US beauty haul: Sephora, Ulta, Target, Walgreens & CVS

***Disclaimer*** Yes, I bought more make up than I could possible need in a life time. Yes, I know I am crazy. Yes, I spent way too much money. If you’re about to leave a comment down below complaining about that: keep your thoughts to yourself. I enjoy make up and the US has much to offer that is hard for me to get my hands on here in Europe. I saved up money so I could splurge and buy all the make up I had been lusting after for months, if not years. I went on my trip with a carefully compiled wishlist and just before I left 2 new eye shadow palettes were released, plus when you hit up the drugstore there is always something more that you will find. This post also includes some freebees that I got and of course I also went a little crazy so I have a lot of products on hand for future reviews and quite possibly a giveaway to celebrate the 5th anniversary of this blog which is coming up this month. So keep your eyes peeled to this spot!

An overview of pretty much everything I bought in one neat picture. I got my hands on a bit of everything, but eye shadow palettes were my main vice. I didn’t buy much of anything else on this trip (save for a handful of books, a pair of sneakers and some Victoria’s Secret goodies) so where my focus used to lie on fashion related items, I decided to change things up and go for beauty this time. I have no clue when I will next visit the US so I figured: since I won’t be back any time soon, I might as well go all out. Below I will give a brief explanation for each picture, but I will not be going too much in-depth so I can save that for reviews. I will not be reviewing any of the minis or freebees I bought/ received, as those aren’t going to be readily available.

Skincare

Boscia Make Up Break Up cool Cleansing Oil
Urban Decay All Nighter Make Up Setting Spray
First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Face Cleanser

I didn’t do much research beforehand on skincare, so I kept that category minimal. So I went with a few minis I found in the Sephora check out aisle so I can try something new. I have never tried any setting sprays yet and I have heard good things about the Urban Decay one, so I decided to give it a go. It’s a product I could easily get a full size of as well, so if I end up liking it, I can always get that. The other two products are cleansers and I like trying out different ones. I had heard of the Boscia one before, but the First Aid Beauty one is completely new to me and both brands I have never tried so I decided to give them a whirl.

Eye shadow primers

Lorac Behind the Scenes Eye Primer
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion

One thing high on my wishlist was a new Too Faced Shadow Insurance: quite possibly my all time favorite eye shadow primer. I also picked up a mini Urban Decay Primer Potion as I used to love that before I discovered the Too Faced one and I thought I could now finally compare the two. The Lorac primer is another mini which I was given free with purchase. I can see a primer post coming up!

Base products

Covergirl Ready Set Gorgeous Fresh Complexion Oil Free foundation in 110
Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in 15 Fair
NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer in Custard

As it is summer and I am much paler 75% of the year, I didn’t buy too many base products. I had heard good things about the Covergirl foundation and the NARS Radiant Creamy concealer is a cult classic so I had to try it. The Maybelline Fit Me concealer has been discontinued over here and since I still wanted to try it (and some people compare it as a dupe to the NARS concealer) so it had to come home.

Face products

Milani powder blush in 08 Tea Rose
Milani baked powder blush in 05 Luminoso
Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in Radiant Light
NYX Tame & Frame Tinted Brow Pomade in 03 Brunette
Too Faced Primed & Poreless Pressed Powder Skin Smoothing Priming Powder and Finishing VeilElizabeth & James Nirvana Black perfume roller

When it comes to US beauty shopping, my rule of thumb was to focus on products I cannot get or at least not easily over here. Milani is a brand that is hard to come by and so I bought a few of their blushes to try. Luminoso is raved about by NikkiTutorials, so I knew I wanted to try that. The Hourglass powder was used on me by the Sephora MUA who did my makeover, I fell so much in love with it that I knew I had to have it. Another make up product on my ‘to try’ list was a brow pomade. Since NYX do an affordable one, I picked that over the Anastasia one. The face powder is absolutely lovely and the perfume roller was a point perk at Sephora.

Tools

Up & Up powder brush
Up & Up Complexion brush set with blush, foundation, concealer & finishing
ELF Blending Eye brush
ELF Studio Small Stipple brush
Sonia Kashuk Core Tools Large Shader brush no. 203
Sonia Kashuk Core Tools Small eye shadow brush no. 106
Beauty Blender in red limited edition

The only reason why I wanted to hit up Target was to check out their brands that sell brushes. I found that the make up section at Target was otherwise quite bare, but the brushes were still fairly well stocked. I bought some Target name brand brushes, some Sonia Kashuk and ELF. They are all supposed to be great drugstore brush brands.

Lips

Maybelline matte lipsticks in:
Mesmerizing Magenta, Vibrant Violet, All Fired Up, Burgundy blush

For lips, I went a little bit drugstore crazy. Maybelline has a matte line that I had yet to find over here and I am pretty sure none of these shades are available here as I pulled 3 out of 4 out of a display with newly released products.

Milani matte lipsticks in
Matte Darling, Matte Orchid, Matte Fearless

Milani also do lipsticks of course and I had heard great things about their matte line. I went for a nude, a vibrant berry/ pink shade and a scary looking dark vampy color.

