My American Haul with Comgateway! Part 2 – First Impressions

If you’ve been following me on my blog and Instagram, you’ll know about my recent American beauty haul that I did using Comgateway ! (If you haven’t seen it, it’s linked here so you know what I’m on about!)

Part Two of my posts on the haul is my first impressions of what I picked up! A few things from my haul aren’t featured on this post, purely because they weren’t able to be reviewed (eg I got a lot of mascaras in this haul, and only have two eyes!) or I plan on reviewing them separately! I didn’t review the Mac lipsticks because they’re readily available in Australia, and I’m planning a post with my Mac lipstick collection very soon!

Anastasia Beverly Hills:

The Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit Refills in Banana and Fawn are two items I’m really glad that I picked up! The Banana powder is the perfect under eye setting powder for me that keeps my undereye area highlighted and set all day, and the yellow is just the right shade to not make the area look darkened and yellow. The contour powder in Fawn is the perfect contour shade for my NC15 skin, there is a lot of hype about this powder and there is definitely a reason! I’m incredibly impressed, and this has replaced my Nyx Taupe as my HG contour shade!

Sephora:

 

The Tartelette Palette is beyond amazing, I cannot begin to describe my love for it. The hype is definitely real! The palette looks absolutely gorgeous, the shadows are pigmented and blend like a dream. There is a bit of powder kickback when you put your brush in the shadows, but who even cares?! I am in love! I loved the Laura Mercier Transulcent Loose Setting Powder to set my foundation down before applying blush, bronzer etc. It’s an incredibly finely milled powder and doesn’t leave a white cast on my face afterwards. It leaves my skin feeling silky smooth, I love it! I picked up the Sephora-exclusive travel sized powder just to test it out but once I’m through some of my translucent powders I’ll buy a full sized one from David Jones! The Bite Beauty Crème Lipstick Travel Duo is just the cutest idea and I love it! This has been permanently in my handbag and is perfect for touch-ups. The lipsticks themselves probably last 2-3 hours without re-applying if I’m not eating or drinking, but that’s pretty normal for lipsticks on my lips!

Drugstore.com/Beauty.com:

 

The Maybelline Brow Drama in Blonde is the perfect shade for setting my brows, and I wish it was available in Australia! I used the Brow Drama range when my hair was darker but haven’t been able to for a while until this! The spoolie applicator is a weird shape, but I really like the product and it really holds my hairs in place all day. The L’Oreal True Match Foundation in N1 Soft Ivory is a shade we can’t get in Australia (are you getting the theme, here?) and is the perfect shade for me, unsurprisingly! The shade is a perfect match for my NC15 skin, but I found that it fades throughout the day and after 7-8 hours looks quite patchy. I still need to try it with different primers but I’m not 100% sold on True Match in general. The Wet N Wild eyeshadows are SO pigmented, I was blown away! For a cheap product, I wasn’t expecting it to be more pigmented than my Mac shadows. They blend seamlessly and I just love them! The Walking on Eggshells trio is my go-to when I’m running late for work (so most mornings!). The Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Chantilly is a shade I can’t get in Australia (I swear I’m not even that pale!) but it’s the perfect light, yellow toned concealer. I’m not 100% sold on it yet either because I feel like it doesn’t have as much coverage as it’s hyped up to have, but it’s something I’ll keep working with! I do also have ridiculously dark undereye circles – damn genetics!

The Tarte Eyelash Curler definitely beats my old Revlon one for curl power. My lashes curl and stay curled all day, no fail. Being that the curler is gold I do find it quite hard to check that I’ve got all my lashes in it because they’re quite blonde, which is the only downside! It came with a mini Lights Camera Lashes mascara which I haven’t yet had the chance to try! I really like the Milani Brow Shaping Gel to set my brows and hold them in place. It hardens my brows (but softens throughout the day) and even if I rub my eyes my brow hairs stay in place, which is all I’m really after with a brow gel! The EOS Cucumber Hand Lotion smells so incredible and fresh (and not really like cucumbers if I’m being honest) and is the perfect handbag side. I use a lot of hand sanitiser at work, so I like this sitting on my desk to refresh my hands after using them! The Milani Bella Eyeshadows are another product I got because of the hype, and I’m not sure if I’m impressed with them. Bella Champagne is a very pretty shade, but could only really apply/blend it with my fingers. Bella White is cute to set my eyeshadow primer with to make the shadows that go over the top brighter, and I really don’t like Bella Bronze at all, it’s quite chunky and hard to blend!

I knew I’d love the Lorac Pro Palette and I wasn’t disappointed! Just like the second one that I owned already, the shadows are all incredibly buttery smooth, pigmented and easy to blend and the palette itself has the perfect mixture of matte and normal shadows. The only thing I don’t like about it is how easily the packaging gets dirty! The Maybelline Fit Me! Matte and Poreless Translucent Setting Powder is another product we can’t get yet in Australia (Maybelline, please bring the Matte and Poreless line here asap!) and I adore it as a setting powder. If I’m doing my makeup in the morning for a really long day, I’ll apply my primer and set it with this powder. It seems excessive, but my pores become really obvious during the day otherwise and it’s perfect for this purpose! The Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-hour Blush in Exposed is such a gorgeous colour and I am so glad I picked it up! I wasn’t impressed when I swatched the Tarte blushes in store at Sephora in Sydney because they swatch really unevenly, but the product on a brush applies so evenly and my initial first impression was so wrong! I’m going to hold off to see if they release another blush palette closer to Christmas to pick up another blush, but these ones are so gorgeous and really last! The Urban Decay Subversion Lash Primer is something I wanted to pick up from Mecca Maxima when they released Urban Decay in Australia but it wasn’t something they decided to carry. Using this, my lashes are visibly longer and my mascara definitely lasts longer without flaking! I find it harder to remove all of the mascara on my lashes at the end of the day, but I think it’s worth it! The Maybelline Lash Sensational I picked up and then a few days later received in my Beauty Click parcel – looks like it’s finally being released in Australia, oops bad timing! I’m not 100% happy with this, it doesn’t give my lashes much volume and is really easy to clump all my lashes together and is a massive pain to get off. I’m going to leave it a few weeks and hope it dries out a bit, but so far not-so-good!

And that’s it for my first impressions! As you can tell, I’ve tested out a LOT of new products over the last few days! Overall, regardless of hits and misses I’m really happy I picked everything up that I tried! Curiosity kills the cat, and I’m happy now to know how everything is! I hope this post has helped to let you know what I have loved and what I think is worth ordering!