I was surprised with how well my holiday wishlist post did last month (see it here), so I thought I’d show you a peek into my Sephora cart in anticipation of the VIB Sale. The official sale date hasn’t been announced yet (which is super annoying, because we usually have concrete dates by now!) but it should be coming up mid-November. For those unaware, if you’re a member of Sephora’s Beauty Insider program, you get a percentage discount based on how much you’ve spent at Sephora in a calendar year. $0-349 will get you 10% off, and over $350 gets you 20% off (I THINK).

As Sephora in North America doesn’t really have sales all that often, this is the perfect time to get your staple products as well as items you may not want to spend full price on (because really… makeup is EXPENSIVE).

I’m going to start with the most exciting pieces and work my way down to the boring ones (in my eyes, anyway). Holiday makeup palettes are MY JAM when it comes to the holiday season and you guys already all know I’m a damn sucker for Too Faced. I avoided the holiday sets last year because they were touted as a glitter bomb and they just felt too similar to the 2013 and 2014 releases I had from them. I HAVE REGRETTED THAT EVER SINCE. And it sounds silly to want to collect something just for the sake of collecting, but damn, I seriously really regret not having that collection. 🙁 So anyway, the Christmas in New York sets are very similar to the Christmas in Paris sets from 2015, but I’m okay with it. I loved the Grande Hotel Cafe (I received that set from PR, you can see my swatches here, or my three look video here), my friend Sara has already picked me up the Ulta exclusive one (Merry Macarons), and of course I have to complete the set with The Chocolate Shop. Obsessed? Who ME? 😉

The Too Faced Christmas in New York – The Chocolate Shop set can be purchased on sephora.ca for $72 CAD or on sephora.com for $58 USD.

Much to my surprise, the Too Faced Melted Matte in Candy Cane is actually available on Sephora’s site (I thought it was a TooFaced.com exclusive before)! Although I’m not a huge fan of liquid lipsticks, I am willing to make the exception for this one. Not only is a gorgeous colour, but it also comes in adorable packaging! This one goes for $25 CAD/$21 USD.

Okay… I’m kind of waffling on this one. I didn’t think I wanted the Kat Von D Metal Matte palette… until EVERYONE started raving about it. Ughhhhh. I’ve watched swatch videos, review videos, tutorial videos and I’m starting to feel like if I don’t get this one, I’m missing out big time. The value you’re getting in this one palette is kind of insane too. We’ll see if I end up getting it, but if you’re interested in this one you should know that I have yet to see a bad review! The Metal Matte palette goes for $74 CAD or $60 USD.

I was really, really interested in this Tarte Color Wheel because it’s got a phenomenal number of blushes in it! The Tarte blush formula is one of my absolute favourites and I reach for my single quite frequently. Sadly, the Color Wheel is currently out of stock on sephora.ca so I have no idea if it’ll come back in stock before the sale. That being said, it might actually be a blessing if it’s NOT in stock because one of my favourite YouTubers (Emily Noel) pretty much disliked almost every powder product she’s tried from Tarte’s holiday launch this year. So I kind of feel like the quality isn’t on par with their regular line up of products. 🙁

Although the Tarte Color Wheel is currently out of stock on the Canadian side, you can still get it US side for $44 USD.

Smashbox‘s Be Legendary lipstick formula has become one of my favourite discoveries this past year.  The formula is exceptionally smooth and comfortable on both the matte and creme formulas. There is no lingering unpleasant scent and the colours wear like a dream. I wish Smashbox got more attention for these lipsticks because they are simply incredible. I’ll happily pick up six minis so I’ve got a variety of colour to play with! It also comes with a mini Insta-matte, which is a fun product to use (I reviewed it here), but it’s not one I personally find myself using on a day to day basis.

This awesome set goes for $36 CAD on sephora.ca or for $29 USD on sephora.com. (Your value for money is EXTREMELY high in this gift set by the way!)

One of the more ridiculously priced items in my cart are these Drybar Sake Bomb Shampoo and Conditioner. They go for $30 CAD each, which I think is just INSANE for a shampoo or conditioner. BUT… I really, REALLY loved how it made my hair feel. I wasn’t huge on the scent, but there was a noticeable change in my hair when I used this. (Full review can be found here.) The 20% off will help me justify the cost of buying these items because I really see this as an insanely luxurious item (since I usually opt for $4 shampoo and conditioner!).

I’ve heard a lot of people talking about makeup removing cloths lately, so I want to try them out myself. (Mostly because I’ve been using a paper towel every day to remove all the makeup removing oil off my face at the end of the day and let’s be honest… that’s really freaking ghetto.) I thought I’d pick up the Sephora brand one since I’ve seen good reviews, and they’re really reasonably priced: $15 CAD/$12 USD will get you two cloths!

