Cold and flu season is officially here! I’m excited for them to try out the new humidifer from Vicks. It is cool mist so I don’t have to worry about them putting their hands near it and getting burned. It has little packets that will emit scents to help get them to sleep or congestion. But the real plus is the cute animals it projects on the ceiling. So cute!
A couple of months ago the teasers came out for the new holiday Hourglass Ambient Edit palette. I was one of the first to order it when it came out on Sephora, as part of my “makeup revamp, so let’s spend a fortune”. I don’t normally wear powder. My 36 year old skin doesn’t do well with it. They say once you’re in your 30s that powder is not really a good idea because it shows wrinkles by settling in, and that seemed the case for me with every one I’ve tried.
On my research quest I found that Hourglass was unique in offering powders based on the most flattering lights. Dim Light (first one-top row) seems to be the most popular. It’s supposed to give a dewy glow to the skin, lighting from within. Well, sign me up for whatever that is! I had never tried Hourglass so I liked the idea of 6 different products in one – 3 powders, 1 bronzer and 2 blushes.
As they arrived the reviews were pretty negative. Not that the product was bad but the value wasn’t there and it was too small for brushes. The palette is $80 and it’s a $48 value based on price per ounce. But I believe when you’re getting multiple products in one that that also offers value so I was still excited for mine.
I, however, had no trouble getting a brush in. I use a Viseart blush brush that works perfect, I use a big fluffy eyeshadow blending brush for the lighter powder that is supposed to go well under the eyes as a concealer and setting powder and I use a kabuki for the bronzer and big fluffy brush that I mush a little to fit in the two powders. I don’t have any problems using it with brushes that I already owned. This is great for travel too; having 3 products in one compact.
I love everything about this palette and I’m using it daily. I used to only use Nars Orgasm blush and it’s now been replaced by these two blushes. One is more pink and the other more plum. The bronzer is perfect for my light skin, gives it a soft bronze glow. I love all the powders, but some more than others. The center pink shimmery powder is exclusive to the palette, called Iridescent Light. It is more shimmery than the other two. I have plans on buying Dim Light in the full size. I like that powder the best and I feel like I will go through that one fairly quickly, so I want to save whats in this palette for traveling.
I have very dry skin and I’ve heard some people complain it enhanced that. I do not see that at all. All I can think is maybe they’re not moisturizing their skin before applying makeup. Because my skin is like the desert and requires a lot of moisturizer so if I’m ok with it then everyone should be. And I’m happy to say I can finally wear powder again without it enhancing wrinkles. It really gives you a beautiful glow to your skin. I’ve definitely become a fan of Hourglass after this palette. Retails for $80 and Sephora is having a VIB 20% on November 13-16, 2015 with code VIB20 so you can get it for $64!
My makeup bills have quickly shot up lately and I don’t dare add them up. It was a necessary evil though as I felt my makeup was getting boring and my looks stale. I love makeup, but I don’t love makeup enough to have 50 palettes and 100 lipsticks and every new thing that comes out. I like quality over quantity. Yes, I own about 12 YSL lip stains but then I only have a few other lipsticks and that’s it.
So 3 months ago I started doing a lot of research into new makeup to see what was good and worth the investment to revamp my style. I fell into Tom Ford simply from a perfume sample that came in my Sephora order. It was Tom Ford Noir and I loved it, and I bought it. I had never strayed from what I believed was my signature scent, Burberry Classic. I knew Tom Ford recently went into makeup and had even pinned some lipsticks but $52 seemed like a lot at the time.
So I started looking into Tom Ford quads. At $80 each it’s a big investment. Is it worth the price? Yes, I found out. I watched a lot of videos, swatches and first bought Silvered Topaz (will review separately). I loved it. So when I went to buy a second one I kept seeing that Cocoa Mirage was their best seller. I quickly dismissed it because it looked sooo boring. Just some browns, mostly matte. But it kept popping up and I kept seeing videos and liking the results. One of the things I was also trying to get away from was always doing bronzey shimmers, basically anything with glitter. I needed mattes. I lacked those greatly, so I drank the kool-aid and bought cocoa mirage.
