#Morphe – Forty, Flirty & Fabulous

Giant Ulta Points Haul!

Hi all! I recently turned in my Ulta points and did an amazing haul! I got the items above and this advent calendar:

The Body Shop Online Only Essential Advent Calendar ($70 USD) — I can’t find this on the website anymore! So sad! It’s really cute and smells amazing! They still have the more expensive one. The Online Only Deluxe Vegan Advent Calendar. It’s $110. You can purchase it here.

Here’s the calendar open. I’m excited to open this in December!

Here are close up pics of the other items:

The pink bag was a gift with purchase. It’s full of a bunch of deluxe samples.

And I’ve been wanting the recent Anastasia Beverly Hills collabs. The top palette is the Carli Bybel palette and the bottom one is the Jackie Aina palette. I will be doing full reviews of both (and the Tati Beauty palette which I just ordered today)!

From the top is the Tarte Travel Size Timeless Smoothing Primer ($19 USD). Tati Westbrook talks about this all of the time, and I’ve decided to try it out. And I love that it’s in a mini. I always use a pore filling primer over a hydrating one. I’m using up a couple now, but I will try this out once they are used up.

I have also heard a lot about the new Benefit Boi-ing Cakeless Concealer ($22 USD). I purchased it in the shade 2, which may be too light for me. I probably should have got shade 4. But that’s okay, I’ll give it a go.

I picked up two items from Catrice — the Lip Treatment ($7.99 USD) and the HD Liquid Coverage Foundation ($10.99 USD). I love a good lip treatment and I have heard amazing things about the foundation. I picked it up in 020 Rose Beige. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m hoping it’s an okay match to try. Of course, since I got it all with my points, it’s FREE MAKEUP! It’s not the end of the world if the match for that and the concealer isn’t perfect. I can always mix them with other products.

The other products I got are the Morphe X Jeffree Star JS4 Fly High Brush ($10 USD), Morphe Highlight & Contour Beauty Sponge ($8 USD), The Ordinary ”Buffet” ($14.80 USD) and the Peter Thomas Roth Mask MashUp ($25 USD) which is unfortunately no longer on the website.

I’ve been sick, so I haven’t really tried anything out yet, but I might wear makeup tomorrow to try somethings out. This is my largest points haul yet, and I’m so excited about it!

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Have you used any Ulta points for free makeup? What did you get?

Shop My Stash May 2019 Results and Monthly Empties

Hi All! I’m back with my May Shop My Stash results! I enjoy dipping into my collection and using products I haven’t used in a long time, or just haven’t given much of a chance.

My rule with this is if I don’t like the item after the month, I will move it out of my collection to make some room and let someone else enjoy it!

You can check out my first Shop My Stash post for May. Here’s a photo with the palettes open:

I continued my allergy issues this month, and didn’t wear as much eye makeup as I would have liked to. So my number one used product was the Smashbox Cali Contour palette!

I love this palette! Especially the bronzer and powder shades. I also used the lighter highlight and the blush a lot. This is such a great product to complete my face makeup. If I take a trip this year, I’ll take it with me!

Towards the end of the month, my allergies are getting better. So I did get to wear my eyeshadows. I would say I wore the BH Festival palette the most. It has such a variety of colors and I was able to create colorful looks and neutral looks with it. I also used most of the shades on the Morphe x Jaclyn Hill Vault Armed and Gorgeous palette. It’s a nice palette, but the metallics aren’t as buttery as the BH Cosmetics ones. I am going to keep all three of these palettes.

I didn’t wear the lipstick or eyeliner as much as the other products. I found that I didn’t care for the lipstick. I don’t wear this type of shade that much and it kind of feels drying on my lips. I am going to re-home it. The eyeliner is a great formula, but I don’t wear eyeliner that often. I am going to keep it, though. It’s such a pretty shade.

This was a pretty successful month!

On to my May empties:

I had a lot of empties this month! I used up makeup wipes by IT Cosmetics and Ariul, a Korean Beauty brand I found at CVS. They were both nice. I used them mostly for removing swatches. I might purchase them again. I actually think I might to a K Beauty haul this summer at CVS and maybe Ulta.

The Merle Norman cleanser is like a scrub. It is such a nice exfoliator. I have a lot of cleansers in my stash, but I might repurchase this eventually.

Same with the Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream. I might re-purchase it once I go through the creams that I have. It’s so hydrating! The Your Good Skin day cream was oily on my skin, so I won’t re-purchase it.

