Up next on The Holiday Collection is a gift that I believe that any girl would get excited for. I’m not a huge lip gloss wearer but I mean who wouldn’t get excited about a lip gloss set, especially from Benefit Cosmetics?!

Benefit’s Ticket to Glossytown is a chic set full of six lip glosses (3.0 ml).  The colours range from purple to pink to coral to nude to plum.  There is truly a colour for everyone.  Split them up or keep them all for yourself! From Benefit Cosmetics:

The gift that’s on everyone’s lips! This set of six glitzy mini glosses finishes any look with show-off shine. This special collection of ultra shines drenches lips in juicy color that never feels sticky. Give it as one gorgeous gift or divide them up into multiple petite presents.

I have never actually tried Benefit lip glosses in the past. From all their products, I wouldn’t exactly say that this witty brand is known for lippies.  But I have to say that I am impressed. The colour isn’t that pigmented on my lips, however, they are super shiny!  Also, unlike MAC Lip Glass, these are not too sticky.  They are quite comfortable and have a nice fruity scent to them as well.

The only downside I can think of with these is the brush length, it’s really small.  So small that you have to go over your lips with it a few extra times to a) cover your lips and b) apply enough product.  I have definitely seen minis from other brands that had regular sized brush wands on them.  Also, they don’t have the longest staying power, maybe two, three hours max.

Now onto the colours!

Kiss You (A Clear Fuchsia)

Foxy Lady (A Diamond Rose)

Spiked Punch (A Juicy Coral)

Life on the A List (Bubblegum Pink)

Nudie-Tude (Goldspun Twist)

So Frisk Me (Gilded Berry)

The colours are all different and are sure to suit any skin tone.  Also, some have more glitter than others (So Frisk Me and Nudie-Tude, I’m looking at you!). My favourites are Nudie-Tude and Life on the A List because they are nude colours that you can wear either alone or universally over any lip colour.

From L to R: Kiss You, Foxy Lady, Spiked Punch, Life on the A List, Nudi-Tude, So Frisk Me

So why would these make a great gift?  Well, like I mentioned, who doesn’t like getting lip gloss?  Plus the packaging from Benefit is always super cute so that adds some appeal as well.  You can either give this as one gift, keep a few for yourself, or split them up. Maybe you have six different friends you are buying gifts for, so you could throw a lip gloss into their gifts and it adds that much more to their present.

This set is also pretty affordable, it retails for $26 CDN ($24 USD) at Sephora, Shopper’s Drug Mart, or wherever else Benefit Cosmetics are sold.  One full size Benefit Ultra Shine lip gloss runs for $23 CDN ($18 USD), so you get six minis for only a couple dollars more.

Is Benefit Cosmetics Ticket to Glossytown on your holiday list?  Leave me a comment below!

Please note: I did receive this product for review, however, it did not affect my opinions on it.  All opinions are my honest own :).  

So first off before I get into my nails of the day, I just want to say that this is my 100th post! Wow, these first 100 went by so fast and I’m shocked that I even had 100 ideas to blog about!  Here’s to another hundred more! Moving onto my nails of the day, I decided to get in the festive mood and wear a shimmery red polish.  The one I chose is Spirit Child by SpaRitual.  This colour is from their fall 2011 Wilde collection, which if you ask me if full of holiday colours even though it’s not their holiday collection. I am a huge fan of SpaRitual polishes as the colours are great and they are a vegan line so they are good for the environment.  The polishes are also free of DBP, Formaldehyde, and Toluene.  I also love the tops of the bottles, they are rubber so they are easy to twist off.

Now just like red lips, I’m not a fan of red nails.  Red, to me, is a boring, unoriginal colour. Okay, don’t get mad yet.  It’s classy, I’ll give you that, but to me it’s a safe colour. I like bold shades like hot pink, blue, green, etc.  I like to think outside the box and I find that red is a safe fall-back colour.  Now with that being said, this is one of the few reds I really like.  In the bottle there is an orange iridescent to it but once you paint it on it’s a nice candy apple red shade with a hint of shimmer.

Ring: Forever 21

Have you tried SpaRitual’s Spirit Child?  What were your thoughts?  Also, what’s your favourite red nail polish?

Are you a compulsive online shopper?  Are you planning on buying some gifts off the Internet this holiday season?  Want to know how you can make money back?

I occasionally shop online for things that I can’t find here in my hometown or if I can get it at a cheaper price online.  I’m very impatient so if it was between going to the store or ordering it online I would choose buying at a store hands down.  That’s until I found out about Ebates. Basically what Ebates is is a website that is full of affiliate links to different sites but instead of the company keeping the affiliate dollars they credit your account and you get some of your money back.  Sounds too good to be true right?  Well, it isn’t!  I’m not sure how Ebates makes money exactly (probably through advertising and partnerships), but it’s totally legit.  And, no I’m not getting paid by Ebates or anything to say this.  I found out about the site a couple of weeks ago and I already have over $15 coming my way.

So what stores can you find on Ebates?  Oh gosh, they have seriously everything. Anytime I shop online now I’m going to check out the list of stores Ebates offers because if I can get a percentage back from my purchase why wouldn’t I?  It’s basically free money for shopping (well, kind of). The site has everything from Bath and Body Works, Nordstrom, Sephora (eight per cent back!), Wal-Mart, iTunes, Groupon, you name it.  So basically all my favourite stores.  Each store has a different percentage back and they often have higher percentages on some stores depending on the time of year.  In addition to cash back links they also provide coupon codes for some websites as well. To make sure that Ebates credits your account you have to click the link through their website.  So for example, when I clicked on the Sephora link Ebates takes me directly to the website and you just go through there.  You have to make sure that you go through Ebates website first, if I went to Sephora.com directly I would not be credited. Also, if you leave the page and then come back I don’t think you would be credited either.  If you leave, go back through Ebates.  Finally, you also get a $5 bonus for signing up and making your first purchase.

So when do you get your cheque?  They mail them out every three months for the appropriate spending period.  For example, for anything that you accumulate from January 1 to March 31 you would get your cheque near the end of May (they mail them out May 15).

So why am I telling you about this?  Well, a lot of people shop online during the holiday season (well, any season really), so why not get some cash back while you are doing it?  It doesn’t cost anything to sign up so what do you have to lose?

What more information about Ebates?  Check them out online!

Have you used Ebates? If so, what were your thoughts?