Back from RuPual's DragCon

 

RuPaul's DragCon, the first drag convention in HerStory!

What did she say it is a mash up of Comic-Con, Beauty-Con and Hello Kitty- Con all together in, (honestly) a surprisingly pleasant experience.  Yea I know.  Blogreaties if you know anything about me,  you will know that I tend not to do things the normal way.  I always like to do something that is a bit unique.  So a drag convention,  why not go in drag?  A drag king!

 

I wanted to take advantage of my short hair and try a johnny depp-esk look.  So my makeup friend Annette and I dragged up and shipped off to the Los Angeles Convention Center.  Try walking the streets of LA being 5',1" at 8am in the morning and being in drag.  I looked like a drunk Filipino man.

Why a man AngelPacific?  Well there was no way I was going to compete with men whose job is to look like a drop dead gorgeous female.  No woman could even compete.

 

I was clearly there just for the makeup.  All the makeup tables had decent discounts that I am very proud the I sort of retrained myself.  It had  all my favorites.  NYX Cosmetics, Kryolan, and BH Cosmetics.  Plus some of my favorite stores like Naimie's and Nigels Beauty Emporium.

 

I found a new store that I immediately placed another order online as soon as I got home.  Lady Moss Beauty.  Check it out. LadyMoss.com  They carry  brands like Nyx, LA Girl and Jordana.  Also its the nice stuff not the old products like some other websites.

 

AngelPacific, what about the drag queens?  Um yea there were some.  A lot.  that was where all the lines were for.  That's why I was able to make my way to all the makeup tables.

 

 

RuPaul's Drag Con would be my third or fourth "makeup trip"  and I have to say that this was the least pretentious, most polite, relaxing experience I have had.  Everyone there was so nice.  The message of the con was RESPECT and I think everyone honored it.  Was it because the pretty girls who get the attention at Gen Beauty and such couldn't compete with queens with attitude.  But all the girls were so friendly.  Even though there were so many crowds and lines,  no one was rude or pushy.

I had to go.  Who can say they went to the first one?  Over 13 thousand can and I was one of them.  The second one I know will be bigger and probably more expensive.  they will have to expand.  But they already have the dates for next years,  anyone want to go with me?

 

 

Makeup Haul from across the pond (UK)

Makeup enthusiast, lovers and artists already know the up and coming products from the United states, be it high end or drugstore.  But what about venturing out  and buying makeup products from another country?

I bought makeup from two websites that cater towards makeup lovers from the United Kingdom. Life & Looks and Makeup Revolution.

I tried to get a variety of items but if I am spending my own money I might as well get stuff that I want to get.  Which can be pretty much summed up to, eyeshadow palettes and foundations.

This post is just a haul.  I will try to post reviews on the products and my experiences with these websites at a later time

Products From Life & Looks

GOSH

X-Ceptional Wear Foundation (16 Golden)

Light and smooth to apply. Gives a natural coverage and feels very even and flexible without drying out or leaving the skin feeling ”encapsulated”.

USD -$10.11

GBP - £7.10

Leichner

Camera Clear Tinted Foundation (Blend of Beige)

World famous Leichner Foundation is a professional foundation used by Photographic studios, television, theater and professional make-up artists worldwide. It provides the perfect base for applying cosmetics.

USD -$5.68

GBP - £4.00

Rimmel

Provocalips (Kiss Fatal & Kiss Me You Fool)

and Apocalips (Celestrial & Stellar)

I know you are probably asking,  "But AngelPacific, you can get that in the US?"  Yes but you also know when these products came out all the popular colors were already picked through.  This was my chance to get the colors i wanted.  the prices were a lot more but at least I got the colors i wanted.  I should have just waited a little longer.

Products From Makeup Revolution

Ultra 32 Shade Eyeshadow Palette FLAWLESS MATTE	USD -$11.80 GBP - £8.00
Salvation Palette Colour Chaos	USD -$8.85 GBP - £6.00
Full Pure Black Heart Eyeshadow Collection	USD -$7.37 GBP - £5.00

Atomic Lipstick (Make It Right) & Lip Power (Its My Life)

USD -$1.47 -  USD -$4.42

GBP - £1.00 - GBP - £3.00

The ONE Foundation (in Shade 5)

USD -$5.68

GBP - £4.00

So if you are like me and marches to the beat of a different drum, I encourage to get out of you comfort zone and take a chance with products from another country.  These products are not readily available so I think I have a secret weapon  or it make me feel a bit more special that I have something that no one else has.