I loved the Nanacoco Outlash mascara! I have a bunch of new mascaras waiting to be used, but I would buy this again.

I love the Jergens Wet Skin gradual tanner. I need to either pick this up or the original formula. The C.O. Bigelow body wash was nice, but I don’t know if I will pick it up again.

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Are you doing a Shop Your Stash or Project Pan this year? How’s it going?

Shop My Stash — May 2019

Hi all! Happy May! It’s time for a new month and a new Shop My Stash! I’m always excited to play with new (again to me) products that I either haven’t used in a while or haven’t used much at all! My goal is to get more use out of the products I have and to see if they are something I want to keep.

As you can see, I haven’t used these much at all! I chose some brighter colors this month, along with some neutrals, of course! Here’s more info on all of the products:

This is the BH Cosmetics Festival Palette that came out last year. There’s a newer one out now, but I haven’t picked it up. I need to get some use out of this one! I only used it a few times last year and need to give it some love! I can do neutral as well as colorful looks with this, which I am happy about. But I am going to make myself dip into the colors!

IMG_E0649 IMG_E0650 I won the Morphe x Jaclyn Hill vault in a giveaway, and haven’t used the palettes much at all. This is the Armed and Gorgeous palette. I think the color scheme is pretty, and not usually what I wear. I usually go for pinks, browns and purples. The is very warm and it should be fun to try it out. Those golds and bronzes are calling to me!

IMG_E0645 IMG_E0646

I purchased this Smashbox Cali Contour palette in the Ulta 21 Days of Beauty. I’ve been wanting it since last year, but I’m glad I waited because it was half off! I have used this a few times and really enjoy it. I can see using this every day!

These are the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on Eye Pencil in Roach and the Julep Full Coverage Cream Lipstick in Pirouette. I haven’t been wearing eyeliners for well over a year. I usually use shadows on my lower lash and I only tightline my top lash line. I thought it might be time to try a liner again. this one is so creamy and I love the color!

I used to be a Julep Maven, but since they cancelled the subscription, I haven’t used much of their products. I found this in it’s box still and thought I would try it out. It’s a pretty mauve shade. Sorry for the blurry swatches! The left is the liner and right is the lipstick. We’ll see how I like them!

So these are the products I am playing with this month. It sure looks like I am ready for summer with such bright and shimmery shades! I’ll share at the end of the month how much use I got out of these products and how I enjoyed them. I’m going to try not to purchase much this month (Ulta has been taking my money with all of their sales), so I should be using a lot of my existing products. Plus, June is my birthday month, and I will probably treat myself then.

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Are you doing a Shop My Stash this month? Are you on a low or no buy? Let me know how it’s going!

BoxyCharm BoxyLuxe Subscription Box Review — March 2019

Hey all! I received my second BoxyLuxe yesterday! I’m so excited! I’ve been a subscriber of BoxyCharm for over a year. The regular BoxyCharm box is $21 a month. BoxyLuxe is a once-a-quarter upgrade option you can add to your existing $21-a-month Boxycharm subscription. So for an additional $28.99, you’ll get the Luxe items, and be paying a total of $49.99 for that quarterly box.

I really enjoyed my December box. You can see that review here. I saw the spoilers for this box, I just didn’t know what variations I would get.

The theme for this month is La Vie En Rose. Here’s what I received:

IT Cosmetics Confidence in a Cream ($48 USD)
MODA Brush Powder and Soft Glow Kit – ($29.99 USD)
Wander Beauty Lift Off Purifying and Brightening Peel Off Mask – ($34 USD)
Becca Ultimate Lipstick Love – ($24 USD)
CoverFX All in One Perfector Face Palette – ($45 USD)
15D Day Slayer Artistry Palette ($16 USD)
Deborah Lippmann Gel Lab Pro Color Polishes in Modern Love and Oh Donna ($20 USD)
Lilly Lashes Gala Faux Mink Lashes ($24.99 USD)
Iconic London Sculpt & Boost Eyebrow Cushion – ($40 USD)
BoxyCharm Makeup Bag ($20 USD)

I have tried this cream before. It’s very nice, especially as a night cream. It’s extremely hydrating without being greasy. And my skin always looks beautiful the next morning after use. This is a great product to get in the box!

These Moda Brushes are gorgeous. And they are really soft. They can be used for face powder, highlighter, bronzer — whatever I need them for. I love getting nice brushes in boxes, so I will definitely use these!

I have tried a few things from Wander Beauty, but I haven’t tried this mask. I actually think they created this Rose Gold peel off mask for BoxyCharm. I’m excited to try this! I’ll test it out this weekend.

