Beauty Haul - Summer 2013

Time for another haul post, I haven't been posting any hauls for a while now but that definitely does NOT mean I haven't been shopping.

Estee Lauder - Beautiful Eyes Set

I bought the Estee Lauder Beautiful Eyes Skincare set for $65 at Macy's during their Estee Lauder GWP event. The set is still available and comes with a full size Resilience Lift firming and sculpting eye cream. I've been looking for a worthy eye cream, I've tried so many and still haven't found a "holy grail". I'm almost done with it, am loving it so far, full review should be coming up soon. The GWP was really nice, not only did it come with a Lilly Pulitzer desinged eyeshadow palette and cosmetic case set, it included a Time Zone face and eye cream as well.

I've made another order at Cosme-de.com! I'm surprise that this company doesn't get more attention then Sasa.com, their shipping to the U.S. arrived in a week! I made the purchase mainly because of the Shiseido Tsubaki Water. The set was $11 at Cosme-de.com, I've used the red and gold Shiseido Tsubaki lines, and really love the red line. Hoping this would work out just as well. =)

The only annoying thing about ordering from cosme-de.com is that when you order final sale items, you have to order a number of other items to checkout. So I picked out a bunch of final sale items as well: My Beauty Diary masks, Etude House gradient nail polish set and blush and The Face Shop cleansing water. If you follow me on instagram, you'll see a swatch of this cute set. =)

Last up is my new Glossybox June 2013, the American Beauty Box. Yup, I fell for it again! Even with the horrible customer service I faced with my first GlossyBox, I decided to cave in after seeing it curated by Dallas Shaw which included a full size tarte cosmetics lipstick. The box was a specially designed by Dallas Shaw and looks so pretty!. This box was supposed to be the June box, but I didn't receive it till June 30! It was unfortunate that there were so many issues with these GlossyBox, but this box was really beautiful. It includes a set of Oscar De La Renta perfumes, a tarte lipstick, a Philips B hair shampoo, a c Booth's facial mist and a Sparitual nail polish. I loved that this box included department store brands. Hopefully review & swatches will be up soon.

That's it for my hauls, I'm already shopping at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale to haul some beauty goodies. Anybody else shopped the sale yet? What did you get?

New Ways to Connect With Me

Hello lovelies! For those who've been following me for all this time and to those who just like to troll and remain anonymous (you know who you are! ^_~ ), I wanted to share some new ways to stay connected with me!

I'm sure you've heard about it already, Google Reader has officially retired. If you've been following me there, you might want to switch over to Bloglovin! Just click on this cute pink button below or this link here.

I've also created a new Instagram account, you can follow me using my username @melliescloset. Check out the "Connect with Me" section on the right hand side of this blog.

Look forward to future posts that incorporate these Instagram pictures. I kind of like the ease of sharing daily beauty/fashion photos that way.

Here's a few of my Instagram photos that I think you might be interested in. 

FOTD

Here was a picture of all the products I used to achieve my FOTD (face of the day).

• Laura Mercier Secret concealer in #2, 
• Laura Mercier Mineral Foundation in Natural Beige and loose powder in Candlelight, 
• tarte 12-hour Amazonian Clay Blush in Dollface, 
• Wet & Wild eyeshadow in Nutty, 
• and my trusty Missha Style mascara.

FOTD

 Here's another FOTD

• Missha M Perfect Cover BB Cream in #21
• MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in Medium
• Benefit Fakeup in Light
• Nars Concealer in Custard
• Shu Uemura blush in Soft Coral
• L'oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in Iced Latte
• Missha Style mascara

OOTD accent

And here I showed off a bright color accent to my outfit with my H&M bright yellow belt.

I hope everybody has a wonder 4th of July. I'm looking forward to camping out in the heat waiting for the Macy's fireworks to start. XD  Let me know in the comments what you'll be doing to celebrate!

Don't forget to subscribe & follow! There's so many ways to connect with me now. =)

Monthly Empties - April & May 2013

Hello everybody! It's been a while since I did my regular postings. Scroll all the way down if you want to read a quick update from me and see what I've been up to. =) Now since I skipped a month, I present you Monthly Empties for April & May!