Generation Beauty 2014 Haul

 

Free Stuff was really the main reason we all went to Generation Beauty May 31st to June 1st, 2014.  Personally I thought that it was going to be like Halloween.  We all go around in painted faces and ask for goodies.  Makes sense.  Nope.  In my previous post I wrote that free swag was obtained if you worked hard on social media (i.e. twitter, instagram, facebook etc.) 

The Happy Hour was the only exception.  Happy hour happened at the very last hour of each day of the conference.  At registration we were given tickets which had the different name of the brands that were at the convention.  This was very misleading.  We thought that we had to pick one of the brands on the tickets in hopes that they will have enough.  Yea i thought I had to pick between Benefit and Cargo Cosmetics. Good thing was that after asking multiple people, we found out that it was all the same goodies.

 

 

Below is a list of everything with the retail price of each product.

 

 If you are a number gal like me you will appreciate my hard work and effort in stating that the total value of the FREE swag is almost 10 times the price I paid for the GenBeauty ticket.  So looking at this I am secound guessing if I should go next year.  Some of the brands of the products I recognized.  Yet many brands I was unfamiliar with and in my research I came to the conclusion that many of these brands were drugstore quality and price.  There are some gems on this list but I noticed they were big last year or last season.  So did we just get the overstock?  probably but I will not refuse a chance to try new stuff.

IMATS Haul

Briefly writing on my experience was nice but i know what all makeup lovers want MAKEUP!  "What did you get?"  I just calmly said, "surprisingly not much."  I went to IMATS with a list that I was going to follow and I did. I only picked up a few items that strayed from my list.  But here is my haul!

Nigel's Beauty Emporium - Read my experience in my previous post.  Attitude aside,  this place was where I planned to get most of my stuff. and dropped at least a hundred and there was suppose to be discounts but they quoted me regular price. WTF Nigel's Beauty Emporium,  I will find other places to spent my mony. So for the next two pics you will see I spent 140 bucks. :( I got two Le Maq Pro Fard Creme Palettes.  These are waxed based creams to blend beautifully  on skin for television and film.  I got a flesh toned and basic color palette who's slim design is suppose to be travel friendly.

I love Kevyn Aucoin -  Especially their Sensual Skin Enhancer.  Experts use ut as a concealor or sheer it out for a full coverage foundation.  This stuff is oil based which is moisturizing but melts off on oily t-zones.

 

Bad ass Stensils - I got these at a discount for 4 bucks.  Who wouldn't want leopard spots air brushed on their body.

 

Velor Mink Lashes  - I got these for 20 bucks each usual retail price is 30 - 50 dollars so I got a deal there.  Wow so that what the good stuff feel like!

 

 Face atelier -  Okay so this place had their regular makeup that we have all seen.  Of course their's is suppose to be the best blah blah.  But I picked up an item that you normal don't see. Transformiong gel.  This stuff enhances the color of your pigments and eyeshadows.  You know I love products that has multiple uses.  I can use this stuff to set my brows, use it as a eyeliner and make my dull eyeshadows pop.  Though the sales girl was rude as hell she did offer an interesting product.  Oh mention too,  regularly it retails at $26 dollars on the website but they quoted me 20 and slapped on a more than 9% sales tax making it 22 dollars with some change.  :(

 

Red Cherry Lashes #43 - I got this at an obscure table that I don't recall the name I got these for 20 dollars for the bulk.

 

Dose of Colors - This table was crowded i didn't know if the Anastasia line was also meshed in.  But I follow #doseofcolors on instagram and I was always fascinated by the color payout of thei lip products.  I went bold and picked up their purple fusion lip gloss that technically doesn't look so bad with flash photography.  I saw I picked and paid,  the process was fast.  So fast my friend Annette didn't even open the stabursts and jolly ranchers they had on the table.  I picked up these two products for 25.

