Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Christmas Beauty Haul

I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday! I've been pretty busy lately, we spent Christmas Eve with my family (Europeans celebrate on the 24th) and Christmas Day at my boyfriend's family. I also had relatives up from Illinois so we spent a couple of days with them as well. And we still have Christmas dinner with my boyfriend's family tomorrow. Didn't do much Boxing Day shopping this year, decided to sleep in and relax instead. I am the beauty person in the family, everyone knows each year that I'd love to get makeup most of all and they came through. The above pic shows the goodies that I got this year.

Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation: My first Laura Mercier product ever, I heard this is great for dry skin and it was definitely on my wishlist. It's full coverage and hydrates nicely.

Make Up For Ever Mat Velvet +: I picked this up before Christmas technically but it was with a gift card for Sephora so I've included it here. Despite hearing this wasn't for dry skin, I think I prefer this to the HD since the coverage is better.

Bobbi Brown Corrector Light Bisque: Got this with a Holt Renfrew gift card. I asked the sales person if they give samples to try it out first and she looked at me like I was insane, since it's so small no they do not. So whatever, since I don't normally shop at Holts I picked it up anyway and it's great, may be the best undereye concealer ever since it corrects instead of just covering, very creamy too.

Sonia Kashuk brushes: Every time I am in the US, I always hit up Target and get some of these cause we don't have them in Canada (we really should!). I asked my cousin to get some for me, even gave them links to specific ones. I got the Synthetic Multi-Purpose brush, eyeshadow brush, dome shaped crease brush (love this the most) and one of the regular line eyeshadow brushes too. I love the handles on these, so cute.

Urban Decay Primer Potion Professional Size: Thank the lord they came out with this in a professional size, much more user friendly. However, I do find the product really hard to get out since it's thick you have to really squeeze the container. This will last me forever since I had the original UDPP for two years.

I will do full reviews on all these products once I use them up more.

Now for some Christmas shopping pictures. Here is the Toronto Eaton Centre, they had a giant Christmas tree in the centre of the mall, it turned. Also that is snow that you see falling from the ceiling there, not real snow of course but a short of soapy stuff that fell from the ceiling, it was really cool!

They also had a Ferrero Rocher tree. We lined up for like 15 minutes to get a free chocolate. If you can see in the bottom left corner they had a smaller tree, you'd take a chocolate off the tree, open it up and depending on what colour ball you had on the inside you could win money or gift cards, or at least a free chocolate. We got the free chocolate.




The top 4 pictures are of The Bay Christmas window displays, the pictures do not do justice to how cool these are, there are moving parts and they are so elaborate. One of the nice things of living in Toronto is finally being able to see this.

And here is how busy the Eaton Centre was on the 23rd.. people everywhere! I do not miss this at all. :)

Did you do much Christmas shopping this year? Or boxing week shopping? Did you get some nice beauty items in your stocking this year?

24 comments:

Unknown said... Best Blogger Tips

Sounds like you had a great holiday! That LM Silk Cream Foundation sounds heavenly! Looking forward to your reviews!!! :)

~Lisa said... Best Blogger Tips

Whoop whoop at the Eaton Centre!!!
I love the tree!!! I have photos of it on my blog too! ^_^

Wow, it looks super crowded. I remember going to Eaton Centre one afternoon on Boxing Day O_O Never going back on that day again. Scariest thing I've seen in my life. I went there and immediately went back home. I couldn't even move around!!

Savannah said... Best Blogger Tips

Great post! I really want to buy UDPP.

xx

luckiebeauty said... Best Blogger Tips

Wow those are really cool gifts!
The UDPP package will last you for years!!! hahaha

Obsessed.Makup.Addict said... Best Blogger Tips

I love the pictures of the eaton center, can you believe all these years of living in this city, and I've never been to see the xmas decor in the mall?

Val said... Best Blogger Tips

Great haul! Haha yes I am afraid of asking for samples for that very reason.

Val

Justine (Productrater) said... Best Blogger Tips

@Obsessed.Makeup.Addict - I love when malls are dressed up all pretty for Christmas, it makes me happy especially since I never have a christmas tree or any decorations in my own apartment.

@Val - I think asking for samples comes across as being cheap but, if they knew how much makeup I buy they should be willing to do it without problems, that concealer is tiny and it's $30 CAD!

Marilou said... Best Blogger Tips

Ohhh I miss eaton center soo much.
Best.MALL.EVER :)
They didn't had the "snow" falling down though, only the huge tree and the birds on the ceiling :)
I really hope I'll come back in TO, I miss this city too much :(

xx Happy end of the year

Dee said... Best Blogger Tips

We don't have Sonia Kashuk brushes in Australia either - I've only ever managed to get my hands on one (the bent liner brush), and I really like it, so I wish they would come down under!

" A beauty blogger named Justine " said... Best Blogger Tips

Great haul! I really want to try the bobbi brown concealer it looks so nice! :) xx

Lisa said... Best Blogger Tips

I was just at the Eaton Centre and also loved the decor. It was super packed though so that was not fun but did pick up some goodies with some gift cards like a few nars blushes. Looking forward to reviews on your products and how the laura mercier foundation works for you.

Estefany @ The Helmet Head said... Best Blogger Tips

Nice pics and cute items!

Unknown said... Best Blogger Tips

Great haul! The professional size UDPP looks huge! I can see that easily lasting you many, many years.

Anonymous said... Best Blogger Tips

wow! i love the eaton center too! i wish i got udpp! *drooling!!* i did get tfsi though. did they change their packaginf recently? i dont know. :P I saw some sonia kashuk at winners! they have alot of elf products too but almost twice the price :(

Tracy D said... Best Blogger Tips

Great stuff, looking forward to hearing some reviews on the LM foundation & the BB concealer. I forgot to get some Sonia Kashuk brushes when I was in Florida..what the heck was I thinking?!

Cindy said... Best Blogger Tips

bargh! i went to the eaton centre so much around xmas and i never saw the snow, no fair! that would have been so cool. i know what you mean about the sonia brushes. i wish we had those. i'm going to try and pick some up when i go to utah this spring.

as for the loulou feature, i am in the dec? or jan issue it's the one out right now with the yellow cover, but it's a very small picture with a blurb about my blog. it's basically just there to link to the online video which is the real reason i worked with loulou. still, it was so cool to see myself in print.

happy holidays!

Beauty Style Addict said... Best Blogger Tips

just stopping by to wish you a Happy New Year hun
i'm back & blogging again!
ciao =)

MINAKICHU said... Best Blogger Tips

I love my Bobbi Brown concealer too but mine's not the corrector only the regular one. Almost all the things you got i wanna try so will look forward to your review*hugs*

Leah said... Best Blogger Tips

Dear Joy,
Congratulations!
I have awarded you the Versatile Blogger Award!

xo Leah
http://leahs-land.blogspot.com/2011/01/versatile-blogger-award.html

All Made Up said... Best Blogger Tips

Gorgeous pics! sounds like a great Christmas and it looks like you got loads of awesome pressies! Been wanting to try the laura Mercier foundation and the Bobbi Brown corrector myself so I'm really looking forward to a review if you get the chance :)

Leah said... Best Blogger Tips

Oops Justine, sorry I said JOY above! I got mixed up between the two. Sorry :)

Schumitza said... Best Blogger Tips

hey, nice blog, just wanted to say that you have a nice blog and that you have become one of my favourite reads

Justine (Productrater) said... Best Blogger Tips

@Schumitza - Thank you that's so nice!

for the love of beauty by lara said... Best Blogger Tips

great haul!

lovely pics :)