Hols Haul!

Hey y'all!

First off... today's my birthday, but I'm finally going to the doctor to take care of the lingering sinus and sore throat problems that we brought back with us from Texas last month.  As promised, I wanted to give you guys a haul post that trip, and today's your lucky day.  I certainly did quite the spree, beginning in January by online ordering things and having them shipped to Momma Faff's house.  By the time it was all said and done, there were a few too many boxes and she got onto me about it.  I couldn't help it - I needed things!  Anyway... the morning after we arrived, I sat down to the most wonderful breakfast of coffee and opening boxes, and managed to consolidate everything into one tiny pic that went on my Instagram feed immediately.

It really was quite the little mail haul, but I was most proud of my new US indies, which I'd been coveting for a while.

US indies from Nail Pattern Boldness, Literary Lacquers, Octopus Party, and I<3NP. 

I also ordered in some nail art supplies, starting primarily with a whole mess of nail foils and some new studs and crystals from dollarnailart.  The only bad part about this site is the minimum order is $25, and when everything's a dollar or less, that makes for a pretty large cart at checkout.  Still yet, I won't soon run out of foils!

I also did some stamping plate shopping, ordering in both of the Cici & Sisi plate sets as well as an older Bundle Monster set, and a storage case for my BM plates.  The C&S plates came in their own little binders and each came with a grey silicone stamper, but although I've primed them both, I still haven't had a lot of luck actually using them.

Also from Bundle Monster, I got these cutie patootey nail charms.  I can't wait to use them!

I was also on the lookout for plate storage for my MoYou and other larger plates, which I found by virtue of this $7 photo album at WalMart.  It's got WAY more pages than I'll ever need, and the slots are for 4x6" photos, making them the perfect size for the MJ plates and hopefully other XL plates.  

Storage of supplies had also become an issue for me, so when I saw this case of stackable jars at Hobby Lobby for half off, I was in hog heaven!  I then managed to fill two stacks with new crystals that I picked up there as well, mostly clear and iridescent in varying sizes.  When we got home, I didn't bother taking pics of everything before I started filling it up, so as you can see I had a LOT of bits and bobs that needed better homes than the plastic baggies in which they were living.  

Other items of large importance included new topcoats.  I ordered in a Glisten & Glow "on the go" set which included the HK Girl fast dry topcoat, as well as a bottle of NPB Glitter Food, and then picked up a few others between Sally's, Walgreen's, Walmart, HEB, and Ulta.  Sad to say, but I think the most exciting find for me was the matte nail art striper (center of the photo).

Of course along with the topcoats, I had some basecoat and treatment needs too, so I ordered in the Glitter A-Peel from NPB, and Stuck on Blu came with my G&G kit along with cuticle oil and cuticle balm which I ordered in vanilla honey scent - so lovely!  Out and about, I grabbed some other bits and bobs that I can't seem to find in the UK for some reason, like the Sally Hansen instant cuticle remover (I can only find the aloe gel version which isn't as good) and Hard as Nails (which I heard was great for making decals), and Burt's Bees Lemon Butter (I can only find Burt's Bees lip products over here).

Surprisingly, my OPI thirst was quenched fairly easily this trip, since I wasn't terribly impressed with the new collections that have come out lately.  All of these are from older collections and I grabbed them off Amazon, save the Gwen Stefani Push & Shove, which was an impulse buy because it was only $4 at Sally's!

Also didn't pick up a whole lot of China Glaze, either, which was surprising.  These lovelies were all also on sale at Sally's, ranging from 50cents for the glitter (!!!!!!) to a BOGO on the regular line.

I picked up a few bits from Kirsten's blog sale, including some Orlys and Sally Hansens.  Also shown below are my first two Pure Ices, both of which were picked up at Walmart.

After getting my first Finger Paints polish last year, I decided it was time to try a few more.  Sally's is remarkably good at suckering me in with a sale (although Picasso's Puce was from the aforementioned blog sale).  It appears that iridescent stuff is really catching my eye lately.  These two bottles are SIMILAR, not the SAME, and they look totally different on the nail.  *Nodsnodsnodsnods*

Really, the big winner this trip appears to be Sinful Colors, which is odd because I can get that here in the UK.  However, I don't think the color selection is anywhere near as vast in the UK, and ultimately they wind up being cheaper in the US.  Also, apparently I can never have too many purple polishes.

All in all, I'm super happy with the selections I made, even though getting everything back was a bit stressful as we had to shift things around between our cases - not because I ran out of room, but because I was pushing up against the weight limit!  Since Mr. Faff's bag is, without fail, "randomly checked" by TSA, I'm sure they enjoyed sifting through my knickers which were thrown in with his tshirts, but he preferred taking excess clothes off me to having all the polish in his bag.  My only problem now is that as of this haul, I've officially outgrown my little 3-drawer system, so I'm going to have to start looking for some additional polish storage options that don't take up a lot of floor space.  Thankfully I have a nice big blank wall that looks ripe for a shelving system!

Do you enjoy haul posts?  Would you like to see a stash post?  I'm kind of iffy about them myself, but let me know what you'd like to see in the comments section.  Have a great weekend!



(Note:  All products shown above were purchased by me.  Links are included for the convenience of readers who may wish to investigate purchasing for themselves and I am in no way compensated or affiliated for the use of said links.)

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