The Day After Christmas Shopping Haul

Good morning! Today I will share a few of my purchases from December 26, 2013! This is a bit late but better late than never, right? 

I didn't go to a lot of stores...mainly just to the outlet mall (where I purchased a wallet from Kate Spade, which I will reveal in a future post), Kohl's, H&M, and TJ Maxx. I also didn't buy a lot of things! I had to show a lot of self restraint since I spent way too much money during December T^T 

     

Brushes, Blush, and Blazer

Edit: ^ The alliteration was completely unintentional 

Until two days ago, I never understood why people bought so many makeup brushes. I was satisfied with just my Ecotools kabuki brush and my Ulta blush brush. I scoffed at the idea that a good quality brush could make that much of a difference. But then I was looking at reviews on Makeupalley and noticed that there were extremely good reviews for a makeup brush brand called Paris Presents. Apparently the brushes are amazing and affordable, and so I headed out to my local Walmart to purchase the HD powder brush and the HD angled blush brush. 

And now I can't stop buying brushes -___-" 

They were so soft and fluffy that I went on Makeupalley once again and discovered this line of makeup brushes called Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman. So the next day, I went out to Ulta to purchase the powder brush and the blush brush. And again, the quality was beyond what I expected. I actually went back to Ulta the very same day to buy the expert face brush and the setting brush. 

L to R: powder brush, expert face brush, blush brush, setting brush, HD powder brush, HD angled blush brush

I know my collection is nothing compared to that of most bloggers, but as a broke college student, me buying 6 brushes within 2 days is a huge deal haha. But these brushes are so worth it :)

I also decided to splurge and buy the tarte amazonian clay blush in Exposed. I tend to spend around $6 for blushes so handing over $25 was a little hard, but after hearing Jen from frmheadtotoe rave about it, I had to buy it. I haven't tried it yet but here are some pictures!

I also went to TJ Maxx with my mom to do some shopping before I head back to school. I actually think shopping is boring now...it's reach that point where I feel like I have too many clothes. That being said, I only browsed the clearance section but was pretty happy that I did. 

This cotton maroon blazer was on sale for just $10! It was originally $60 so I thought it was a pretty good bargain. 

Hope you guys all had a good week! I'm heading out to run a couple of errands now; I'm going back to school tomorrow and need to stock up on food and school supplies! 

Recent Purchases Part II

As the title suggests, this is Part II (for Part I, click here) of my original post featuring some of my recent purchases!

I was browsing the Forever 21 site the other day when I saw this gorgeous purse. It had a few positive reviews and cost just $20, so I went ahead and bought it in red. I really like it! Obviously it's not super good quality, but for the low price I am quite satisfied. Some have compared it to J. Crew's Edie purse (which costs $238) too! This purse is still in stock and you can buy it here.

I bought this belt at Kohl's for about $5 (originally $30). I really like the design of the gold clasp...I'm not sure what I would wear with it though.

I bought this skirt for $15 (originally $32) at TJ Maxx. I'm not sure what to wear with it though, so if you have any suggestions please let me know! 

This dress is from Nordstrom Rack. I really like the silver floral design as it provides a nice contrast against the black inner layer. I think I got this for around $20. 

I got this Forever 21 dress for just $13! It actually came with a skinny black belt but I forgot where I put it hehe. It's kind of hard to tell but the sleeves are actually this mesh/see through fabric. I really love this dress and wish it came in more colors. 

This navy lace dress was from TJ Maxx and I believe it cost around $25. I think the quality is amazing and can't wait to wear it when it's warmer out. I didn't take a picture of it but the back of the dress is much lower than the front neckline of the dress. 

I was so happy when I saw that this cardigan was on sale at Marshall's for about $20! When I first saw this, I really liked it but didn't want to pay $30 (I think), so I'm glad I waited until it went on sale. 

Finally, I got also got this varsity jacket from Marshall's. It's actually a men's jacket lol. I was looking for hoodies for my brother when I saw this. I thought it was really cute and even though it's a size M, it fits me perfectly (I tend to wear size XS or S). Seeing that it was only $20, I decided to buy it. I've been wearing it almost every single day since then! The fleece lining inside is super comfy :)

By the way, I apologize yet again for the awful lighting. I take pride in my photography (not the photos on my blog though; nature photography is one of my hobbies) and I cringe when I look at my recent photos. I hate to make excuses but today was rather gloomy out, hence the less than favorable lighting found in these pictures. I also haven't mastered my DSLR camera and let's face it, Photoshop does wonders when it comes to adjusting the brightness/contrast/colors. Oh well. I guess one of my resolutions for 2013 is to figure out how to take better pictures!