'Tis the Season for Limited Editions

'Tis the season for limited editions. Christmas is my favorite holiday in some respects and in the same respect my least favorites season. Con = all the shopping for gifts stress. Pro = all the shopping; LIMITED EDITION makeup value sets, palettes, colors, and so, so many deals. 

Some of the limited editions will never return and some will return next Christmas season. Some will continue after the Christmas season but not at the great holiday prices. Overall limited edition value sets are my absolute favorite thing about the Christmas season. I can't stand how cute the sample size items in the Sephora Favorites holiday sets are and all the amazing packaging. I would have loved to have a Benefit Cosmetics advent calendar as a pre/teen. I didn't even know they existed until this year and I am obsessed. So enough about me lets get into the good stuff. I'm going to let you in on all the best holiday limited edition products, sets, and gifts. These items need to publicized or I know tons of you are going to be upset when you see them on Pinterest later only to find out that they aren't in rotation anymore. 

Best Limited Edition Color Palettes: 

1. Bobbi Brown's Warm Glow Palette, $75 - absolutely my #1 x-mas list item! Gorgeous and I do mean gorgeous faux crocodile case. If I miss out on this I will not forgive myself. A little pricey for but definitely worth it. Not really crazy, $$, for Bobbi.

Bronzes, Roses, and Warm Browns. Absolutely Gorgina!

2.  Bobbi Brown's Warm Eye Palette, $48.50- Six beautiful warm shades and a BB dual-ended brush. The brush alone would usually cost you $45. This is a Limited Edition steal and best!

Warm Eye Palette with dual-ended brush!

3. Bobbi Brown Deluxe Lip & Eye, $80- 8 shadows, 8 lip colors, and a mini brush for each. The eye shadows mini versions of the shades from the Warm Glow and Warm palette. If you don't use eyeshadow everyday or don't use a specific palette too often this is the right choice for you. You get the Warm/Glow shades, 2 brushes, and the bonus 8 complimentary lip shades for $5 more than the Warm Glow palette. 

Perfect for your holiday party clutch! 

(OK, let's get away from Bobbi Brown but I do have to give her Surf and Sand line a shout out, gorgeous, not holiday and not really a deal but Limited Edition nonetheless and worth taking a look at before it's gone.)


LE Gifts for your FAVORITE people, ONLY! Otherwise keep it for yourself! 

1.  Urban Decay Naked on the Run, $54- This is a must for a bestie, mom, sister (you) that never has the time to go home before going out after work! Gorgeous and truly everything you need to touch-up for a great price! It is UD.

Bronzer, blush, highlighter, 5 Naked Shadows, liner, lip gloss, and mascara

 2. Tarte Kiss & Belle LipSurgence Lip Set, $34- 8 deluxe sample lip products that can easily be split up and used as stocking stuffers. Great deal, shades, and versatility! I plan on dropping 2 into each stocking and still having 2 left over for myself!

$4.25/product! You cannot get any better than that!

3. Tarte Bon Voyage Collector's Set and Travel Bag, $59- This is a perfect gift or multiple gifts. You can split this up in so many ways or give it whole. It's such an amazing deal. That many shadows by Tarte would usually cost $70 alone. 

Super deluxe sample and full sizes!

4. Benefit Cosmetics Advent Calendar, $99- This is perfect for a family of girls. Each day is a little beautiful and exciting gift. You can also get this and split the 25 items to make small gifts for your friends or anyone in your life.

Each little window opens from Dec 1 to Dec 30...

...reveal all of this!

  Honorable Mention: There are a ton of Limited Edition holiday sets and singles that you should absolutely look at but Nars, Too Faced, and BareMinerals all deserve a specific shout-out. They have done it up completely right; packaging, price, and amount = amazing! I'm just giving you a little taste of the greatness, go to Sephora.com and search "Limited Edition" to see it all! I have many many many times and cannot wait to start buying these LE's all up! Remember the whole point is that they will not be around for long...