 

Cinema Secrets - I have always loved Cinema Secrets.  Their Ultra Creme Foundations offer a long line of different color ranges.  Their foundation fills in my pores and blanks out my canvas face and still look natual and can be made long lasting with setting powder.  Love Love Love.  Also this is the ONLY foundation that matches my skin tone perfectly without have to darken or lighten with highlight or bronzer.  So my goal was get the bigger version of my color CS 603-21.  i got it for 20 bucks ( no tax charged here) :)

 

 

Skindinavia -  This was an impulse buy.  I didn't like that smaller unknown vendors were smashed into larger vendors.  My money and attention was was divided, sometimes between three people.  I picked this up at the Alcone Table.  I never had a skindinavia product though I know that they are the ones who do the popular Urban Decay setting spray.  I wish I had to chance to ask,  but the woman was in sales mode so she kept spraying and showing me bottles.  If I picked up the big bottle she threw in a sample size of their newest mattifying primer spray. ( Set to come out in FULL Size this year) Free products will get me every time.

Chella  -  Awe I did't feel bad.  No one was at their table everyone wanted to actually wait hours to go to the Anastasia table.  But in my previous post I said that they are simple and that is what I liked.  I knew that they were there as a late add to IMATS and I hopefully made them feel better that I told them that I like them better than Anatasia.  So I just picked up a light brown pencil and clear gel.  Each retails for 18 dollars each.  But together that give it to me for 20.

 

So Blogreaties that is my haul.  Doing this haul actually made me go through what was bought and how much I spent which was a ballpark  total figure of 286 dollars!  It turns out that Nigels didn't give a discount like I hoped to, and some charged sale tax.  I guess I was too nice and naive to make a scene to get the discounts that were advertised.  IMATS was so big I guess I didn't realize the amount of money that I was passing.  I don't mean that I straight gave the wrong amount that was asked of me, but that I wasn't thinking that hey I am getting so some much did you really think of the price of each item to see if its at discount?

  For those that are going to the other ones, BE AWARE!  Just like a responsible spender,  check your receipt.  Take the time and ignore the vendors and people waiting in line to go over the products you are purchasing.  It really is good customer service.

 

Thanks to many good vendors I will now look into their products and probably become frequent buyer, like Dose of Colors, Chella and bad ass Stencils. Yet to the bad, I know that my small little blog and pocket book it not even a drop in the bucket to the kind of sale you all do but I will definitely look into better alternatives. Thumbs down to Nigel's Beauty Emporium and Face Atelier.

 Imats was a great day that I encourage every makeup lover to experience.  I don't feel as bad because being screwed was an experience in itself.  It is not often where I will be in a physical place that offers many different brands that cannot be readily found at store.  But there is always next time.  Maybe now i might look into other,  maybe smaller shows that will help get my feet wet.  Annette (one of my Imat entourage friends) told me that there was a international salon and spa expo in Long Beach.

 

So keep reading blogreaties,  I should really do individual reviews on the products and give you my straight opinion.   I haven't been able to play with my makeup as much as I wanted to.  Maria and I got sick right after IMATS  and myself, Maria and Annette started work from the winter break that next Tuesday, It took alot out of me to test stuff and post.  But it's 2014 and will keep the momentum  going wish me luck.  

 

 

 

 

 

Urban Decay Shattered Face Case

I love palettes.  I love combination palettes even more.  It makes putting on my face easier and leaves more room in my make up bag. The Urban Decay Sahttered Face Case is a sleek double-layer compact. The case contains five NEW shades of eye shadow exclusive for this case, two shades of blush, a highlighter, a Super-Saturated High Gloss Lip Color and a travel-size 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil.

• Eyeshadow: Nameless (medium gray-brown satin), Remix (rich purple shimmer with tonal micro-glitter), Shakedown (rich brown-gunmetal satin), Minor Sin (champagne-pink satin) and Bleach (yellow-beige matte).
• Blush: Overexposed (dusty rose) and Temper (soft baby pink).
• Highlighter: Glint (soft pink-champagne shimmer).
• Lip Color: Lovechild (cool pink cream).
• Eye Pencil: Zero (zealous black cream).

 

The shadows are very pigmented.  Duh! it's Urban Decay. A make up artist can definitely create some looks as for someone like me who is still learning,  I think I may need to add a few more shades from my collection.  But in the pics you see (above) this is using just THIS palette. Originally this palette was 44 dollars.  A little bit out of my comfort zone.  I think I wasn't alone in this,  and Urban Decay noticed too.  The company reduced the product to 29 dollars thats down by more than 30 percent from the orinal price.

 

Its a great palette if you want something simple and you are on the go,  yet for the makeup enthusiast you can skip this and look into something else.

