Deal: $10 Gift Card at Kiehl’s Canada

I just got this email today, and I decided to share this great deal with you all! Unfortunately it’s only for Canada only (but hey, US residents get way more amazing deals than we do here!)

From now until August 9th, print this invitation and bring it to any free-standing Kiehl’s stores in Canada to receive a $10 gift card and a free skin consultation! I am not sure if the gift card can be used another time, or has to be used the same day… I will be heading to a Kiehl’s in a couple days so I will ask them that! Too bad I’m on project pan though! What great timing!

 

Project Pan – The Beginning

As you all know, I have had quite a number of huge hauls (what I posted is a only the tip of the iceberg) these past few weeks I’m in Korea and Hong Kong. Both in terms of skincare and make up. So I have decided to start my Project Pan now that I’m heading back to Canada tomorrow!

For those of you who are not familiar with Project Pan, it’s basically a project where you go on a beauty product shopping ban until you have used up or hit pan on X number of products. I think it’s a great way to save money and downsize my collection at the same time. I first heard about Project Pan from Amarixe (click here for her blogpost). “Project Pan” was first coined by lollipop26, who was a youtube guru, but she stopped making videos a while ago (but she is still blogging here).

I am the kind of person that cannot pass on a great deal, and over time I have accumulated a bunch of products even before my trip. After my trip, I have an absolutely ridiculous amount of products, and I feel terrible about buying all these things and not using them up. So here I am, starting my own Project Pan!

I originally wanted to do a Project 20 Pan, but I want to use up as many products as I can endure doing this (for at least 20 products), so I am just leaving it as project pan. The general rule is to finish x number of products before buying any new ones, but I have a few of my own additional “rule” to make this fit myself better.

1. I will be including hair care, skin care and beauty products. If I only do beauty products, I will NEVER (and I mean it) finish it.
2. I will include travel size items, but not samples or deluxe samples (Makes sense right? Plus I am thinking of doing one for samples later anyways.)
3. There are some types of products that I only have one of (eg setting powder), so if I finish that, I will allow myself to buy a replacement.
4. If a product (eg. gel liner, mascara) dries up, I will not count that product as being “used up”.
5. I will not even allow myself to buy limited edition products, no matter how tempting it is! (I will regret this soon enough I’m sure)

Hopefully I will finish it before the end of the year, because I know I will want to get some beauty products for my holiday shopping! I will be doing updates as I use up products, and maybe with mini reviews too! Have any of you tried Project Pan? I would love to hear/read about your experience!

A quick preview of my haul in Korea

so far… It’s only my 2nd day here (well technically 1.5 days). Will be posting details about what I got, when I get back to HK and have more time!

Neutrogena Canada 60th Anniversary Sample Pack

A while ago Neutrogena Canada put out this amazing freebie, as a celebration of their 60th anniversary! Basically they had a site where you can pick 5 deluxe samples or coupons, and they will mail it to you! I completely forgot about that until I got it in my mail recently. I am really excited about trying some of these products so I decided to share it with you all first about what I chose/got!

Lush Haul (and The Avengers)

Yes… another Lush haul. It seems like Lush just manages to suck me into the store every time I walk past it. I’m always just like… “I wil just take a quick look”, and yet I always walk out with something! 

NARS + Essie + The Bay Haul

I went to Holt Renfrew today in hope of locating the Prada bags I have been lusting for… but with no luck. Holt Renfrew just does not carry what I want! They did not have the Balenciaga City Bag that I wanted, or the Marc by Marc Jacob wallet that I wanted… and now this. But all is not lost! I wandered to the NARS counter, and ended up purchasing two NARS products from their summer collection. They did not have the products out for display yet, but they did have the products in stock. (Sephora did not have the summer collection in stock as of today). I got the Never Say Never Velvet Matte Lip Pencil, and the Liberte Blush. I totally did not plan on getting these today (was going to wait till I head to the states), but Holt Renfrew is having a promotion where you get a gift card that’s worth 15% of your cosmetic purchase, and 25% of your apparel and accessory purchase. Their site says it’s from April 28-29. I also got a Valentino perfume sample when I saw walking around! Yay for perfume samples!

Mini Haul (Lancome + Macadamia Natural Oil)

Hmmm so… the last thing I should be doing is shopping, seeing how exams are coming up and I really need to study, but I saw a GWP promotion at Lancome, and I just got sucked in, and headed to the mall with pearlessence!

I picked up the Teint Miracle foundation from Lancome. I have been using the Lancome Teint Idole Ultra 14 hours this winter but it’s getting a little too heavy for Spring/Summer. Teint Miracle is a natural, light-weight foundation, with “AURA-INSIDE” technology to make the skin “lit-from-within”. It states that it has moderate coverage, natural finish. I got it in the shade Buff 2(W). I also absolutely LOVE the packaging!

Sephora VIB + MAC + Essie + Drugstore Haul

Yes another haul post… but hey one needs to use that 15% off at Sephora while one can right? MAC came out with a few collections today, so it only makes sense if I go check it out. Essie… well the salon had 50% off a bunch of Essie polishes! And I wondered into a drugstore… and walked out with stuff, as usual. So here are all the stuff I got!

Lush… What to Get?

So I was sooo lucky and won a gift card to Lush from a contest by Magdalena a couple weeks ago! YEEEEEEE you have no idea how excited I was (am)! I have never won anything before so thank you soooo much!

I have been browsing the Lush site to decide how to put this to good use since I am still pretty new to Lush. So overwhelmed! I got a couple things from Lush before and it’s been hit and miss… Loved the Buffy, not quite the Ocean Salt (dried out my skin way too much). And there are so many experienced Lush users out there so I figured I can get some great opinions from you all as to what I should try out using this great gift I got from Magdalena!

There are some items that seems promising, so I would love to hear some quick opinion from you if you have tried it! Or if there are other produces from Lush that you love, let me know!

1. Volcano Foot Mask

2. Angels on Bare Skin

3. Mask of Magnaminty

4. It’s Raining Man Shower Gel

5. Honey I Washed The Kids Soap

6. Solid Shampoos
- there are so many and I have absolutely NO IDEA which one… any suggestions?

Lush Buffy Body Butter Review

So as promised, here’s a review for the Lush “Buffy” body butter. I picked this up a little less than a week ago but I have been using it everyday so I feel like I have used it enough for a review.

As mentioned in my mini-haul post, I picked it up in store when I meant to get the You Snap The Whip body butter, but the girl there recommended Buffy saying it’s a best seller and it’s a lot more moisturizing. So here I am with this body butter.

When I think body butter, I think body moisturizer, like those from The Body Shop. (And when I think Buffy, I think Buffy the Vampire Slayer…) But in Lush term, body butter is actually an exfoliator with moisturizer.

Ingredients (From Lush.ca)
Fair Trade Cocoa Butter (Theobroma Cacao), Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Ground Rice (Oryza Sativa), Ground Almonds (Prunus dulcis), Ground Aduki Beans (Phaseolus), Perfume, Lavender Oil (Lavandula hybrida), Lemon Oil (Citrus limonum), Citral, Limonene, Linalool