Tag Archives: le couvent des minimes

Buying Stuff: Episode 18

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Today is my husband’s birthday, and to celebrate, I bought myself some stuff.  Because I have to go take him to see that dang Planet of the Apes show, and I tried to convince him it’s cool to go the the theater by yourself but he wouldn’t agree, so now I am forced to watch a boy movie for 11 hours straight.  Give or take 9 hours or so.

In other words, all things below immediately and undeniably JUSTIFIED.

First up:

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I was running out of cleansing milk – you know, what they call an emergency – so I thought I’d try something new.  Picked up the Le Couvent des Minimes version.  I haven’t used it yet because per usual, I think I’m about out of a product so I rush around to get my replacment ready, when suddenly my almost empty tube replicates itself and I get another two weeks of use out of it.  I did smell it, and it’s a very delicate rose scent.  I squeezed a little onto my fingers to discover the consistency is quite loose.  Not sure how I feel about that, as I like a thicker cleansing milk, but we’ll see.  I’m almost certain I have only 1 or 2 days left of my current product, as long as the planets are aligning properly as they should.

Then I got the Lorac Pro 2 eyeshadow palette.  I already have the first one, and it’s amazing and beautiful, so naturally I had to grab the little sister.  This time around, the shades are quite colorful versus the more neutral shadows of #1.  And as expected, this palette is perfect.  Using the same concept from before, there is a row of mattes and a row of shimmers.  The shadows are pigmented, buttery, smooth, glorious.  I am so happy I bought it.  If you have just $42 and you’re wondering what to do with it, stop thinking and put this in your basket.  No, I’m serious.  Do it right now.

Fine, here’s a close up first:

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I have been using Light Brown or Nectar in my crease, which are both great.  And the shades Rose, Chrome and Jade are beautiful lid colors.  Love Cocoa, Plum and Navy in the outer V.  Honestly, you won’t regret getting this palette unless you hate perfection.  I mean people are weird, sometimes.  But if you are a normal human and do as I tell you, you’ll be sitting home on Saturday night playing with your makeup while all your cool (stupid) friends are out having “fun.”  Such fools.

Perhaps one of the funnest (most fun?) lipglosses I’ve ever owned is Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie in the shade Hypnotist.  It looks like the future, like something Judy Jetson would wear.  That’s not even a joke.  Look:

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How pretty is that?  Who doesn’t want an iridescent lipgloss? (Crazy people.) However, I will say that this lipgloss doesn’t do a whole lot on it’s own. It’s mostly clear with shine. It fares slightly better on top of lipstick. Gave my nude lipstick a bit of extra dimension although nothing crazy. In fact, it’s more of a novelty than anything else. I don’t mind it. It’s pretty to look at, smells like mint chocolate, and feels good on the lips. I will most likely repurchase cuz I enjoy spending money on pretty things that don’t work. You probably should too.

I know. I’m ridiculous. But my lipgloss is holographic so try arguing with that. (You can’t.)

Picked up this batch too:

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I’ve never used any of the Body Shop body butters before, and Ulta had them on sale for 40% off. And naturally I can’t walk away from a good coupon, so I put the coconut one in my basket. This smells so good, like summer and the beach. Can’t wait to start using it, but as usual I’m constantly trying to finish up other products first. Hopefully I’ll get to it by the end of the month.

I’ve been feeling a little oily this summer so for the first time in my life I’m buying products to fix it. I have a few sheets of some Tatcha Japanese blotting linens left, and I really love them. Figured I’d try something different, especially cuz the Tatcha ones are kind of pricey. Decided on these little NYX matte ones. And guess what? Do not like. Of course I wouldn’t since they’re practically free compared to the other ones.

First of all, the packaging is awkward. It’s not easy to remove the papers. I have to unfold the whole packet and then put it all back together. It takes too much energy. If the choice is to remain oily or break a sweat fiddling with the dang packet thing, I suppose oily isn’t such a bad deal after all.

And second of all, I’m comparing them to the lovely texture of the Tatcha papers, and there’s just no comparison. Granted, the NYX ones are cheap, and Tatcha has made me spoiled.

Long story short, I bought some Boscia papers so I’m gonna try those instead.

I also picked up another NYX Butter Gloss. I own like 7 or 8 of these. That’s probably not a lot compared to some, but I carry them all in my purse so they take up a lot of space. However, I didn’t have a brown so what is there left to do but buy a brown? Got the color Praline and it’s so pretty on top of my nude lipstick.