New from Too Faced

So I put myself on a no makeup buying pact until IMATS in January.  I have to make it, there is no excuse, that is less than a month to go.  So with that,  I got another package from sephora!  (I happen to order it before the no makeup pact,  I really did)

I happen to try out the new Sephora VIB Rouge free shipping and got the new Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eyeshadow palette that has been seen by us enthusiast on Instagram and facbook.

It's surprisingly BIG.  It reminds me of the old school metal pencil boxes we use to carry in our backpacks in elementary school.  Since it is so cute, I will wait to pry it open to see how deep the product goes.

 

All of the colors are brown toned with exceptions to gold purple and green.  TooFaced eyeshadows are very well pigmented.  Please someone comment if I am the only one on this but I think that my tooface eyeshadows dry out and creates a lot of fall out.  Is it just me?  I dunno. 

 

Yet I hope that this palette will not dry out my eyeshadows so it can extended the life of these shadows.  If browns are your favorite color schemes for your eyes you are going to love this.  Finally how can I neglect to write on the smell of . . .you guessed right CHOCOLATE!  It's the same smell TooFaced uses for their Chocolate Soleil bronzer.  I wish they amped up the smell just a bit more, but with shadows names like Triple Fudge and Ameretto it blends with my senses making me crave the sweet stuff.

 

 

EmCosmetics Haul

Did you "blogreaties" take advantage of the discount deal on EmCosmetics? (emcosmetics.com)  I took full advantage, spend 100 get 50 off.  Yes,  Tis the season everyone has made deals on makeup.

 

EmCosmetics is the brain brand of YouTube Beauty Guru, Michelle Phan.  The makeup line is manufactured by L'Oreal and the reviews from the community are split.  I have to admit there are some gems of the line but continue reading and form your thoughts before I type mine.

 

I picked up multiple things from eyeliners, lipsticks, concealer and the iconic "Life Palette"  I bought the life palette when EmCosmetics first came out in April? (I have to check that.)  I was surprised that I received it before the beauty gurus reviewed it.  Michelle Phan has a great heart and is extremely creative so I didn't hesitate to purchase when her makeup came out. 

 

I love the lipsticks and eyeliners.  The lipsticks regardless the name are so pigmented with highly pleasing shades that can be worn by so many people.  The formula is not sticky even their "matte" formula is not drying at all.  I would definitely recommend them.

 

EmCosmetics eyeliners are fabulous and I like these eyeliners better than the Too Faced Perfect Eyes Eyeliner.  Both are very creamy and can be easily smudged for a smokey effect.  Yet the Em liners beat out the too faced in staying power.  Love love love!  These are perfect in the waterline and as a upper and lower liner.

 

 Next is the "Great Cover up" ultimate concealor.  michelle Phan uses this in most of her videos to conceal her undereyes and blemishes.  I got the concealer in Medium Warm and it is very orange.  I suppose it will work for undereye circles but I realized that I must use this stuff sparingly or i will turn into a ompa loompa.



Distributed By Paramount Pictures

 



Below is the "Life Palette" in Day.  The palette is the most neutral palette that i thought would benefit me the most.  Color payout? 50/50  The concept was great, the execution and quality needs to go back to the labs.    I would avoid the "Life Palette"  especially with a pricetag of a whopping 79 dollars.  Yikes.  Whoa stay tuned for my Perfect Palette Tag because this will be the one I regret.

Sephora Haul

 

It’s here! It’s here!  Previously I mentioned two things the 20 dollar gift card from Sephora and the search for the Naked 3 Palette.  Well I killed two birds with one stone as the saying goes and I used the gift card on the Naked 3 Palette!  Finally it’s here.  Of course I can never get just one product from Sephora.  This is a haul.  

Besides the Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette,  I picked up the Jack Black "It's the Balm" Lip balm quad and the Bite Beauty "The Lip Kit.  I will tell you all about it.

Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette - Okay i know us makeup junkies have already seen all the swatches and video reviews from all of our makeup gurus on this product.  So yes I did give in and bought the palette,  yes I am weak.  But I have to admit I really do like it.  I would say the reviews were right,  if you like rosy gold combination eye looks you will love this.  I am, so i do.  I thought that this would have a rose matte color for blending but it doesn't.  But I will just end with that I have it and I will probably  look into repurchasing the orignal Naked Palette.  Only due to my slight OCD in me that I would prefer to have a complete set.  People don't give away your stuff without talking it over first.

