May Ulta Mother's Day Mini Haul: Bare Minerals Your Starting Lineup, Spring Gift and More!

Hi, everyone!

As I (not so) patiently await the arrival of my May Ipsy bags (both of them, as I ordered a second subscripton!), I thought I would take the time to review my Mother's Day present from my sweet hubby. Of course, you know that any chance I can get to head over to Ulta (an hour away), I will- and this was a perfect excuse!  I had a very strict budget for this trip, so it's a mini-haul, but I think I definitely got my money's worth!

First, just let me say that Ulta is one of my favorite stores.  I can go in there with my Tiny Love, who isn't quite tiny anymore and is IN to EVERYTHING, and be welcomed with open arms, and she and I can swatch products to my hearts content.  The employees are super nice, and very helpful.  (if you're reading this Ulta- I HEART YOU.  Please send me free things, or more coupons so I can have the excuse to overindulge again soon.  Thank you!)

BareMinerals Your Starting Lineup 6 piece kit, $25 on sale (now $38 again); available HERE.

I'll start with the reason why I went to Ulta in the first place: I received an e-mail that the BareMinerals Your Starting Lineup 6 piece kit was on sale, from $38 to $25, plus a free gift with any $25 BareMinerals purchase.  Their foundation is my current favorite for the warmer months, so I really wanted to pick this up while it was on sale. 
This awesome kit contains foundation, primer, finishing powder, mascara, lip gloss, and a face brush, and has a retail value of $38.  I really need the "fairly light" color, but my store was sold out of the kits in that shade, so I picked up "light", in the hopes that I will get a bit of sun and it will match better.  My box says that the retail value of everything is $100, but when I add it up I get $80.85.  Full disclosure :)

BareMinerals Original SPF 15 Foundation, 2g size. (full size is 8.5 g, retail $27.)  Retail value $6.35.

I am in LOVE with this mineral foundation.  I've try SO many foundations in the last two months, and most of them just break me out.  I normally have very clear skin, so I don't need a lot of coverage- just enough to make my freckles LESS startling.  When I go out, I use a full coverage, flawless foundation, but for just everyday, I only need something light.  BareMinerals fits my foundation needs to a T. I won't swatch this, because it's a repeat buy for me (and you can see a picture of the swatch HERE), and I LOVE that this size of the powder has a seal to keep the powder INSIDE the container, instead of spilling into the top level.  So happy with this!

BareMinerals Mineral Veil SPF 25 Finishing Powder, 0.03 size. (full size is .3 oz, retail $20.00) Retail value $2

This is another repeat buy for me, and I absolutely love this weightless, translucent powder.  It feels like nothing on my face, has SPF in it (a MUST here!) and goes on like a dream.  I use this on my Tiny Love when we are out and it gets super sunny, as I don't carry a diaper bag any more.  This powder fits great in my makeup bag, and is easy to take out and apply to both of us.

BareMinerals Flawless Definition Volumizing Mascara in Black, 10 mL size (full size), retail value $18.

I have never tried anything from BareMinerals before except their powders, so I'm excited to try this out!  I have a HUGE stack of mascaras that I need to use, and I'll add this one to the stack (I try to only have one or two in use at any given time), but I'm excited about it.  The brush looks nice and full, and I have high hopes for the volumizing formula.  (Has anyone tried this?  Let me know what you think of it!)

BareMinerals 100% Natural Lipgloss in Cupcake, 4.2 mL size (full size), retail value $15.

I love lip gloss, but if you read my blog regularly, you already know that!  Lately, I've been using lipstick to create an ombre lip effect, but gloss is my first love.  I was excited to try this out- especially since it's all natural, but I was a little disappointed.  The gloss is sticky, in my opinion.  Not as bad as the Stila glosses were for me, but still a bit on the sticky side.  I'm still going to give it some test drives before I make a final verdict, especially since I really love the color!

Swatch of Cupcake

This color is really pretty with my coloring, so I really hope I can get over my sticky-hating feelings!

BareMinerals Flawless Face brush, retail value $28.

I already own a flawless face brush from BM, but it's a smaller, travel size brush that I received in my Try, Believe, Love Kit.  I use that brush every day, but it isn't my favorite, by a long shot- the bristles have a bit of fallout, and it's really small and needs reloading frequently.  I am SO glad that I bought this kit because this brush is freaking awesome!  It is SO soft, the bristles are longer and the brush head is much fuller than the travel brush.  I'll leave my travel brush in my purse makeup bag from here on out for touch ups, and use THIS brush for my everyday use.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!

