Well it's officially December, and as the year winds down I thought I'd toss out some holiday recommendations to glam out your makeup bags just in time for the holidays. Fortunately, stores like Sephora, Ulta, Nordstroms's and Bloomingdales are chock full of great holiday sets, as well as freebies with purchase. I just tried a slew of new items pictured below, including new mascara, blush, bronzer, exfoliant, liquid liner, and so much more. Here are a few recommendations for fellow beauty junkies:
First off, when it comes to specialty sets and gift boxes, Sephora stills reigns supreme. This year my favorite combo was aptly titled, the "Super Stars" box. Get this: Not only does it have a TON of great products to try, but many of them are full size! For $75 you get the following:
1: Make Up For Ever HD Microfinish Powder in travel size. This is an absolute staple for makeup artists working in HD TV and film today. It's the ultimate in setting and oil controlling powder, has no color, no texture and leaves no trace on the skin.
2: Sephora Collection Microsmooth Baked Eyeshadow Trio in Sunset. A great blend of bronze, gold and pale peach suitable for virtually all eye colors. You literally can't go wrong.
3: Yup, the ubiquitous Nars Blush in Orgasm in FULL SIZE! Works on ALL skintones!
4: Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer which glides on like BUTTER and leaves your skin matte-a-licious. This size is definitely good for a month's worth of priming.
5: Kate Somerville ExfoliKate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment in travel size. Gentle and TSA approved.
6: Josie Maran 100% Pure Argan Oil. This product is heavenly and is touted for use on face, hands, feet and hair!
7: Benefit They're Real! Mascara in full size. An awesome brush for gigantic lash volume.
8: Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Polish in Dolly
feels extremely hydrating, is a basic mauve that will work for all lip tones, and has a nice dose of slightly minty tingle.
9: Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner. It's jet black, idiot proof to apply, and glides like the perfect felt pen.
10: Chloé Rollerball; my second favorite fragrace EVER! If you like Stella, you'll love Chloe! A perfect purse size for touch ups at night!
Next on my hot list is Urban Decay's Naked 2 pallette. Another great Sephora buy, you can score the perfect mixture of shimmer, frost and matte shadows in all neutral/smokey tones, plus double sided brush and additional, travel gloss for $50. Not a bad price for so much color!
Urban Decay has also converted me from my favorite MAC Powerpoint pencils to their 24/7, waterproof glide on's. While I'm wild about the black and brown, this set gives you a great range of colors to play with, and at $38 it's a steal! I love using these puppies both for lining and shading as a creme eyeshadow. The black is inky, and the other colors are infinitely wearable.
Now, if you've read my beauty reviews you may know that I've become a HUGE fan of YSL's loose, finishing powder. But if you're in the market to try their amazing, new Touche Eclat Foundation, their famous Touche Eclat highlighting pen, their cleansers, fragrances, or anything else luxurious, take advantage of their free gift going on right now at Nordstrom, where you'll nab a free mascara, exfoliator, eye creme and serum when you purchase $125 worth of product.
A new found fave of mine hails from Laura Mercier. On the hunt last week for a subtle new blush and fairer bronzer for winter, I tested and fell in love with Laura Mercier's Bronzing Pressed Powder in Golden
Bronze, (although matte bronze is the ubiquitous favorite) as well as her Second Skin Cheek Color in Rose Petal. (Here I am wearing these colors this morning). And if you go to Bloomingdales, you can try out a fabulous set which includes said bronzer and the extremely similar, Pink Lotus blush, plus three shadows, gloss, and cake liner for only $48! (Pictured below).
Spend your hard earned dough on Laura products at Bloomingdales and with an $85 purchase they'll also throw in a free gift set with Laura Tinted Moisturizer in Nude, Lip Glacé in Bare Beige, Bronzing Pressed Powder in Dune, (a GREAT summer color) and Almond Coconut Body Crème!
Finally, there's another great way to sample new beauty items and get travel and sample sizes for holiday travel. Two great sites, Beautybar.com and Ipsy, send their members a bag with deluxe, sample size products every month for the bargain basement price of $15 and $10 respectively. Sign up, check in on the kinds of products you like, and you'll get a goody bag monthly for the price of a cup of Starbucks and a drugstore deodorant. (You can check out their latest boxes at
IPSY and
BEAUTYBAR to see what they've got to offer).
And finally, a big thank you to all the readers who entered last month's giveaway. The lucky winner of the makeup combo set is Emily, who's number was generated through Random.org. Thanks so
much for checking out this contest and please keep reading for more free
stuff coming up before the new year! In the meantime, happy beauty shopping!
With Love,
Noa B
Enter the little, white blouse/black pants combo... 
Lots of layered gold and camo heels give this a touch of color. 