Custom Origins Modern Friction

Lately, I've really been into trying to make the best organic homemade facial masks, cleansers, and scrubs. I went to Florida during the summer and used a Banana Boat sunscreen on my skin that either clog my pores and caused the onset of a major breakout on both cheeks or the two just happened to coincide. Either way, I've been dealing this breakout since August. It finally started to really clear up when I started using Proactive again but I realized that my complexion was dull and gray. I would rather have a bad complexion then the breakout, of course, but I wanted to deal with both without causing pimples, blackheads, and whiteheads to start reappearing. I continued with the Proactive but start looking online for the best ways to treat acne, dryness, brighten, and increase the healthy look of my complexion using a bought product or something homemade. Whichever truly seemed to fit my issue. I did hours and hours of research from day to day. I finally went to the store and got Modern Friction by Origins. It worked well but I had all this info rolling around in my mind like 'lemon brightens,' 'honey kills acne bacteria and reduces irritation,' 'oatmeal soothes.' So I took a look at the ingredients in Modern Friction. The main ingredient was Rice Starch. I did research and read good things concerning Rice Starch or Flour and skin. The next ingredient was lemon. Brightener. So I decided I would try to concoct a better (for me) version of Modern Friction. I needed Rice Starch but I also wanted the granule feeling so I opted for freshly and coarsely ground Rice Flour. I took organic basmati brown rice and poured it into very clean very high-tech home food processor. Did almost nothing. I was disappointed to say the least. I looked around the kitchen and finally came across my coffee grinder. AH-HAH! I knew this would do the trick and it did. I ground all the rice I had in the food processor into a coarse Rice Flour and ziploc bagged it. The next ingredient was lemon or more specifically Lemon Oil. I didn't have any lemon oil so I grabbed a lemon and started removing the zest. I put about a teaspoon of zest aside and decided that adding half a tablespoon of lemon juice to my version of Modern Friction could only help. I squeezed out that amount and moved on to the cream/wash base. This was difficult. I didn't want to use a cream because they cant be washed off and I didn't want to use a soap or face wash because the only one I knew worked was Proactive and that didn't seem like a safe mix. I thought about it and remembered that coconut oil was known for killing bacteria and fungus. Whipped coconut oil has the consistency of cream, I got out my hand beater and coconut oil. I scooped half a cup into a bowl and started frothing it up. The result was a nice cream. I thought back to all my reading and decided that I'd add freshly ground green tea for rejuvenation and firmness. I got out my Harry and David loose green tea leaves and poured 1/2 a tablespoon into the coffee grinder. The result was a very fine powder. I decided I was ready to start mixing things together. From my experience with cooking I realized the best way to mix things was leave the coconut whip aside and mix the rice flour, lemon zest/juice, and green tea in a separate bowl to get a real idea of the odor and consistency sans whip. I added 2 tablespoons of rice flour, first. Then the lemon juice and mixed them together slowly but thoroughly creating a paste. I added the lemon zest next. I folded it in and took a whiff. It smelled, at this point, very very much like Modern Friction. I was pleasantly surprised. I took a piece of cheese cloth pour the ground green tea into it and bundled it to sprinkle the green tea in very slowly; in a sifter fashion. I mixed it in each time the top was covered with a light layer of green speckles. I did this 3 times. I didn't use all of it. I probably used about 1/4 of a teaspoon. Then I took a whiff and crumbled a bit of the paste in between my fingers. The green tea did not affect the previous smell and the texture was coarse but soft enough for facial skin. Exfoliating texture. I dumped the mixture into the whipped coconut oil and started slowly combing. I took a whiff and crumbled again. Smell, check. Texture, not good. I grabbed the bag of rice flour and added an extra tablespoon to get the mixture back to a texture that would easily exfoliate my skin. The extra flour did the trick and adding it in dry at the end seemed to make a difference, how I'm not sure but I did an experiment starting with 3 tablespoons of paste and the results are not the same. You have to add the dry flour at the end. I scooped the mixture into a boiled short mason jar and put the lid on. My house runs a little warm so I decided to keep it in the fridge but it's unnecessary if your home is consistently cool or room temp. I washed my face with the mix and was extremely pleased. My face immediately looked more vibrant and I didn't feel dry from the cold like I had been feeling for the last few weeks. Both my boyfriend and his mother commented on how nice my skin looked that evening, 6 hours later. This is a great, cheap, and organic version of Origins Modern Friction. It is amazing as a weekly scrub. I am working on a daily version without the coconut oil. The coconut oil seems like a little too much for a daily scrub. I have purchased Xanthum Gum to try and make an organic gel version of Modern Friction for daily use. Any ideas on cream/wash bases I can use otherwise? 

Finished Scrub- My More Modern Friction

Whipped Coconut Oil, rice and oatmeal flour. The oatmeal flour is for a new concoction. I didn't use it here, just went grinder crazy. 

Another Steal of a Deal

I know I was supposed to do a series on the Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual but it's been much harder to find info about Bronzer colors than I thought it would be, especially by her list of recommendations. Truly, a poorly done general list.

So until I find something that is helpful to us I'm going to be looking at the Spring going into Summer deals.

Lets get our shopping started...

