Sephora Birthday Gift 2013

Sephora Beauty Insider News:

It has been a stressful few days for me so today since my boyfriend is off, he took me out shopping. When I went to Sephora (I can never not make a Sephora stop), I noticed them putting up a new birthday gift since it is the end of December and Sephora has new gifts for their Beauty Insiders/VIBs every year. This year was FRESH's Sugar Kisses Mini Lip Duo & next year, it will be.....

From Benefit Cosmetics!

The birthday gift in 2013 will include Benefit's mini They're Real Mascara & a mini Watts Up Luminizer/Highlighter. This set is called Real Birthday Turn-Ons, how cute is the packaging & the items itself? If you have a BI/VIB account, your birthday should be on the account and you can redeem the items the month of your birthday.

Personally, I like how Sephora has been included brands carried in their store as gifts in recent years because the years before Philosophy, it has usually been Sephora brand items (mini eye set from 2010, mini lip gloss set from 2009).

What do you think about this? Do you like the Benefit items Sephora chose for next year? Were you able to get the Sugar Lip Duos from this year?

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Sephora Favorites

Every once in a while, Sephora releases "Sephora Favorites". Sometimes, the items catches my eyes, but sometimes it's just "meh" to me. I just spotted some newer items on their website so I decided to share!

This is the In The Glow set. I remember they had another In The Glow set earlier this year & it was more of skincare items? It seems that this time, it's more of bronzer and blushes.
According to Sephora, this set contains:
- 0.13 oz Benefit High Beam
- 0.08 oz Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzing Powder
- 0.17 oz Tarte Natural Cheek Stain in Flush
- 0.07 oz Stila Convertible Color in Peony
- 0.11 oz Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush in Splendor
- 0.106 oz Lorac Perfectly Lit Oil-Free Luminizing Powder in Spotlight
- 0.02 oz bareMinerals All Over Face Color in Pure Radiance
- 0.14 oz Laura Mercier Shimmer Bloc in Golden Mosaic
- 0.08 oz Nars Bronzing Powder in Laguna
This retails for $45.
From this set, I am interested in the Tarte blush in Splendor. It seems that the shade is exclusive to this set since I can not find any information on it. I like how this includes Too Faced's Chocolate Soleil bronzer because that is one of my favorite bronzers.

The next set is Draw The Line:

Draw the Line basically contains eyeliners in them. From the images, it seems like this set includes a full-sized Urban Decay 24/7 Liquid Liner, which retails for $19 itself. This whole set retails for $28
This contains:
- 0.12 oz Smashbox Jet Set Waterproof Eye Liner in Midnight Black
- 0.025 oz MAKE UP FOR EVER Aqua Eyes Waterproof Eyeliner in Mat Black 0L
- 0.007 oz Buxom Insider Eyeliner in Black Jasper
- 0.007 oz Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper
- 0.058 oz Urban Decay 24/7 Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Perversion
- 0.011 oz Sephora Collection Waterproof Retractable Eyeliner in 09 Glitter Black

The last set that caught my eye was the Super Stars Beauty Essentials.

This set is more expensive than the other two I listed. This set retails for $75, but it includes a full-sized NARS Orgasm blush, a full-sized Stila liquid liner, a full-sized Benefit they're real! mascara, AND a full-sized Buxom lipgloss. Those full-sized items included pretty much is the whole set itself with some extras included.
This set contains:
- 0.035 oz Make Up For Ever HD Microfinish Powder
- 0.063 oz Sephora Collection Microsmooth Baked Eyeshadow Trio in Sunset
- 0.16 oz Nars Blush in Orgasm
- 0.33 oz Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer
- 0.50 oz Kate Somerville ExfoliKate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment
- 0.50 oz Josie Maran 100% Pure Argan Oil
- 0.3 oz Benefit They're Real! Mascara
- 0.15 oz Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Polish in Dolly
- 0.016 oz Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner
- 0.20 oz Chloé Rollerball

Overall, I feel like these are a good value. I am definitely eying the In the Glow set because I am a sucker for cheek items, but the liner set seems amazing too! I think these sets are good if you want to try new things because they are a generous size for you to try it out to see if you like it. These will also make great gifts as well since you can just open it and split up the items. What do you think about these?