From the onset it looks just like plain browns but it’s more than that. You really do get what you pay for when you buy Tom Ford. If you’re like me, I have super sensitive skin, as well as my eyes. Any little fall out makes my eyes go red and irritated. Tom Ford literally has no fall out. They are creamy and buttery. You can apply them lightly or heavy for my dramatic looks. So with four simple colors you can do endless looks. I’m enjoying trying more matte looks, but I have to say that one shimmer brown in the quad is a real winner. Sometimes I just wear that on the lid for a simple smoky eye and it builds up really nice. It is a coppery brown with just the right amount of shimmer. Temptalia ranked it an A and I agree. Cocoa Mirage is not boring. It is a high quality quad that has many looks and is amazing quality to justify the price.
I swipped about three times and you can see where the edges of the swipe are lighter and the center more bold. So you can see how the color builds up nicely.
I love this new monthly subscription company that is all about trying new perfumes. It is for both men and women and it’s called Scentbird. For $14.99 a month you receive a 8ml bottle of designer perfume. And for my followers you can use code Coco25 and get 25% off your first months subscription! So you take a quiz that helps you narrow down your preferences, you also insert your favorite brands, perfumes you’ve liked in the past and it gives you a list of perfumes that would be good for you to try based on the information you entered.
Now my biggest issue with perfume is I’m allergic to a lot of them — too much floral gives me a blinding headache. I wasn’t sure this avenue of finding a perfume was going to work because of it. I chose more “fruity” and “spicy” perfumes rather than “floral”. I did the quiz and set up and it lead me to try Gucci Guilty and I LOVE IT! There are over 350 scents to choose from……Burberry, Marc Jacobs, Bvlgari, Dior, Ralph Lauren, Tom Ford, Chloe, Coach….and the list goes on and on.
Your first month’s subscription gives you this cute little black case that twists to push the bottle up and down. The vial slides in and out of the black case. An instruction card is included. You rate the perfume after you’ve tried it and it gives you new options. You add the ones you’d like to try to your perfume queue and they select a new perfume each month from your list. The size is perfect for traveling and it’s cheaper than the rollerballs you buy at Sephora and Ulta.
Tom Ford is next on my list to try! And this is going to make my life so much easier with TSA on my next vacation. 🙂
It seems kind of a joke that Sephora named their rewards system, where users had banked between 1,000 to 10,000 points their “Epic” Rewards when it was a complete and utter epic failure. Users, like myself, were disappointed by what Sephora promised to be amazing gifts. They’ve been getting everyone geared up leading into Epic Rewards by offering 2x/3x/4x points on all purchases. It was a good strategy too. It led to an amazing surge in sales by women trying to bump up their beauty point banks and score some of the amazing gifts being offered (I have the full list below). Gifts ranged from Nars and Dior to a trip to Paris. If you’ve worked hard to reach Rouge status and you had a bunch of points just waiting this was the time to get amazing gifts. Except Sephora completely screwed it up.
First, they refused to give an official launch time. Women sat waiting, some waiting all night. Some time before noon they tweet that it was launching soon but couldn’t say when. And then….it was gone, all gone. If you had something in your cart, it was taken out; if you tried to checkout you were logged out and your items were removed. Everything was gone in mere seconds leading a lot of people to wonder….just how many of these rewards did they actually have? Because it seems NO ONE is happy. And to add insult to injury, they have the nerve to say “Well, you can still get your 100, 250, 500 points value gifts”. You mean the crap women have been passing on repeatedly and that’s why their points are so high? Yeah, no thanks. How about letting women cash in points for a gift certificate? Sephora better come up with something soon. Because the only person who scored Sephora’s EPIC REWARD was Ulta, and that’s handing all its best customers to another store.
