Take My Breathe Away...May 2021 Hauls

[lmaster]

Happy birthday to all the sweet May babies!! 

Happy Mother's day to all the fabulous mommas!! 💐

Please post your breathtaking May hauls here 🌈😊

 

 

 

[curlychiquita]

Everything looks good, @lmaster!

[lmaster]

Thank you doll @curlychiquita 

[SportyGirly125]

@lmaster Great haul!  Glad you got the Farmacy Cherry cleansing balm.

[lmaster]

Thank you so much @SportyGirly125 

[WinglessOne]

Snagged another $100 Rouge Reward after the spring sale and immediately spent it on nearly all of this: 

Now I wonder how many $100 Rouge Rewards I've gotten so far. Might have to tally that sometime.
Details & swatches: 

Spoiler

Tower 28 BeachPlease Lip + Cheek Cream Blush, shade Power Hour - I'm on hour 3 of wear-testing. I love this shade, and the texture's nicely emollient without feeling too oily or greasy. The coverage is great. It's super easy to finger-blend, even over powder foundation. I need to give it a full day wear test soon. Also need to try it elsewhere on my face. Now I'm very tempted to buy Happy Hour next. 

Melt Cream Blushlight, shade Sandy Cheeks - Tried this recently. It's very creamy, but stiffer/a bit less emollient than the Tower 28 blush—which isn't a bad thing, just a difference. It's nowhere near as stiff as the Westman Atelier cream blush stick, which feels quite dry compared to the Melt and Tower 28 blushes. I'm glad Sandy Cheeks was back in stock when I got my Rouge Reward! This shade's deceptively subtle in warm indoor lighting, so it's easy to over-apply if I don't check my work in natural daylight. I like it on its own, but it's also a great base layer for a double blush look. 

Paula's Choice 10% Azelaic Acid Booster - A restock. At some point, I might ask my dermatologist for a 20% Rx. Meanwhile, this stuff's been working well for the 8 or 9 months I've used it. (Maybe longer than that? 2020 wrecked my mental timestamp ability.) If I apply azelaic acid as soon as I notice acne forming, it disappears faster and leaves much less PIH behind than usual. 

Beautyblender Blendercleanser Solid (unscented) - Another restock. Still my favorite brush cleaner (well, the original Blendercleanser solid is; when did BB release these different versions, aside from the Pro version which has been around for quite a while?), even for blue/grey squirrel brushes. 

Sephora Collection Organic Cotton Swabs - I needed $6 of something to pad my Rouge Rewards balance. 😄 I've always got uses for cotton swabs! 

Gucci (I paid out of pocket for these in a separate order; I have shades of the other more pigmented Gucci lipstick lines, so I'm finally adding some sheers): 

• Rouge à Lèvres Voile Sheer Lipstick, shade Love Before Breakfast - I'm so glad it's not as sheer as I feared it'd be! It's not fully opaque but gosh, I'd call this shade demi-sheer at least. Feels like a satin lipstick on my lips. I love this one, despite the mild floral smaste. 
• Rouge de Beauté Brillant Glow & Care Shine Lipstick, shade Jody Wild Mauve - Eh, this one's as sheer as I expected. I mean it's visible on my lips, but not in a color-punch way if that makes sense. It feels kinda like a thick lip mask on my lips, but it's pretty and glossy. It also works quite well as a cream blush, though I only wore it that way over another cream blush (Melt Sandy Cheeks) for an hour or so. 

Promo DS:

• Glow Recipe Avocado Ceramide Recovery Serum - can't use it on my face (contains lavender extract), but I'll try it elsewhere on my body. 
• NARS Pure Radiance Tinted Moisturizer, shade Santiago - NARS must've reformulated this product again: the texture and skin finish are better (to me) now; I never found a good shade match in the old range; and the old shades irritated the hell out of my skin. I see several fragrance components in the current INCI list, but my skin survived a recent daylong wear-test of Santiago. I might try another medium-deep shade that has a different undertone, though Santiago's not a bad match. 

Photo taken in warm bathroom lighting. Blushes & NARS tinted moisturizer are blended out on the left side of each swatch.Almost reminds me of one of the PMG Lip Fetish Balm shades... I should do some swatch comparisons. 😄

Question for Tower 28 cream blush owners: Does your compact have a latch that keeps it closed? Mine doesn't. 🤔 I don't wanna exchange mine, lest I have to deal later with return policy/TRE bs as a result. But if it's supposed to snap/latch shut so it doesn't fall open, then I might take it to one of my local Sephoras to exchange a defective product. If it's not supposed to latch shut, I'll just keep a rubber band around it or something—but gosh, Tower 28, that's a questionable design choice for a cream product compact. 