I had meant to write a April Empties post, but never got a chance to writing it, so there are individual monthly pictures. As promised in my March empties, this month was emptying bottles of skincare!

April 2013 Empties

Review: Dermalogica Clearing Mattifier

Wanted to share a staple in my daily skin care routine today: the Dermalogica Clearing Mattifier. I bought this a while back from a recommendation from my esthetician after she was clearing my breakouts during a facial. At that time, I was under a lot of stress at work and my skin broke out at its worst in my lifetime. She recommended the Dermalogica Clearing Mattifier insisting that it helps clear new breakouts within 24 hours. Well normally I wouldn't let anyone convince me like that without doing some more actual research on my own, but I was desperate so I gave in a purchase a tube at its original price at $45!

Dermalogica Clearing Mattifier (Stock Photo from Dermalogica.com)

Let's go through the facts:

Project Pan 5 to March Empties

If you remember from my earlier posts, I was working on a mini project pan for a few months. But it started becoming discouraging when I realize I still have products that I didn't hit pan! So instead of project pan, I'm moving on to monthly empties! (Might be two months even, I don't know yet, it'll depend on how much I can empty out first. If there isn't enough to show you guys, then I'll just spill it over the next month.) But at least this way, every so often I'll be showing off products that I'm done with. There's just too many makeup and skincare products in my vanity and bathroom and they seem to only grow with time. Maybe I'll do a post on my current collection, let me know if you are interested.

Anyway, enough jabbering, may I present to you, the March's empties!

(can you spot the GlossyBox?)

qiora Face Cleanser DH Cleanser - from project pan, mini review here. Sadly the sales rep at one of the Shisedo chain stores mention that the entire qiora line will be discontinued! Tempted to stock up now. =(

Nivea Age Defying Q10plus Hand Cream - from project pan, mini review here.

Nivea Soft Moisturizing Creme (not pictured)- from project pan, mini review here.

O'slee Clear Spa Sleeping Mask - I had a full review this mask a while back, I noticed my skin being a lot more dry around the cheek area lately, so thought I'll whip it out and give it a try again. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you'll know about the adverse effect it had on me. Not sure if it was because it was expired or not, when I applied it, it was a little thicker than its usual jelly form, not too crazy though, I didn't give it much of a second thought. The next morning when I woke up, besides it being sticky on my face, everything was ok. But after I washed it off, my face started tingling and there were red patches all over my face, mostly in the T-zone area. Scary! Thank goodness the redness subsided within 2 hours, I had to cover it up with mineral foundation, I just couldn't go to work like that, I looked sick! So that's why it was forcefully emptied. =P I still have another unopened container, hopefully that will be better.

Milky Lips Baby Pink  - One of my favorite tinted lip balms. It looks hot pink in the tube but gives a much muted bright lip effect. One of my favorite lip balms because it leaves the lips looking dewy, hydrated and just the right amount of shine without the overly glossy effect of a lip gloss. I much prefer this over the fresh sugar lip treatments, because the fresh lip treatments can be a little greasy looking on the lips but these just feel like there's water on my lips. Now that I've teased you with its wonders, I really hate to let you guys know that it's actually discontinued. I can no longer find them at my local Japanese markets. If any of you see these lurking around the NYC area, please let me know!

Last up, UDPP.

Urban Decay Primer Potion - I'm not going to do a crazy review, the blogosphere has enough reviews on this little guy. (Enough that most of you probably understood  "UDPP".) This one in the original genie bottle came as part of my UD Naked palette. I do like it because it does help with eyeshadow creasing, but not all, there are times when I still notice some creasing with certain shadows. I don't really notice the difference in terms of color payoff enhancements it gives for eyeshadow though. To me, the color vibrancy looks the same with or without the primer.

That's it for this month, stay tuned for next month's empties, I foresee a lot of products, particularly skincare related. Have a nice weekend!