Here is a breakdown of what was offered and their estimated values:
| Reward | Description | Value |
| 1,000 | Givenchy-Le Rouge | $144 + bag |
| 1,000 | Becca | $186 |
| 1,000 | Dr Dennis Gross | $156 |
| 1,000 | Smashbox | $157 |
| 1,000 | Fresh | $150 + booklet |
| 1,000 | Bumble and Bumble | $157 + extras |
| 1,000 | Anastasia Beverly Hills | $170.50 + signature |
| 1,000 | Dior | $208 |
| 2,000 | NARS | $59 + $40 + signature |
| 2,000 | Yves Saint Laurent | $610 |
| 2,000 | Sephora | $425 |
| 2,000 | Skin, Inc. | $310 |
| 2,000 | KVD | $428 + box + signature |
| 2,000 | Bobbi Brown | $257 + bag |
| 2,000 | Benefit | $186 + bags |
| 2,000 | Stila | $264 + bag + booklet |
| 5,000 | Georgio Armani | $816 + bag |
| 5,000 | Elizabeth and James | $1,010 |
| 5,000 | Formula X | $800 |
| 5,000 | Too Faced | $588 + 2x Bag + 2xNecklace |
| 5,000 | Drybar | $575 |
| 5,000 | Tarte | $725 |
| 5,000 | Tory Burch | $898 |
| 10,000 | Marc Jacobs | Bag: ~$2,000 + $692 makeup |
| 10,000 | MUFE – NYC Trip | $596 makeup + trip + class |
| 10,000 | Glamglow – LA Trip | $531 + trip + tour |
| 10,000 | Chloe | $563 in beauty + ~$1500 accessories |
| 10,000 | Viktor & Rolf | Previous sold at Neiman Marcus
for $2,500 USD |
| 10,000 | Lancome – Paris Trip | $200 giftcards + ~$200 products + trip
(minimally, flights from the US to Paris usually start around $1,000 each. |
| 10,000 | Bvlgari | $465 beauty + ~$2,000 bag |
Rocksbox is this great jewelry service that will send you three pieces of jewelry based on a style survey you complete. Each box is curated specifically towards you and what you like to wear. You wear them, return them when you’re done and they’ll send you three more pieces out. You also have your own personal wishlist that you can add items to, so they know exactly what you’d like to try out. I’ve kept boxes they’ve sent me for four weeks and some four days. I’ve received some amazing Kendra Scott pieces in my Rocksbox at discount prices. So if you like what you receive they will sell it to you at a discounted price. They also give you a $10 credit each month to go towards the jewelry you want to keep in addition to the discount. So keep it or wear it and return it.
I think the best thing is that it gives you a chance to change up your jewelry without committing to buying it. Sometimes I buy jewelry thinking it’s a great piece and wear it a few times and then I’m bored and it never really sees daylight again. So this way I can wear my Rocksbox jewelry a week or whatever and then send it back for a whole different set of options.
Rocksbox has been kind enough to extend a free month to all my readers! Just use code “cocoforbeautyxoxo” to get a free month of jewelry.
Here are a few pictures of boxes I’ve received and also how I styled a few of the pieces.
This Lauren Hope necklace was such a beautiful color! I didn’t keep it but it was fun to “borrow” it for a couple of weeks.
This CC Skye necklace I kept and I wear it almost daily. CC Skye is this amazing edgy jewelry designer. I have a pair of her earrings on my wishlist right now.
They try to taper each box so the pieces work together. In this picture I was sent the earrings, necklace and cuff in one box and it all worked beautifully together. This Lauren Hope cuff I ended up keeping.
Watch out Birchbox and Ipsy! Sephora is launching their own beauty box called “Play!” And that single word alone describes what I feel every time I enter a Sephora. It is my playground. It’s a place I don’t feel pressured to buy, don’t feel pressured to purchase all from one particular brand. I get to play with products and buy what truly works for me.
Sephora entering into this market seems like a no-brainer. The land of the free sample and deluxe samples for points. I wonder if they will do a play on Birchbox’s service where you give feedback and earn credit toward full size products? Save my points and buy an expensive lipstick or eye shadow pallet?! I’m only guessing but it does seem like a likely approach since that is the reason a lot of Birchbox subscribers stay with the company after receiving seriously small samples that are usually given for free. I cancelled my Birchbox months ago after receiving several boring boxes (I don’t want to sample toothpaste, gum and pens).
Sephora’s Play! will contain five beauty products, cost $10 and contain products based around a particular theme. For September the theme is “Uncover the Essentials”. The box will include a Sephora Collection Rouge Infusion lip gloss, a Marc Jacobs Beauty Highlighter eyeliner, an Ole Henriksen Sheer Transformation Face Crème, a Bumble and bumble Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil and a Glamglow Supercleanse cleanser. A Spotify playlist is also included in the contents. Play! is rolling out to the lucky cities: Boston, Columbus and Cincinnati with only 10,000 boxes available. The brand plans to expand to additional cities throughout the US in 2016. Each box will include a “Play! Book” offering beauty tricks and fun facts about the products. Customers will also be about to access content through the Sephora app. It will give customers a one-on-one tutorial on how to use the products.