Prime Time Foundation primer, .5 oz (half of full size), (full size is 1 oz and retails for $23), retail value $11.50

I have a lot of different primers that I have tried (and have here TO try), but I think that this is the first CLEAR primer that I've seen.  This stuff feels like satin on my skin.  The one thing that I DON'T like about BM foundations is that I do need to reapply a bit during the day, and hopefully this primer will make that NOT need to happen.  I'll give this a good trial and get back to you!

Because I spent $25 on BareMinerals products, I received a FREE gift:

Bareminerals Renew & Hydrate Eye Cream, 7 mL size, deluxe sample size, retail value $14.93.  Full size is 15 mL and retails for $32.

 Hydrating the under eye area will help reduce the appearance of dark circles, and help reduce wrinkles, so I'm all for this (especially since it was free!)  This cream has a light fragrance and goes on very smoothly.

Benefit Posit Tint Sample (2.5 mL) FREE sample

While I was over in the higher end product area of Sephora, a sales girl came up to me and we got to talking about (what else?) makeup.  She asked me my favorite brand, and I said Urban Decay (what, are you surprised?).  She complimented me on my makeup, and asked me what other brands I use.  I mentioned Benefit, and she brought me a free sample of the Posie Tint.  I already have a larger bottle of the Posie Tint, but I love it, and am super happy to have been given a nice sample of it again!


I also had a coupon for $3.50 off a $10 purchase (that doesn't include prestige brands), so I did a little extra shopping.  I noticed that they still had some of the gift bags that are free with a $19.50 Ulta purchase.  Who can turn that deal down?!  I really don't NEED a lot more makeup, (and I'm going on a no buy for at least a month, per my husband), but I can always use tools, and hair products.

Ulta Nourishing Deep Conditioner, 9 oz full size, on CLEARANCE for $2.25, originally $8.99. (couldn't find this one online- sorry!)

Ok, so this didn't count towards my $19.50 qualifying purchase, but this was just too good of a deal to pass up.  My hair is crazy, and I need to use deep conditioning treatments at least twice a month, so I jumped on this deal!

Ulta Brand Super Blender Sponge, $4.99, available HERE.

I have been hearing about these little buggers for what seems like forever, but have never splurged on getting one.  Since I didn't see any makeup that I HAD to have, I popped this little packet into my purse.  I haven't used it yet, but I will let you all know what I think of it.  To use a beauty blender, you wet it, wring it out, and use it to apply foundation to your face.  The pointy end is to blend foundation around your nose and eyes, and the larger end is for your whole face.  I know- I just said in this post that I love my mineral foundation, but when I'm going out, I always use liquid.  This will definitely get used!

Ulta Kabuki Brush, $14.00, available HERE.

I have wanted a kabuki brush for, like, ever.  They are just so (in my opinion) costly, that I just haven't been able to justify getting one- until today.  I LOVE this brush, and it feels SO soft on my face, I know I made the right decision.

I also picked up a travel hair brush for Tiny Love, as she wanted it, and tried it in store.  I think it cost $1.20.

Ulta's Spring Gift, Here Comes the Sun! (left to right, top to bottom: Bag in natural and yellow, 3 pc. brush set, lipstick in Perfect Nude, foaming face wash, nail lacquer in OH!, Amped Lashes mascara, blush in Flush, baked eye shadow in Spellbound (my choice), automatic eye liner in teal blue (my choice), and Super Shiny lip gloss in Flirtini.

Because I spent $19.50 or more on Ulta brand cosmetics, tools, or nailpolish, I received another free gift!  I chose the peach colors this time, since I already have the pink one.  I'm not going to review everything in this bag here, since I already did it HERE.  I will go over the items that have different colors, though!

swatch of Perfect Nude (226)

I really like Ulta's lipsticks.  They go on very creamy and have great pigmentation.  This shade, Perfect Nude, is a great shade for me, if I want to pull off a nice nude lip.  I couldn't go any lighter than this, or I look weird.  Love it!

swatch of Flirtini (07)

Lip gloss always makes me happy.  This color is a great, sparkly peach color and looks and feels great.  NOT sticky at all!!!
 

Ulta Nail Lacquer in Oh!

