Sephora Birthday Gift - 2018!!!

Unlike the last 3 years (or 4 may be?), I took a few days this time in order to get a hold of my free Birthday rewards from Sephora! Otherwise, I try to order it as soon as it is available on the website. I love talking about this reward in the first two weeks of the year; it is one of the few nice-to-have perks of being a January born!

Sephora no longer adds an extra item for VIB Rouge but like last year, there are 3 options to choose from - a Lip Set from Bite Beauty, a Skincare Set from Glamglow and a Haircare Set from Bumble and Bumble. Read more here. 

I, of course picked up the Bite Beauty set! I have always reviewed the makeup option in this blog, so it made sense :-) If you are interested - 2017 gift (from Tarte) is reviewed here, 2016 gift (from Marc Jacobs) is reviewed here, 2015 gift (from NARS) is reviewed here & 2014 gift (from Make Up For Ever) is reviewed here.

Bite Beauty is a Canadian Brand founded by Susanne Langmuir and it is exclusively available in Sephora. They have lip labs in Toronto, New York and San Francisco where you can go and create custom lip shades. I really wish to visit one of these one day! Anyway, I am no stranger to Bite Beauty products. Ever since I bought Cin Cin, I have fallen deeply in love with the brand. I am positive that almost 25% of my embarrasingly big lipstick collection is from Bite Beauty :-) It is almost a miracle that I did not already own the shades in this set! I have reviewes quite few products from Bite Beauty. 

This cute little set comes with the following products -

• a deluxe size Matt Lip Crayon in Glace
• a deluxe size Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Chai
• samples of Agave Lip Mask and Agave Sugar Lip Scrub 

I know that the sizes for the lipsticks look very small, but I am telling you from my personal experience that you will get a lot of usage out of these.

I absolutely love both Matt Lip Crayon and Amuse Bouche formulas. I have been using both of these formulas in different shades for a long time now and I really, really enjoy them. I was a bit sour when they discontinued their Luminous Creme Lipstick to be replaced with this Amuse Bouche formula but I have made my peace with it. These are some beautiful formula; highly pigmented, extremely moisturising and has incredible staying power! What more do you want from your lipstick? :-) Additionally, they claim that their lip products are made of food grade ingredients. I am not sure if I will be able to point out major differences between the two formula, they are kind of same but also different! The point is, I love them both :-) 

Here are the shades -

Glace: The color on the packaging looks a bit grey-lilac; I was very concerned that it would be quite pale and unflattering on my skintone! But the actual shade is much deeper; it is described as "dusty mauve" in Sephora website. On my skin tone it appears a bit pink than mauve. For those of you who loves a real, hard-core matte finish, you may not like the final finish from this lip crayon. As you can see, these is a still a satin type look. I personally have no problem with it though. If you have lighter skintone than me, you will adore this shade.

Chai: This is an instant LOVE! I have heard a lot about this particular shade but I never relly wanted to try! The moment I applied it, I knew it is going to be a perfect everyday shade for me. Have you ever tried the oh-so-famous shade "Lolita" from Kat Von D? Chai is like a demure sister of Lolita, in a much cremier formula. I absolutely enjoy this shade and I am sure I will wear it a lot!

Shown below are some of the similar shades I have from Bite Beauty in different formulas. I think this year, Sephora did a great job in selecting the shades; both Glace & Chai are going to be flattering for a lot of different skintones. Of course, both of these shades will appear a bit different on different skintones but I am very hopefull that they can be easily worn by all Beauty Insiders!

I am quite happy with this year's gift. I was not extremely happy with Tarte set last year but this year, I know for sure that I would love and use both quite a lot. And if ou fall in love with these colors, you can easily buy the full-sized ones, as these are permanent shades.

Are you excited about this year's gift? You have to be enrolled in their Beauty Insider program to be elligible for this reward. If you still have not enrolled, this might be a good time. Read more here to enroll!

Love
~Arrru