I knew I was getting a Becca Lipstick and was very excited. But, I got the shade Chocolate — and it’s almost spring. I usually only wear nudes or lighter pinks, so this will not be used. And, it’s disappointing because I wanted to try the formula, but I don’t want to use it just one. I will give it away or sell it.

This is the Cover FX palette. This was created for BoxyCharm. This is the Light-Medium shade. There is also a Medium-Deep I believe. This is my favorite item in the box from my first impressions. The packaging may not look like it, but it’s really good quality and it has a nice mirror. The shades are all perfect for my light skin. But…

Speaking of skin tone, BoxyCharm make an announcement that everyone should fill out the profile questionnaire so that we will get the correct shade for our skin tone. But, I guess that they sent the incorrect shades to a lot of subscribers. They did apologize, but they aren’t sending out a new palette, they gave the subscribers charms instead. So hmmm. I’ll talk more about this at the end of the blog.

So, this is the Morphe Day Slayer palette. There were four different palette variations. These others had purples, corals and pinks. This one has oranges and browns. It was the one I didn’t want because it reminds me of fall and it’s almost spring.

I will either keep this until fall and then try it out or give it away.

These Deborah Lippman polishes look really pretty. The one on the left is Oh Donna, a sparkly rosy mauve and the one on the right is Modern Love, a classic mauve creme. I am going to use these, maybe even together, this weekend.

These are very pretty, but I don’t wear false lashes. So I might add these to my Instagram giveaway I’m doing when I hit 5000 followers (follow me @fortyflirtyfab to see that giveaway later, and my fun posts now!).

I haven’t tried Iconic before, but they are a luxe brand. I am trying out some new brow products, so I don’t know if I’m going to keep this. That’s why I’ve kept the seal on it. I love brow pencils, but I’m sure this is nice. The color is Medium, but I’ve seen some photos and it looks pretty dark. My brows are almost black, so it would be fine for me.

I just realized that I forgot to take a photo of the bag alone. You can kind of see it in the first photo. It’s too lake to take one now, but I might tomorrow and if I do, I will put it here. It is a really pretty train case style bag.

So that is a lot of products, whew! The total is $301.98 which is pretty great for spending $49.99. I think this is a really good deal, if you don’t mind not knowing if you will enjoy the variations you get. I’m glad I got the correct face palette, but I’m not going to use the lipstick or probably the eye shadow palette. And I think it stinks that many subscribers can’t use their face palette (or not use it as intended. It can probably be used for eyeshadows).

I will keep and enjoy the face palette, the brushes, the mask, polishes, train case and maybe the face cream. I have so many right now, I don’t know if I will keep it. The other products I will either giveaway or sell.

I have so much makeup and skincare right now, and I am also getting Ipsy Glam Bag Plus soon. So, I think I’m going to give both of the subscriptions until June (which will give me one more month of BoxyLuxe, plus it’s my birthday month) and then I will choose which one to keep. These are my only current subscription boxes, but I don’t really think I need both. But we will see…

Do you get BoxyLuxe or BoxyCharm? What were your variations this month?

October 2018 Beauty Favorites

Hi all! It’s November! This year has gone by so fast! Soon it will be Christmas.

I have a few items I’ve been using almost every day in October. Here are the items and links to my first review or post about it:

IT Cosmetics Secret Sauce ($68 USD) — My skin has gotten so dry lately. This moisturizer is thick and hydrating, perfect for colder weather! The skin-loving, powerfully potent secret lies in the Secret Sauce™ Fermented Complex: 7 clinically advanced, penetration-enhancing fermented ingredients that help to increase absorbency and maximize the ultra-hydrating, anti-aging benefits of Secret Sauce™. Also featuring anti-aging peptides, hydrolyzed collagen, hyaluronic acid, vitamin C and licorice root, Secret Sauce™ is perfect for all skin types and reduces the look of discoloration, lines and wrinkles. I used this at night and in the morning my skin is soft and glowy!

BECCA Under Eye Brightening Corrector is a full-coverage creme that color-corrects the appearance of under-eye darkness. It is infused with ultra-fine, light-reflecting illuminators. I like this a lot. It’s just the right shade to go under my eye, it’s a little bit lighter than my skin tone. It helps cover my dark circles and give us a bit of a glow. This was a favorite earlier in the year, but I’ve been using it again and love to apply it every day under my concealer.