My nails are a hot mess right now, and need some serious attention before I paint them, but this color reminds me of the Sation polish I received in my April Ipsy bag.  I gave that away, and hopefully the formula of this polish will be more to my liking.   This is a super sheer peach polish.  It might make it to my giveaway basket too.



Ulta Cheeks in Flush

 I went from having virtually NO blushes to having a massive collection in the matter of about a month!  This pretty blush give just a hint of color with a matte finish.

Ulta Automatic Eye Liner in Teal Blue , 0.28g, $8 retail value.

I love eyeliners.  Liquids are my favorite, but retractable ones are a close second.  This pretty teal looks great on, and glides on smoothly.

Ulta Baked eye shadow in Spellbound, 2.55 g, $8 retail value.

I love me some eye shadows, too!  This gorgeous duo is silky smooth, and is absolutely beautiful.

swatch of Spellbound

I will totally add this to my collection of favorites.  I love how it's two shades in one, and they blend really well.

Well, that's about it for my awesome Mother's day Haul!  My husband was so good to let me go shopping at my favorite store!

Since I had to go to Salisbury to go to Ulta, I also took Tiny Love to the zoo.  I'll leave you with a picture of this awesome pelican that came over to stare at us.  I could have reached out and touched him (if I weren't afraid of losing a finger!)

Happy May, y'all!

Disclaimer: I purchased these items with my own money my husband's money, and any gifts with purchase were because I met the purchase requirements to receive them.  I was neither requested nor required to review these items, and all links in this post are NOT referral links, except the Ipsy ones.  I totally want a free gift for referring friends.  Sorry!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's day to all my readers!


Giving birth does NOT a mother make.
Mothers are the ones who nurture, care for and mentor others.

If you are lucky enough to have your own children (those you have given birth to, or those you care for), I hope that you had a wonderful day with them, and were able to hold them closeley.

For those of you who don't have children, Happy Mother's Day to you too, and thank you for being a great role model for others in this world.

Happy Mother's Day also, to the fathers out there who are both mother and father to their children!

I hope you all have had a great weekend!

DIY Magnetic Palette The Only Average Way

Hello my lovely friends!

A couple months ago, I received a mini magnetic palette from GlamRx, and I learned how to Depot makeup.  Since then, I've been depotting various things to put in my palette, and now I have more things depotted than I have room in my palette for!

I priced out buying a magnetic or sticky palette online, and they all look a little pricey for my cheapskate budgeting self.

So, I decided to try my hand at making one!  It looked to me that the basic supplies that I would need are a box (the palette shell), glue, and a magnet.

I did some research online, to see how others did it, added a few thoughts and ideas of my own, and came up with a game plan. I set out for my local Dollar Tree to see if they had what I was looking for.

Before I went to the store, I raided my collection of useless dustcatchers to see if I already had what I was looking for.  I sort of collect tins, but none fit the bill for what I wanted to do.  Off to Dollar Tree, I went!  I tried to find a little metal box, that wasn't to deep, but my DT wasn't going to make it easy for me.  I couldn't find a tin, but then I walked by a display of hardcase credit card wallets.



Hard case credit card wallet from Dollar Tree

 I pondered over this for a minute, and a thought came to me: I could make this into a TWO sided palette!

Paper inside the palette, and the straps I yanked off :)

Once I got home, I pulled the elastic straps off of both sides of the wallet, and then traced it onto a piece of paper.  I cut the paper down until it would fit exactly inside the box.

I then took an old promotional magnet (with a calendar from 2012 on the front), and traced my paper onto it, twice.  I cut out the magnet inside my cut line, and put them inside the former wallet.  Ok, so my plan didn't work out QUITE so well, and I needed to trim the magnet to fit- I had forgotten about the little bumps where the elastic attached.  Whoops!

Palette with both magnets in it.

Once my magnet pieces fit into the bottom of the former wallet-now palette, I glued one in place.  I tried regular school glue because I'm too lazy to bust out my glue gun.  Yeah, that didn't work so well- try super glue or a glue gun!!

The glue dried, and then I popped the other magnet into place, and glued that one as well.



See how great the magnet works?  These suckers aren't going anywhere!

