Massive 2015 Holiday Beauty Haul

Happy New Year everyone!! As you may know, the holidays are the absolute best time of year to buy makeup. Not only are there holiday gift sets galore, which are usually the best bang for your buck, but also companies are releasing new products and putting the old products on clearance. If you play your cards right, you can get so much makeup for very little investment. As I've taken advantage (quite a bit) of the deals this holiday season, I've gathered some of the standouts from my haul to share with you.

Recently I stopped in to a store I've never been to before, Five Below, because I heard they carry some cosmetics. I was pleasantly surprised to find a wide range of City Color cosmetics, including these beauties.

The gimmick of Five Below is that everything in the store is $5 or less, so I picked up two Be Matte Blush compacts for $3 a piece, and the Sunkissed Trio for $4. In the blushes, I bought Fresh Melon (a light pink with a slight tint of orange), and Toasted Coconut (a warm light brown). The Sunkissed Trio comes with a bronzer (has shimmer), a blush, and a highlight. I purchased the collection called Golden. I'm excited to play with all of these, I love affordable cosmetics!!

Ulta had a sale on select BareMinerals holiday sets, and I couldn't resist picking up the Precious Gems Pop of Passion Lip Oil-Balm Trio for $13 (on sale from $26).

This deal blew my mind, considering these are three full sized lipsticks for $13, when a single item is sold for $16. I also have been dying to try these, since the oil base seems like it would be incredibly hydrating. I can't believe I never hear anything about these in the beauty blogosphere, since they are fantastic! Moisturizing, pigmented, comfortable, long-lasting... go try these. If you follow my Instagram (which you should! Follow me here) then you might have seen me feature the shade Plumberry Pop.

I already love the Makeup Revolution Mermaids Forever eyeshadow palette, so when I saw the Essential Mattes palette at Ulta for $7, I couldn't help myself.

I haven't played with this guy yet, but I think that this palette has the potential to be very versatile. It looks like it has both the neutral mattes that come in handy for transition colors, but also the smokier grays and dark shades that can give looks depth and interest. I'm also so proud to say that Makeup Revolution USA featured one of my photos of this palette on their Instagram account! So cool.

I've been dying to get my hands on my favorite YouTuber Tati's collaboration with Birchbox, the LOC Love of Color Ultimate Collection. With three matte lipsticks and five eyeshadow sticks, I trust Tati and knew that this partnership would be awesome.

I took advantage of my Birchbox Points and a Black Friday sale, and got the collection for free with free shipping. I haven't played with any of it yet because I was so severely disappointed with Birchbox's shipping practices and customer service. Let me start by saying yes, I know that I got free shipping and that I probably shouldn't complain. But this tiny little package took almost TWO weeks to get to me. Other people who ordered the same day as me got their items so quickly, but alas, not I. According to the tracking, the package was shipped soon after I ordered. It next travelled to a depot about 40 miles from me, and then was unbelievably shipped to an entirely different part of the state, where it stayed in limbo for several days, then it was shipped for some reason to another state completely, then finally shipped back to my state, and eventually wound up at my doorstep. I contacted Birchbox customer service several times via email and Twitter, and it would take them days to respond. Days. I got so frustrated that I wasn't even excited to get the package by the time it got to me. When I do open it, I'll let you all know what I think. Enough of my rant!

I spotted these little ornaments at Walgreens in November and thought these were so cute. Normally, the Almay Smart Shade Lipbutters are around $6-7 a piece, but these full size holiday editions are only $5.

Such a good deal, I even bought several to give as gifts. They were offered in a nude shade and a berry shade, so I purchased some of each. These are great tinted lip balms, but I do warn that they have sparkles in it. Hardly noticeable when applied, but I can see how the glitter would be a turnoff to some. They taste pretty good though!

I have to admit it, I'm probably the only beauty addict who doesn't own a Lorac Pro palette... until now! Amazon had the Lorac Pro (original) on sale for half off, and I just couldn't justify not buying it at that price. Unfortunately, Amazon accidentally sent me the Pro 2 palette, but I decided to keep it anyway.

So now I can be cool like everyone else, since I finally have a Pro palette. Eventually I'll get the original also!

Last year, IT Cosmetics released a special edition of their Naturally Pretty eyeshadow palette collection called Naturally Pretty Celebration. I missed out on it last year, but I remedied that this year!!

Ohh, those colors!! ::drooling::  I usually miss out on ipsy offers, they're sold out by the time I see the email about them. But I noticed late one night that a girl on Instagram posted that ipsy had the Naturally Pretty Celebration palette at half off with free shipping, so I didn't hesitate. (PS Unlike Birchbox, this palette arrived within a reasonable amount of time)

As I mentioned, now's the time to checkout your local drugstores for their clearance items. Most drugstore brands are launching their newest products, so out with the old to make room for the brand spanking new. I absolutely love this time of year, because I can get a lot of makeup for very little money, and my shopaholic mind is overjoyed.

Among the brands that are doing some major house cleaning are Almay, Wet n Wild, Maybelline, Neutrogena, and Rimmel.

Wet n Wild seems to be getting rid of the Fergie collection, which is a shame since it had some great products. But their loss is my gain. I'm stocking up on the Take on the Day Mattifying Powder, as it is a great setting powder. It never creases and is truly transparent. I've also picked up the Fergie mascara, eyeshadow primer, an eyeshadow palette (above), and a highlighter.

I love the Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeshadow Sticks, they are so convenient and very pigmented. I've picked up a couple shades including a lovely dark brown.

I am just learning to appreciate the Almay line, in fact their liquid eyeliner is one of my hands down favorite liquid eyeliners. They seem to be getting rid of some of their products, including a foundation that contains caffeine (just what I need), mascaras, concealers, and a few powders. Let's just say the sale items have greatly expanded my Almay collection!

I don't own any of the Maybelline Color Tattoo cream eyeshadows, but the Leather collection is currently on clearance at Target. Honestly I thought this was part of the regular Tattoo collection when I threw it in my cart, so I was a bit disappointed when I opened it up at home and discovered a matte purple shade instead of the gorgeous shimmer I expected. I'm sure it'll be fine though.

These are just some of the clearance goodies I've picked up so far. If you'd like me to do a final roundup post of my clearance haul, let me know in the comments down below.

This post is getting super long! I've got a few more gift sets that I'd like to share with you but I think I'll do that in separate posts. I'll link to them below once I post them.

What have you "gifted" yourself this holiday season? I love to see hauls, so let me know!!

Hope you've all had a lovely and happy holiday season! xoxo