Recession-Friendly Haul from Cherry Culture.

I admit, I am no stranger to being in a money crunch during this stressful economic time (Have you noticed the lack of "high end" product posts? There's a reason for that....), but....sometimes I've gotta splurge a bit (AKA drugstore stuff). I took advantage of the free shipping offer from Cherry Culture last week and made a little haul:

2 NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencils in Iced Mocha, NYX Cream Blush in Natural, Styli-Style Line & Seal 24 Pencil in Deep Purple, Sinful Colors Eyeliner in Toffee, and a freebie, an Amuse brand Chocolate lip gloss (GOOD- those cherry roll on gloss things were starting to take over my stash!)

Quick takes: The pencils I use on a daily basis as ONE of my eyeshadow bases (more on that later), and none of the stores that carry NYX around me never seem to have this particular shade in the store, so I have to resort to getting it online. The Styli-Style pencil is top-notch, just like the others, but the color is sooooo not deep purple, think bright purple, kind of like the newest Urban Decay liners.I purchases the Sinful liner in hopes that "toffee" would be kind of taupe-ish. Kinda...not. But I still might use it. The NYX cream blush is lovely! A tad warmer and leaning on the peachy side than I thought it would be, but it still looks like it would work well on my skin. Feels nice on my hand- not greasy. The freebie gloss is actually quite nice! It's a pretty, sparkly, medium pink shade that smells...like...chocolate! Chocolate and something else...but chocolate nontheless.

Oh, bonus! I had a huge potluck in my office for St. Patrick's Day, I was in charge of the cake:

Not too shabby, methinks. I didn't get a shot of the actual cake, but I colored the batter green, of course. Don't belive for a second that I free-handed those shamrocks, instead I used cookie cutters as a stencil and traced it over with frosting, then filled it in with some sprinkles. And, of course, everything is made from scratch.

ETA: I just noticed the freebie gloss is almost a dead ringer for MAC's Hey, Sailor gloss. MAC is more pinky, while Amuse looks more purple. But the shimmer and sparkle is exact.

Well, so much for a quick post, eh? I'll post swatches this weekend. And, I apologize for lack of posts...again. But I am gearing up for another hiatus, which I will explain when the time comes and I'm sure of all the details. Which, I know you'll understand :)