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What has been your favorite beauty purchase this holiday season?
The Marc Jacobs Beauty palette! I really enjoyed that one 🙂
— Christine
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This isn’t so easy because I have honestly been enjoying everything I’ve gotten so far!
For a permanent product: Guerlain Air Kiss, hands down!
For LE eyeshadow palette: MUFE 15 Artist Shadows
LE eyeshadow single: MAC Ascent Of Glamour
For LE lipstick: Bite Kir Royale
( I know, that was 4, love ’em all equally, though!)
charlotte tilbury gold bar highlighter
OMG that one is so gorgeous I really want to get it. How do you find it in terms of use?
It is very easy to use. I actually find the Becca highlighters to be difficult to use because it’s easy to grab too much – the gold bar is perfect! Nicely pigmented but not too pigmented
Wow, so much good stuff, this is a tough one! Probably the Marc Jacobs Re(marc)able Full Coverage Foundation Concentrate. I have decent skin, but at 46, it needs help, and it’s been erasing years off my face by covering up flaws – hyper pigmentation, redness, uneven skin tone, pores, etc. and if applied lightly, it doesn’t look like a mask or feel heavy or greasy.
Oh yes, and UD Spectrum! UD took on some of the toughest shades (blues, purples, greens), nailed everyone of them, and stuck them in an affordable palette. Bravo!!
Good to know – I have been considering that one. I love Giorgio Armani Lasting Silk for the feel of it and how lightweight it is and have been looking for something similar with more coverage.
Try a sample of Dior’s Triple Correcting serum foundation. I too have rosacea, dryness, sun spots, pores, etc. It is a bit more moisturizing and coverage-y than Armani Silk, but not greasy or heavy. I’m really pleased with it.
Thank you for this! I’m heading out on Tuesday for errands and will be stopping by a Dior counter or a Sephora to get a sample. 🙂
If you do try the MJ one, try to get a sample if at all possible. It is full coverage, so getting a correct match is really important, and the shades run really light and some are yellow, but there are 24 shades, so it’s a good range. Also, when you apply in store, the initial swatch appears much darker, then it lightens up after about 10 minutes on your face, so best to get samples to test out.
Will do – thank you!
Guerlain winter fairy tale collection.
The eye and cheek palette, rouge G lipstick, the snow ball meteorite pearls, and the purple shimmery nail polish.
My favourite is the palette. Love this year’s colour combination and how travel friendly it is.
Those Snow Ball Meteorites are so gorgeous. If I didn’t have so many other things on my wishlist I’d snap it up!
So far my Urban Decay Spectrum palette tied with Becca After Glow cheek palette. Got a few more beauty purchases to make for gifts. And I want a customized Nars blush palette soon!!
Those first two and the MUEF 15th pan palette are my picks.
The Wayne Goss Anniversary Brush Set. I’ve never had makeup apply so beautifully than with this set. Rumor has it Santa may be bringing me the Holiday Brush, now called Brush 00.
Urban Decay Urban Spectrum, hands down.
Wow, I thought the UD Spectrum palette had been pulled to reintroduce Spring 2015, but it seems many people have it.
I hope that UD does re-release it next year because I missed out on it.
I got it when it launched on the UD website in mid-September, but it sold out quickly. Then further distribution got delayed, like you said.
I’m so bummed I missed that one!
The only holiday items I purchased were from the MAC ‘Magic of the Night’ collection.
I’m loving both of my EDSFs in “OH, DARLING” and “SHAFT of GOLD”.
It was worth every penny.
Ditto here. The highlighters are my faves, hands down.
The nars one shocking moment palette or the nars a woman’s face lip set
Maybe not that spectacular – but YES, the MAC Lovething Blush is IT. It was up my street when I first saw it in store, but your review prompted the decision. Dark, warm, reddish, glowy Holiday goodness. 🙂
It’s still a liiiiitle bit to early to say probably, but my new BECCA mattifying primer is a good contestant! Oh, and MAC Everyone’s Darling from the MACnificent Me collection.
Tie: the MJ or MUFE palettes. And they were my first e/s from each brand. Wow for good performance.
UD Spectrum palette.
I haven’t actually made any “seasonal” purchases because I honestly have more than too much stuff, but my favourite purchases recently have been Lise Watier Souffle shadow in Sortilege and MAC’s Posh Pedigree from the autumn.
I received the Makeup Forever 15 Artists Palette the other day. I purchased it based on your recommendations despite some iffy reviews. Well, I thinks it the best palette I’ve ever owned and I’ve owned a lot over the past 4 decades. There did seem to be a “crust” on the shadows but after a vigorous brush swirl I had eyeshadow perfection. The shades are buttery nut not powdery. Well pigmented but easy to work with. Thanks Christine!
I always buy a lot in Nov/ Dec (so many value sets and LE items!!), but my favorite this year was probably Guerlain Perles des Neiges. It’s just so pretty to look at even sitting on my vanity, and it feels so luxurious and smells divine. I have a feeling it will be my “Guerlain gateway drug” – I’m hooked now!