Wunder2 Wunderkiss Gloss Lip Liner ($11.95 USD) — This liner is created to be used with lip gloss! The liner is very smooth and easy to use. The claim is that it can be used to create a beautiful, long-lasting lip contour that keeps your lip gloss in place. I find that it does just that. My gloss looks fresh for longer. Available in 3 shades — Nude, Rose and Berry. I love the Nude. I have been trying to use up three Lorac glosses in my current Project Pan, and this lip liner helps them stay on longer and my lips look more polished.

Urban Decay Elements Eyeshadow Palette ($52 USD) — Inspired by the elements – Air, Earth, Fire and Water – a constellation of unique colors orbit around Luna, an ultra-iridescent transformer shade. The 19 new multidimensional pigments include bright mattes, holographic shimmers and molten metallics. This is gorgeous and I’ve been testing out these shadows. It’s perfect for fall and holiday looks.

Morphe High Impact Highlighter in Extra ($14 USD) — At first I wasn’t the biggest fan of this, but I really like it now. The color is gorgeous, it’s a lustrous peachy gold. Just a little goes a long way with this. It’s very intense!

Physicians Formula The Healthy Foundation SPF 20 (LC1) — This is full coverage, but it looks natural on. I don’t have the correct shade, I purchased it online and I guessed on the shade. They all looked pretty dark on the Ulta website so I bought the lightest shade. It’s just a bit light for me. I will purchase this again in a darker shade.

Have you tried any of these products? What are your faves from the month?

I Won a Giveaway!

Hi all! Sorry for the dark photo above, but I wanted to share the amazing giveaway I won from YouTuber Allie Glines. She has a really fun e-magazine called the Afterparty. It’s $3.99 a month and you can check it out here.

Allie has a giveaway each month and all subscribers are entered. And I won for September. I just receive my prize and thought I would share.

I received:

Influencer by Brittany Hennessy Capture Your Style by Aimee Song Dermablend Original Loose Powder Thrive Causemetics Lashed in Kristy Olay Whip Active Moisturizer Too Faced Melted Matte Liquid Lipstick in Drop Dead Red Lancome L’absolu Lacquer Lipstick in Smile and Shine Morphe X Jaclyn Hill The Vault Collection

I’m excited about all of these prizes, but especally the books and the Vault. I have been wanting to read more books on social media and I have been thinking about picking up one of the palettes to test the formula, but couldn’t decide which one. Here’s a photo of all four palettes:

The palettes are (clockwise) Armed and Gorgeous, Dark Magic, Ring the Alarm and Bling Boss. I have tried all of them once except for Dark Magic. I like them okay, but they take some blending to get a nice look. I am going to keep playing with them and then do a review.

Have you tried any of these palettes? What do you think?

I am so excited about my prizes and want to thank Allie Glines for the fun giveaway!

Ipsy Glam Bag Plus Review — October 2018

Hi all! I’m so excited that I received my first Ipsy Glam Bag Plus ($25 USD) –October is the first month for the Glam Bag Plus. It is a box that will always include 5 full-sized items. The first month has six items but I believe each month after that will have 5.

I had looked in my Ipsy account and saw what I was getting. At first I wasn’t that excited, but the more I looked, the more I got excited for it! For $25 a month, this is such a good bag!

Here is what I received:

Smashbox Cover Shot Palette in Bold Glitter – $29
Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner – $22
PURLISSE Blue Lotus Seed Mud Mask + Exfoliant – $48
tarte Maneater Voluptuous Mascara – $23
Beauty by POPSUGAR Be Sweet Tinted Lip Balm in Blush Crush – $20
Morphe High Impact Highlighter in Extra – $14

Each quarter, Ipsy Glam Bag plus subscribers will get a premium makeup bag in addition to their 5 items. (That means you’ll receive a box of 5 beauty items every month, but a glam bag only once every 3 boxes.) This one is a soft pink color and has burgundy accents. It’s really nice quality.

I don’t wear liquid liner or do wings. If I wear a liner I like to smudge a brown or plum liner on my lash line. I don’t wear black because it’s too harsh on me. So I’ll probably be giving this to my daughter.

I enjoy tarte mascaras, but I haven’t tried this one yet. It claims to define lashes without clumps. And you can build up to lengthen and volumize. I’m looking forward to trying it!

This is one of the products I was really excited about! This is an exfoliating mask that is supposed to be gentle. I do have sensitive skin and hope it works well for me.

I have never tried Morphe makeup before, and have just one brush from the brand. So I was very excited to try this. I’ve tried it a couple of times and am trying to figure out if I like it. It’s very metallic and shows texture. I do like the color, though.

