Beautylish Haul

Not so much a haul as 3 things I bought recently from Beautylish in the one order. Beautylish were holding a $20 gift card for every $100 USD spent, so my mind justified it as basically 20% off. Not quite, since they have to mail you the gift card which you'll have to spend on a second order, so return business is guaranteed to make use of the promotion. Still, it's not a struggle to spend too much money on Beautylish. My order came to just over $100, comprising a good mix of eye/face/lip/brush products, some of which I've been curious about for a long time, some newly released that I immediately wanted.

After trawling through the site, carefully considering what to put in my cart, I ordered the Anastasia Beverly Hills Self-Made eyeshadow palette ($35 USD), Too Faced Melted Kisses and Sweet Cheeks ($36 USD) and Wayne Goss Brush 14 ($33 USD).

The Anastasia palette was a bit of an impulse buy since it launched only last month and I told myself I'd hold out if/until it popped up at a physical Sephora store near me to swatch. I recently bought the Shadow Couture World Traveler Palette but wasn't overly enthused with it, but something told me I'd get along better with Self-Made. I'm glad I took the chance as first impressions are overwhelming positive and I definitely prefer it to the World Traveler palette. I'll get a full post up about it soon, so I won't go into too much detail here, except to include some preliminary swatches.

The Too Faced lip and cheek set has been released in Australia and is priced at $53, roughly the same as what I paid on Beautylish after currency conversion. I have one Love Flush Long-Lasting Blush in Baby Love but no Melted Liquified Long Wear Lipsticks, so this set seemed excellent value and the ideal way to sample 3 blushes and 3 liquid lipsticks without having to purchase the full size. I will also shortly dedicate an entire post to the set with comparison swatches of the blushes next to other pink, coral and plum shades, so I'll only include swatches of the individual products for now.

I've never tried any of the Wayne Goss brushes, though they have been on my radar for a couple of years. When I bought the Flat Contour Brush from the Real Techniques Bold Metals Collection, I lamented not having bought a Wayne Goss brush instead. It was around the same price (the Flat Contour Brush is $26 USD before tax, while Brush 14 is $33 USD but I didn't have to pay tax), but the quality cannot be compared. Brush 14 has been an utter revelation. It's my new obsession. I did have to wash it when I first received it to bring out its shape and fluff it up, but after it dried, I've been reaching for it nearly every day. Up front I do have to say my only issue with it is that it does have a faint smell of wet hair, but it's nothing overwhelming or significant enough to meaningfully detract from my enjoyment and use of the brush.

The bristles are made out of goat hair, and while not quite as delicately soft as my SUQQU Cheek Brush (made of grey squirrel hair), in a way that's an advantage. On the cheeks, it's still beautifully soft feeling, but the slightly firmer bristles I find pick up product better. One gripe I had with the Suqqu was that it was almost too soft and floppy. There wasn't a problem for really pigmented blushes as the brush provided a soft, well-blended wash of colour, but for blushes with not as strong colour payoff, you'd need to layer the product for any result. Using it also wasn't as efficient or immediately effective as a firmer, denser brush like the Ecotools by Alicia Silverstone Blush Brush for a more defined, sculpted look, patting the product up and down the cheekbones and a little onto the apples of the cheeks.

Brush 14 gives me more control and performs well with a wider variety of cheek products, while still being supremely soft and blending colour out seamlessly. I love the elongated shape and bulbous tip, which nestles perfectly into one of the mini Too Faced Love Flush Long-Lasting Blushes as if the two were made for each other. It's pretty close to perfection in a cheek brush. With this experience, I'm more impressed with Wayne Goss brushes than I anticipated and have my eye on acquiring more in the future. Though it wasn't cheap, Brush 14 was a third of the price of my Suqqu, but the quality and function is absolutely up there. I'm not sure I would have bought the Suqqu if I'd been able to touch and buy the Wayne Goss brushes in person, except to satiate my curiosity and desire to own such a coveted brush in the makeup world. I'd always been on the fence about whether the Suqqu Cheek Brush was worth my $160, despite it being indisputably the softest brush in my collection.

l-r: Melted Nude, Melted Peony, Melted Fig

l-r: Love Hangover, Justify My Love, Your Love Is King

l-r: Pink Champagne, Metallic Plum, Self-Made, Witchy, Blush, Blossom, Buttery

l-r: Deep Purple, Treasure, Hot and Cold, Sherbert, Isla, Spirit Rock, Hot Chocolate

This has to be one of the most successful makeup shopping orders I've made in recent memory. I genuinely like or love everything I've bought and feel they were savvy selections and worthwhile purchases. I've been using all my new things nonstop since they arrived. It has barely been 2 months since my last major Sephora haul in the US, so I now need to be really restrictive and discerning with my purchases. That always goes to plan...