Pumpkin Paradise

Why, oh why, can I not motivate myself to sit still and write a blog post? Je ne sais pas. I need to get up my October Boxycharm post, my Fall FabFitFun post - heck, I haven't even posted about my trip to montreal that was in August. I cannot seem to sit still anymore, and any time I do I feel like I'm wasting time. It's hard to sit back and take a minute to myself these days - days are so short and getting even shorter. 

Just before Halloween, I went with my little sister Emily and her roommate, K8, to Cheekwood. I've lived in Nashville for close to a decade now, but I've never visited the estate, so what better time to visit than during their Harvest, when everything is covered in pumpkins and chrysanthemum blooms? 

FabFitFun Fall 2017

Boxycharm October 2017

October Catch-up with Current Spooky Beauty Favorites

Spoiler Alert: They aren't very spooky. 

Boxycharm September 2017

My subscription boxes have become slim these days - I'm only subscribed to four, currently, which may be a lot for some people, but not for where I was at this point last year! My only monthly box is Boxycharm, which is a $21 per month beauty box that sends out 5 or 6 full-sized products which could be makeup, tools like brushes, sponges, or lash curlers, skincare, and hair care (but it is always predominantly makeup). It's surprising that I've dwindled down to only Boxycharm as my beauty subscription because ever since I started really getting into subscription boxes in May 2015, Boxycharm had always rubbed me the wrong way. People raved about it, but they seemed to send out junk I could find in the TJ Maxx makeup bins. However, I think Boxy has been improving tremendously over the past few months, and they released brand spoilers for the rest of the year (including Becca, Dr. Brandt, Mac, Tarte, etc.) that assures me that they have really stepped up their game in the world of beauty boxes.

Adventures in Quebec

 

Budget Beauty Buy | 40 Coastal Scents Shadow Pots

I realized recently that I've turned into a snob when it comes to ... well, most things, but especially makeup and skincare. Even if there was an affordable dupe, I would tend toward the most expensive version simply because of how it would look on my vanity or the assumption that cheaper = lower quality, always. Since that realization I've been making deliberate efforts to try a wide variety of brands. 

I'm never going to be the girl with a minimalist makeup collection - I like too many different finishes and colors and I love having the option to wear bizarre colors if I so choose. That said, I don't need to spend $50+ on an eyeshadow palette full of yellows & oranges if I only wear those shades a few times a year, ya feel me? I've done that way too often this year, so when Coastal Scents was having a big sale over the 4th of July weekend, I decided to take advantage of some brights (and neutrals) in order to really give some budget shadows a chance. 

Coastal Scents Shadow Pots are typically $1.95 a pop, but they often run half-off sales - I'd recommend waiting until one of these sales so you can load up on $0.99 shadows. Coastal Scents has over 350 shadow pots to choose from, so I tried to take my time and do my research. I chose these shades based on a variety of things: if they were recommended by name through makeup artists I trust, if they were highly reviewed on the Coastal Scents website, and if I could find swatches of them in a blog post. The latter factor is partially what's inspiring me to write this - I could find lots of blog posts with swatches, but not for every shade I wanted to try.

I put together a cool-toned palette and a warms & brights palette using Coastal Scent's 12-pan and 28-pan shadow palettes (which are $6 and $10, respectively). There is an option for a solid black palette, but I prefer clear tops, though they get smudged and dirty, so that I can easily see which shadows are where. The palettes are magnetized, too, so it's easy to pop pans in and out with minimal effort. 

Click through for a look at swatches of all 40 shades!