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Spotlight

Sephora Holiday Savings Event 2020

The Sephora Holiday Savings Event is here! This is the time to buy brands that are not usually discounted or are Sephora-exclusive. Plus during the holiday event you can get incredible holiday value/gift sets for an even deeper discount! Here are my picks for the Sephora Holiday Savings Event 2020:

Disclosure:

Sephora compensated me to write this post. I selected the products to feature and the subject matter of my post.

Details:

The Sephora Holiday Savings Event is open to all tiers of Sephora’s Beauty Insider program in the US and Canada, in store and online. Here are the details:

  • VIB Rouge Members (spend $1000+/year): 20% off and Early Access 10/30 – 11/2 with code HOLIDAYFUN (Rouge can still shop through 11/9)
  • VIB Members (spend at least $350/year): VIB Member access 11/3 – 11/9 and 15% off with code HOLIDAYFUN
  • All Insider Member Access (no minimum spend, sign up free here): 10% off 11/5 – 11/9 and 10% off with code HOLIDAYFUN

A few products are excluded from the Sephora Holiday Savings Event, including all The Ordinary products (but they are reasonably priced already!) or MAC Cosmetics VIVA GLAM. You are limited to the purchase of one Dyson item and five Morphe items per SKU per transaction. More details about limitations here.

For more information on how to sign up for Sephora’s Beauty Insider program, go here. Go ahead and sign up for the program so you can get discounts and awesome points rewards!

Pricey Skincare Staples!

I always stock up on my Holy Grail SK-II Facial Treatment Masks during the Sephora events– I will probably buy two 10-mask boxes this time. These sheet masks will make you look 1000% percent better if you do one the day of a big event. You will look lifted, pores erased, brightened, and fine lines plumped. So much so that I promise your friends will ask you what you did differently. The price is hard to swallow, but at $13 a mask (plus your discount!), it is way cheaper than a facial! And a box of 6 sheet masks also makes an awesome group gift if you want to spend around $100 on someone! You and your friends can all pitch in to give a box for a birthday or to the bride on her bachelorette party.

Other pricey staples I stock up on during the Sephora events (depending on what I am running out of):

–the famous Clarins depuffing mask (UPDATE 11/5- out of stock) If you ever drink alcohol or eat salty food and your face and jawline get puffy (a/k/a carb face) you need this! Especially as we gear up for the holidays.

SK-II Facial Treatment Essence (read my full post about it here)

–anything Sunday Riley, especially Good Genes Lactic Acid Serum. If your skin doesn’t like retinoids (or you are pregnant or BF’ing), this product is for you! It is a lactic acid serum you use before moisturizer at night to plump lines and even skin tone. Several friends I’ve turned on to this during pregnancy now say they like Good Genes more than their usual retinoids!

Sleeper Hit: The Haircare

I’m not sure why no one talks about this, but one of the absolute best things to buy during a Sephora event is haircare, specifically Kerastase. Think about it: when can you ever buy Kerastase at a discount (from an authorized retailer?) Sephora Beauty Insider events are it! Same goes for Bumble products, or other brands like IGK that are hard to find.

There are several Kerastase products I swear by:

–the Kerastase purple mask that I use as a conditioner to combat brassiness

–I don’t talk about the Kerastase 8hr Magic Night Serum enough. I heard @emrata uses it, and when I first put it on my hair I was like, oh this is going to weigh down my fine hair and be terrible. It just feels counterintuitive to put a serum/liquid on DRY hair! Apply before bed, and somehow when you wake up your hair is soft and shinier, but not weighed down. And Sephora has an awesome Bestsellers value set (UPDATE 11/5- out of stock)!!! For $55 you could buy the 8hr Magic Night Serum alone, OR you could get the value set that includes a full size Night Serum PLUS $25 mini of the cult-fave Kerastase Elixir Ultime Oil too!

Kerastase Discipline Fluidissime Anti-Frizz Spray: my absolute Holy Grail blow dry spray. Everyone I have turned onto this loves it! I have tried so many heat protectant sprays and serums (including like five Kerastase ones), and the Fluidissime beats all the rest. It makes your hair SO shiny but does not weigh down fine hair! I think this would work wonders on most hair types!

I have found a new favorite dry shampoo for days when your hair is super dirty! The IGK First Class Dry Shampoo has surpassed Klorane because it is incredible at soaking up oil and I love the volume it gives my hair. I went to Sephora specifically to buy the IGK Dry Shampoo because @things.I.Bought.And.Liked recommended it. At the store I noticed an incredible Upgraded value set— for $27 (the regular price), you get not only a full-size but also a generous travel size can! Plus during the Holiday Savings Event you get your 10-20% discount on top of that. This is a no brainer!

Another IGK product I love- the Mixed Feelings Leave-in Blonde Toning Drops. If your blonde tends to go brassy, Mixed Feelings will tone it in one use! Just mix in 2-3 drops in your hand with a leave-in product (I mix it in with my volumizing mouse, but you could also mix it with a treatment like Olaplex No. 3).