Yes! The Perles have been my favorite purchase as well. I’ve been able to limit my purchases to only their Meteorites . . . . so far. 🙂
Definitely my UD Urban Spectrum palette which has just been released in Italy: it’s every bit as fabulous as you described it in your review and so worth the splurge. I probably won’t buy anything else before new year though.
…
HA HA HA who am I trying to fool?! xD
MAC Shaft of Gold!
I haven’t tried all my holiday purchases. It will probably take me until March to really spend some time with all these new eyeshadow palettes. So far I have most loved Urban Decay’s Spectrum Palette. Just started playing with Mufe’s 15 color Palette and Kat Von D’s Mi Vida Loca Remix this weekend. I love the MUFE but am not sure how to work with the Kat Von D. The quality of the Kat is good, I just struggle creating my own eye looks, especially with that much color right in front of me. I think my favorite two lipsticks of fall were both from Bite: I love my Frozen Berries Plum (I thought it was awful when I first tried it on, almost took it back, lol) and Braised Maple (found it from a Canadian eBay seller).
I was really hoping some of the ladies here would talk about their favorite fall Chanel purchases. My husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas this morning and some of the Chanel fall collection is still available online, so I was hoping for some suggestions.
Chanel: The pencil from the Holiday collection and the mid tone shade from the quad from the same collection. The pencil is special and really makes the green in my eyes pop. I can’t go wrong. I also totally love the weird taupey mid tone shade in the quad. It isn’t easy to work with, but it’s a stellar shade to create a faux crease on my hooded eyes. The quad isn’t the best quality but the palette seriously does wonderful things for my eye colour and it’s always fab to have a ‘no brainer’ palette on hand. Oh, and Golden Sun blush from Chanel. Yes, I caved, I have a bunch of the dupes but so worth it. Definitely one of the better joues in my collection texture wise and application wise. Colour wise, it’s bloody brilliant!!
Well, I don’t know about products that were released specifically for the holidays, but I’ve really been loving the UD Vice4 I just got two days ago. I also really love the Ciate London x Olivia Palermo lipstick in Velveteen-the color is just right for my skin tone and it’s a smooth formula, which is great for dry lips. I wish I had more confidence to wear red lips around! Some day, I will wear Velveteen AND Vice4 at the same time and dare anyone to stop me.
Bite Beauty’s Tannin high pigment lip pencil! Such a gorgeous shade of red, slightly dark with a little tinge of pinky-berry, and perfect for my super fair skin. I love their formulas!
MUFE 15. It’s really lovely. I’m just now returning home from a trip where I took it along with a small 4-pan tin of MUFE mattes, and I was just so pleased by what looks I got out of them. But though I’ve been buying a lot of makeup lately, I haven’t been buying a lot of other holiday stuff, except to serve as gifts.
I love the Contour Bk 2 by Kevyn Aucoin, but my favourite this season is Bite’s lipstick in Mauvember, a Canadian exclusive.
Guerlain’s holiday Météorites pearls, Rouge G in Merveilleux Rose, and the drop-dead gorgeous holographic Gloss D’Enfer. Such a beautiful winter look!
The Kat Von D Mi Vida Loca Remix palette is not only my favourite purchase of the holiday, but probably all time!
Megan, I am just starting to play with this palette. Do you have any combination suggestions? I think I am scaring my family with the looks I am creating, lol.
So far it’s a toss up between Bite Best Remix and Bite Kir Royale!
It’s got to be the body milk in Japanese Rose by Korres, it feels and smells sO amazing!!
Definitely my UD Spectrum palette and the Nars One Shocking Moment palette. The One Shocking Moment palette is a great collection of face products that all work for me in one place, and I’m super excited to travel with it for the holidays.
UD’s Spectrum palette has been a very fun experiment in color for me (I’m normally scared of bold color.)
I decided to take a chance on some lip colors I couldn’t try before buying and ended up happy! I’m really enjoying three Ardency Inn lipsticks — Circa Rose, Forward, and Cult — they glide on beautifully and last really well; two NARS Audacious lipsticks that are exclusive to Barney’s — Silvia and Vivien — and love how both of them look on me (I already knew I liked the formula). Others that I like how they look on me, but that I haven’t worn all day yet, are two Besame shades (Red Velvet 1946 and Noir Red) and Kevyn Aucoin Expert Lipcolor in Bloodroses.
I also really like a Ciate eyeshadow palette (Smoldering) that I picked up during the Sephora sale — the colors are well-pigmented and blend well, the palette is well-thought-out and includes base and transition shades, and the blues are the exactly right shade for bringing out the olive green and gray in my hazel eyes that usually just look brown.
