Call of Duty-Free: Renee’s Mini Airport Haul at YVR

I just came back from my annual snowboarding trip in Whistler. Beside the bazillion foot elevation and vertical drop, and jaw-dropping, audible-gasping sights of this mountain, this & the surrounding Vancouver area has among my (Renee’s) FAVORITE duty free shopping because it’s a huge port for Cathay Pacific routes to Asia. Behold:

Duty-Free Mini Haul at YVR Terminal and Cathay Pacific inflight catalogue

Instead of focusing on my flat-lay seat, amenity kit, complimentary organic cotton pajamas, Jack Daniel Blue label, extremely expensive wine, and three-course meal, all I can think of is that beautiful shrink-wrapped duty-free catalog.

Flight attendant: “would you like anything before we take off Miss?”

Me: “BRING ME THE DUTY FREE STUPHS NEEEOW”

This time, the catalog featured the Paul & Joe Cheek Color. Yes the famous one with the CATS. Instead of having to buy the damn Christmas Advent Calendar, it’s sold here separately for $47USD

And do you see that??? If you get the cat print blush/lippie set for $85USD, you get a furrreee cat print pouch, exclusively to this duty-free Cathay Pacific flight. Due to me refraining so harrd from purrchasing $85 of cat blush & lippie that don’t match my skin tone, I think I got a nosebleed.

But this beauty defies resistance and self-control:

Ok, I admit the cat print on the outside isn’t that cute. I do like the yellow polka dots, but the frowning feline of Balinese descent could be sooooo much MOAR kawaii, non?

The container is paper and features a very thick faux-fur puffer thing with a yellow bow. It’s extremely thick…such that it probably fills up the container more than actual blush pellets and kitteh blush shapes. Of course.

Here it is again without the puff. You can see how shallow the fill of blush is. The paper kept the blush pellets handily pressed. Key for being tossed around during my commute back to JFK from Vancouver.

The STARS of the show are of course these 3 cat shaped blush sticks. If it weren’t for them, of course I wouldn’t have bought a $47USD blush that I absolutely don’t need. But OH…the joy. The perfectly laser cut silhouette!

The color is very beautiful in the container. However it’s just kinda iridescent peachy pink. Here I’ve packed quite a ton to achieve a noticeable swatch. On my medium skin tone, it’s barely discernible. Good for a very subtle wash over the cheeks. Forget using it at night or for more impactful flushed looks.

Next up are these gorgeous twin beauties. I currently already have 1.5 containers of meteorites in Dore color. But HOW could I resist these handy little travel containers? I ALREADY sat on my hands to not buy the Meteorite duty free set with the travel meteorites brush and clutch. Siiiigh.

Literally just spent $80 on chalk.

This pic makes the brush bristle look broken but it’s not. I fluffed it back into shape easily.

I like that there’s a diagram teaching you how to use the brush WITH the powder.

Here’s the swatch below. It’s basically just a silky pale powder. It’s a little too pale for my skin, but again, like the blush above, I put a TON on to have it show in the photo.

….And now…my PICK from the Duty Free Lounge in YVR Vancouver Airport: the Sulwhasoo Overnight Vitalizing Mask EX Duo Travel Exclusive. Why? It’s $99CAD. Thanks to currency fluctuations, at the time of purrrrrchase, it was $1.27CAD to $1USD. This equates to this Duo being $75USD.

Which means each tube was only $37.50. Understanding arbitrage was the only thing that inspired me to do finance.

For the curious minions, below is the lengthy ingredient list. At $37.50, I don’t give a shit. I would buy all the Sulwhasoo regardless of ingredients. But I didn’t, cuz I blew all my money on snow sports earlier that week, and not even the nose kind, kakaka.

Of course any one who is familiar doesn’t need this picture, but here’s one of the tubes of Sulwhasoo. And yasssss, it’s an AMAZING night mask. Reviews of it to follow at a time when Angela and I are less lazy.

Oh, right, and of course we had some fun in the snow without beauty shopping, but my duty-free haul completed the trip. Below is a pic of me and 42% of the snow brethren.