All images and description from this post were found on Sephora.com

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Benefit High Flyin' Gloss Set

Swatches & Review
Benefit's High Flyin' Lip Gloss set contains all of their Ultra Plush Lip Gloss shades. All of these lip glosses have blush from Benefit's line to match it with. I have always been interested in these glosses, but never got them so since they released a set for the Holiday season, I immediately jumped on it!

The six shades in this set are Dallas, Hoola, Bella Bamba, Coralista, Dandelion, and Sugarbomb.

When I swatched them, they seem like they would be pigmented on the lips. I thought that these would be similar to Buxom's lip glosses (since they are pigmented on the lips), but they sheer out a lot.

From left to right:
Sugarbomb: A light magenta with shimmer.
Dandelion: A light cotton candy pink with shimmer.
Coralista: Coral pink
Bella Bamba: Bright semi-hot pink
Hoola: Nude with shimmer
Dallas: Pink-brown

These small very sweet, it reminds me of cupcakes. I am pretty sensitive to scented lip items, but the scent on these wore off after a while so it was not too bad. Although I thought that they would be pigmented, they all only leave a slight tint to my lips, which were kind of disappointing to me. However, I do like that they are not super sticky. They are a bit sticky, but not incredibly sticky to where my hair gets stuck to my lips very often.

These are 0.22 oz each, when their full-sized ones are .5 oz, which is a little less than half. This is how it looks compared to a Carmex lip balm in a squeeze tube.

I thought these were a good deal especially since I have none of the shades yet, but I wish they were a bit more pigmented because I think if you were to wear these with the blushes from Benefit, the blush would show and the lip gloss itself would not even match up to the shade of the blush. If you are into lip glosses and do not mind if they look like a lightly tinted shade, this would be perfect for you. I think that these would make great stocking stuffers since they are small. This set retails for $26 and it is currently sold on Sephora.com and benefitcosmetics.com

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Sephora Haul

I have been waiting for this ALL week. Although Sephora claims their shipping is now "3 days", it still takes forever for them to process it & ship it! I guess it's better now though since I got it within 8 days. Before they change it to 3-day shipping as standard, it used to take me TWO weeks to get my Sephora items. Anyway, here are the items I purchased. (Which I'm kind of mad at myself for not waiting a few days later to make a purchase).

I purchased:
Benefit High Flyin' Glosses: $26
Tarte Fantastic Foursome Blush set: $35
Tarte 5-Piece LipSurgence™ Collector's Set: $34.

The Benefit set contains all 6 of their Ultra Plush Lip Gloss. They originally retail for $16 and you get 0.5oz of product each tube. These are mini-sized, which is 0.22oz and you get 6 of them for $26. They are a little less than half the size, but I think it is a good deal. It makes great stocking stuffers as well.

Tarte's Fantastic Foursome contains four blushes (although one is more like a highlighter). The blushes in this set are half the size of the original ones, so each of these are 0.10oz. They normally retail for $25, which is 0.20oz for a full-sized one, so this comes out to a $50 value for $35 (but they said it's worth $60 on the box). I think it is a good deal because I get to try many shades and I would probably never finish them anyway, so I don't mind it being small.

Tarte's 5-Piece LipSurgence™ Collector's Set is $34. Last year, they released a same set with different shades for $29, but even though they raised it by $5, you're still getting FIVE FULL-SIZED LipSurgence for $34. They retail for $24 itself so THIS is the best deal for Holiday sets so far (in my opinion).

What do you guys think about this Holiday sets? I personally LOVE the Holidays because companies come out with amazing sets with an incredible value!

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