April Hauls and Spring Savings Stars 🌟

[lmaster]

Spring is officially here! That means savings sales around the corner 🙌 Please share your fabulous April Hauls here, and happy happy birthday to all the April babies 🥳

 

 

[haleyvvvv]

Nice haul, @DianaHuynh!! Sorry about the packaging, but great snag on the Sulwhasoo reward. Enjoy your goodies!!

[Ispend2much6]

@DianaHuynh   That's a great perk; I missed that one!

[Loretta55]

 

Smashbox direct order. I have been curious about the Mindful 5 products and Smashbox had a deal on them. Also hauled the Always On in Bawse created by Lily Singh. Her show helped to cheer me up during the early days of the pandemic. Glad that her show has been renewed.

[itsfi]

@Loretta55, that red is gorgeous! 😍 I like the Smashbox Mindful 5 lip balm. I didn't at first but it grew on me and at one point last year, it was what I was reaching for most frequently. 

[tastelikewater]

@Loretta55 What a gorgeous shade of red! I'm sure you wear it beautifully.

[Loretta55]

Thank you very much @tastelikewater.

[Buootiful]

Nice haul @Loretta55 ! The red looks gorgeous!

[Loretta55]

Thank you very much @Buootiful.

[haleyvvvv]

Nice haul, @Loretta55!! That shade is beautiful!! Enjoy your goodies!! 

[WinglessOne]

@Loretta55  I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Smashbox face primer serum, once you've used it a few times. Glad you were able to grab a collab by one of your favorite content creators. 🙂

[WinglessOne]

Sephora spring sale order no. 3, plus an Ulta order. 

Used more of my Ulta points toward that order.

Details & swatches: 

Spoiler

Saie Mascara 101 - I tested this for 5 hours last night without curling my lashes (I don’t use curlers anymore). Smells like honey in the tube and on the wand, but not so much on my lashes. Applied 2 coats with minimal clumping. Didn’t irritate my eyes. Did thicken and lengthen, but not nearly as well as Charlotte Tilbury Legendary Lashes Vol. 2. The Saie mascara also lifted my lashes, but not as much as LLv2 does. In fact, ILIA’s mascara lifts my lashes better than Saie’s. Eh, I’ll test it again sometime next week. 

Usage feedback as requested by @Ispend2much6: 

Spoiler

At first I was nervous about the end spikes, so I kept weirdly angling the wand to keep them out of my eyes. But that was taking too long, so I just went into the center of my top lash line like I normally do, base-wiggle and all. I kept telling myself "spikes in mirror are shorter than they appear." 😄 My eyes remained spike-free. 

Then I held the wand vertically against my inner and outer corner lashes to coat them via the spikes. That worked quite well, especially on my outer lashes. I didn't attempt to coat my bottom lashes since I rarely do that anyway, but I'm sure I could use the spiked end of this wand for that. In fact, I bet I could hold the wand vertically with the spikes against my bottom lashes, then move my hand horizontally back and forth to coat them. Just gotta accurately gauge the spikes' length in the process. 

Exuviance Performance Peel AP25 - Finally gonna try this as an alcohol-free replacement of the DDG peel for travel purposes. (Thanks again to @civ2ru for posting about the 30% sale in theUlta GWPs thread!) This peel contains more mandelic acid than glycolic acid, and also contains polyhydroxy acid, for a total AHA+PHA strength of 25%. I doubt I’ll need the step 2 pads at all since water’s enough to neutralize step 1, so that’s even less product I’ll have to pack—though I do wish the box contained more of step 1 than step 2. 

GWP: Exuviance CitraFirm Face Oil - That's the tiny dropper bottle (in plastic pouch) beside the Exuviance peel box. I've never tried it before. Its INCI list looks very beneficial, except that it contains fragrance. It's the last ingredient listed, so I'll have to smell how strong the scent is. Might also ask Exuviance to specify exactly what the "fragrance" is made of. 

