That
crazy time of year has arrived. Even though holidays are weeks away, beauty
industry is filled with holiday goodies from all the different companies. With
limited edition sets and palettes of different types it’s easy to get
overwhelmed. It’s especially difficult to control the spending if you are
overenthusiastic about makeup, like me :-)
Today I am sharing my thoughts on some of the holiday products and for a change
I am encouraging my frugal and logical engineering brain to take over my splurge
beauty addict heart! Much awaited Sephora VIB sale starts tomorrow (Coupon
ROUGE20 for VIB Rouges) and I am hoping this helps you out in picking out
products where your money is well spent :-)
The
main factor I am considering in reviewing these products are
- How much do I need it!? Do I have same products in full size? Do I have extremely similar items?
- Price. If it is not cost effective or not a much of savings then why bother?
- Quality. Research a bit. Does that brand puts good quality holiday products? Often these holiday sets quality are not at par.
- Will the item be a good gift? If yes, try to plan whom to give what! First plan and then buy, not the other way around.
- Reminder to self: Don’t buy 100 items in cute adorable holiday package. You don’t need all of them :-)
I
have to share here that I did not buy everything in this list. The top three
products from this list are Bite
Beauty Best Bite Rewind, theBalm “In
theBalm of Your Hand" Face Palette, Sephora
Favorites Superstars" 2015 . But I have done extensive research,
read reviews and watched trustworthy YouTubers and extrapolated my expectation
from my experience with previous palettes.
Lip Sets: Let’s
tackle my most favorite item first! Here are some of the lip value set
available this year.
Bite
Beauty Best Bite Rewind (Sephora, 4 deluxe size matte lip
crayons, $25):
Even though I am not fond of their slowly and constantly increasing price, I am
a die-hard fan of Bite’s lip formulas. I have loved each and every item I have
tried from them. I have last year’s set and I get a lot of use from it. This
year the colors are much more universal, versatile and are flattering on a
wider range of skin tones. These are super comfortable on the lips, very long
lasting, matte but have a satin-y finish that I totally enjoy. Also these are
easy to layer as well. I highly recommend this set. Read
more on my review and swatches here.
Sephora
Favorites Give Me More Lip
(Sephora, 15 lip products-4 full-size, $59): One of the bigger multi branded set and
definitely worth the money. Huge array of shades and finishes! If you are just
starting out or are looking to expand your collection, then this is definitely
something I would recommend. But I already have too many lipsticks that I can use
up. Also, I know for sure that at least 4 of these colors will not look very
flattering on me. And, even though I like dark lips I don’t wear them often. I
am not a big fan of glosses either. Keeping all these in mind, I figured that
this is not 100% useable to me. This realization has helped me in restraining
myself from buying this set.
Bite
Beauty Discovery Set
(Sephora, 8 lip products-3 full-size, $55): Very nice assembly of best-selling
products from Bite Beauty. If you have been curious about the brand and haven’t
tried anything, do have a look into this set. The two lighter shades looked
quite similar and might not be flattering if you are not on the lighter range
of skin tones. I also have heard many people being allergic to the agave mask.
If, like me, you already have a lot of Bite products, I would say skip this.
But the set is definitely one of the better sets out there.
Kat
Von D Mi Vida Loca Remix Studded Kiss Lip Set (Sephora, 8 studded kiss
lipsticks-1 full-size, $42): I haven’t personally tried Kat Von D
lipsticks yet, but this is a good value set. If you are adventurous with your
lip shades and love experimenting with bold and uncommon shades, this
definitely will intrigue you. Personally I see myself using only 2-3 shades
from this set; so this is not for me.
TOO
FACED French Kisses Melted
(Ulta, 4 deluxe
melted liquid lipstick, $25): I have only one melted lipstick so far
and I love it. This set has 2 metallic shades and I am a little uncomfortable
with the idea of them. Also the colors are not as wide ranged as the Best Bite
Rewind Set. So it did not make it to my list.
