US Beauty Haul | First Impressions

Y'all know that the first thing on my mind when I landed in Florida in December was "oh my days imagine all the things I can buy in Sephora and Ulta" swiftly followed by the idea pancakes and maple bacon.  The black and white stripes were calling my name. Unfortunately due to a poor exchange rate, it actually didn't work out much cheaper to buy certain products abroad like it has in previous years so I tried to stick to things we can't necessarily get over here, haven't been released yet or are a little harder to access. This post will be a quick run down of everything with a few initial impressions, the real juicy stuff will come in the reviews to follow over the next few weeks. Ooooh the anticipation.


The first place we stopped at was an Ulta and my goodness this place is heaven. Nothing but a magical mix of drugstore and high end beauty like a Boots but a million times better. I think the most exciting brand here for me was Lorac, as they're so notoriously difficult or expensive to get a hold of here. Their pro palettes are a huge beauty blogger favourite, known for their intensely pigmented shades and soft formulas but I opted for the Lorac Unzipped palette. I like to think of this as Naked 3 by Urban Decay but on steroids. It's full of the same sort of rose/pink shades, perfect for creating a soft and pretty eye look. I can't think of any shadows I've tried that deliver the same amount of pigment, seriously I stood swatching this bad boy for a good ten minutes in store before I took the plunge.

I was also really intrigued by the NYX Total Control drop foundation that I passed on my way to the till, I'd already heard really good things about the Tarte Rainforest of The Sea water foundation and this seemed fairly similar on first glance. I don't want to give too much away as I will be doing a full post on both of these as well as a comparison but I have been wearing the NYX one for a cuple of weeks solid now and I LOVE IT.

We all know one of the best things about post-Christmas shopping is the sales so how could I resist picking up a few limited edition Mac bits at bargain prices? Plus when they're conveniently placed right by the till, it just has to be done. For under $30 I picked up a matte lipstick in the shade So Good For You, a really cool toned red (still available for £11.90 online) and a "magic dust powder" (whatever that means) in the shade Sweet Vision, a light shimmery pink that looks like it will work perfectly as a blush topper.

And last but not least, the most exciting purchases for me, the Anastasia Beverly Hills collection. I've never quite been able to justify spending another £20 on customs to have the liquid lipsticks shipped in (though now ABH do have a UK website here) so I wanted to picked up a couple of these. Pure Hollywood is my all time favourite nude and one of the first lip products I've ever finished so I had to grab another one of these, Kathryn is a brown/berry mix you could possibly consider a very dark nude shade and Craft is the perfect berry purple shade. I also grabbed their foundation stick, it was a toss up between this and the Makeup Forever Ultra HD stick but as that worked out cheaper to buy here in Debenhams, I wanted to try out this one. As with everything else, expect reviews in the next few weeks!

What makeup products have you picked up lately? And what would you like to see reviewed first?