A little less than a week ago, I read this post at Lacquered, Painted, Polished about the author's epic Physicians Formula haul from CVS. She had found a comment on another blog about a printable Physicians Formula coupon good for $5 off any item ... no limits. As in, you could print 100 of them and as long as you had one item to go with each coupon (can't use 2 coupons to 1 item on this), then ... you were solid*. Since CVS currently has this brand at 40% off, she saved almost $90 on her haul - and spent less than $20.
Do I have your full attention now? Good! As soon as I saw that, I rushed to print out a coupon. And then another. And then I kept thinking and printing and thinking and printing. See, I've been lemming the Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing gel liners for a while now, and they come in a lot of different colors now (8 to be precise), and I wanted a mascara since my current one is over a year old (way past the expiration) and I wanted to try their liquid foundation since I haven't been able to find a decent one lately and I wanted to get some for my mom too and ... and ...
So I printed my stack of coupons, tucked 'em in my purse and made a mental note to go to CVS this week. And after a couple of days, I noticed something. First one other blogger posted about the coupon ... then another ... then another ... soon it seemed that the entire internet was in on the deal. Suddenly I was afraid I'd find my CVS's shelves cleared out (it has happened before)!
Well, I finally went tonight, and here's what I got.
I got 2 of the Hazel eyes trio intending to gift one, and there's actually another gel liner package missing from this pic, since I gave it to my mom before I took the photos (oops). So I got 7 PF items for $11.13, saving about $68 in the process. Can you say SCORE!
The gel liner stackers are about the cutest thing I've ever seen. They click together like Legos - and you will be tempted to make a giant tower o' liner if you're anything like me - but the little pots are small enough to be very travel-friendly when separated.
As for the colors, I'm pretty impressed! I do think the "Glam" ones are not as opaque as the original line, but they are still beautiful. See for yourself:
Hazel Eyes trio: brown, purple, and black are not the most original colors in the world, until you look closer. Click the images to enlarge them - see that purple sparkle in the black liner?! STUNNING. The purple liner is a more warm, red-toned purple, to set off greenish tones I assume, and the brown leans a bit greenish. These were the most opaque, and when I went to wash them off, they did not budge. Soap and water did nothing to those lines. I kid you not. I even took a picture, but got it confused with the original swatch pic because they were identical. It took actual makeup remover to clean that off (no scrubbing, though).
Also, the black liner reminds me of a Stila smudge pot from the Barbie Loves Stila collection - Little Black Dress is still available on eBay and Amazon, but I'm glad I never bought it, because this PF liner is exactly what I wanted LBD smudge pot to look like :)
"Glam" Brown [my eye color] trio: gold, copper, and black with coppery-gold glitter. Which, as you can see in the closeup of the pot, looks stunning but does not translate too well on my skin. I had to go over it more than once to make it fully black (that's why it looks so messy) and I still didn't see the glitter in it. The gold and copper are a bit sheer too, but I am okay with that because to me, this trio is a "neutral" set, great for any occasion.
"Glam" Green trio: silvery lilac, icy sage green, and black with silver glitter. You can see the glitter easily in all three colors, but the lilac and green are a bit sheer. Again, they are still beautiful, certainly pretty enough to justify the less than $2 this trio cost me.
The blush (in shade Rose) was less pleasing to me. I love the cute design, I think the packaging is very clever with the brush and mirror under the blush pan, but when I swatched it, all I saw was glitter. I couldn't see any actual color until I opened the swatch pic in Photoshop. Plus, the supposedly mood-enhancing scent was very faint and, y'know, a bit gimmicky. Basically I bought this for the appearance and will be returning it for lack of performance. Other bloggers seem to love this stuff, though, so go figure!
I briefly tried the mascara and found the big fat wand to be curious, but not too awkward. Once applied it looks a lot like my current CoverGirl Lash Blast mascara, so I'll keep it. Since I use Urban Decay's Lash Primer Potion under my mascara when I really want my lashes to look great, the actual mascara itself hardly matters, unless it is very smudgy or makes my eyes burn!
An online friend told me that after I shared this information with her, she told her relative who is struggling financially like so many of us, and who has two tween daughters. She was able to buy about $100 worth of makeup for them for around $20 and all three of them were so happy. When my friend told me about this I felt so glad to have found out about the deal and shared it with my friends. THIS is what coupons are meant to do, help the non-wealthy feel like royalty for a change :)
So in summation: Go to coupon link; print coupons; go to CVS; haul epically. Enjoy :)
*Brief note on the "ethics" of what we must now refer to as EXTREME COUPONING thanks to TLC: It is considered bad manners to abuse the system, many coupon producers track where their coupons are being printed and then refuse to honor the coupon to the retailer if they believe the shopper was "cheating" by printing more than allowed, copying them, etc. In this case, the coupon clearly states the limitations as being one coupon per item, and expiring June 15, 2011. There are no other restrictions to use this coupon. There is no stated limit per person or household. In my opinion, that means you are not doing anything wrong by using more than one of these, since you are specifically not prohibited from doing so. Others may disagree. I know the manager at my CVS seemed harried and disgruntled when he saw my transaction, and he double-checked the coupon details and how many I'd used, but since it was obviously nothing "wrong" he didn't say anything. For more information on coupon ethics, see this post on Nouveau Cheap.
