Sephora Birthday Gift - 2020!!!

The years are passing by way too fast! My birthday last year was great; I got to spend it with my family back home in India after many years and it was full of activities and laughter! I cannot believe that it has been a year already and my birthday is almost here - again! I think I am reaching a season of life where birthdays have started to come faster that I care to admit! :-)

But there is always free birthday gift from different stores and brands to cheer me up! :-) Almost every year during late December or early January I patiently wait to know the options for the free Beauty Insider Birthday Gift Sephora offers. I try to order it as soon as I can in January and blog about it. I enjoy this entire process! When I look back at the S Sephora Free Birthday gift posts from previous years, I notice that these are some of my most viewed blog-post ever! 

This year there are three (3) options for Beauty Insider members and VIB/VIB Rouge get one more exclusive option! If you don’t know much about the Beauty Insider program, keep reading to the very end of this post.

Just like the previous years, I picked up the makeup option. This year the makeup options includes one Mini deluxe Lip+Cheek and Kush Mascara from Milk Makeup. I have been using both of these for last 3-4 days and here are my initial thoughts!

Lip+Cheek (WERK): This is a tiny little blush with 0.21oz of product. On Sephora website, these mini size retails for $15. It is a beautiful everyday mauve shade but unfortunately it is a tad bit lighter on me! And I fear that it looks a little ashy on me! If you have a skin-tone that is similar or deeper than mine than it will probably not be the best shade on you. The formula seemed a little bit dry when I swatch it however on the cheeks it felt ok. It is not too intensely pigmented which is not a bad thing for a blush! It is easy to use a less pigmented blush and slowly build up the color. Personally, I had to swipe it a couple of times to get the color to show decently. I don’t really have that much patience in the busy mornings to sit and keep swiping it! It was still on my skin 4-5 hours later. I went to a yoga class one day with this on and I was still able to see a little bit of color and glow left on the cheeks still hanging on. I wore it to work last two days – it unfortunately did not survive toward the end of my 7-8 hr. work day.

Typically, these Lip+Cheek two-in-one type of product never works on my lips. I still tried it as a lip-shade and as I expected it felt & looked really dry, patchy on the lips.

Kush Mascara:  Hmmm! People seem to absolutely love this mascara! There are about 5k reviews on Sephora Website. This a tiny sample size and it performed just ‘ok’ for me. It is a dry formula and over the years I have realized that I like my mascaras to be a little bit wet. This mascara gave me just a little bit of definition and volume; nothing special or even worth noticing. I was expecting more! I was underwhelmed by its performance! Maybe it is just my lashes? It also fades towards the end of an 8-9-hour work day. It did not smudge but the lift and volume definitely faded away. Overall, I am not too excited about the mascara.

Sorry about the shadow on my cheeks. Lighting glitch :-)

Overall, it was a little bit of a disappointing this year. In fact, if I look back at the years, I have not been happy about the product curation for birthday freebie from Sephora for the last 2-3 years. Maybe it is because I have been a heavy beauty-product-consumer for a quite a few years now and I have tried and used a lot of products; it is no longer easy to impress me! 

What you guys think?

After 5 hours that included 1 hour of yoga!

After 5 hours that included 1 hour of yoga! Look at those dry lips!

Now that I have shared information in the makeup items, let’s talk about the Sephora's Beauty Insider program. It is a membership program which Sephora offers; you can register for it for free here online or in the stores. It rewards you with points against your purchases and later, you can claim sample reward products against those points that you have been accumulating. They also send you emails about some pretty cool promotional deluxe size products from time to time. (These emails have proved very dangerous to my financial health as I have purchased unnecessary items just to get the free products! I know :-) !!)  They have different levels for their membership with few added benefits with each level. In a calendar year, if you spend 350$ you become VIB and if you cross 1000$ you reach VIB Rouge status. One of the perks that I have TRUELY enjoyed is the free shipping for VIB rouge members.  I am no longer a Rouge though! So, even though you don't really shop regularly at Sephora, I suggest you open a Beauty Insider membership; it is a good thing.

Oh! Another thing! If you are not really very interested in the makeup kit you can choose one a haircare or a skincare item from following options. At least they are giving more options – that is always good. There is additional Jo Malone deluxe sample option for VIB/VIB Rouge members! 

Birthday gifts are redeemable in store (no purchase necessary) or online (you need to buy at least one merchandise to add this gift to your online order) during your birthday month. If you somehow forget to collect it during that month, you can always approach their customer service and they will reimburse you with beauty insider points in lieu of the gift (at least I have been told so, when I contacted them with the same query!)

Love,

~Arrru