Tri-State Beauty Haul

I returned from the States a little less than 24 hours ago and am so happy I finally made it back to Germany, the journey home was #THESTRUGGLE, I might elaborate on that in a separate post, but US Airways definitely made it on my personal black list. Anyways, upon arrival I literally emptied my suitcases, gave gifts to family and friends and tried to store everything away I bought for myself - which was the majority, ha ha. Let's check out what I got beauty-wise!

I sneakily travelled with two carry-ons, you're only entitled to one, but I always bring more due to the lack of space in my checked bags. So, I literally walked around with a bag of Lush goodies during the 24-hour travel, which catered for a nicely fragranced environment everywhere I went. Lush is one of my favourite brands to treat myself to, so of course I couldn't pass on this year's BOGO on all holiday items even though almost everything was gone by the time I reached the Lush counter. People waited all morning long on the 26th to walk out with up to 200! bath bombs and bubble bars. Wish I had been one of those, lol.

My biggest purchase were the all-new and reformulated Guerlain Météorites that just came out with the spring collection. Saks Fifth in NYC surprisingly had them available already, so I got mine there, but I know for a fact they're much cheaper in Germany, but the spring collection won't come out for another few weeks, so yay - first!!!

The other day I sniffed on Gucci's gorgeous Flora; Generous Violet EdT. It smells like a decent version of Guerlain's signature lilac scent. I ordered it from Germany whilst still in the US because it's about twenty bucks cheaper here.

I had planned on repurchasing my favourite Mario Badescu skincare items, but literally everything I went for was either sold out or discontinued, so I frantically searched for a new moisturizer and settled for Kiehl's Ultra Facial Oil-Free Lotion. This moisturizer also comes in a gel formula, which contains less product and costs just about the same. I liked the gel consistency a little better and might go for that if the moisturizer works for me.

Philosophy's Microdelivery Exfoliating Wash is a repurchase of my most treasured exfoliator, honestly it's the most gentle one out there and I was really tempted to get the jumbo size if it weren't for the airline's weight limit. This time I didn't snatch a new bottle of the Purity cleanser since I gave my Clarisonic away and used to use Purity in combination with that. Also, I have a Skinceuticals cleanser to finish first.

Another repurchase: The original and MUCH BETTER Aussie 3 Minute Miracle conditioner; got two bottles of that. I tried the German formulation, which doesn't feel anything like the US one, plus it has a weird smell to it and causes hair loss on some people's scalps. So, that's freaking scary.

I couldn't stop at Sephora without the obligatory Urban Decay purchase. On my list were a couple of their lipsticks, of which I didn't like the texture, as well as the Moondust eyeshadows, which performed poorly on the back of my hand. But of course I had to get Naked 3 and got the very last one at the 8th Sephora I stopped at. They constantly sell out of them and I held on to it really tight on the way to the register, so nobody would steal it, ha ha. Also, I completed my 'Naked' collection by adding Naked 1 as well as the Basics palette, which is absolutely stunning. A girl can never have too many neutrals!

When I arrived to my dear friend Erica's place, a couple packages were already waiting for me, one of them sent by Mai, who kindly helped me place an order with Sephora during last year's F&F sale. Of course I settled for Hourglass's Ambient Lighting Palette because I've been dying to try any of the powders since you can't find nothing but raves about them. If this palette passes my test, I might eventually get all single powders piece by piece, since they're incredibly pricey.

The 'Ambient Lighting' palette came with a mini-sized version of one of my favourite primers, the Mineral Veil. For some reason I had forgotten about that one and bought the travel-sized version that's priced at $18 to give it another try before spending the big bucks on the full size.

No Lord & Taylor visit is complete without getting something from NARS. I took my time and chatted for an hour with the loveliest sales associate named 'Sunshine' from the Freehold Raceway Mall counter, NJ. She instantly brightened my day and made me get a good load of NARS goodies, the favourite being the Day Dream blush, which I've been eyeing ever since it came out. It gives you the slightest hint of a pinkish coral flush and looks universally flattering on any skintone.

I went to the States with about four different to-try foundations on my list: NARS Sheer Glow, Kat von D Lock-It, Hourglass Immaculate and Urban Decay Naked Skin. Which one did I end up with? Make Up For Ever's HD Foundation. It came in a value set and I know it's pretty much any beauty blogger's favourite, so how could I miss out on the great experience of having flawless, photo-ready skin? I got mine from the Make Up For Ever boutique @ Sephora's in SoHo, NYC.

All of my trips are dominated by the insane accumulation of lip balms. I simply love lip balms and am still looking for the one though the Tokyomilk Dark Lip Elixirs are the greatest so far. Scrangie reviewed them two years ago and as I was still living in the States at that time, I ordered 'La Vie En Rose' right away and loved it till I hit pan. This time I wanted to make sure to get the rest of the line, which is a little tricky, since the brand is a Sephora online-exclusive. Fortunately, Sephora ship from Maryland, so it merely took two days for my order to come in. Seriously, get these if you're in desperate need of a great lip balm, but stay away from the salted caramel-flavoured one, it's beyond disgusting, ha ha.

Another, and really expensive, lip balm get is Philosophy's Almond Candy, which was part of their holiday collection 2013. It has the loveliest almond scent and I'll make sure to use it sparingly because it contains the smallest amount of product I've ever seen in a lip balm.

Finally, an absolute treat. I normally refuse spending more than $5 on facial masks, but this one I've seen all over YouTube for way too long now and as the holiday set containing one full size and a travel size cost exactly the same as a single full size jar, I couldn't have possibly missed out on this. I'm excited to give the famous Glamglow mask a try and keep my fingers crossed I end up hating it because this would be an expensive, suffocating repurchase.