Bite Beauty "The Lip Kit"  (38.00 USD)- I love Bite Beauty lipsticks.  I first fell in love with Bite at Sephora's little small last minute travel section near the cash register.  i bought their single dual color stick.  Loved it.  So i picked up "The Lip Kit"  that has various shades for every lip color taste.  I liked it beause their shades are wearable for someone liek me who like nuetral subtle shades.  For the 38 dollar price tag you would asssume that a bit pricey.  But think about it 38 bucks for eight lip sticks, thats 4.75 a color.  That is cheaper then most drugstore lipsticks.  I don't even count the finish as matte either but not glossy either.  These are so hydrating and these made my lips so soft even after wiping off the colors eight times in a row to take these pics.

Row1Left to Right (Rose, Palomino) Row2 (Mulberry, Retsina)Row3 (Pomegranate, Musk) Row4 (Pepper, Apricot)

Jack Black "its the Balm" Lip Quad -  Can you belive this is actually the second time and second edition of this line?  I love this stuff.  I originally picked this up for my husband bacause he had real bad cracked lips.  It was so bad that sometimes it would bleed, eww.  So i picked up the fist exclusive from Sephora last year fell in love with the flavors and blends that I had to pick up the second edition.  I know what you are thinking, its a freakin lip balm, spending 7 bucks a tube is pointless, right?  So worth it people.  The blends or "flavors" are more appetizing and natural then the typical chapsticks and blams that one would usually use.  It's really hard to explain but its very different.

Coastal Scents Haul

It finally came!
In a previous post I stated that I took advatage of the 50% off sale on Coastal Scents.(coastalscents.com) After a wait and a first delivery attempt by Fedex on the 9th, I finally got my package today (Dec. 10th)  So I am making note,  that Coastal Scents technically took eleven delivery days for me to recieve my package.  Now I don't know if that is normal because I put in my order the day before Thanksgiving.  But hey this is my first blog haul, so let me show you what I got.

This was on my doorstep.  It was such a cute packaging, printed with a pretty bow!

 

Left is the Fall Festival Palette.  This is a 12 pot palette that holds Coastal Scents choice of their Fall colors.  I thought it was a good deal and I can change out the colors and make my own blend, if need be.  The far right is the 6 contour blush palette 6 huge pan that is perfect for bronzing, contouring, highlighting and blush.

 This is Coastal Scents newest product, Bright Eyed concealer.  I picked up their light and medium.  As you can tell from my picture the colors are very different but produced very surprising results.  The light shade had  more of a pinky shade and the medium was more of a traditional medium color with slight orange tone.  The consistency was liquidy but not runny.  Below you can see the slight results on my undereyes.  The right of the picture has the medium the left is the light.  The light shade did a far better job of not only concealing my under eyes but it also brightened.

 

The rest were some other things that I wanted.  I picked up a 28 empty palette for my hot pots.  Still need to make sure if I have enough pots to fill it.  I picked up a few brushes.  Two are dome shaped to buff my shadow on my eyelids.  Finally a girl like me can find so many things to do with coconut oil, need it for the winter season.

 I love everything that I got.  Now its time to play and I will make some looks.  Wish me luck and I hope you consider looking into Coastal Scents for your next haul.

 

 

Coastal Scents Haul! Coming Soon!

I had to take advantage of the 50% off entire site on Coastal Scents.  If you are not familiar with Coastal Scents, it sells quality makeup items for affordable prices.  Many say it’s like BH Cosmetics but I don’t think so.  I actually think Coastal Scents offers a lot more.  This is why I had to take advantage of the sale.  Quality matches some drugstore and high-end brands, depending on what you are buying.  I personally picked up many shadow pots to put in my z-palettes. Also I ordered  their new brightening concealer that I hope to try out.  I will post my Coastal Scents haul as soon as it comes.  I am blogging my finding on how quick Coastal Scents ships. 

http://www.coastalscents.com/

Make Note:  Placed order on the Coastal Scents website on Wednesday November 27^th.  The site did not make note on any special timelines for the black Friday or holiday orders. So I am expecting that it will arrive on time.  I am crossing my fingers.

DEFINITION - Shadow Pots:  Color pigments pressed into a small metal pan.  Pots can be placed into palettes to create creative combinations of looks.