Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Portable Palette Set: Review & Swatches

It is amazing how much my purchases are influenced by the blogs I read and YouTube videos I watch.  I usually have very drastic reactions to what I see such as "OMG, I NEED THAT IN MY LIFE!" to "Really?  You spent that much money on that?!".  Examples of these reactions are the Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Portable Palette Set (Exclusive to Ulta for the holidays) and the Dior Creme de Rose lip balm.  I had to have the Tarte set, and happily spent birthday gift cards acquiring it.  The lip balm on the other hand seemed ridiculous to me.  Don't get me wrong ... I sampled it and it smells and feels amazing, but the $27 price tag for freaking lip balm made me wonder why anyone would shell out that kind of cash.  The Tarte set quickly made it into my October favorites so I am here to share with you why that is.  

Urban Decay Vice 2 Palette: A Good Buy?

We all see those "deals" out there at the beauty store (and everywhere else for that matter).  It usually involves the phrase "A $xx.xx value!".  I don't know about the rest of you, but it usually makes me angry.  I mean, really, who is sitting there doing the math?  Obviously the people selling the darn thing.  Oh, and the higher the value v.s. the less you pay, well then jump right in my cart there little guy, you're coming home!  No.  I refuse to believe it unless I do the math myself.  A little anal retentive?  Why, yes!  I decided to crunch the numbers on the Urban Decay Vice 2 Palette, newly released.