This Kat Von D Metal Crush post is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Raise. All opinions are 100% mine.

Save Money on Makeup with Raise! Kat Von D Metal Crush and Besame Snow White Lipstick

So you guys know I’ve been blogging about beauty products for eight years now and I get a lot of free samples to review. It’s a huge perk of my job, and although it gets overwhelming at times, I still get excited every time I get a new package in the mail! That being said, even though I have way too many THINGS (which I often donate to charity or give away freely to friends and family), I still love to buy my own beauty products. I’ll be honest – I’m ten times more excited to use a product that I bought myself than one that comes to me from a PR company. Logically, this makes no sense, but psychologically it makes complete sense! I started this blog because I was obsessed with beauty products, and that hasn’t changed.

I still get a thrill from buying something new, and it’s often more fun to pick out what I really WANT rather than the latest and greatest that is being pitched to the blogger community. I’m far from rich (and currently saving up for my wedding), so I do have to watch what I spend. That’s why I was so excited to learn about  Raise. It’s a site where you can buy and sell gift cards. So, that means, if you get a gift card that you don’t want this holiday season, you can sell it for cash! I pride myself at being good at finding something I can use in pretty much any store. Seriously – if you give me a gift card to a hunting and fishing store (ew), I will find a t-shirt or flashlight or something useful to me! So I probably won’t have any gift cards to sell anytime soon, but I can use Raise to buy gift cards, which saves me some sweet, sweet cash.

The first time I tried Raise, I bought a $50 Sephora gift card for $47.34. I had a first time user discount, so I saved even more on top of that. There was no shipping cost – Raise just sent me the gift card code and pin. I didn’t have to deal with a seller directly – everything was automated. Some gift cards need to be mailed though. If that’s the case, the seller will send it directly to you.

I snagged my gift card number, and went shopping at Sephora! I bought the Kat Von D Metal Crush Extreme Highlighter palette ($36) and the Besame Cosmetics Snow White Red lipstick. The Kat Von D highlighter comes with three shades: Roseshock (pink/lavender), Helix (opal/gold/silver) and Gammaray (peach/pink/gold). They are SUPER shimmery and the colors looked like fun ones that I hadn’t tried before. I was especially attracted to Gammaray, a peachy pink with gold shimmer. I never get tired of peachy tones – they work so well with my complexion. When I got the palette, I was so into the packaging – holographic-mermaid-unicorn fantasies come true. But, I was more than disappointed by the product itself. The pigmentation and shimmer were disco-ball-level intense, but I felt that the glitter particles were too large, which means that if you have large pores, rough skin texture, or any skin imperfections (which I do!), they will be magnified. I will use these as shimmery eyeshadow toppers, but I can’t use them as face highlighters as I was hoping to do.

Every now and then someone will tell me I look like Show White (especially when I wear red lipstick) and it makes my day. Actually my friend Kedra from Opus Oils said that to me the other day! Snow White is my favorite Disney character, and she’s friends with the animals, like me. So when I saw that Besame Cosmetics (an uber-cool vintage-inspired indie brand) had a limited edition Snow White Classic Color Lipstick collection to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I was all over it. There are three colors in the line, but I had to get the red. Besame makes a lot of different shades of red based on the colors of each time period (they do their research!). They call this one a “subdued neutral red in the cool spectrum”. It’s a true red – and I see what they mean about being neutral – it’s not too orange or too blue. The colors are matched to the original 1937 movie (with help from Disney’s Ink and Paint Department). The one thing I don’t love about Besame lipsticks is the square shape. I have the hardest time applying them without a lip brush. For this swatch photo, I applied it straight from the tube, without lip liner. You can see that it feathered at the edges, which means I would need to use a brush for more careful application and/or a lip liner every time I apply. It’s a really gorgeous red, so I am willing to take a little more time to put it on.

I was also pretty excited that my Sephora purchase put me into VIB Rouge status – this is the first time I’ve ever been Rouge! Now I gotta go get me that free makeover. Hmmm – when’s my next beauty event?

If you want to save some money on your next Sephora purchase (or pretty much any store that has gift cards!), try Raise. You can download the app, or go online to check out the gift cards that are available (or sell your own). New users can get $10 off orders of $50+ with code SHINE10. Happy shopping!