Confessions of a makeup-aholic

Hello, my name is Holly and I love makeup.

To my family this really isn't a big surprise, I hardly go out of the house without makeup on, though it is usually fairly natural/grown up. When I was younger I had really dark circles under my eyes so I started out simple enough with concealer and powder. As things went on my repertoire increased. My mom was a tom boy and not really into makeup (when I was in high school I had to take away the makeup from her wedding, in 1982) so I would go onto the Covergirl website and click through their makeup tutorials. They had this really spiffy quiz that would determine which colors would go good for your face (warm, cool, or neutral) and then all I had to do was look for that "type" of makeup to know that it would go good on my skin tone.  When I was at home and bored I would try out a different style of makeup application, wash it off and try again. This was how I figured out what styles I liked. Then at some point in college my little makeup bubble burst. Covergirl caused my eyes to swell, almost to the point of swelling shut. Gone were my beloved pinks, and browns. My fun green. And saddest of all my lash blast.

Enter Bare Escentuals. Though it is much more expensive, I have never had an issue with it, nor do I predict that I will. Since Bare Escentuals has no fillers, creams, preservatives, etc. there are no chemicals to irritate my skin.  It also, thankfully, never goes bad which is good because it lasts FOREVER. I go through maybe two foundations a year, and I am just now about to toss my first empty eye shadow, and that was the little size that came in kits, not even the full size.

Since then I have tried other brands, some more expensive some cheaper, some that worked and some that didn't. I swear the girls at Ulta know me by name, every time I go in there I try another brand to see if my face will like it or not. I even did my own makeup for my wedding because I didn't want to risk swelling up that day.  While Bare Escentuals will continue to be my go to makeup I have found a cheaper store brand that doesn't work quite as well in pigment and staying power BUT is way cheaper AND doesn't leave me looking like a red faced panda. (Alex's endearing nickname for me when I'm having a reaction).

So what is the point of all of this? I got a STEAL of a deal at Ulta online toady :)
I got a $50 gift card for Christmas from my uncle (see I told you my family knows I'm a makeup-aholic), and today I decided to use it. Ulta was having a sale, free shipping over $50, $10 off a purchase of $60 or more, and the Ulta products were buy 2 get 2 free. So all in all I got (7) mineral eye shadows, (1) eye liner, (1) eye liner brush, (1) lipstick, (1) lip stain, and (1) blush. They also tacked on a $3.50 off a purchase of $10 or more coupon. So my grand total came to...... (drum roll) $51.37 which means I only paid $1.37 out of pocket!! It may seem stereotypically girly, but hey I like it, and I got it for a steal.

I'll definitely share a pic when my haul comes in. :) :) :) :) :)