Then of course at the check out counter they had these sample tubes of Peter Thomas Roth peeling gel. It says right there on the package that your dead skin will roll right off your face. I challenge anyone not to want to buy 15 tubes of this stuff. Seriously, dead skin. Rolling. Right off your face. I can’t even.

I used this the other night, and it really is quite amazing. After washing, apply this gel to your face in circular motions. Quickly, little balls of product and dead skin starts to ball up and fall into the sink. Then afterwards you literally feel as if you replaced your old face for a new one. It’s fantastic. I have a suspicion I’m about two seconds away from buying a full size.

Have you ever wanted a purple lipstick so bad that you ended up buying a purple lipstick? I did, and it was the Make Up For Ever one in #15. Now, the color is gorgeous. It’s true purple. There is a lovely pearl finish. However, the drawback is the formula. It’s so incredibly dry it practically drags across your lips. I have to do extra extra swipes just to cover all the surface area evenly. It was cumbersome and effortful. I had a lot of thinking to do.

Decided to go with it anyway cuz did I mention how bad I wanted a purple lipstick? Sometimes I do things against all practicality. However, it turned out alright in the end. Here is me wearing purple lips topped with the iridescent Hypnotist gloss mentioned earlier:

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Ooooh, purty! Totally worth it. I don’t even care about the formula anymore. I will spend the rest of my life applying this lipstick if the end result looks like this every time.

Last haul is this one:

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Another emergency – I was running out of eye makeup remover. So I thought I’d give this Mario Badescu one a try. It’s a gel, not a liquid, so it’s kind of weird. Also you have to really enjoy smearing black mascara all over your eye socket cuz that’s how you remove it with this stuff. But I will say it works really really well. And when you get it in your eye, it only stings for like 5 seconds. Success!

Then as a gift with purchase, I got this teeny sample of the Mario Badescu glycolic face wash. I had every intention of using it, but you know how I have like 7 or 8 tubes of cleansers in line already? One more might send me into an anxious fit. My daughter has it now. I have to bribe her for two-armed hugs you know.

Replacing my dried up pot of Maybelline gel eyeliner, I got the Napoleon Perdis China Doll one. I used it and it’s very creamy and easy to apply. I like it. Plus it was on sale at Ulta for $15. If I didn’t buy it at that point, I’d be accused of a mental imbalance, for sure.

Got a beautiful matte balm stain from Revlon called Sultry. One of my YouTube beauties raved about it so naturally it went on my wish list. And then about two seconds later I went ahead and bought the dang thing. This color is one of the prettiest I own, and I literally own a billion. Give or take. And this matte formula was not drying on my lips at any point, which was a nice surprise.

And finally, I bought a nail polish. No,
you did not misunderstand what I just said. I thought this Revlon color in Chameleon was so unique, I knew I had to have it. I love how the gold turned to green in different angles. I had never seen another color like it.

Well, sadly, it wasn’t quite as pretty on the nail. Mostly it was an antique gold/bronze and the green wasn’t that evident. A bit of a bummer really. I mean, I freaking bought nail polish; the least it could do was be amazing. Hmmmphf.

Well that’s it. You’re free to go about your weekend as you please. Bye!

Buying Stuff: Episode 13

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Oh look, someone went shopping.  Someone needs the internet taken away.  Someone needs an intervention.

Not me, but someone, probably.

Picked up this pretty little Josie Maran kit:

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I’ll admit, I was tempted primarily because of the floral packaging.  I was not enticed much by buying a box full of argan oil.  However, since it’s here, we’ll make the most of it.  There is a hair oil, which I will use on my ends as I’ve been doing for almost a year now; a cheek and lip tint, which is a pretty pinkish coral; a whipped body butter in the Vanilla Apricot scent, which I haven’t smelled yet, but I can only imagine it is kittens with angel wings floating on clouds; a cleansing oil, which has been used and it works pretty good breaking down makeup but the smell could use some assistance; and their claim-to-fame product, argan oil, which I’ve also used a couple times and was just okay with.

See what packaging does to you?  You buy things you don’t really want or need.  Because I really didn’t want more oil stuff.  I have plenty to last the rest of my life.  But since someone put this in a kit and boxed it up all pretty-like, I immediately MUST HAVE!  In fact, it becomes quite a one-track-mind situation and I won’t rest until I have it in my hot little hands.

Having said that, I do think the cheek color looked nice on me and I will absolutely get use out of it. And the body butter too.  So was it all for naught?  No.  Purchase = justified.  Next!

