Sephora Beauty Insider Appreciation Week September 10th through 17th (2016)

I’ve accumulated nearly 4K points, that I seldom use, over the decades. Who wants to trade it in for 4K Ulta points? Everybody? Seriously. S may have an edge on prestige brands, but U is upping the game with the standard dept store brands. Plus, their d/s stuff and hair care are phenomenal. Do I really need any more points that I don’t use anyway? Plus, U is getting into the Asian/Korean skincare with very well blogger reviewed affordable product. Unlike S’s higher end selections, which often have alcohol high up in the ingredients and are pretty fluffy. Come on, S, succumb. Get a program that allows the buyer to defray the cost of your HE products with some sort of points to dollars off ratio. Think of the Drunk Elephant you could actually get! Not that I won’t go or order. What’s another couple of hundred points more or less?

Thanks for posting! I’ve also been a Rouge for 2 (maybe 3?) years and they didn’t email me anything about this. All I got was an invitation to go to a party (of limited use to me, since there aren’t any Sephora shops nearby) and the fine print said expressly that the offer was NOT good online. They really need to step up their game – everyone else seems to offer better perks.

Ok, just got back from the VIB Rouge Appreciation Event in Sephora JCPenny. They only had 1 table with new holiday goodies, but here goes……
*TARTE WORKS OF ART BLUSH SET – $ no price tag posted but there’s 10 blushes in a an elegant round, gold metal case, like the Rainforest of the Sea packaging. Each blush is .084 oz. (vs. .20 reg size), and all of them were decent to great quality. All of the colors looked very pretty and wearable, the case was lightweight, not too big, good for travel. If you like Tarte blushes, I highly recommend checking this one out, as it was already sold out within 30 minutes of the event.
*TARTE PRETTY PAINTBOX COLLECTIONS MAKEUP CASE -$ 59 ( $418 value) There’s 24 shadows, and they swatched much better than expected, pretty good for Tarte. I swatched on my arm, with no primer. I also noticed that some of the shadows performed better after being swiped by multiple people, so you should swipe/rub multiple times to get rid of the drier layer on top. 18 of the shadows are ok/good/great, and 6 of the lightest mattes are not that great, but I use those for browbone, so not big deal. The dark mattes are easily buildable to opaque, the satins are good to great, medium mattes are mixed bag, and the lightest mattes (6 shades) aren’t that great but can be used on browbone. And it didn’t kick up any dust either. The 2 blushes and 1 highlighter are smooth and decent pigment. There’s also a matte brown shade that can be used as blush and/or contour. There’s an eyeliner, mascara, and small deluxe lip paint (obvi). Set is made in China, but overall, I was pretty impressed. The shadows aren’t UD quality but pretty good for Tarte, definitely a decent holiday palette, and the shadows were well organized into rows of easy-to-figure out color combos. There’s even some blues and purple shadows in there! The case is pretty bulky though, but it’s still light enough to travel with. I recommend checking this one out.
*UD NAKED ILLUMINATING TRIO $36 -Pyrite (the best shade by far in terms of pigment and smooth shimmer), the middle Oasis shade had more pigment than Christine’s swatch but is a total chunky glitter bomb (think little girl’s play makeup), and the Twilight one had more pigment than Christine’s swatch but has obvious glitter
*MARC JACOBS UP ALL NIGHT LIPSTICK SET -$ 49 – has 5 mini lipsticks in .05 oz each (vs. .12 reg size). Colors are No Angel, Slow Burn, Oh Miley, Miss Scarlet, Scandal. All of these were pigmented and swatched same as full size singles. This will be very popular, as it’s a great deal, and I recommend checking it out.
*STILA STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT – $39 – 3 cream highlighters in Transcendence (pink w/ sheer white base), Kitten (rose gold -most shimmery), and Bronze ( copper brown, the prettiest). IMO, it’s ok, not great, I think there are much better highlighters out there. but it’s a cream option
*TARTE KISS BLISS LIP SET – $46 -5 mini matte lip paints ( cherry red, dusky mauve rose, berry, nude light beige, purple berry) with matching mini lip liners ( thirsty, rage, queen, meme, and vibes). There’s a good mix of colors here, but the products are TINY. The box didn’t list the oz, but the lip paints are about 3 inches (including the long cap) and lip liner is about 4 inches, but a lot of it is packaging. The lip liner is super duper skinny, is a little hard to twist up, and you can’t twist back down. I think this is way over-priced (maybe wait for sale), but it’s nice way to try different colors, if you don’t mind the tiny sizes.
*BUXOM 6 DEGREES Below Sexy – $ 32 ( $ 60 values) 6 glosses in Dominique, Amy, Celeste, Clair, Starr, Jasmine. Each gloss is .07 fl oz. The 3 darker shades are ok pigment, but the 3 lightest shades look like mostly clear shimmer, will probably look same on lips. Not too impressed.
*SMASHBOX LIGHT IT UP – $ 45 -this has 3 small palettes, an eye contour shade palette (meh, you can use 3 matte shadows to get same effect), a 6 shadow palette (quality is not that good), and lip palette with 6 colors ( feels dry and the swatches are less intense than what they look like in the pan, the 3 darker shades are so-so but the 3 lightest shades don’t have much pigment). I recommend skipping this one
*BEAUTY BLENDER SET – $ 40 ( $64 value)- has 1 micro blender, 2 regular size blenders, a mini cleanser, and 1 blotterazzi pro
*MUFE Artist Caligraphy Set – $ 40 – a matte red lip ink and a long lip brush. The metal case is bulky but can be re-used. I didn’t swatch as tester was missing.
Hope this helps!

Annnnd of course I placed an order yesterday!! Bah!