The Travel Beauty Organizer: Sephora vs. Forever 21

Sephora on the left and Forever 21 on the right....which is better for the money??

I've been on the hunt for the PERFECT travel beauty organizer that won't break the bank for a number of months now.  You'd think something so complete and useful would be easy to come by, but alas, they're not, at all.

A few years ago they were all the rage and had I thought about needing one back then, I would probably own the Bobbi Brown Organizer of my dreams but I didn't and I'm now trying to find the one that comes closest to the Bobbi Brown one which is no longer available.

I picked up both of these cases last week without knowing the Forever 21 case would be an almost exact dupe for the Sephora case.  The top one is the Sephora bag and it is a lovely quilted faux-leather material with a nice thick silver zipper.  The Forever 21 is the bottom bag and it's more a windbreaker material, also with a silver zipper.

Sephora on the left and Forever 21 on the right.  The Sephora bag has a tuck-in hanger in case you want to hang it on a door when traveling.  I also like the "Sephora" logo on the inside zipper.  The Forever 21 case, though missing these details, is very similar to the Sephora bag.  The zippers are not as durable but all in all, not too bad.

One thing that is SUPER cute on the Sephora bag is that each compartment is labelled.  This is the makeup pouch.

The Jewelry pouch which is located on the back of the brush holder.

Lastly, the pouch for your toiletries.  So cute that everything has it's on place.

Though the Forever 21 bag is not labelled with where your products can go, it still has the same amount of pockets for your travel items.  It's probably one of the best dupes I've seen in a long time.

Alright ladies, the most important part....price.  The Sephora Collection Weekender Organizer rings in at $48 CAD.  Not too bad in price but hefty compared to the Sonia Kashuk Organizers I've seen at Target.  The Forever 21 Organizer is priced at $19 CAD.  A huge price difference and a great dupe if I do say so myself.  The quality is not as good as the Sephora bag BUT with that price, you can buy a couple and keep the extra one ready to go if one breaks.

What are your thoughts on the bags?  What's your go-to travel cosmetic organizer?

    

A Glimpse At My Vanity Table and Makeup

Confession time!  I am obsessed with seeing other people's vanity tables and makeup storage.  I don't know why but I actively google it.  Sometimes it's to get ideas and other times it's to drool/lust over items I will never be able to afford.

I have to say, though, I'm quite proud of my vanity area.  I've been asked a lot lately by some of my readers to post about my vanity area and I am so excited to share these pics with you.

Allan fixed the two crystal knobs to the drawer for me and also hung a power cord to the bottom of the table SO all my cords are out of the way and no one can see them.

No vanity area is complete without a gorgeous piece of art work and I am loving the colors in this piece.

My daily-use bushes are in the cup and of course, my gold telephone piggy bank houses all my rainy day spend-on-makeup coins.  The white jar holds all my q-tips and cotton pads while the green jar holds elastics and bobby pins.

My Ganesh candle holder sits directly in the center of the vanity table and my little oil burner sits beside it.  Doing your makeup when the air smells pretty is the best thing.

Above the vanity table are my wordy inspiration pictures.  The one in white is my all-time favorite: "If you want to know where your heart is, look where your mind goes when it wanders".  Love it.  Below the pictures is a basket of my hair goodies.

Inside one of the drawers are some palettes, hence why I call this Palette Drawer 1.

This is the blush/bronzer/highlighter/contour drawer.  I know it looks disorganized BUT I know where absolutely everything is.

Palette drawer 2.  Ha

The eye drawer contains all my mascara/liners/shadows/liquid liners.

Last but not least, the lip drawer.  All my favorite flavors of LipSmackers are sitting on the top as I have dozens of these glosses everywhere.  You can definitely see I like the pink lipsticks....ha

As you saw from the pic above, I have a jar of brushes I use most of the time.  However, when I am actually wanting to do my makeup perfectly, I use my better sets.  This is my Morphe Brush set.  I love the duo colors.

This is my newest set of brushes and I actually just received them last week so haven't even used more than a couple of them.  However, look how many brushes there are AND I am in love with the colors used.  They are so classic looking.

THANK YOU for asking me to share this with you.  Was it what you thought the space would look like?  I'd love to see some of your makeup spaces as well.

    

Pinterest Find of the Day: MAC Lipstick Dupes

 For some reason, I've never become the MAC lover the majority of my friends are.  I try to love their products but for some reason, they just fail to wow me.  (Of course, NOT ALL FAIL TO WOW ME but most do.)

Plus, the price of their products can definitely add up when shopping for many items at one time.

One item I do find very difficult to spend a lot of money on are lipsticks.  There are my few favorites, don't get me wrong (Bobbi Brown and Chanel, to mention a couple) but since I'm a lipstick junkie, I sometimes find it best to buy cheaper lipsticks.  Yes, the quality isn't always the best and they sometimes won't last as long as better quality brands but you have the option to try many more colors without breaking the bank.

Here's a fantastic Pinterest list of popular MAC lipstick colors and their dupes, which you can find in your neighborhood drugstore. (I did find this image on Pinterest but you can check out the website Life Unsweetened where the original image is from https://www.lifeunsweetened.com/2013/04/25/mac-lipstick-dupes/)

What's your favorite MAC lipstick?  What's your favorite drugstore brand?