I have written about my love for Olaplex (read my full post here), and Sephora has a great value set, the Holiday Hair Fix Set, that includes the cult-fave No. 3 bond repairer plus the shampoo and conditioner. After so many friends raved to me about the duo, I tried the shampoo and conditioner for the first time the other night and it is great! Made my hair very shiny without weighing it down. The Holiday Hair Fix Set is a $84 value for $60 (plus your additional Beauty Insider discount!)

Bumble & Bumble has my favorite styling products. Two of my Holy Grail products for fine, thin hair are the Dryspun Volume Texturizing Spray (use on dry hair) and the Thickening Spray (use on wet hair before blowdrying). If you want to try both these, they have a duo of minis- the High Volume Hair Thickening Set for $20!

Tools and Gadgets

If you’ve been wanting to try the super-fast drying Dyson hair dryer, the Sephora event is the time to buy. And they have a Holiday Value Set that comes with a round brush and comb for $399 (a $465 value). The Dyson does speed up my dry time a bit, and I immediately noticed my hair was more shiny.

During a previous Sephora event I actually purchased both the Dyson hair dryer and the Dyson Air Wrap (pictured above). The Air Wrap is supposed to curl and dry your hair at the same time, and did produce very bouncy curls. Honestly I got more compliments on my hair than I ever have. But ultimately I ended up returning the Air Wrap because it was just too time-consuming and difficult to use. Later I was gifted one and I do like having the Air Wrap for the round brush attachment alone. Makes your hair so much shinier and is less hot than the Revlon one.

Two other recommendations I have for tools/gadgets:

The Dr. Dennis Gross Spectralite LED Mask– there was a time when it was impossible to find this in stock during the Sephora Beauty Insider events! But it is still in stock as of press time. A full discussion of the LED mask is in my post here. But if you are interested in the Spectralite, an incredible All is Bright value set was just released (UPDATE 11/5- out of stock now)! For the same price as the mask alone ($435), you also get a full size Brightening Solution and small size of the Ferulic + Retinol eye serum that people rave about. Plus 5 peel pads!

The grandeLASH Lift: this is one of my favorite new discoveries! It truly lifts your lashes to give you a wide-eyed, more awake look. And it is a great price point, especially with the discount!

Holiday Value/Gift Sets

Sephora’s holiday gift sets have dropped! The Beauty Insider event is a great opportunity to stock up on products you love or try something new at an even steeper discount! Oh, and I guess you could potentially also gift them to other people. After much analysis, price comparison across all retailers, and a lot of soul searching (j/k), these are my gift set picks (along with the haircare ones I already mentioned):

–Fenty Glossy Posse Mini Gloss Bomb Set: The shade selection of this lip gloss set is amazing. And Fenty lip gloss is a people pleaser: not sticky or tacky, comfortable to wear but with decent weartime, no spicy lip plumping, and lots of color payoff. Everyone should like Fenty gloss!

Here I am wearing the fabulous Taffy Tea$e shade:

Tarte has the biggest value set I have run across: the Give, Gift & Get Amazonian Clay Eye Shadow Palette. 3 full size palettes for $49 (a $270 value!!) This would be great break up and gift to sisters/SIL or babysitter-types!

Maybe I overdid it on the lippies during my last #sephorahaul, but I buy the Give Me More Lip set almost every year for myself. It’s an incredible value (a $124 value for $45) and lots of fun! The shades are very autumn-inspired this year (lots of dark reds and brownish nudes), but even if you don’t love the shade, it is a great way to try a bunch of different lipstick formulas. I have found lots of new favorites this way!

Another set that has one of the biggest value savings is the First Aid Beauty All That Fab set (a $127 value for $49). It has 4 full size products, including the Facial Radiance Pads that I love. I like to use these pads as after my regular cleanser and then Bioderma on a cotton pad. I like the FAB ones bc they are gentle enough for every day and will really help brighten, even skintone, and improve skin texture (like the appearance of pores).

I also really like the Ultra Repair Cream– a great option for sensitive or eczema-prone skin if you feel like the Avene Cicalfate is too thick. The cream has colloidal oatmeal also works as great body moisturizer to help protect that skin barrier. I was also very impressed with the Ultra Repair Lip Therapy- the moisture lasted all night! I thought the Nuxe was the only thing that would work for me. And it has the best subtle spearmint flavor- NOT peppermint, which I think is an important distinction.

Try Some Charlotte Tilbury

If you were interested to try Charlotte Tilbury, do it now at 10-20% off! I use so many Charlotte Tilbury products, but some of my favorites are: My top Charlotte Tilbury picks are (in descending order of awesomeness):

  1. Airbrush Powder (I wear shade 1)
  2. Filmstar Bronze and Glow
  3. Lipstick (my fave shade is Kim KW)
  4. Pillow Talk lipliner

A couple newer releases from Charlotte Tilbury that I would absolutely recommend are the Pillow Talk Jewel Lip Gloss (I have Walk of No Shame but plan to get more shades). There is also a great Pillow Talk value set that includes the Pillow Talk shade of the Jewel Lip Gloss (along with the cult fave Pillow Talk lip liner and lipstick- a $71 value for $45)!

Another new Holy Grail product from Charlotte Tilbury is the Airbrush Matte Bronzer– this is a matte bronzer with excellent staying power. Note that the Light shade is very pale, so I prefer the Medium shade (see pic above).

xoxo,

@kathleenjenningsbeauty

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