Benefit's Countdown to Love Advent Calendar 2013

So I am a big lover of advent calendars. I always got the candy ones as a kid growing up. So when I heard that Benefit was doing an advent calendar I knew that I was just going to have to get it. Lucky for us it has gone on sale on the Sephora website so we can order it now.

The calendar is just like any advent calendar and it has little pop up doors that reveal a sweet surprise. You get lots of great travel sized products from the Benefit line and a Bracelet, Necklace and Barrette.

I know I will be getting it for myself, especially being Rouge with the free shipping.

Here are the contents of the calendar.

This set contains:

- 0.25 oz "That Gal"

- 0.25 oz The POREfessional

- 0.08 oz High Beam

- 0.08 oz Sun Beam

- 0.08 oz Benetint

- 0.08 oz Chachatint

- 0.08 oz Posietint

- 0.22 oz Ultra Plush in Coralista

- 2 x 0.22 oz Ultra Plush in Sugarbomb, Dandelion

- 0.1 oz Hoola

- 0.1 oz Dandelion

- 0.1 oz Coralista

- 0.22 oz Ultra Lip Gloss in A-Lister

- 0.14 oz BADgal Lash

- 0.08 oz Stay Don't Stray in Light/Medium

- 0.02 oz BADgal Liner Waterproof in Black

- 0.1 oz It's Potent Eye Cream

- 0.3 oz Total Moisture Facial Cream

- 0.08 oz Ooh La Lift

- 0.25 oz Girl Meets Pearl

- Bracelet

- Necklace

- Barrette

Check it out now on Sephora.com

Birthday Freebies

So it's your birthday month and this means everyone wants to celebrate you. I know I do. :D

I spend a lot of time looking this up because I love deals and free stuff. I admit it I am a free stuff junkie. I am going to do mostly Makeup based deals. I can do one for food as well if I get comments asking for one.

There is tons of discounts for you on your birthday month. If you sign up for the email clubs of

Crabtree and Evelyn - free shipping and 15% off (works in store as well)

Lancome - free shipping and a gift with a $50 purchase (nice little gift set)

Ulta - double points during your birthday month

Smasbox - free shipping and a free birthday gift with purchase

Ojon - free shipping and birthday gift with purchase

Bobbie Brown - free shipping and birthday gift with purchase

These send you an email with a discount in them for free gifts with purchase, or double points or a percentage off.

There are stores that have birthday gifts in store for you.

Sephora - free birthday gift no purchase required.

Bare Minerals - boutique stores only has a birthday gift, not sure if purchase is required this year, last year it was not.

Benefit - free brow wax.. never done it.. always think about it.

Aveda - sends a postcard for a free item at the store that they personalize for you. There aren't many boutique stores so check if there is one in your area and go in and sign up. The item is worth $25. I got the Massage Oil this year and it smells like Cinnamon.

Victoria's Secret - sends out a $10 giftcard. Sign up with Pink Nation. I used mine to purchase one of the new dresses and the $5 undies. I had some extra giftcards to go with it.

Godiva - not makeup but chocolate - if you fill out your profile for there store card on your birthday they send out a $10 giftcard. I got a huge bag of candy for $2 today. I will be enjoying it for a while.

So there is a lot out there.. and I am probably missing a ton. I will try to update this whenever I see more. I will pin this if I can for you guys.

The nail polish was a 100 point perk at Sephora it's called Happy Birthday so I thought it was appropriate. :)

Jedi Elvis Benefit Concert

This last weekend. I had the greatest of pleasures of attending a benefit for the victims of Oklahoma Tornados, put on Jedi Elvis and the Red Cross at the Covina Performing Arts Center. I am friends with Jedi Elvis, funny story, he and I performed together on that very stage 13 years before in the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat.

I wore my Slave Leia star wars dress, so glad to have a chance to wear it out for a day. I have so many geeky outfits that I hae been aquiring. I am doing a lot of Charity things, and more as I come across organizations I want to work with.

This wonderful event for me not only was a great chance at helping others, but I made quite a few friends at the event and I am thankful for the chance to find more people in the communities that I love that are friendly, helpful and full of the desire to help each other. You might even see pictures of them at other events since we are making more plans to spend time together.

The event had 3 acts. Al'coustic, a Weird Al performer, he was quite good and very funny. He was enjoyable to watch. I like listening to Weird Al songs so it was a fun time for all. You can find him here.

The next band was Apartment 14. They were a cute group. I liked the song they wrote about Vampires and Werewolves. Here is there facebook page. Please look them up. They are worth listening to.

Raffle tickets were sold and there was a Silent Auction. I donated a giftbag of makeup worth about $150 to the silent auction. I bought 20 raffle tickets, and gave them out to people when the numbers got called, I didn't really need raffle prizes, I took some things home to my roommates and boyfriend and got a WonderWoman comic for research reasons, since a few know she is one of the costumes that I am in the process of working on.

There were lots of fun, in chance raffles. Lots of fun items were given out. Heroes season 1, a Squirel Deadpool, Thor's Hammer (which is living in my room at this time) and so much more. Even a signed copy of a Huey Lewis CD.

Great times were had by all and Jedi Elvis was the main act, who brought down the stage. He is such a wonderful entertainer and a great man. The life in the theatre was so amped up and enjoyable. Jedi Elvis parodies Elvis songs and makes them Star Wars related. I loved the choices he made.

Check out Jedi Elvis on these platforms and go to youtube and listen to these 3 performing groups. They were all delightful. I am so happy to have been a part of the benefit.

Alcoustic - Alcoustic's facebook fan page

Apartment 14 Apartment 14 facebook page

Jedi Elvis Jedi Elvis Facebook

Benefit Cosmetics GWP

Today while I was out I saw that Macy's was having an event free make overs and lots of free gifts with purchase. I sent my mother over to get her makeup done. I walked around and looked at all the different things that were for sale. Most of the gifts weren't anything I really wanted.

I saw the bag that they were offering at Benefit and I really wanted it. I love the design on the bag and I love makeup bags. ( I am actually in the market for the Snow White and the Huntsman bag, because I adore it. I have a Cinderella bag and about a million other ones.)

The gift with purchase was gotten if you bought 3 items. So I bought 3 of the mini kits, mostly because I love mini bottles and it was the best way for me to try out a lot of different products for a lot less money. This way I have quite a few products to try out for you rather then one product. I like the odds better. I am really bad about trying to get the most out of my purchases. So you will always see lots of stuff from my posts and my cash.

I bought 3 of the mini sets. One was even discounted to $9. The sets I got were:

Tan About Town

The total moisture kit

and the poreless deluxe kit which I don't have a picture of because I gave it to my mother.

the GWP I got from this was gorgeous and some deluxe sample sizes