Walgreens mini-haul L'Oreal Hair Care Products 01/16/2014

Hi everyone!

I am sorry that this L'Oreal hair care mini-haul is almost a week late, but with the new year there have been a lot of things going on such as car issues and so on. I have not had the time to sit down and type this up. About a week ago my local Walgreens was having a deal where if you spent $20.00+ on L'Oreal products (mine included both hair products as well as makeup products) then you would receive 5,000 pts which is like getting $5.00 plus I found an online coupon where it said if you spent $20.00+ on hair care products then you get $5.00 off plus they were having an in store sale on the products for $3.99 each. I apparently can't do math so I thought I needed to buy 7 products to go over the $20.00 minimum so I grabbed 7 products instead of 6 products. But after all was said and done I think I got a really good deal. Normally each L'Oreal hair product at my store is almost $8.00 each.

It worked out perfectly because I was running low on my first L'Oreal hair product that I bought about a month ago. I had to jump on the deal of trying to get it for $3.99 each. I am really disappointed because my local Walgreens kind of screwed me. My plan was to go in the store to buy 6 L'Oreal Advanced Hair Care Total 5 Repair Damage Erasing Balm so that I could stop up on this product for the next 6 months. That ended up not happening. The first time I went in to the store they only had 1 of the L'Oreal Damage Erasing Balm so I asked when they might be restocking the item and she told me Thursday. So I went there Thursday night and there were only 2 L'Oreal Damage Erasing Balms. I was a bit frustrated. I am not sure if the store did that on purpose or if it is really that hot of a product that I just happened to stumbled upon about a month ago. Although, even though the Walgreens website and the store had stickers that said the L'Oreal products were supposed to be ringing up as $3.99 all rang up at $6.99, but that was fixed after we figured it out. They didn't have a lot of the products in stock and they were ringing up for twice the amount which smells a bit fishy to me.

Because they did not have what I wanted in stock it kind of turned out to be a good thing because I decided to try a couple of new L'Oreal hair care products one of which I actually really like and the other one I have not tried yet. Now I kind of wish I had bought all 6 of the L'Oreal Total Repair Extreme Split Ends Fixer because they had a lot in stock and I really like this product.

I ended up buying:
2 L'Oreal Paris Total Repair 5 Damage Erasing Balms
2 L'Oreal Paris Total Repair 5 Multi-Restorative Dry Oils
2 L'Oreal Paris Total Repair Extreme Split Ends Fixer  (my new favorite product)
1 L'Oreal Paris Smooth Intense Frizz Taming Serum

I hope you enjoyed reading!

Sincerely,
Marina

MAC Prep + Prime Skin Base Visage

Hi everyone!

Back when I was first trying to get into making youtube videos I made a Windows Movie Maker slide show semi-reviewing this product, but I am also going to include a blog about it. From what I remember this product was also included in my first MAC mini-haul at my local MAC counter.

I will admit that when I made the slide show video I was fairly new to makeup and I had heard about face primers before, but I seriously thought that face primers were a dumb concept to make people spend more money on makeup products. I was very naive. But I did decide to try my first face primer from MAC to see what they were all about. When I first started using this product I did think it was pretty good, but since I have learned more about primers and used a bit more variety of primers I can honestly say that I am not a big fan of this particular one.

Before I do the full review I would like to mention that I have not used this product in at least a year. But I will play around with it as I write up my review as I usually do with products to refresh my memory and to test it out. With other products I may not like I at least use them every once in a while just to use them up, but this one was so not for me that I don't even use it as a backup.

RATING:

Price: 7/10
Packaging: 10/10
Amount of product: 10/10
Longevity: 9/10
Application: 8/10
Smell: 10/10
Covers redness: 7/10
Covers large pores: 5/10
Website description: 7/10
On different skin types: 7/10
Overall rating: 7/10
Would I buy it again: 5/10
Total: 92/120=76.66%=C

My personal rating: 6/10=60%=D

Comments: I just looked at the MAC official website and the price is listed at $30.00 which I am pretty sure I did not pay that much. I think I paid around $27.00 for this product. They may or may not have changed the formula of it in the past couple years, but even still I would not spend that much on it. 
I don't have any issues with the packaging I think it is cute, it sparkles in the light and I like that it includes a pump to get the product out. I will give this product credit that it does come in a decent sized bottle with 1 fl oz of product inside. You do get quite a bit of product for the price. I don't exactly remember how long it lasts, but from what I recall it does last a while, plus it is on the thick side so I can definitely see it going into the pores and staying on for a while. The application is a bit annoying because when you first start blending the product in it leaves a white residue, but as you keep rubbing it in it thins out to a more translucent color. I just put some on my hand, blended it in, and I feel like this product does have a shimmery look to it. It's not super overpowering, but it is definitely there, which I personally don't like because I don't want to draw attention to my large red pores that I get during the Summer. I just feel like it brought out the small lines on my hand. This product doesn't seem to have a very strong smell, but it does smell kind of like a chemical. You can't smell it once it is applied to the face. The description says that it calms and soothes skin, blots away excess oil, and evens out skin redness. I don't feel like it really does what it says it does, especially when you thin it out. I bought it mostly because the description said it evens out skin redness, but I did not feel like it actually covered my redness. If I leave the product on without too much spreading then it does cover redness, but it leaves a heavy white color on the skin. If you spread it out then I feel it doesn't really cover the redness. I would not recommend this product for those people like me who have large red pores (I get that especially during the warmer seasons) because this product does not say anything about concealing large pores and I know that shimmer/glitter draws attention to large pores. I personally don't agree with the website's description. This product does claim that this product improves lay down of foundation and I would agree with that somewhat because this product is on the thick side and I think could be used by those with dry skin. I would probably not recommend this product to those with super oily skin even though it says it blots away excess oil. Overall, I do not have a positive image of this product. I'm sure it works well for some and I hope it does, but it's just not for me.