This was another item I was looking forward to trying. I haven’t tried anything from this brand either. This is so hydrating and the shade is beautiful! This is a total win!

This is an item I wasn’t really excited for and i was thinking of giving it away — and then I saw Andrea Matillano swatch this on You Tube. And I changed my mind! It is gorgeous. I am hoping to review it and I will swatch it if I do.

So, maybe I wasn’t as excited when I first saw what I was getting, but I really liked this box! I will keep the eye shadow, mascara, mask, and lip butter. I might keep the highlighter, or give it away and I will giveaway the eyeliner. And I will keep the pretty bag!

Did you get Ipsy Glam Bag Plus this month? What did you think and what did you get?

My 50th Birthday Beauty Wish List!

You saw is correctly, I am turning 50 this month! It feels unreal, but I have decided to (somewhat) embrace it! I’ve never done a wish list or a products I’m interested in buying post, but I thought this might be fun!

First, from my Sephora loves list:

Tatcha The Silk Canvas Protective Primer ($58 USD) — This is a “velvety priming balm of pressed silk that smooths and makes makeup last longer while keeping it out of skin, helping to prevent clogged pores and breakouts.” It is currently out of stock at Sephora. It is very expensive for a primer. But, I have huge pores, especially during allergy season, and I’ve heard this is excellent!

Other Tatcha products I would love to try is the Bestsellers Set or just the Luminous Dewy Skin Mist on it’s own.

Benefit Cosmetics Blush Bar Cheek Palette ($58) — This cheek palette includes Benefit’s new Gold Rush warm golden-nectar blush, as well as the iconic Hoola matte bronzer, the bestselling Dandelion brightening baby-pink blush, and more. With shades to flatter all skin tones, this must-have palette has everything you need to contour, bronze, brighten, and define your features. It comes complete with a soft powder brush, mirror, and Benefit’s signature Tips & Tricks.

I think this is beautiful and I think these shades will be perfect for summer. Macy’s is currently having a 10 days of Glam sale I blogged about here. On June 8th Benefit’s boxes of powders — including ones in the palette — will be half off. So I might pick up a couple there.

Fenty Beauty Bomb Baby Mini Lip and Face Set ($23 USD) — I have still not tried anything from Fenty! It’s crazy, because I really like Rihanna and think the line looks amazing. This is “a must-have set of FENTY BEAUTY’S most coveted luminizers for the face and lips in travel-friendly sizes for killer radiance on the fly.” This sounds amazing for summer! I love highlighter and lip gloss. I think I might pick this up when I go into Sephora to get my birthday gift.

In the future, I would love to try Fenty’s foundation and maybe some of their other products. Any suggestions???

Next are some picks from Ulta that I need:

Sky’s The Limit

Lock & Key

Dose Of Colors Block Party Single Eyeshadow ($20 each) — The shades above are:

Sky’s the Limit (soft brown base w/ icy lilac reflects)

Shell We Dance (pink champagne base w/ platinum reflects)

Lock & Key (medium brown base w/ gold reflects)

I know that $20 for a single shadow is steep, especially in the age of affordable palettes with lots of shades to choose from. But I have seen makeup tutorials on YouTube with these and they are so gorgeous! I would love to try one or two.

Physicians Formula Online Only Butter Collection Box ($29.99 USD) — Escape to the beaches of Brazil with Physicians Formula’s Butter Collection – an assortment of Physicians Formula’s most sought-after, skin-loving products.

Limited Edition Butter Collection Box includes:

Butter Bronzer (bronzer) (0.38 oz)
Butter Blush (natural glow) (0.26 oz)
Butter Highlighter (pearl) (0.17 oz)
Limited Edition Body Butter (0.5 oz)
Butter Paradise Eau De Toilette (0.5 oz)

There’s another set sold at Walmart for less than half the price of this, but you

Morphe Laura Lee’s Favorite Brush Collection ($54 USD) — This is available at the Morphe website, not Ulta. I have been eyeing this for a few weeks. The selection has brushes that I would use daily. It inclused 11 brushes chosen by YouTuber Laura Lee.

Now, of course this isn’t all of the makeup that I want, these are just splurges that I would need to save up for. I’m also interested in some fun brand new eye shadow palettes like Laura Lee’s Nudie Patootie, Dominique Cosmetics The Latte palette and one that is launching tomorrow, Lunar Beauty’s Life’s a Drag.

So that’s my big 5 0 birthday wish list! What makeup are you wanting this year?