I put some depotted eyeshadows into the palette, and it worked great!  I closed it up, and then pushed the button to open it, and it opened up, but the shadows on the top did not stay in place. So my two sided palette is now a one sided palette.  But that's ok.  
What did I spend on this project?  ONE DOLLAR.  I'm going to use this plain little palette to store depotted things that I don't want in my GlamRx palette, to keep them dust free and protected from the tiny fingers that plague my household and can destroy anything that they touch!

I DO want to mention that the magnet that I used is a thicker one- they seem to work better than the thinner ones.
Then, one day, while I was out shopping for Girl Scout supplies, I saw it. 

Hello Kitty, I Mustache you a question!

I saw the coolest little mint tin EVER: a Hello Kitty with a mustache! Oh, I HAD to have this.  I put it in my shopping card, and paid for it separately at the register ($3.99?!). Once in the car, I popped it open, and my BFF Missy SQUEED when we saw that the candies inside are tiny mustaches!  

Missy and I had a fantastic time playing with these little candies, and she asked me why I had to have this tin.  I told her that I want to convert it into a tiny palette for my purse!  She agreed that it would be super cute- as my enabler, that is her job :)

Once all the candies were eaten (I have two kids- it doesn't take long.  On a side note, my tiny love calls "mustaches" "Stick Beards".  That will NEVER EVER get old!!!), I rinsed the tin out and left it to dry.

All my supplies (except scissors.  You'll need those too!)

I repeated the same steps above: trace the tin bottom onto a piece of paper, cut the paper to fit, and then trace the paper onto a magnet.  I cut the magnet out and fit it into the bottom of the tin.  It fit very snugly, and I didn't even need to glue it!

Super cute palette with 3 Yaby eyeshadows in it!

I hope you enjoyed this OnlyAverage tutorial!  I thought that if you subscribe to Ipsy and don't want to mix powders and creams in your GlamRx (or other) palette, you might benefit from my experience!  Plus Stick Beard Hello Kitty is WAY too cute to NOT share!
Have you ever made a magnetic palette?  Are you a DIY Princess?  Leave a comment, and let me know!  If I were to do a giveaway for a Stick Beard Hello Kitty homemade palette, would you enter?


 
 
 Disclaimer:  The products listed above were purchased by me, with my own money my husband's money.  I was not asked nor required to write this review, and the thoughts above are my own.  The Ipsy link IS a referral link (I get a freebie if 2 friends subscribe, but any other link in this post just goes back to my own blog.  I was not compensated in any way for writing this review. 

 

Only Average GIVEAWAY!!!

Ok, y'all- it's time for my very FIRST giveaway!

I picked up a super cute Profusion palette on a great deal, and wanted to thank my loyal readers for sticking with me through the thick and thin, and especially when my only average life gets in the way of writing a new post!

I've never used Rafflecopter before, and I hope it works out for me today, but from what I've seen, it's the easiest way to run a fair giveaway, so here goes!

What I picked out a prize is a very nice 10 eyeshadow palette from Profusion, that includes a black eyeliner.  The palette name is Sultry & Neutrals, and is Profusion's attempt as a dupe for Urban Decay's Naked Palette.  I'm just a small blogger, and I purchased this on my own (not a sponsored giveaway), and I know it's not a HUGE prize, but I think that this pretty palette would be a great addition to anyone's makeup arsenal. 

I purchased my first Profusion palette around Christmas time, and it was the same colors that are in this one, but had a different name (different store, maybe?).  I really love all the neutral shades and how they work together.  Some are lightly pigmented, and others are very pigmented in my palette.  I'm NOT going to swatch this one because I don't want to remove the plastic and touch someone else's makeup!!  If you would like to see the review of my Profusion Neutrals palette, you can find it HERE.

I'm also including a foil pack (shudder) sample of Urban Decay's Primer Potion, so that you will have a great base the first time you use your new shadow palette!  I swear by this stuff!  If I run across any other little samples that I've not, well, sampled, I'll include them as well. 

If you would like to make this palette your very own, enter the drawing below!  Maybe one day, I'll be "big" enough to have companies give me things to give away, but until then, I hope you like this palette!

I'll ship this out in a recycled PINK Ipsy mailer, to whomever the winner is.  This giveaway is for US residents ONLY, because I am a poor blogger who can't afford international shipping.  Sorry, any non-US reader.  If this giveaway goes well, I'll talk my husband into letting me do a giveaway that is international, I promise!

So, whatcha think- did I do OK for my first giveaway?  Should I do another one soon??

a Rafflecopter giveaway