Whoever came up with the Kohl’s Cash promo deserves a reward, because it is genius.  My hubby and I bought some luggage a few weeks ago (like responsible grown-ups) which earned us $60 in Kohl’s Cash.  They might as well have told me I won the frickin’ lottery, as much as that excited me.  Sixty dollars?!  Oh, the mind was turning already.

Well, apparently, my husband assumed half of that was his because we’re in the store and he’s gone off to shop.  I’m sorry, what?  Since when does he go shopping?  Since Kohl’s gave us $60 for free, that’s when.  I’m trying very hard to let it go, since technically it’s only fair (according to etiquette books; I looked it up), but there was all this emotional turmoil happening and I was on the verge of poking somebody’s eye out.  I mean, I wouldn’t, but I was on the verge.  The very very verge.

Do you know how hard it is to limit yourself to $30?  What am I going to buy for $30?  Even Jesus couldn’t turn all the fish into bread for $30 (Was that a thing? I don’t know what I’m talking about.)  But here’s my best effort:

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This is the theBalm Shady Lady palette.  Pretty neutral purples, grays and browns.  I now own every theBalm palette they are currently selling, so I feel like I’ve completed a collection or something.  Which is a time to celebrate (by sending gift cards) if you ask me.  This palette came with a sample tube of the Put a Lid On It eyeshadow primer.  I used this over the weekend and I like the texture very much.

At this point, my purchase has totalled $40.  I honestly don’t know what hubby is going to do with the $20 I’ve left him.

Next thing I picked up is this eyeshadow duo by Simply Vera Wang:

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This is duo #409 and is a matte rose with a coppery rose metallic.  They are really pretty, but honestly, they looked better in the pan.  I paired it with a cool brown crease color (Bobbi Brown matte shadow in “Toast”), but it looked all muddled together.  I’m going to try again though, do a gray or a purple in the crease for a better contrast.  Maybe do a black on the outer V for further contrast.  I’m very into contrast if you can’t tell.

So now we’re up $20 more dollars, and my purchases officially total $60.  I have no idea what the hubby is going to buy with no money left.

Remember about a week ago when I said I was trying to ignore myself from thinking about purchasing the Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua foundation?  Look how awesome that turned out:

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Well!  I’m very happy right now and that’s all that matters.  I’ve been wearing this foundation all week, and I’m just in love right now.  It’s so pretty, the color is a good match, and it’s also Chanel.  As in Chanel.  I’m an extremely shallow person.

I’ve bought yet another kit of travel skincare to take with me on my trip to Chicago next weekend.  At this rate, I’m going to need another carry-on.

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This is the 29 Cosmetics kit that I got at Target.  It includes a cleanser, serum, day cream, night cream and three toner pads.  I wanted this kit primarily because I have no travel-friendly toner – all mine are over the 3oz maximum.  So naturally, I had to buy an entire kit of stuff.  This makes perfect, logical sense to me.  Don’t even try to argue.

Last batch of goodies is this haul from Beauty.com:

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I got an email from them saying they have free sample jars of the cult classic By Terry Baume de Rose lip balm, and that they’d send me one if I buy $25 worth of stuff.  Well, number one – call your product a “cult classic” and my cat ears perk up immediately.  Number two – that lip balm is $60 in it’s full-size form and I’m almost certain I’d never buy it because it’s freaking lip balm for $60.  And number three – I don’t own anything from By Terry.  Okay, done!  I’ll sign up.

So you can see in the picture my itty bitty baby jar of lip balm.  Isn’t that the preciousest?  I’ve used it a couple times, and the texture of the balm is very soft and lovely.  Definitely a rose smell.  Not hint of rose, essence of rose, or aura of rose.  It’s ROSE.  If you don’t like that smell, don’t buy this.  I feel it’s very nourishing to my lips though.  I’m testing it out (in a very scientific manner) to see if it will keep my lips from peeling every single day.  If it does, I don’t care if it’s $60, I’m buying the full size because that right there would be a dadgum miracle.

Now for what I bought in order to get the free sample is the prettiest packaged thing I’ve ever gotten.  It’s a skincare duo by Le Couvent des Minimes, also in a rose theme.  I got the micellar water (fancy name for toner) and the moisturizer.  Do I need this?  Is the sky blue?  Don’t ask stupid questions.

Well that’s all for now.  Thanks for hanging out with me once again.  I do have another batch of goodies to share, but that’s for another day.  I also have 4 boxes waiting on my porch right now, and I can’t concentrate for shit.  Have a great evening everybody!