A Steal of a Deal: Deluxe Samples

Right now at Sephora if you purchase $25, which is like 1 good product, you get 3 deluxe samples for free along with the standard 3 mini samples. I have been interested in Benefit Cosmetics Fake Up concealer, for awhile, but didn't want to get it for $24.00. I got a deluxe sample of Fake-up (light or medium avl.), bareMinerals Skinny Dip Bronzer, and Philosophy's A to Z BB cream. That's a pretty great score! I bought Benefit Cosmetics Go TropiCORAL kit as my $25 purchase; a great deal on its own. The deluxe samples are worth $30. Ulta sells it's deluxe samples for anywhere between $7-$10. I've never seen Fake Up, Skinny Dip, or A to Z BB cream. I've seen the deluxe sample Fake Up in a kit that costs $28. I got the 3 free-with-every-purchase mini samples (pic below), as well. So I really got $21-$30 of deluxe samples, $15 of minis, and a $28 Benefit kit all for $35.99 with S&H and tax included; a definite steal! They were in my colors and products I'd looked into buying before. 

Just FYI the mini samples options were great I choose Urban Decay Eye Primer Potion, Becca Bronzing Skin Perfector, & Make Up For Ever HD Press Powder. All things I've been wanting to try, as well. 

Deluxe Samples to Choose From:

Alterna- bamboo Smooth Kendi Oil Dry Oil Mist 

Urban Decay- All Nighter Setting Spray

Benefit Cosmetics- Fake Up Concealer in Light & Medium 

Prada- Infusion d'Iris Eau de Parfum  Rollerball 

bareMinerals- Ready Bronzer in The Skinny Dip (for light to medium) 

Philosophy- Miracle Worker Overnight

First Aid Beauty- skin Rescue Deep Cleanser w/ Red Clay

Jack Black- Industrial Strength Hand Healer  

Dr. Brandt Skincare- Xtend Your Youth Dual Fusion Water 

And more... I can't see them because I already used my PACKUP promo. 

Deluxe Samples w/ Promo Code: PACKUP (w/ free Beauty Insider Card and $25 purchase) 

3 free Mini samples with every purchase. 

Breakdown of Steal Deal: 

Benefit Kit- $28.00

Deluxe Samples- $30.00 (if I bought)

Mini Samples- $15.00

Total: $73.00

Total Paid: $35.99 

Savings: 37.01

Bobbi Brown, but what shade?

So I'm going to continue my look into recommendations for skin tones. As far as my research goes Bobbi Brown's recommendations are the status quo. I haven't really found an opposing opinion, so I feel safe researching her color guides and find out what brands have a shade that goes with each, some, or none of the listed recommendations for skin tone type. I'm going to list them all below as a guide, and then work on breaking each of those down starting with Bronzer in Monday's post. We all know, by now, that Sunday's are for Tutorials. 

Bronzer Recommendations:

Alabaster (Gwyneth Paltrow)- Pink shimmer or peachy 
Light (Drew Barrymore)- Biegy brown with a bit of pink 
Medium (Sienna Miller)- Brownish pink with a bit of orange or warmth 
Medium-Dark (Jennifer Lopez)- Brownish orange 
Dark (Vanessa Williams)- Brownish Red 
Deep (Venus Williams)- Brownish blue 

Shades to Use by Natural Lip Color:

Pale Lips- beige, sandy pink, light coral, pale pink, & bright red 

Medium Lips- brown, rose, pink, orange, warm red

Dark Lips- brown, deep red, plum, deep chocolate, and deep raisin/berries

Two-Toned Lips- chocolate, blackberry, deep plum, deep raisin, deep red

Each natural lip color and shade has a colored box around it in the book to show what equals pale, medium, & etc and what equals each color; brown, rose, pink, & etc. I'm including an image of the guide and a palette of all the shades kept in her Pro kit. Both will give you an idea of what's meant by the colors and types listed. 

They only give us a very slight idea though and she doesn't really talk about undertone. 

Corrector Recommendations: 

Alabaster to medium (as exampled above)- pink 

Medium-dark to Dark- peach 

Deep- darker peach 

Any blush color seems to due as long as the formula is correct for your skin type; dry, combo, oily. Foundation on the other had has a very detailed selection process and is not defined even vaguely based on  skin tone, that seemed odd considering but maybe it was too complicated to even attempt charting it out. The only chart I found for this had to do with the color of your veins to determine wether or not your foundation should have a cool, neutral, warm, or a combination of those undertones. Foundation color and skin undertone is so important we'll be giving that it's own series. This series will focus on bronzer and lips, mainly, and slightly on corrector unless we find that it needs a deeper look but I haven't gotten that far in my research. I do know that corrector a come in yellow, purple, blue, and pink. Brown does not mention any but pink so corrector may need a deeper look because Brown only looks at under-eye corrector and gives no indication that she acknowledges the useful correcting palettes for face use. 

