Friday, February 5, 2016

Sephora Birthday Gift - 2016!!!


Last year I was so very eager about the free birthday gifts from Sephora. My birthday is in January and I remember ordering my gift online from Sephora on 2nd of January and posting the review (check here) the week after; I was just so excited! I still adore that little set from 2015!

This year, however the situation is completely different. When I first starting coming across pictures of this gift via Instagram in late December, I know that I am going to be disappointed! Here are the main reasons for why I am not as excited as last years,
  • There are no additional gifts for VIB Rouge members this year and that’s really disappointing. As far as I am concerned, “free shipping” is the only real useful perk of being a VIB Rouge as of now!
  • I already have the liner offered here; to be honest if you are a Sephora junkie you already have a few black eyeliners in your collection.
Now, I know that these are free gifts and it is not really “nice” to complain about free stuff :-) Ha ha! Keeping my disappointment aside, I do love the products themselves! Marc Jacobs is a respected brand, a brand from which you can expect great products. These are expensive too! So, I am happy about the fact that Sephora picked this brand to create this set!

Highliner Gel Eye Crayon Eyeliner in “Blacquer”: I have several of these highliners (reviewed here) and I love all of them. “Blacquer” is a jet black shade and it’s amazing. It’s super creamy, intensely pigmented and applies very smoothly! I love wearing it on my waterline and I totally enjoy how black it is! It is one the eyeliner that stays the longest on my waterline. It applies equally easy on waterline or upper lash line as a proper eyeliner. And it is a twist up pencil which is always, always great! The only small complain I have is that because of its creaminess and the thickness of the pencil it’s not great for drawing thin sharp line. Personally, it does not bother me though as I love to wear a thick eyeliner.

Le Marc Lip Crème in “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”: I think this is one of their best-selling shades. It is such a pretty everyday color. Sephora described it as “baked rose” but there is a hefty amount of soft pink in it. Especially against my skin tone, it appears very pink; I can still wear it for every day. The formula is absolutely amazing. It’s very creamy in formula and quite matte in appearance! Extremely easy to apply and to layer. It is quite opaque and heavy in pigmentation. Even though its matte, it is not drying. I can feel my lips remaining comfortable during the day. It helps if I use a lip balm over it after 6-7 hrs, but my lips don’t horribly crack up if I forgot to do so. The staying power is also impressive. After 12 hrs. of my usual work day I can still see faded but gorgeous stain at the end of the day. This is definitely one of best lipstick formulas in the market.

As you can see, as products these are great and if you have not tried anything from Marc Jacobs I think this is a great little “free” set to start with :-) But, compared to previous years, I am just very disappointed by the curation of this set. By the way, they have a skincare alternative too! This year they have “Rose Face Mask” and “Soy Face Cleanser”. I do have this face mask and I absolutely ENJOY it; especially for these dry winter months.


If you are not a Sephora “Beauty Insider” yet, you can register for free; online or in the stores.  Here is a link to read more detail about these free birthday gifts :-)


Have you already collected your gifts? This is definitely one of the perks of getting older earlier than the rest of you :-)

Love,
~Arrru

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