Do I have your full attention now? Good! As soon as I saw that, I rushed to print out a coupon. And then another. And then I kept thinking and printing and thinking and printing. See, I've been lemming the Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing gel liners for a while now, and they come in a lot of different colors now (8 to be precise), and I wanted a mascara since my current one is over a year old (way past the expiration) and I wanted to try their liquid foundation since I haven't been able to find a decent one lately and I wanted to get some for my mom too and ... and ...
So I printed my stack of coupons, tucked 'em in my purse and made a mental note to go to CVS this week. And after a couple of days, I noticed something. First one other blogger posted about the coupon ... then another ... then another ... soon it seemed that the entire internet was in on the deal. Suddenly I was afraid I'd find my CVS's shelves cleared out (it has happened before)!
Well, I finally went tonight, and here's what I got.
I got 2 of the Hazel eyes trio intending to gift one, and there's actually another gel liner package missing from this pic, since I gave it to my mom before I took the photos (oops). So I got 7 PF items for $11.13, saving about $68 in the process. Can you say SCORE!
The gel liner stackers are about the cutest thing I've ever seen. They click together like Legos - and you will be tempted to make a giant tower o' liner if you're anything like me - but the little pots are small enough to be very travel-friendly when separated.
As for the colors, I'm pretty impressed! I do think the "Glam" ones are not as opaque as the original line, but they are still beautiful. See for yourself:
Hazel Eyes trio: brown, purple, and black are not the most original colors in the world, until you look closer. Click the images to enlarge them - see that purple sparkle in the black liner?! STUNNING. The purple liner is a more warm, red-toned purple, to set off greenish tones I assume, and the brown leans a bit greenish. These were the most opaque, and when I went to wash them off, they did not budge. Soap and water did nothing to those lines. I kid you not. I even took a picture, but got it confused with the original swatch pic because they were identical. It took actual makeup remover to clean that off (no scrubbing, though).
Also, the black liner reminds me of a Stila smudge pot from the Barbie Loves Stila collection - Little Black Dress is still available on eBay and Amazon, but I'm glad I never bought it, because this PF liner is exactly what I wanted LBD smudge pot to look like :)
"Glam" Brown [my eye color] trio: gold, copper, and black with coppery-gold glitter. Which, as you can see in the closeup of the pot, looks stunning but does not translate too well on my skin. I had to go over it more than once to make it fully black (that's why it looks so messy) and I still didn't see the glitter in it. The gold and copper are a bit sheer too, but I am okay with that because to me, this trio is a "neutral" set, great for any occasion.
"Glam" Green trio: silvery lilac, icy sage green, and black with silver glitter. You can see the glitter easily in all three colors, but the lilac and green are a bit sheer. Again, they are still beautiful, certainly pretty enough to justify the less than $2 this trio cost me.
The blush (in shade Rose) was less pleasing to me. I love the cute design, I think the packaging is very clever with the brush and mirror under the blush pan, but when I swatched it, all I saw was glitter. I couldn't see any actual color until I opened the swatch pic in Photoshop. Plus, the supposedly mood-enhancing scent was very faint and, y'know, a bit gimmicky. Basically I bought this for the appearance and will be returning it for lack of performance. Other bloggers seem to love this stuff, though, so go figure!
I briefly tried the mascara and found the big fat wand to be curious, but not too awkward. Once applied it looks a lot like my current CoverGirl Lash Blast mascara, so I'll keep it. Since I use Urban Decay's Lash Primer Potion under my mascara when I really want my lashes to look great, the actual mascara itself hardly matters, unless it is very smudgy or makes my eyes burn!
An online friend told me that after I shared this information with her, she told her relative who is struggling financially like so many of us, and who has two tween daughters. She was able to buy about $100 worth of makeup for them for around $20 and all three of them were so happy. When my friend told me about this I felt so glad to have found out about the deal and shared it with my friends. THIS is what coupons are meant to do, help the non-wealthy feel like royalty for a change :)
So in summation: Go to coupon link; print coupons; go to CVS; haul epically. Enjoy :)
*Brief note on the "ethics" of what we must now refer to as EXTREME COUPONING thanks to TLC: It is considered bad manners to abuse the system, many coupon producers track where their coupons are being printed and then refuse to honor the coupon to the retailer if they believe the shopper was "cheating" by printing more than allowed, copying them, etc. In this case, the coupon clearly states the limitations as being one coupon per item, and expiring June 15, 2011. There are no other restrictions to use this coupon. There is no stated limit per person or household. In my opinion, that means you are not doing anything wrong by using more than one of these, since you are specifically not prohibited from doing so. Others may disagree. I know the manager at my CVS seemed harried and disgruntled when he saw my transaction, and he double-checked the coupon details and how many I'd used, but since it was obviously nothing "wrong" he didn't say anything. For more information on coupon ethics, see this post on Nouveau Cheap.