 
    

The Frugal Fashionista - Spending Less to Look Great

Lauren Conrad: Easy Spring Style by redlipgloss featuring a boyfriend tank top

I love Lauren Conrad's look in this picture.  Her whole outfit embodies comfy chic in the best possible way.  Love the leggings with the tan suede boots (my favorite) and an oversize boyfriend sweater.  The MAIN difference between Lauren and me, aside from the obvious, are our budgets.

See, I just can't spend heaps of money on clothes or accessories anymore.  Yes, I do still spend the majority of my extra funds on makeup BECAUSE that's my thing but that also means there's less in the budget for clothes, shoes and accessories.  It's a game sometimes to find the best articles of clothes that cost the least amount.

The Frugal Fashionista by redlipgloss featuring red earrings

I created this set using items that were ALL priced below $50.  I am loving tote bags right now (more on this later) and love all types of suede looking boots and booties.  PLUS, these distressed girlfriend jeans are gorgeous and available at your local H&M.  Look at that little suede tan skirt and black kimono.  So cute.  Also, one of my go-to fragrances, BCBG Max Azaria, is on sale for $19.99.  AMAZING steal.

This, my friends, is the tote bag I'm obsessed with.  It's from a brand called the Whipping Post and it's made using 100% vegetable tanned leather.  It also carries a price tag of $195 USD.  It's amazing though.

This bag is cute too AND a pretty good shaped dupe for the Whipping Post bag of my dreams.  It's by Street Level and this bag reverses into a tan bag as well.  All for the low price of $49 from American Eagle Outfitters.

See, looking great doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg, you just have to be a saavy shopper.  What are some of your favorite purchases that didn't stretch the budget?

    

Lip Monthly March 2016 - My First Bag!!

Ah, I was so excited to see the shiny gold packaging in the mail box today.  Yeppers, you guessed it.  I got my very first Lip Monthly bag.

As you all know, I recently decided to add Lip Monthly to my monthly subscription rotation as Birchbox closed it's Canadian doors.  As much as I liked Birchbox, I found a lot of the products to be repetitive and focused mainly on hair and body products, sigh.  So not what I was wanting.

Lip Monthly had always been a subscription I'd wanted to try and I am so happy I did.  Seriously, SO HAPPY.

And here are the goodies I received!

I got three full size lip products AND a blush/bronzer duo.  Amazing.  Here's a full list of items I received from left to right, Camilla Lipstick (priced at $14), Camilla Lipgloss (priced at $14), Ecolips Tinted Balm in Sugar Plum (priced at $4.49) and Cargo Blush/Bronzer duo (priced at $10).  Altogether, my bag this month was worth $42.49 (probably in USD which is equivalent to hundreds in CAD - HA).  Pretty decent for a subscription that I am paying about $19 dollars for.

If anyone is interested in receiving their own Lip Monthly, you should check out my link here.
Trust me, the products are awesome!  https://lipmonthly.com//referral/2f4SAzcIATbQ

    

Pinterest Find of the Day: Understanding Your Eyebrows

Yes, your brows should be lined up with the curves of your mouth.  Very difficult to achieve without pro help 

I remember when pencil thin, super arched, eyebrows were super popular.  Here I was with my thick Audrey Heburn-esque brows, imagining myself with thinner more manageable brows.  So I tweezed and shaped and STILL they grew in crazy, thick and wild looking.

Then, the times changed and thick eyebrows became the look everyone was after.  Suddenly, I had the right look!  Not only were my brows thick enough but the shape seemed to be what everyone was after.  Woohoo, less work for me.

I've become quite the perfectionist when it comes to my brows, though, over time and I do love the look of them when they're perfectly shaped and penciled in.  Nothing beats the perfect arch.

However, achieving this is less than stellar.  Here's a quick diagram that gives you a better understanding of how your brows should look once you've finished "coloring".

See how easy they make it look?  I still spend a great deal of time each day shaping and filling them in.  Ensure your brow products are top notch (don't use the cheap stuff - truly, this is one time I recommend spending the money on a great brow wax, pencil or gel).

What do your brows look like?  Are you a lover of brow products too?

    

LuxeBox - Spring 2016

Ben and I had a mini-getaway to Calgary this past weekend for my sister's baby shower.  She is having a little girl and we can't be more excited.  Ben's going to have a little girl cousin!

When I got home on Sunday night, I was greeted at the airport by my hubby AND when we walked through the door, I was also greeted y my second LuxeBox...all wrapped in shinny gold bubble wrap.  LuxeBox also mentioned that because it was eco-month, they would not be sending our goodies in the standard cream box, but instead a satin bag, to save trees.  I'm thinking I might request this option going forward as I don't tend to use the boxes anyway.

My bag was filled to the brim with a great selection of products consisting of (from left to right) Babyliss Pro Argan Oil, Morgan Taylor Professional Nail Laquer in Eye Candy, Lippy Girl Vegocentric Vegan Lipstick in Hot Diggity Yam, Skin Republic CoQ10 Caviar Face Mask, Schick Hydro Silk Razor, Sweet Pea Soap Company Forever Adrienne Lilac Soap, Pop Beauty Kajal Pen in Inky Purple and Model Co Power Lash Black Mascara.

Loving the selections this season!  The soap smells good enough to eat and I am really loving jewel tones on my eyes so the liner is fab.

Anyone else receive their LuxeBox?  What are your thoughts?