[Shosh85]

@WinglessOne  Fantastic haul! Thanks for the lippie swatches - I'm planning on picking up a couple shades eventually and these certainly look beautiful! 😍

Just curious, out of those two blushes, is there one you prefer more than the other?

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @Shosh85 ! This opinion may change after I've used both cream blushes for a couple weeks, but: I prefer the Tower 28 blush. I do like the Melt blush a lot, but I like Tower 28's formula a tad bit more. Both are long-wearing and comfy on my cheeks. The T28's easier to finger blend, whereas I prefer to brush on the Melt. 

[tsavorite]

Solid choices, @WinglessOne !  Thanks for the info and the swatches!  😊  The "Love Before Breakfast" shade is beautiful on you!

[WinglessOne]

Thank you @tsavorite !

[sister13]

That’s awesome! Enjoy your new items! @WinglessOne 

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @sister13 !

[ather]

@WinglessOne  Love your haul! I was hoping for some epic insight on the SC cotton swabs. I also needed to spend $3 to get a GWP so I added them to my order. I own a tower 28 blush and mine has a latch. It makes a small snap when I lose it. Here’s a couple pictures of how it looks hopefully you can see. 

 

 

[WinglessOne]

Thanks for the photos, @ather ! Now I can see exactly where my compact is broken: the lid latch is completely broken off in a perfectly shaped semi-circle. Luckily, the lid doesn't swing wide open when I hold the compact upside down, so I've almost convinced myself to keep it rather than try exchanging it. 

Heh, what more can I say about the cotton swabs? 😂 I kinda wish one end was pointed (both ends are round), but otherwise they're fine and do what they should. Considering I can get a box of 650-750 Q-tips for less money than these 3 boxes of 200 Sephora swabs cost, I'm not likely to repurchase them unless I need to meet a Sephora reward/promo minimum again. But they're good swabs! Hope you like 'em! They're definitely one of the most universally useful filler items Sephora sells. 

[faeriegirl]

Nice haul @WinglessOne! Those Gucci lippies are beautiful!❤️

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @faeriegirl !

[missjeanie]

Awesome Rouge Reward Haul @WinglessOne !  I have one to use and have been waiting for the Melt blushes to come back into stock.  Power Hour is such a pretty shade.  I didn't think I'd love it on my pale skin tone at first glance, but it gives a nice blushy/bronze I spent a day at the beach feel for me.  Happy Hour and After Hours are my favourites so far.  And my compacts don't have a 'latch' per se, but they do click closed. 

Andddddd you just added the Gucci Sheer in Love before Breakfast to my list.  What a gorgeous spring/summer shade!  I'm curious to see how you end up liking the Tower 28's after a longer wear test, and if you do take some swatches of the Gucci versus PMG balms I'd love to see them!!

[WinglessOne]

Thank you @missjeanie ! And shoot, you just reminded me about swatch comparisons of the Gucci Sheer vs. PMG balms (and perhaps a few other similar shades)... I'll do that sometime this weekend. 

I wore the Tower 28 blush all day yesterday, which was also my covid shot no. 1 day (finally!). The blush held up great to several hours of walking outdoors, an hour of nervous "omgihateneedles&whatifipassoutattheclinic" anxiety sweating, and a spontaneous shopping adventure. It didn't fade away, not even where my KN95 dug into my cheeks (obviously it rubbed onto the inside of the mask, but that's expected). If Tower 28 ever creates a purple-tinged version of this blush, I'll buy it! 

[missjeanie]

Oh I'm so happy you got your first vaccine @WinglessOne !  I've had a few friends who describe it as an anxiety just lifting off their shoulders.  I'm hopeful that Tower 28 really expands the blushes and their bronzers (I'm hoping for some without shimmer), I'd be picking up a purple hued blush right there beside you!

[WinglessOne]

@missjeanie  It was definitely a huge relief to get that first shot, especially after several frustrating weeks of trying to get an appointment once local eligibility opened up. I'll probably cry after getting my second shot; emotion overload. I had a couple post-shot days of mild flu-like symptoms and a very sore shoulder, but that also happens each time I get the flu shot so I wasn't surprised. I'm disappointed I can't mind-control anyone's Windows computers yet, though. 🤣

I was going to try one of Tower 28's bronzers until I realized they're shimmery. I don't really need one anyway, now that I have a bareMinerals Blonzer, but hopefully Tower 28 will release some non-shimmer options for folks who want one. 

[missjeanie]

Bahahha... @WinglessOne  I just booked my first shot this morning.  Canada (and my province specifically) is behind in my eyes getting us vaccines.  My eligibility just opened up this morning and they say it'll be about a 4 month wait for shot number 2.  First thing I said after booking this morning was "I wonder what kind of bot I get to transformer into?" lol. 

I don't really need another bronzer either.... but they do seem to be my new 'thing' this spring.  

[vee95]

Such a fun haul! Beautiful products!