Sincerely,
Marina

MAC Cremestick Liner in Sublime Culture

Hi everyone!

I bought the MAC cremestick liner in Sublime Culture about two years ago. I can't believe it has taken me this long to finally do a review on it, but I had some other things that I needed to review that I have had previous to this purchase. This product was in my very first MAC makeup mini-haul. That was super exciting. I am a huge fan of this product.

I was very thankful because the MAC representative that I got the first time I went to my local MAC counter was super helpful. She asked me what I was looking for and I told her that this was my first time buying MAC products. I told her that I wanted a lip liner so she showed me all the ones they had out on their display and even swatched them for me on her hands to show me what the product looked like. I took it home, tried it out, and instantly loved the way it applied. I have almost used this product up.

Side note: the picture above is not an accurate representation of how much product you actually receive because I use this lip liner quite a bit. For a more accurate representation of product amount please see my blog post on the MAC Cremestick Lip Liner in Enriched Red.

RATING:

Price: 10/10
Packaging: 10/10
Amount of product: 10/10
Pigment: 10/10
Longevity: 9/10
Smell: 8/10
Taste: 10/10
Texture: 10/10
Application: 10/10
Different lip types: 10/10
Overall rating: 9/10
Would I repurchase: 10/10
Total: 116/120=96.66%=96.7%=A

My personal rating: 10/10=100%=A

Comments: Even around 2 years later I am still raving about this lip liner product. You do get a decent amount of product even for the price, although, I personally do think that $15.00 for a lip liner is a bit high. I would be crazy enough to pay that price to buy this lip liner. I personally really like this packaging because the product twists in and out of the packaging. I don't like having to deal with sharpening pencils, I am personally not a fan of that so I was really happy that this was a twisting product. I was surprisingly shocked in a very good way just how much product you get with this product. You get like 2 inches of product. I feel that this product gives the perfect amount of pigment. It is not overbearing, but it is not too light. I do like the fact that depending on how hard you press this product you can control how dark or how light it comes out. Even when applying normally you get pigment, but it is nice to have that control. The longevity of this product is average. I feel that it lasts a while, but it is not long lasting. I will be honest and say that I have not applied it fully to my lips to see how long this product lasts when the lips are completely filled in, but I have worn it as a liner and I would reapply it whenever I needed to touch up my lipstick. The MAC website claims it is very long lasting, but I would disagree, at least on my lips. This product has a very chemically smell to it. I don't feel that it is a huge issue once applied to the lips because you can't smell it, but if you are to just sniff it the product does not smell good at all. I don't feel like it even tries. Since this product doesn't really go near the mouth very much, unless you have a tendency to lick your lips a lot, but you would get the lipstick/lipgloss flavor way before the lip liner so I give the full points. This lip liner is creamy and smooth  and do not feel heavy once applied which is why I really like it. As I have stated throughout the paragraph the application of this lip liner is very smooth. I feel that it applies evenly on my lips. I think that this lip liner will work well with all different lips types from smooth to dry. Overall I have been very happy with this lip liner.

Walgreens mini-haul Maybelline 01/05/2014

Hey everyone!

I know that lately I have been having quite a few mini-hauls with one brand products which may or may not be annoying. I personally think it is fun and most of my coupons are brand specific. I will get back to reviewing products probably this week. I am planning another mini-haul of Covergirl next weekend and as far as I know that should be my last for a while. Although, last week Walgreens was having a sale on Wet N Wild products for $0.69 each, but oh well. I had other things to buy.

On this mini-haul shopping trip I had a Maybelline coupon for buy 2 get -$2.00 off. Unfortunately, Walgreens was not having any good in store sales on Maybelline foundation or mascara, but they did have a buy one get one half off deal. I grabbed one Maybelline Volum' Express the Colossal Cat Eyes waterproof mascara and one package of Maybelline Expert Twin Brows and Eye Pencils in #107 Blonde. I don't think the coupon should have worked, but somehow it did. I paid $7.99 for the mascara and $0.14 for the package of pencils which had 2 in the package. I accidentally grabbed the Maybelline mascara that is for cat eyes when I just wanted the regular the colossal just in waterproof. Hmm, weird.

I can't wait to try the waterproof mascara. I just got the brow pencils because they were on sale for $4.29 and with buying one and getting one half off it was only $2.14 minus the $2.00 coupon made both small pencils only $0.07 each or $0.14 for both. I will definitely try them and hopefully it will be a good experience.

Sincerely,
Marina

Walgreens mini-haul Almay Liquid Lip Balm 01/04/2014

Hey everyone!

I went to Walgreens because I needed to use an Almay coupon I printed because it was getting ready to expire so I bought 2 Almay liquid lip balms. I do not believe that I have ever tried Almay lip glosses, but since I had a coupon I could not resist to pick up a couple to try them out. I went to my local Walgreens for my weekly shopping trip. I paid $2.98 plus tax for both making them $1.49 each plus tax.

I bought the Almay liquid lip balm in #700 Cantaloupe Cream which is like a coral color and #800 Rosy Lipped. I will be honest that my local Walgreens did not have a big color selection. I'm not sure if it is because Almay doesn't have a huge collection or if it was just my local Walgreens. The colors were mostly red or pink variations. But I decided to go with the following two: Rosy Lipped which looks a bit more of a neutral/tan color and Cantaloupe Cream which looks like a very light orange color. I thought I would go outside of my usual lip colors and try a coral color.

I have been buying a lot of lipsticks and lipglosses, but I have always been a huge lipgloss fan. I can't wait to try these out and write reviews about them!

Sincerely,
Marina