Bobbi Brown's Recommended Shades

I've had the Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual and she lists all of the recommendations for skin, lip, eye color and what type of colors you should use. For example, if you have Alabaster Skin you should use Bronzer that a pink skimmer or peach and if you have Medium tone skin you should buy Bronzer that is brownish pink with a little bit of orange or warmth. The only problem is you cannot, and I really mean, cannot find out what tone a bronzer has or undertone. Not even Bobbi Brown's own make-up line lists which color is which. You'd think since she wrote the manual she'd make sure to describe her products accordingly. In the book she lists 6 skin types and on her website she has 7 bronzers but one is new. So I am only assuming that she had one for each skin type. Too bad she didn't let us in on which one is which. I they get you buy more that way although her products are sold at stores at will exchange and you can test. If you're shopping online, though, it'd be nice to know. The one nice thing about shopping at www.BobbiBrown.com is that you can speak with a make-up artist from 10am to 10pm everyday except Sunday, until 7pm. So I asked which Bronzer went with my "medium" skin tone. She said the medium. That it had a "warm brownish/pink hue." I'd guessed that medium would probably be my match but on the website medium is described as "a medium brown." The site doesn't even say "a warm medium brown." I would have been more confident in deducted skills had she just added that one word. Also, I was just sort of pissed off because Bobbi Brown literally wrote a book on it, has her own make-up line, and could easily make sure to describe the color as she does in the book.

Bobbi Brown's Recommendations for Bronzer by Skin Type:
Alabaster (Gwyneth Paltrow)- Pink shimmer or peachy
Light (Drew Barrymore)- Biegy brown with a bit of pink
Medium (Sienna Miller)- Brownish pink with a bit of orange or warmth
Medium-Dark (Jennifer Lopez)- Brownish orange
Dark (Vanessa Williams)- Brownish Red
Deep (Venus Williams)- Brownish blue

Can you guess which skin type should use this color?

What about with just the name? Natural.

What about now with name and shade description?

Beige makes me think of "Light" although Tawny looks way too dark. The lightest color she sells does not look like a pink shimmer or peachy to me. It's called Golden Light for one and its described as "a light tan." I guess you could say a light tan was pink in hue but your still doing a bit of guess work there. Her newest edition, making 7, is called Elvis Duran and described as "a warm terracotta brown." Terracotta has is known as reddish brown so that would probably, according to her guide, go best with Dark or Vanessa Williams skin tone. The Elvis Duran doesn't look like it would show up as a tan on a Vanessa Williams type. It looks way too light. Come on Bobbi, give it to us straight! The same goes for corrector, concealer, lips, and eye shadow. She has a nice neat list in her book but her make-up line does not describe its products accordingly. So we're going to trust Bobbi Brown and her color recommendations but we're going to look into other make-up companies and find out what kind of information they give us. It may be none but we may find one. I took a look around last night after reading this and so far I haven't found one company that lists their bronzers undertone or tone, period. The best thing I found was a post from Jaclyn Hill's blog talking about what brand and type of Bronzer you want to use if YOU have a specific undertone. We'll do this for each one of BB's recommendations, starting with Bronzer.

Make Your Own Value Set

I figured that we should try making our own value sets by coming 3-4 travel size and mini items or duo's. Most of these will be the type of value set that includes several different brands like Ulta's Summer Favorites or Sephora's Summer Stash value set. Each of those comes with about 7 itty bitty products and runs about $45, but we'll be mixing our own travel and mini products. See what we can get. It may not work... but we'll try. These are just a few of the kits I was able to put together by looking through the gift (you can buy those gifts they offer with purchases for a few dollars), travel, and duo deals. They range about the same as the other kits and come with a few full sized items but they're personal to me. These are kits I'd definitely take home and try.

Touch-up Kit
Includes: Benefit They're Real, Mascara, Urban Decay Long Lasting Setting Spray, Bite Beauty Luminous Crème Lipstick Duo
Price: $36.00 or $12/item
Price/Item: $10, $14, $12


Stay Bronze Kit  
Includes: Lorac TANtilizer Highlighter & Matte Bronzer Duo, Tarte Maracuja Face & Body Tanner, NYX Baked Blush 
Price: $30 or $10/item
Price/Item: $12, $12, $6


Full Finishing Kit
Includes: Tarte BB Tinted Cream & 12- hr Primer, Urban Decay SuperCurl Mascara, NYX Powder Blush, bareMinerals Ready Touch Translucent Veil
Price: $50.00 or $12.50/item
Price/Item: $10, $10, $6, $23
Full Price - Difference:

Lip and Cheek Kit
Includes: Benefit high beam and Posietine, Tarte Mascara and Lipsurgence Crayon
Price: $29.00 or $7.25/item
Price/Item: $13.00, $16

Add this $13 duo...

...to this $16 for a full lip check and lash kit.

Face, Lip, & Cheek Kit
Includes: Stila BB Trio, bareMinerals Moxie lipgloss & lipstick, benefit high beam & Posietint
Price: $37.00 or $5.29/item
Price/Item: $12, $12, $13

Face, Lips, and Cheeks Kit for $37.00