I’ve been out of a brow pomade for a loooong while now and I really want to get back into using them. My favourite has been the Anastasia Dipbrow and I previously finished an entire pot of the Blonde shade. I did find that Blonde colour was a bit too pea soup coloured for my liking, so I’m going to try the Taupe shade this time. Dipbrow will set you back $23 CAD/$18 USD which is pretty amazing considering it’ll take you almost a year of daily use to finish up the entire pot!

Last on my list is a bottle of perfume because heaven knows these suckers are EXPENSIVE. I’ve been really enjoying my sample size of Givenchy‘s Very Irresistible perfume and thought maybe I’d like a full bottle of it. I’m still very much on the fence about this one as the price is hella high. Sadly, the ounce bottle is only available in the US (and that one has the most reasonable price tag associated with it), so if I buy it, I have to bite the bullet at $89 CAD/$75 USD. Ouch. Honestly, I love the scent, but this might be the first one on my list to get the boot when it comes to parring down my list!

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ACKKKK! I almost forgot the most exciting thing! The Urban Decay Full Spectrum palette! I have no price tag for this one yet, but I expect it to be around $70 CAD. I AM IN LOVE WITH THE LOOK OF THIS PALETTE! It’s supposed to be released on October 26th and I may not be able to wait till the sale to pick it up!

Phew okay… that’s an astronomical amount of product and I’ll probably only end up buying half the things on this list! But that’s where I’m at with my shopping cart so far though! Are you thinking of picking up anything during the sale? Let me know!

Three years ago I started this blog without really knowing where it would take me. It had been a long, long time since I’d created content online and I really wanted to get back into the online world. Let me give you a little bit of background on my life online:

In 1995, at the age of 12, I spent a lot of time connecting via dialup to my local library’s freenet and connecting with people via message boards and chat rooms (mostly talking about Star Wars to be honest). And yes, it was at 12 years old that I started meeting people in person from online (which is a bit terrifying in hindsight to be perfectly honest).

I eventually graduated to America OnLine where I racked up a ridiculous $120 bill that no 12 year old can rightfully pay off (hence my parents cutting me off). Thankfully, proper internet with a single monthly cost eventually became a thing in my mid-teens, just as I was becoming obsessed with the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was with that obsession that I eventually learned how to create web sites and developed my first web site about Buffy (you can still see it here!) in 1998.

Years later (still running the Buffy site), I eventually created a personal blog while I was in university  while also running various fan sites for actors and TV shows along the way. For me, the internet has always been a way of connecting with people over a shared passion and it has allowed me to create amazing friendships with people over the years that I would have no other way of accessing if it weren’t for the internet (hell, I even met my husband while playing World of Warcraft!). I have friends all over the world that are the result of online encounters and I love that so much!

Right now my passion is makeup (and has been for a good long while) and I have made some awesome friends once again by sharing my passion online. It’s given me the opportunity to connect with people in a city that can be hard to get to know people if you don’t put yourself out there, and for me, the internet is always the first step. 🙂

I also started my YouTube channel in December of 2015 which felt like a terrifying leap at the time, but now the whole thing feels fairly natural. It’s a lot of work putting out two videos a week alongside 4-5 blog posts a week, but the whole process has felt incredibly rewarding. I get tons of feedback from you guys which is the aspect I enjoy the most – responding to comments was one of the things I looked forward to the most when I first started my blog! I’ve also had the opportunity to interact with brands and PR companies that I hadn’t dreamed would even bother to pay me any attention at all considering the beauty industry is already saturated enough with bloggers and vloggers.

Anyway, this post was mostly just a stream of my thoughts as I reflected back on not only this past year in blogging, but also my own online “career” as it were.

Alright, time for the giveaway!

As I did last year, I wanted to give out my favourite palette of the year (so far) and that honour definitely goes to the Too Faced Peanut Butter & Jelly palette. I brought this on vacation with me to Iceland in April and kept on using it as the months roll by!

Giveaway Rules

• This giveaway is open internationally!
• This giveaway starts on October 16, 2016 and runs for two weeks.
• Please be aware that all entries will be double checked to ensure fairness.
• Once the winner has been contacted, they will have 48 hours to provide me with their mailing address. If the winner fails to respond within that time frame, I will pick another winner. (And so on.)
• “Giveaway accounts” will not be considered for this prize. (If you want to know what I mean by that, please click here.)

Good luck!

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