I’m also really liking some Kjaer Weis eyeshadows that I got during the Beautylish gift card event. I usually like bright, vibrant eyeshadows, but when I want something more toned-down (say, to wear with all those bright lipsticks I got), these are perfect. They’re not under-pigmented, they’re just a bit more subtle than my usual fare, and have the perfect kind of subtle satin sparkle/sheen to diffuse rather than emphasizing texture on my almost 60-year-old eyelids. I bought the refills and put them in a Z-palette rather than spending the $$ for the admittedly gorgeous packaging. I also want to give a shout-out for Beautylish here — I got confused and thought that the last day of the event was a day later than it really was, and so that morning I realized I’d just missed it. I emailed them and they extended it an extra day for me! I thought that was super-nice and not something that a big company would have the ability to do.
That’s a tough one. I got a few LE items but also some items that have been on my wishlist for YEARS.
In terms of “it’s about time” items, definitely the Kevyn Aucoin “The Sculpting Powder” and the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette (the normal one, not the overpriced Edit”.
For LE items, I got the Marc Jacobs “The Sofia” five deluxe lipstick set, and I’m waiting on the MJ Skyliner gift set (which will hopefully not be from the bad batch with the caps that didn’t work so everything dried out, if so I can just send it back and get one from the newer batch apparently). I got the Chanel Illusion D’Ombre in Rouge Noir from the fall collection (and the shade Mirage) which is freaking gorgeous. I also got the L’Occitane Advent Calendar which I obviously haven’t opened yet but am really looking forward to. I also got some Lush holiday stuff and am going to get more of their stuff. Oh! And I got the Jo Malone holiday set of mini Colognes to try out the different ones (and really, really one to get the Cologne Intense set, and the Cardamom & Mimosa cologne). So yeah, a lot. Though to be fair since I can’t really spend money on other stuff right now except the basics (and medical stuff, hence not spending money on other things as I can’t really go out), I have a decent budget for makeup and skincare this time around.
UD a Spectrum palette and Too Faced Le grand chateau.
Christine, which Marc Jacobs palette are you referring to? The $100 one?
My favorite that’s holiday specific is MAC Shaft of Gold edsf.
Not sure this counts as seasonal, but Sephora RougeVIB recently had a 20% off sale and I got 2 more Viseart eyeshadow palettes, Neutral Mattes and Paris Nudes. I used the Sultry Muse palette all summer and adored it, so snapped up 2more when they went on sale! So far haven’t had much time with them, but falling deeply in love!!!
Good to know! I’ve had my eye on these since Sephora started carrying them earlier this year. Since I ended up passing on a few holiday things that I thought I’d buy, I think I’m going to finally get Sultry Muse and Paris Nudes. I wish the packaging had a little more pizazz but then again it’ll be great for traveling. I love the variety of colors and it’s such a good value, too. Glad to hear its working out so well for you. ☺
So far my Lorac Mega Pro 2 palette. I missed out on last years Mega Pro 1. I’m not done yet though. I would love to get the Marc Jacobs #7 palette
Sometime
My first vise art palette it’s amazing and the meteorites !!!!!
Urban Decay Spectrum palette and when I get my hands on the bareMinerals Soft and Smoky eye palette I will be in heaven. The Spectrum palette is divine.
I love my Self Made palette from ABH. I have never tried her shadows before and I love how creamy they are. The mostly neutral palette with a few pops of color is perfect is perfect.
Dior’s Dreamskin pre makeup cream. At first I didn’t see a difference, but once I put on foundation, wow! Makes my red veins, brown spots disappear and my very middle aged skin look lots younger. This is a great product!
Same here with the MJ palette though the MUFE one is running close behind.
Urban Decay’s Spectrum Palette. If you have an Urban Decay store (not at Sephora or Ulta yet), go get it. It beats Vice.
surprisingly, the Jeffree Star Cosmetics holiday liquid lipstick bundle!
Lush’s eye cream ?
I just bought pur minerals one of those liquid/cushion eye shadows in “silk”. It’s very shiny, which I love. I was considering Stila, those super-shiny ones, and this one, but at Ulta they only had testers for 2 of the Stila colors, so I wasn’t really sure what color I wanted. I LOVE shiny eyelids, so this pur minerals was a big win for me.
Mac shaft of Gold EDSF and MUFE 15 palette. I think shaft of gold will travel well because it isn’t as soft as Becca’s formula
Viseart Muse & Cool Matte Palettes> I purchased them together and they are buttery smooth and offer endless color combinations!
My favorite of the season hands down has been my MJ Free Spirit Palette. It was hard to drop a hundred bucks on a palette, in my world that’s A LOT but sooooo worth it!! It’s a pleasure to work with. The quality has held strong for every look I’ve imagined. It’s all love between me and that beauty ? F.Y.I. The mirror is big which is great but the quality is FANTASTIC! I’ve never seen a makeup palette of any kind have a mirror like this. Maybe I should write the palette a poem or a song? A sonnet maybe? Bwahahaha
If nothing spectacular comes my way, it’s easily MJB The Free Spirit ES palette. I’ve used it almost every day since I got it. I tried the suggested looks, not bad, but the fun part is mixing, matching and mismatching and have fun with the colours. And I am having loads of fun with this.