While I’ve been perfecting my makeup skills for ten years now, I’ve never had a proper beauty haul. Everything in my collection came from drugstores, sales, and presents, but I rarely, if ever, bought any name brand products for myself. However, with several gift cards and some spare cash in hand, I decided that it was time to have a proper beauty haul and spoil myself a little. I threw out a lot of my old, cheap products and replaced them with nicer, slightly-more-expensive ones. Thanks to the wonder of Sephora, Ulta, Target, and the holidays, I’ve walked away with some nice stuff and feel better prepared to join the beauty community online.

I found a three pack of E.L.F. Beauty Blenders for half off at Target, and I love to use these when I bake my face or contour. The Clinique package came with a scrub brush, a travel case, some cleanser, toner, and moisturizer. I’ve been using it like crazy and I love how clean it makes my skin feel! I did have to trade out the cleanser that it came with because it wasn’t reacting too well with my skin, but my personal cleanser does the job perfectly.

I’ve never had nice brushes—like ever. I’ve always gone with generic, store brand, cheapie brushes that do the job well enough, but not spectacularly. My old ones were also ancient—almost grossly so—and I was determined that it was time for an upgrade. If I didn’t get anything else in my haul, I knew that I had to have new brushes. I decided to get a whole bunch and just throw out all of my old ones and the IT brushes are so, so soft, the Real Techniques sculpting set will work great for contouring, and the Real Techniques Bold Metals brush is beautiful and fits great in my hand. I can’t wait to do up my full face and be gorgeous.

There were several products that I didn’t need to replace, but I wanted to upgrade and see what the beauty community was talking about. I finally got my hands on my birthday freebie from Ulta, a beautiful shade of blue Urban Decay eyeshadow. I did need to replace my eyelash curler, and I finally got a cool-looking one instead of the boring, standard silver. I was contemplating getting the Stila eyeliner since I’ve heard so much about it, but I do have a weakness for Kat Von D products so I chose that one instead. It’s so precise and small and it’ll take some getting used to, but I love it. The Better Than Sex mascara is quite amazing, but I’m not entirely sure it’s worth the price and I’ll probably switch back to drugstore after it’s gone. Finally, I got my hands on a sample size of the Smashbox primer for those days that I bake my face and so I can stay fabulous.

I finally got my hands on some BareMinerals foundation after years of lusting after it. Although I do have liquid foundation that I use primarily, I wanted to have this as a back-up and as a way to even out my complexion on those heavy make-up days. I also got the BareMinerals finishing powder because I’ve been using the same setting powder since high school and that is so gross. I also upgraded my contour kit from Wet n Wild to Anastasia Beverly Hills; I’ve yet to use it but Valentine’s Day is calling my beauty haul’s name.

Through my various shopping sprees and beauty collection growth in 2016, I’ve managed to snag myself a Sephora V.I.B. membership and can’t believe the amazing benefits that come with one. Although I don’t quite have the funds to take full advantage of these deals, I’m glad that eventually I’ll be able to get whatever products I need (and spread some of the benefits to my friends and family). While I’m definitely more focused on my book and DVD collections than my makeup one, I’m happy to know that I have some quality products in my stash.