the one I have recently purchase, a lot of people were saying it's so rough etc... but when I felt the bristle in person, it's very soft, so I am really confused lol!

HOURGLASS Veil Mineral Primer
I have previously tried a 10ml size of this primer and I have been loving it so much I had to get the bigger size so it doesn't run out as fast! The Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer is SO amazing! Hourglass claims it helps to minimize the appearance of large pores and fine lines, and preps skin for makeup application while extending its durability. On days I have paired this primer with NARS Sheer Glow foundation, my makeup literally lasted all day through a very hot day.

NARS Algorithm Laguna Palette

NARS Algorithm Laguna Palette
Can we all just take a moment to appreciate this beautiful packaging! This wasn't even on my wishlist or anything, I just got it because the NARS Virtual Domination Palette wasn't in stock at Mecca. I have previously owned and reviewed the NARS Laguna / Orgasm mini duo and I later on sold it in a makeup group cause I just find the palette too small for me to dip my bronzer brush into Laguna. the Algorithm Laguna Palette is perfect, it's bigger than I have expected and in it comes with a mini Ita brush.

MAYBELLINE Baby Lips / NIVEA Tinted Lip Balm
I was so surprised to find the American version of the Maybelline Baby Lips in the Warehouse, didn't even know these things exist in New Zealand! I purchased all three electro pop from the warehouse, they were like under five dollars each, I already owned the pink and the orange but it doesn't hurt having too many lip balms, right...?

I also got me a Nivea tinted lip balm, the peach one.

JIMMY CHOO Exotic Eau de Toilette Spray
This is a new limited edition flanker of the Jimmy Choo original fragrance from 2011 (source: fragrantica). I don't own any other Jimmy Choo perfume prior to Exotic, I was just wondering around in Farmers one day when I came across this perfume, sprayed it once on my wrist and it stayed on for two whole days!! It has a fruity / flora scent and it is very long lasting. Every time I go to Farmers, I always made sure to check out Jimmy Choo Exotic, sadly Farmers does not carry this anymore!

MARC JACOBS Fragrance - Daisy Rollerball Trio
Marc Jacobs is one of those brands that I have always saved to my top designer list on sites like Saks Fifth Avenue / Net-a-Porter for easy access when I do my online shoppings, I love Marc Jacobs' style, I especially love the handbags and I can't get enough of their wallets. I don't own any Marc Jacobs perfume prior to this perfume set, so I was super excited when I got the daisy rollerball trio. Hmmm... quite disappointed to say I am not a fan of any of the Marc Jacobs perfume :( they smell so cheap... is it just me?!

ANNA SUI Lip Color Palette
Finally ~ No more drooling over this lip palette on Beauty Bay! I have made the best decision to get this lip palette, the colors are all very pigmented and high quality, the packaging is very elegant and the lip colors has this nice rosey scent. Can't wait to show you guys some swatches!

URBAN DECAY Vice 3 Eyeshadow Palette
I am NEVER EVER EVERRR shopping from Beauty Bay again! I have told myself this before but I just couldn't resist a good sale lol, this time it's a NO for me! I may have to think triple twice (lol is that even a word?) before I place an order with them again.

Every single time I have purchased from Beauty Bay, they either send me an expire foundation, wrong eyeshadow in a custom palette or shattered eye shadow palette, grrr I really have enough this time!!! Their customer service is okay, I mean they replied to all of my messages within the time frame they've set in their automatic replies but this time I really had enough :( ... I was so looking forward to Vice 3, but the eye shadows came shattered, it was very messy, even after I cleaned up it's still messy. Messaged Beauty Bay and they only offered 25% refund of the product... WHAT?! 25% ONLY?! This option or I have to send it back... *sigh* *take a deep breath* That's it, me and BB are over for real this time! 

I end up selling the UD Vice 3 Palette for $20 cheaper than what I have purchased... 

Anyway, have you tried any of the products mentioned in my birthday haul? Any new products you guys recommend? I love trying out new things!