Sephora for Me, Sephora for You

There's nothing like arriving home at the end of a long work day, with hair in disarray, eye makeup starting to crease, and an armful of work files to review over the weekend, and finding a box from Sephora on the door step. Seriously, it's like getting all my grad school loan debt cancelled or eating McDonalds french fries after attempting a no carb diet.

In the box were my purchases from the ongoing Sephora Friends & Family Sale (use code: FF2009 to get 20% off of almost all products till November 2nd click here). Now to be perfectly honest, I knew there was a possibility that my box had arrived. I fiendishly tracked the box as it made its way across the continental United States and over the Pacific Ocean to my stoop via the handy US Postal Service website. But I tried not to get my hopes up, because for all I know the mail man could have crashed into a jelly bean delivery truck or some foolishness like that.

As for the origins of my own foolishness, I note that I haven't been a greedy little makeup hoarder until a recent streak of watching youtube makeup tutorial videos -- there's an amazing array of people out there with normal day jobs who go home at the end of the day and make these amazing tutorials on how to create a smokey eye or share an honest review of why DiorShow Mascara isn't worth the $24 price tag when you can spend $7 for Cover Girl Lash Blast and get the job done just as well. (I link to a few blogs from great youtube beauty gurus over on the right.)

So, with a new love for makeup in my heart, I spent days leading up to the Sephora sale carefully curating my purchase list and finally decided to purchase these pretty items, my precious:

• Illamasqua sheer lip gloss in the color Enchant. This is hands down the easiest, prettiest lip gloss for my lips. It adds just a hint of rosiness without crazy sparkles (I'm looking at you, MAC dazzleglass, and how you make my lips look inappropriately shiny in 8am morning meetings!) but a nice pretty sheen. I can easily see myself keeping this in my purse all the time. The Illamasqua blog was on point in its recommendation that Enchant is the perfect nude lip gloss for people with warm undertones. Those with olive skin tones are advised to try the color Provoke.

• Makeup Forever Best Seller Kit - Contains 3 full size items: HD Microfinish Powder, Aqua Eyes eyeliner in black, and Smoky Lash mascara; and 2 travel size items: Sens eyes makeup remover and HD Microperfecting Primer. This set is an awesome deal because you all five items for $49 ($39.20 after 20% discount). It would cost $47 to buy the HD Powder and Aqua Eyes pencil separately, so for another $2 you get three more items...score!
  

• NARS - Eye shadow duo in All About Eve (expected this to be prettier from all the online reviews; perhaps I'm too tan), eye shadow in Galapagos (as pretty as everyone says), and blushes in Amour and Luster (great for those with warm undertones).

I don't normally do swatches of makeup purchases but a Sephora sale, like a wedding or your first born's graduation from college, this is a special occasion.

makeup sale