Stila Eternal Love Liquid Lipstick (Ulta, 3 deluxe liquid lipsticks, $20) and Eternally Yours Liquid Lipstick Set (Stila, 6 deluxe sized liquid lipsticks, $39): These are some very interesting sets. They did a good job with the shade range. These lipsticks are incredibly long lasting. But for my lips the formula is not the best. I bought two from their summer collection; I did not enjoy the formula in “Venezia”. Hence I am passing up on this. But they are quite cost effectively priced, if you are eyeing Stila liquid lipsticks for a while now definitely have a look. The “Eternally Yours” set comes with Aria and Patina- two of their best-selling shades.
Marc
Jacobs Beauty The Sofia
(Sephora, 5 deluxe Le marc Lipsticks, $45): Another set that I will highly
recommend. I have two of the Le Marc Lipsticks. Absolutely impressive product.
Glides like butter on the lips, provides single swipe creamy opaque application
and has incredible wear time! The range of shades here is amazing. You get your
everyday shades, a few playful one and one vampy shade perfect for fall and
winter!
Eyeshadow Palettes: I am a big fan of eyeshadow
palettes. My reasoning seems to be weak with all these mind boggling palettes. Let’s
discuss the ones that I find irresistible; shall we?
Marc
Jacobs Beauty Style Eye-Con No. 20
(Sephora, 20 Eyeshadow, $99): Its 99 dollars guys, 99 USD!! But then again their 7 pan eyeshadow palette
is $59. So value wise this is an incredible deal! I have their “The Siren”
palette and I am quite impressed with the shades. They are all shimmers from
them and they are pigmented, very smooth, the palette in very well built as
well. I also love the sophisticated range of the shades. This particular
palette has different finishes but it has many similar lighter tone shades. I
don’t find a whole lot of usage for these lighter shades on my skin tone! Even
though I am sure that the quality is excellent I am going to pass up on it.
MAKE
UP FOR EVER 15 Artist Shadow Palette (Sephora, 15 deluxe sized eyeshadows, $59):
When I first saw this palette, I was sure that I WILL pick it up. I am an
ardent fan of blue eyeshadow and this has 3 of them. :-) All these shades are shimmer. Value wise, this is a palette
that you should not pass on. The regular pan is $21 and these pans has just
0.01 oz. less than the regular size. I love MUFE eyeshadow; they are insanely
pigmented, very easy to work with. But then I took a closer look at the shades
and they are quite repetitive with what I already own. But if you are waiting
for a while to try MUFE shades, this is something I will highly recommend. Also
if you are not a crazy eyeshadow hoarder like me and slowly building up your
collection, this is a nice palette because it has a very wide range of shades.
Neutral as well as interesting pops of color. Definitely check this out.
Value sets/All-Over-Face Palettes: This year I have fallen in love
with face palettes, the ones that host most of your face products. The Balm
palette is definitely my no 1 recommendation.
There are a few sets available
from Stila, Smashbox and Tarte but I am not particularly keen on them. If you
are interested I would suggest you to go check the products out in store. But I
would like to talk about these sets and palettes.
Sephora Favorites Superstars"
2015: Sephora,
13 face products- 7 full-size, $75): If you want to try a bunch of goodies at a
fraction of price, this is your set. I am totally enjoying the set barring the
They’re Real Mascara. The eyeshadows from NARS and Urban Decay are incredible,
Beauty Blender and Stila All Day Eyeliner are my Holy Grail products and I have
fallen in love with the highlighters in it. Also that Smashbox Water Primer
really works. This is a $212 value set :-) You can check my detailed reviews here.
theBalm
“In theBalm of Your Hand" Face Palette:
(Kohls/theBalm/Unified Cosmetics, 10 Face Products, $39.50) theBalm did an
incredible job in curating the items in the palette. 3 universal blushes, 4
eyeshadows, a beautiful red lip color, a nude lip/cheek cream, a matte bronzer
and ever so coveted “Mary-Lou Highlighter” all in one palette, grab your base
and mascara and you are all done. The products are incredibly smooth, so easy
to blend, true to color and have super awesome wear time. If you have never
tried theBalm, this is the prefect palette to get at a very affordable cost!
Even if you already have some products, this is just the best all-inclusive
face-palette that your money can buy! If you ask me, this is the best holiday
product for 2015. You can check my detailed reviews here.
Do let me know what you are
getting :-) I would love to know :-)
Love,
~Arrru
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