You really hardly ever see me in Sephora. But when I do, I don't really go out with a bang either. This is more of a splurge, as it was my birthday month. And when you shop at Sephora during your birthday month you get a free something. Which might totally be a marketing strategy, buy hey, it works. To be fair I only bought two things and the whole package came with seven things.
Paco Rabanne Million Dollar Eau De Toilette.
Viktor&Rolf Flowerbomb Eau De Parfum.
Marc Jacobs Daisy Eau So Fresh.
Nars lip pencils in Cruella and Rikugien.
CLINIQUE Acne Solutions BB Cream Broad Spectrum SPF 40.
Benefit's How To Look The Best At Everything kit in Light.
Sephora's purifying and mattifying mud mask.
The birthday gift was the two Nars lip pencils in Cruella, which is the red one and had a matte finish and Rikugien which is the more nudey shade that had a tiny bit of shimmer in it with a satin finish. I'd have to say though, the shade Rikugien was very similar to the Estee Lauder's Secret Kiss Shimmer Lipstick. They were both really similar with a tinee tiny difference of the undertones. Cruella, as the name suggests was a very Cruella deville shade. To me, it reminded me of the colour that Snow White had on her lips. It wasn't really dusty, but it felt more of a slightly muted red.
When I first opened it, I must admit that I thought it was a twist-able lip pencils like the Revlon Colorstay lip stain/balms/stick things. But after reading reviews online, it is the ones that you have to sharpen. Remember to put them in the fridge before you sharpen them so you lose less product (or so they say.)
The Paco Rabanne Million Dollar Eau De Toilette has the top notes of grapefruit, mint and blood orange combined with the heart notes of rose, cinnamon and blond leather and the base notes of white woods, amber and patchouli. The website actually claims for it to be fragrance for men, but to be honest it smells like a very sweet, night out smell. Which I actually adore.
Viktor&Rolf Flowerbomb Eau De Parfum, this scent is what I associate with "ang mo lang smell". Having lived outside of the US for almost all my life, there's always this smell that every ang mo lady has when they come to visit. I kid you not, my mum agrees with me on this. So this to me is very a very fruity but heavy sophisticated night out smell, yet again.
And the one that I was most excited for, the Marc Jacobs Daisy Eau So Fresh. If you know me, you'd know that I love rose scents, or mostly flower scents and I pretty much used to smell like rose most of the time. As the name suggests, this does smell very fresh. If you've used the Not Your Mother's Clean & Fresh dry shampoo, it smells like that with a bit more of a sweetness to it. But to me, it reminds me of cucumbers and mint and flowers.
All in all, my favorite would have to be the Paco Rabanne one :)
Now if you know me, you'd know that foundation and I do not have a mutual understanding.
I really really hate the whole disgusting sticky feeling that a foundation has. Even the texture, gives me creeps. And with an acne filled face, I don't enjoy putting things over it to cover it up because it makes me feel like I'm poking the sleeping bear and awaiting a major breakout. So anyways, I saw this kit on the website and I thought it was pretty interesting because it all came in sample sizes? So I didn't feel like it would be a big deal if I didn't like it. I could use it all up really fast. One of the few things that intrigued me was the fact that the Hello Oxygen Wow Foundation was very lightweight. I did a little research before buying it and the foundation was almost a watery-sunscreen texture that settled on the skin really well. I actually was really surprised because I forgot I had it on when I put it on. I'm not the biggest fan on the cream concealer, but the whole kit works. I understand the hype behind the pore-fessional, it was definitely better than the Cover FX mattifying one. I'd give it a thumbs up. And the packaging is so adorable.
This is a deluxe sample version of the Clinique acne solutions BB cream. It had the same texture as the Hello Oxygen Wow foundation, which was another big plus. They both do have a very light coverage, which I guess is great so you don't look like your out on the red carpet everyday. Even with these two in my collect, I still don't really enjoy foundation that much. But I'll try to make them work.
Having never used a mud mask before, (I've only ever used the peel off and the clay ones) I think this was pretty great. It didn't have a bad smell and it wasn't that bad to wash off. And it is a bigger tub than what you see in the picture. It's almost palm sized and the mud is a gray-cement looking blob of thing.
I'm pretty satisfied with what I got this time round, Stay tuned for next year's round because birthdays are the only time I walk into Sephora.
:)
Zoe
