Sephora and Ulta Haul

Hey everyone! So I found some goodies online at Sephora that I just had to have, and got some things from Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty. Sephora had a special where you could get 5 samples instead of 3. Just a note that I planned on buying more from Ulta, but they managed to sell out of a daily deal by 10:30 AM. My wallet is probably thanking their stupidity.

From Sephora

Urban Decay Vice 4 palette: On sale for $39 at Sephora (35% off). It’s so pretty, guys! I keep on comparing it to my Vice 3 palette, and some of the colors are similar. I’d go into details but this probably isn’t the place for it. Overall, though, I’m most excited about the purples and pinks, and saddened a bit by how glittery but unpigmented several of the shades are. Also, lots of browns and I always manage to do really poor swatches (and these all turned out a lot warmer than irl), but here you go:

Boscia Konjac Sponge with Complexion Clearing Clay: I was torn between this and the charcoal sponge, since I’ve been wanting to try more charcoal products and that also seems to be good with acne. This one was specifically designed for acne, though, so I can’t really complain. It’s a very gentle exfoliant (read: I still had some dry, peeling patches the first few days but it’s since gotten better). My acne seems to have started clearing up, though it could be from something else that I’m doing.

Clinique Chubby in the Nude Foundation Stick deluxe sample in ‘Normous Natural. It’s a bit dark for me. I can use this as a bit of a contour shade with some of my lighter foundations, but it blends in a bit too much with my darker ones. Maybe in the summer it’ll work?

Anastasia Beverly Hills Concealer sample, Urban Decay Prime and Perfect and Marc Jacobs Beauty Re(marc)able Foundation sample: All these look like they’ll be too dark. I’m in the 2-3 range for UD Naked foundation, and the lightest shade is 3.5 (though the primer is a nice bonus). The Anastasia one includes the numbers 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, and 3.5, yet they’re for medium and tan skin tones. Is fair 0.0/0.5 or something, or does that not actually exist? Again, probably contour shades.

Clinique 3-Step System (skin type 2) sample: I’m not sure what Clinique’s 3-Step system is. The last time I looked it up, I thought I might have been type 3 but wasn’t really sure. Can’t they just say oily or dry or normal?

Burberry Fresh Glow illuminating primer: This looks great! Of all the samples from Sephora, this seems to be the one I’m most excited to try.

From Ulta:

Mario Badescu Acne Starter Kit: I bought this when all Mario Badescu products were 25% off at Ulta. There were multiple products from this brand that I wanted to try, and this kit included several of them! I like using these kits as I can find out what works for me without having to splurge on full-size products. I’m a bit hesitant about how everything seems to be astringent/drying.

Benefit Porefessional Face Primer: I’ve never actually tried this, so I’m really excited!

Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer: I think I have another of these sample packets floating around somewhere, so while I’m happy to have received this, it wasn’t really exciting.

Overall: I loved the Sephora deals. Even though I wasn’t crazy about most of my free samples once I saw them (curse you, pale skin!) I liked that I got more than normal, and if I did only get three, the chances of me getting all duds would have been higher. Ulta really let me down this time – I was planning on buying something, and passed up earlier deals because I was planning on purchasing things later on and didn’t want to spend too much. I’m a bit peeved that they seem to now only send two free samples out instead of three, and that the two products in my SKINCARE sampler were both makeup primers (even though I like the actual products more than the ones from Sephora).

-xo, Andi