The Ordinary Alpha Arbutin 2% + HA - A very familiar ingredient in a new-to-me product. I take a multi-ingredient approach to battling my hyperpigmentation. One of my staple products contains arbutin but I’m not sure how much is in there, plus I suspect it’s beta arbutin instead of alpha. So, I’m adding a separate dose of alpha arbutin to my routine. I also have a tube of The Inkey List’s alpha arbutin serum I keep forgetting about… now I’ll get to test both products against each other. 

Farmacy Sweet Apple Clean - Ahmahgawd it smells so good! I love tart apple scents, so I like this balm’s scent more than the cherry version. And of course I stuck my finger down past the pink layer to see the yellow layer underneath. 😄 I keep opening the jar just to smell this balm. I need a candle that smells exactly like this. Oh, and it easily washed away all the swatches I took in the photo below. Best of all, the INCI list is the same as Very Cherry Clean’s (according to Farmacy’s site), so it's much better for me than the original Green Clean which contains lots of citrus and flower essential oils. I still prefer The Inkey List Oat Cleansing Balm as a facial makeup remover for a couple reasons. But I’ll happily use Sweet Apple Clean to remove makeup from any other body area. 

Viseart Boheme Dream palette - I’m shocked and thrilled that it arrived unbroken. Maybe the Sephora broken palette curse has finally been lifted from me! Also, I resisted this palette for 2 years—even during Viseart’s own sales (well, also because Boheme was usually sold out at Viseart)—but then Ispend2much6 reminded me to check Viseart’s marked down palettes during Sephora’s sale, and that did it. These satiny shimmers are buttery. Almost as much as Viseart’s mattes, aka My Favorite Mattes By Anyone. I’ve used plenty of other Viseart shimmers, but I swear the pans in this palette are somehow magically better. They’re the perfect compliment to Editorial Brights. 

Westman Atelier Baby Cheeks stick, shade Poppet - Played with it last night but only finger-applied it, instead of using a brush. Discovered it’s easy to overdo when using fingers. I love the Poppet color, but I expected this blush to feel creamier and a bit more emollient. I’ll try warming some up on the back of my hand (though usually finger application sufficiently warms up cream products; not this time) and using that to brush-apply. Also, I can’t help but compare this USD $8/gram cream blush to Glossier Cloud Paint, which costs just $1.80/gram. Hopefully this Baby Cheeks blush wears longer throughout the day. 

Smith & Cult Fractal Prismatic Lip Sheen, shades Denim Blue and Steel Black - Another product I kept resisting. I expected these to look similar to Pat McGrath’s astral Lip Fetish shades. These S&C balms are much more glittery and felt a bit less emollient on my arm. To get a full color impact, I’ll have to wear them over a full base coat of liner—but I planned to use these as toppers anyway, so that’s no big deal. 

[ather]

@WinglessOne  I love how descriptive you are with the Farmacy apple scent! I think I need to go wash my face 100 times to use up my current cleanser so I can justify buying it!!

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @ather ! Hope you enjoy it if you try it! 

[tastelikewater]

@WinglessOne What a fun haul! That palette looks positively dreamy. 

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @tastelikewater ! 

[Titian06]

@WinglessOne - Thanks for the swatches!  The Visert palette looks great on you!  I wouldn't mind having that palette just to look at the colors--they're so pretty.  💖💖💖

[WinglessOne]

Thank you @Titian06 ! The palette's alternate name is Ribbons Boheme, and you can see that theme in the way the palette's laid out. It's beautiful. 🙂 

[SportyGirly125]

@WinglessOne @Great haul. The swatches look so good on you. I hope you get the WA blush to work for you. 

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @SportyGirly125 , I hope so too! 

[Buootiful]

Oooh that Viseart looks lovely! I have yet to get this brand. I think Ill buy one in the next sale. @WinglessOne 

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @Buootiful ! Viseart palettes are great investments, especially their 12-pan matte palettes. Those palettes are wonderful workhorses. I also love their little Theory palettes, which they seem to have replaced with the newer Petit Pro line of palettes. And you can buy single shadows direct from Viseart or Muse Beauty Pro. Viseart themselves have had sales where all their palettes and singles were discounted 30-40%, so get on their mailing list!