Bite matte cream lipstick in Juniper
Maybelline Color blur in My My Magenta
Milani lip pencil in Spice

The only high end lipstick I bought is by Bite Beauty: a lipstick only brand that is all natural and available at the US Sephora. The Maybelline Color Blur is a brand new product just out in the drugstore over there and Milani Spice lip pencil is supposed to be a dupe for the MAC lip pencil of the same name.

NARS Satin lip pencil in Rikugien
NARS Velvet Matte lip pencil in Cruella
Kat Von D Studded Kiss lipstick in Lolita

These three lovely lip products were all free. I received the NARS lip pencils as part of my Sephora birthday gift (my birthday was in July) and the lipstick was another 100 point perk.

NYX Intense Butter Gloss in Black Cherry Tart
NYX High Voltage lipstick in Wine & Dine
NYX Simply Vamp lip pencil in Aphrodisiac

Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Vampira
Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Beloved
Anastasia Beverly Hills Liquid Lipstick in Carina

At a Canadian drugstore I found a nice display of NYX products. I also found one at Ulta, but since that was an entire aisle of nothing but NYX products, I felt quite overwhelmed and didn’t know what to pick. I chose some of their newer lip products that aren’t available over here. I also wanted to try some liquid lipsticks. Both Kat Von D and Anastasia do great one, or so I heard, so I picked up a few shades to try.

Eye shadow

L’Oreal Infallible eye shadow in Amber Rush
Maybelline Color Tattoo in Black Orchid (Limited Edition)
Urban Decay Seven Days of Shadow Deluxe Sampler

I only bought two single eye shadows. A Color Infallible shade that has never been released over here (and the line has since been discontinued over here as well) and a limited edition Maybelline Color Tattoo. The Urban Decay sampler was another 100 point perk at Sephora.

Maybelline The Blushed Nudes eye shadow palette
Wet N Wild Boardwalk Boozing eye shadow palette
L’Oreal La Palette Nude 1 & 2 eye shadow palette

Shall we move on to the fun stuff? I told you I went eye shadow palette crazy! First some drugstore ones. We are only just now getting the Maybelline The Nudes palette over here so if we ever get this blushed version or the smoky one I do not know, but I found this the most interesting one of the three. Wet N Wild had a crazy looking limited edition collection out and I bought one of those palettes and I also bought both L’Oreal La Palette Nude. I already bought and reviewed one of these in the UK last May and the beige version is coming out in the Netherlands is coming out this month. But guess what?! These are nothing like the ones we have in Europe. For one, the colors are different and these contain 17.5 grams of product, whereas the European version only gets 7 grams. I am curious to see how these compare quality wise!

Lorac Pro 2 eye shadow palette
Anastasia Beverly Hills Shadow Couture eye shadow palette
Urban Decay Naked Basics 2 eye shadow palette

On to the motherload as I like to call it. Now of this and the following two pictures, I had placed most of those items on my wishlist a long time ago. In fact, the Kat Von D palette was featured in a wishlist blog post last year. I actually researched most of these to see whether I really wanted to have them. And then, then Anastasia and Urban Decay announced the release of a new palette just weeks before I left. So naturally those ended up on the wishlist as well.

I picked Lorac Pro 2 over the original version after looking at what seems like a million comparison reviews and swatches. I just figured that the Pro 2 had the most shades that are still neutral, but different from what I already have and so I went with that. Naked Basics 2 may seem a little superfluous (I already own number 1), but I actually prefer the shades in this over the original. I have been wanting to try Anastasia eye shadow for a while now, but the palettes sell out really quickly online and the singles are quite expensive and hard to come by. So when I found it, I immediately snatched one up (I went to 6 different Sephora in NYC to try and find it).

Urban Decay Naked Smoky eye shadow palette
Too Faced Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar eye shadow palette
Kat Von D Monarch eye shadow palette

Since I already own all three Urban Decay Naked palettes, I figured the Naked Smoky would be a good round up for the collection. Plus it has a couple of stunning shades (Radar and Armour), which are also in the Vice 1 and Vice 2 palettes, but here you have them nicely put together. Too Faced’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar was a no brainer for me once I compared it to the original palette. These shades are a lot more ‘me’ than the first Chocolate Bar palette. And like I said, the Monarch palette had been on my wishlist for more than a year, so that was the first thing I put into my basket when I went shopping.

Urban Decay Vice 3 eye shadow palette

Now this palette actually shouldn’t be in this post, but since I took it home during the trip I thought I’d add it here. Last fall, when Urban Decay released this, it initially didn’t spark my interest. The gaudy packaging as well as the shade selection didn’t do it for me. Until I started seeing it being used in eye looks and looked at swatches. And then of course the inevitable happened: it was sold out everywhere. Everywhere except the official UD website. But they don’t ship to Europe! So I bought this and had it shipped to a friend who I met up with during my trip and she gave it to me when I was there. Well worth the trouble if you ask me, just look at it!

There you go, that is everything make up and beauty related that I took home. I know it is an insane amount, but I now have enough products to be reviewing for the next year or so. Needless to say, I am now on a complete make up no buy for the next few months. The plan is not to spend any money on make up until the Christmas collections come out in November. Fingers crossed!

The question of course is: which product would you like to see reviewed first?