My Name Is Shayna And I Think I Have A Problem!

So yes, I am obsessed with nail polish. And makeup. And clothes. And unfortunately shoes. And just like with nail polish and makeup, I tend to have expensive taste. I wish I didn't. And while I do love me some Zara and Topshop, neither have stores where I live. That makes it kind of hard. And while I do have a tendency to lean towards the luxury over mass market, I do love me a bargain. I am all about thrift shopping. If I buy most of my pieces for under $5 a piece I don't feel guilty when I do splurge on something big! (like this amazing Ella Moss Cooper jacket I obsessed over which you can see here but ultimately passed on. Could not justify $400 Cdn on it. I found it at the goodwill, Neiman Marcus tags still attached. Oh yeah, it was $2!!).

Anyways, I am always looking for a deal. I was on ebay looking for a specific pair of shoes (Rebecca Minkoff Reed heels in blue) and came across a store called apparelsave. I did some googling, and it seemed to not have the greatest reviews on websites. But when I looked at the actual FEEDBACK, I liked what I saw. 32 THOUSAND positive reviews in the last month alone. About 200 neutral and 300 negative. Now normally 300 negative would be an automatic no. But I read the reviews. And 95% of the bad reviews were people who were charged duty on their purchases. You buy things from the USA, you have to expect duty. Basically all the negative reviews told me that I should either not order multiple pairs in one order (large price means duty) and that they were a fairly honest company (would rather have lots of negatives than cheat on customs forms). So I decided to take a risk and make an order.

But, if you know me, you also know I am totally inpatient and totally unable to order one of anything. So I did two things. The first thing I did was order the Rebecca Minkoff Reed heels. They retail for $275 and cost me $33.99. Brand new in box. But how would they ship them? Would they list them on the customs form as being $33.99 or for being $275USD? Well, it turns out they were listed as $33.99! SCORE! Means if you order one at a time we dont have to pay duty here!

Yeah, I ended up getting them in red instead of blue. As much as I LOVE LOVE LOVE the blue ones (and I really do) I did just get the multi coloured lace up sandals from Zara a few months back and thought that since I had just gotten them, I would get these in red instead! I know as you can see they are totally different, but both are kind of statement-y time shoes and both are HIGH!

But, again, I can not order just one pair. So I also ordered the Via Spiga Ife pumps with white toe for $28.99 instead of the retail of $225. And a pair of Pour La Victoire Belz sandals that I had been dying to get from shopbop but didn't want to pay $275 ($370 Canadian). Oh yeah, I paid $37.99!!! I also got a pair of Nanette Lapore Sweet Revenge Pumps for $32.99 instead of $330. Coach Daylan purple suede sandals with gold trim? Not for $260 but for $29.99 they also went in my cart. And then I accidentally somehow ended up buying these Dolce Vita Burgundy sandals for $9.99 by mistake? Not at all a bad deal since they retail for $98 but they are 4.5 inch and 3.5-4 is my limit for comfort. But they are cute and I can see myself wearing them for short periods. So yes, if you were keeping track, that was 5 more pairs. But again, I wasn't sure how they would be listed on the customs form, and the retail was $1200. After shipping I paid $150 for those 5 pairs and had them shipped directly to my post office box in the USA. Ok, in case my mother or father happens to read this, THEIR post office box. But thats never stopped me before from using it.

Yeah, how did that happen? Does it help justify things that I had a $75USD paypal gift card that payed for more than half of this?

I didn't think so. But yeah. Now the store itself, would I recommend shopping here? YES! 1000X over yes! The shipping was fast. Shipped within a day, arrived ahead of schedule, both the pair coming to Canada and the ones shipped to the USA. Canadian shipping is $14.99 for the first pair and though it doesnt say so, each additional pair is either $8.99 or $6.99 or something like that. American shipping was $8.99 for the first pair and $3.99 for each additional pair. The store has TONS AND TONS AND TONS of shoes, and both used, new and flawed ones. I immediately limited my search to brand new in box options. And the pairs were all as described. Some were floor models and had a bit of scuffs or marks on the bottom. But all completely as described in each listing. And those that SHOULD come with dust bags did come with dust bags. Overall, I am over the moon and very happy. Here are the shoe pictures below of the other 5 pairs.

I LOVE the chain detail on these Pour Le Victoire ones and now REALLY want them in blue! So comfortable! Will possibly have to make another order.......

I swear, I have no idea how or why I ordered these! But they are super cute! Just not comfy!

These Coach ones are amazing. Kind of remind me of YSL Tributes. Not sure why since they are not at all similar. But they still do. And while these look more on the blue side, they are a royal purple. And not at all blue.