Until Play! officially launches, I do have a couple of beauty boxes I’m loving!
Glossybox is a high-end beauty box. You get deluxe and full size products and your box is valued at around $100 each month. The cost is $21 a month and very well worth it. Here is a past box
Another new box line is Boxy Charm. They work with the same model as Glossybox, same price, same amount of high end products and they range in value from $100-125 each box. Here is a recent box. I am obsessed with the brow duo and brush!
After launching a successful nail polish line last year, the world famous shoe designer, Christian Louboutin is launching a line of lipsticks this fall. The line features 36 shades in three different textures – Silky Satin, Velvet Matte, and Sheer Voile – all which are inspired by Louboutin handbags and shoes.
The problem? They’re $90 a lipstick! Ouch! This will certainly hurt my wallet. I love high end beauty products and have been known to have quite a few $35 Yves Saint Laurent lippies, but $90 may be too steep for my blood. I did fall victim to the $50 nail polish in classic Louboutin red and it’s nice, but I don’t think it was worth $50. The bottle is pretty bulky and doubles as a self-defense weapon.
The lipstick cases do look like little works of art. I love the one that looks like a mermaid tail. The cap comes with a small ring at the top through which a ribbon is threaded, so you can turn it into a necklace. Well, I guess there’s justification to the price….it doubles as a necklace.
Christian Louboutin says “This precious object will be coveted by others. Suggesting a purse full of rare and precious stones that could have been discovered in Ali Baba’s cave, it will arouse lust and desire…and is made to be stolen.” Made to be stolen? Great! Now I have to take out insurance on my lipsticks too? This lipstick is getting more and more expensive by the minute. Lol
There are 20 shades in the Silky Satin collection, which offers a medium-to-full-coverage lip color with a satin finish and hint of shine. Velvet Matte features nine colors, is highly pigmented, and has a soft, matte finish. Sheer Voile also comes in nine shades, with a sheer finish for a veil of color with “luminous shine.”
And, because no color collection would be complete without it, each collection contains a signature Rouge Louboutin shade as one of its offerings. Those signature shades will be housed in a black lacquer case, unlike the rest of the line’s golden packaging.
The colors do look amazing! Hopefully Sephora will be quick to follow and you can demo them there. But for now, the lipsticks will be available in September at Saks.
It’s over 100 degrees every day here in Texas. I’m loving beach days but I am ready for fall, my FAVORITE season. It’s almost time for “pumpkin everything”! I’m missing my dark nail polishes, so it was exciting to see the new Fall 2015 Essie Collection. When is it available? Now! Ulta has the entire collection available online and if you spend $17 on nail polish you get a free top coat! I went on a nail polish spending freeze about 8 months ago (well, I did buy maybe one bottle but that doesn’t count) in order to clear out and actually use what I already have. Essie is my favorite polish brand, so at least 70% is all Essie. I’ve cleared out a good dozen bottles of polish over this time so I have room for new ones.
I’m liking “Leggy Legend” which is a copper/gold depending on how it hits the light. I also like “in the lobby” which is a purple that looks a little matte. And “bell-bottom blues” is a really pretty shiny blue tone.
You can purchase these now at Ulta!
The Target Beauty Box is back – $7 includes shipping. It is valued at over $35. Boxes are very limited and sell out extremely fast. Here is a full list and description of the products that are included. There are two full size products and the rest are samples or deluxe sized samples. These boxes sell out super fast and are limited in number, so don’t wait.
Covergirl Super Sizer Mascara by Lashblast – plumps lashes 400% fuller with a unique load and comb brush – full size, $5.99
Clairol Hair Food Moisturizing Mask – deep cleansing mask removes dulling residues to reveal luster and shine. I have used this product before and it made my hair really soft. The reviews on this are excellent. This one item alone more than pays for the box – Full size, $11.99
Fekkai Pre-Soleil Hair Mist – a pre-sun spray that helps protect your hair from sun damage while also boosting shine. I’ve used this before and it’s great for sun protection, very hydrating! This looks to be a deluxe size sample – full size is $19.99
Two Olay face products in sample sizes – Moisturizing Toner and Day Lotion
Crest 3D Whitestrips 1hr Express – teeth whitening strips to remove stains – looks like you get one or two of these.
COCO for Beauty Blog 