FTB Beauty Pop-Up Shop Haul!

Hello, everyone, and happy Canada Day! I regret that today's post isn't particularly patriotic, but it's a fun one nonetheless! Two weekends ago Jenn from A Beautiful Zen invited me to a pop-up shop in downtown Toronto. I didn't know any other details about it, but Sunday afternoon shopping? Count me in! When we arrived at the shop, my head almost exploded I was so happy to see that it was being held by FTB Beauty, a Canadian retailer that stocks an amazing selection of affordable and hard to find beauty bits (check out their website, here). 

I had been on a month-long makeup buying ban (cheers to small successes), but had to crumble and bring a few goodies home. With the brands that were featured, there was no way I could resist! Here's what I picked up:

The items I purchased were the Coastal Scents 10 Blush Palette, Barry M. Gelly Nail Paints in Blueberry and Green Berry, and the Sigma F82 Round Kabuki brush. They all look so lovely together, don't they?! :)

Coastal Scents is a brand I'd heard tell of for years, primarily raves for their eye shadow palettes that contain a bajillion, uber-pigmented colours for next to nothing price-wise. Those palettes had slightly piqued my interest, but when I saw their 10 Blush Palette at the pop-up, I was instantly smitten! Although I am by no means lacking in blushes, this palette spoke to me because it appeared to include every possible shade of blush that I could ever want. Nudes, corals, roses, candy pinks, mattes, shimmers, satins, warm tones, cool tones- literally everything! I could see myself wearing each and every shade in the palette, and at only $16.99 CAD, this felt like the steal of the century! I'll be posting a more thorough review of this down the line, but let me tell you- these blushes are incredible. Ultra pigmented, yet blendable, and they wear all day long. Not too shabby given that each costs less than $2!

As excited as I was for the amazing variety of brands at the pop up, it was the small cluster of Barry M. polishes that made me do a major double-take. I've heard nothing but raves for Barry M. in the blogosphere and their Gelly Nail Paints were holding rank as my #1 most-coveted UK beauty item. I had no idea they were available in Canada, so when I spotted them my beauty radar sounded big time! I think I've actually had dreams about spotting Barry M. on Canadian shelves, so it felt almost surreal to see them in person (get me to rehab, now!). FTB offered the full range of Gelly shades, and I opted for Blueberry (a punched up pastel sky blue) and Green Berry (a cheery minty seafoam). I love them both!

Just last week I raved about my first-ever Sigma brushes, so I was happy to see that FTB stocked the full range of this brand. There are no real gaps in my brush collection (surprise, surprise), but there was something about the Kabuki foundation brushes that caught my eye. I joked with the owner of FTB that it was my ultimate goal to have a foundation brush for every day of the month so that I'd only have to wash them every 30 days. I was half-joking ;) The brush I decided to take home was the F82 Round Kabuki, as it was incredibly soft and dense. Just what I look for in a foundation brush! 

Although it broke my makeup no-buy, I'm so glad that Jenn brought me along to the FTB pop-up. I got to interact with brands I'd never seen in-person and I'm absolutely loving everything that I picked up! I can definitely see myself stopping by FTB in the future whenever I want to indulge my inner beauty geek without spending a bundle :)

Have you tried anything from Coastal Scents, Barry M., or Sigma? What are your favourite online beauty shops?

Thanks for reading! :)