I am a pretty consistent size 8.5 US or 39 Euro but these 8.5 ones are a tad tight. I will have to try to stretch them out. If ordering Nanette Lapore shoes, I highly recommend half sizing up!

An amazing purpley-silvery-grey colour with white grains!

Now the biggest problem Where on earth to put them all!! So a trip to Ikea was in order.  A Billy Bookcase and 5 extra shelves solved that problem! And all of the shoes now fit! With a bit of room to spare!

Weird Beauty.......

So I was bored. And I was surfing ebay. I do it. What can I say? I thought Id share some things I found with you all though.

Want to soak your glitter off? How bout putting these bubbles on your nails? $2.99 for a set of 10. Shipping included! HERE!

Or maybe you always smudge your polish after doing your nails. Put a shield on them! Set of 10 is $1.56 shipped! HERE!

And these I just thought were cute! $1.56 each HERE!

The Concealer Palettes I Use For Contouring (As Budget As It Gets)

Now in general when I say or call something budget here on my blog, it usually means It Cosmetics, Julep or other brands that are to most people not budget but for me, a LOT cheaper than the Dior, Chanel, NARS and LMDB I normally gravitate towards. Well today by budget I mean under $10. Or even under $5 budget!

I picked both of these up in Aug of 2013, so about a year and a half ago but yet never did a review of them here. The second palette is still sold on Coastal Scents under their logo named the eclipse palette and no longer sells the first of the two. BH Cosmetics no longer sells either version of this. That being said, these are the basic cheap palettes they sell, just without the logos on them. And for the price, they are quite good!

Let me start with I do not think these are the most ideal for doing heavy or even medium CONCEALING. They are very creamy and light, but they really blend out almost too well to conceal much and if you try to build it up, it tends to get a bit cake-ey. BUT.... for contouring, I FREAKING LOVE THESE! Due to an error in shipping I accidentally got two of the bottom palette and that is good since I literally have used up an entire pot of the top right shade as well as the second from the right in the bottom row. I ended up throwing out the palette and going on to the second. I also had used up the entire green one though I only use it when I am out of my go to green concealers as its not the best green one. I much prefer the shiseido green foundation stick.

Now on to the swatches! Each set of swatches is one row starting with the top row, then the middle, then the bottom rows.

Now these palettes can be found easily on ebay for under $5 shipped, but if you would prefer to NOT shop on ebay and NOT deal with paypal, you can get them here for $10 shipped from the United States instead of China like the ones on ebay (tracking can be found when you log in to your account after purchasing). 

EDIT - it seems the first one has become hard to find on Tmart at all, and not so easy to find on ebay either! Maybe thats why Coastal Scents and BH Cosmetics sell no version of it anymore!

Ebay Versions Of Coastal Scent Blush Palettes

OK, so I have ALMOST purchased palettes from BH Cosmetics or Coastal Scents more times than I can count. They always have different promotions on their already dirt cheap palettes and I have almost pulled the trigger a thousand times. But when you are buying a bunch of dirt cheap palettes and shipping is astronomical, it kind of kills it. And being NOT in the United States, shipping always SUCKS!

But the 88 palettes almost have a legendary status on YouTube, and I was curious. Also, KNOWING that the BH Cosmetics and Coastal Scents palettes are identical with different logos on the packaging made me a little more trusting in everyone that the palettes on ebay with NO logos on it were also identical. So off I went on a little shopping spree.

Above are the two blush palettes I purchased. I will go through them all and link the sellers as well. The first one is below.

Here is the top row. These 5 might have been the worst of the lot. 1 and 2 are acceptable. Shade 4 is ok, but shades 5 and 3 were not. They were so soft but far too powdery. The  color pay off was not great and you can see the build up from trying to build up the colour.

And shade three just crumbled as swatching it.

The bottom row was much better yet still not great.

Pretty much all of these shades had decent payoff though they dont wear that well and are very finnicky to blend out!

This above palette was purchased from the ebay seller wing-lijun (3965 ) and the link to the palette can be found HERE (it is blush palette #2). It was $12.99 including shipping and got to me in about 15 days.

This second palette was by far the better of the two. Shades 4 and 5 are very subtle but nice. The only problem shades were 8 which had lousy payoff and shade 10 which like some of the shades in the last palette was just too soft and a PITA to work with.

This palette was also MUCH cheaper! It was only $6.39 and that INCLUDES shipping!!!!!!!!! I KNOW!!!!! I would definitely buy this one again and for someone like me who tends to gravitate towards the same shades EVERY TIME, its nice to have some options now in my stash! The seller of this one is priceneer (59202 ) and the link to purchase it is right here. Again, it arrived about two weeks after purchase. Faster than it said it would be here!

Overall, they are ok blushes. Really not great but a good starting point to play around with colour and learn what you do and don't like.