I recently returned the bottle of Farsali Unicorn Essence I’d bought a couple weeks ago, because as pretty as it was it just wasn’t agreeing with my skin or doing any particularly spectacular good.
Unfortunately, I am generally pretty powerless to walk into a Sephora and leave without less money and more makeup. So, after returning the absurdly expensive bottle of Stinky Sparkly Pretty Pink Water, I grabbed a few things I’d been eyeing for quite some time, and a few impulse buys.
- Sephora Collection Colorful Eyeshadow in Sailor Kiss and Let It Snow
- Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in Coven (matching lip liner was purchased a while ago)
- Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask (clear)
Now, I have recently started weakening my self-imposed ban on purchasing Kat Von D products. I decided not to give my money to the brand because there are a number of things Kat herself has done that make me quite uncomfortable, some of which is related to her personally and some of which is related to the brand (for example, the naming of certain lipstick shades). But I can’t deny that the products themselves are of impressive quality, and when I can’t find dupes or alternatives elsewhere I occasionally indulge myself.
A while back I’d bought one of the new lip liners, because I needed something pale and purple to go with my Sugarpill Kimchi liquid lipstick. Unfortunately, the Coven lip liner is not a great color match, but I kept it because it’s such a unique and interesting color. I can always use with with other lip products. But I’d been eyeing the Coven lipstick proper for a long time now, and always hesitated to buy it not only because of my KVD no-buy but because I find pale lipsticks tend to look unflattering on me. For some reason, either they slightly changed the formula or the color balance of my face has changed, because now I quite like how it looks on me. Or maybe I just started liking the “undead glamour” aesthetic.
I also finally picked up Bite Beauty’s Agave Lip Mask, the clear version, because I have absurdly dry lips no matter how much I exfoliate. I need to drink more water for sure. Anyway, I’d tried a sample of it a while back and was extremely impressed – a little of it goes a very long way. It’s very moisturizing, absorbs into the lips without leaving a greasy residue, and smells lovely. I also have Bite’s minty lip primer balm, which doesn’t do much for my flaky lips so I always have to remember to exfoliate before using it. With the lip mask I can slap some of that on before my lipstick if I’d forgotten to exfoliate my lips or don’t have time to do it.
I grabbed two Sephora Collection eyeshadows. A simple matte white shadow, which has been missing from my collection, and a dupe for the dark greenish-blue shade from the ABH Subculture palette, which was the colour that initially drew me to the palette. I’d looked for dupes among other brands at Sephora but nothing was the same, either too blue, too green, or too sparkly. Funnily enough, when I walked past the Sephora Collection I glanced at their eyeshadows just in case and found almost a perfect match!! I’m very pleased. And now to find a goldenrod/mustard colour…
Finally, I also got a Sephora brand travel bag for makeup brushes, which I’ve long needed because none of the many pouches I have are long enough for my longer brushes. It was on sale for $9 on the website but was out of stock when I made my last order – usually the online sales don’t extend to in-store products but for some reason, this pouch was also reduced to $9, so I snapped it up! I forgot to put it in the pictures I took of everything else though…
Anyway! Onto the swatches~
wanderlust and jetlag 