Craftstore Random Buys and My LaurEss Sale Loot

I've had a few buys from my neighborhood Michael's (craft store) that I truly love. I use bead storage systems to store some of my mineral makeup, and I like browsing the bead section of Michael's to get my grubby hands on some nifty containers that I can use for my minerals. On another note, I also buy most of my home decoratiing stuff here, and most of my little boy's art supplies. We love Michael's! Here are some of what I got.


Here are some stackable jars (30g jars) that hold some of Dayna's Glows and her Rested undereye concealer that I transfered from baggies. These are labeled #1-4, when her Glows didn't have individual names yet. I really love these. I place it next to my tray of mineral foundations so I'd remember to apply them in the mornings.


It's a tin jewelry bead box that is very travel friendly as it comes in its own tin case. It's perfect for placing mineral pigments for travel.


Here's another bead storage system but with bigger containers for storing larger batches of foundation. It can also double as a MAC pigment jar.


As always, I wandered off to the painting supplies section and I was so happy when I found a few Loew Cornell Maxine's Mop brushes still on the shelf. These suckers have been out-of-stock for so long now, and I've gone to at least three Michael's stores, and every one of the branches had no stock of these. Probably thanks to the wonderful Koren of EnKoreMakeup, who has been telling us the virtues of buying these amazing brushes. I have shown these Loew Cornell brushes alongside with the MAC 239, and see how similar they are? They are both made of goat's hair that is perfect for application of lid color. The big difference is the price. The 239 is $24.50 each while the Maxine's Mop is only 5 or 6 bucks each. How neat is that? No wonder these are flying off the shelves!

I also went to next door store ULTA and got a few NYX eyeshadows. Before I became a MAC eyeshadow 'ho, I was a NYX addict. I had like 12 of the trios until I gave or swapped everything away. Now I realized there are some soft colors I needed that MAC doesn't have or I can't have because they are limited edition, so I got some NYX trios again (I used to have that Pinks trio too). I also got some lovely green/antique green eyeshadow singles that are pretty unique colors.












My LaurEss Loot



I was so surprised when I got my LaurEss sale loot yesterday. I mean, hello, it was just shipped the other day and I chose First Class shipping! I really appreciate Lauren of LaurEss for giving us U.S. residents the option of choosing First Class shipping for less than two dollars! There are only a few mineral makeup companies that offer First Class shipping, and LaurEss has the cheapest shipping fee I've found so far. In some mineral makeup sites, they charge between $5.50 to $7 per package. I don't need to get my package right away if the difference between Priority and First Class is only 2-3 days. But even with First Class shipping, I received my package amazingly quick.


My beautiful full sizes of Minimalist foundation. I am keeping my fingers crossed that one of these is my exact shade.


Lauren was so nice to give some Ethereal Samples in Soft and Pure Yellow and a gorgeous green shadow sample (bottom row).


My pretty matte blush samples. I chose mattes because I would be using them underneath my glows, illuminizers or MAC MSFs.

I can't wait to try these out!