Sephora Savings Event 2023 Shopping Advice Thread: What’s in Your Basket?

[TeamBIC]

Sephora Savings Event 2023

Fire up that Loves list, grab your beauty besties, and prepare to share all your product faves: the Sephora Savings Event is coming! Here in the Beauty Insider Community, we believe that it’s never too early to start building that basket, and if you’re looking for some shopping inspiration, you’ve come to the ultimate place! 🤩

You can think of this thread as your resource for getting – and giving! – unbiased shopping advice for shopping this epic event. Maybe you’re looking to scoop up a few skincare steals, need some new haircare recs, or want feedback on all the makeup must-haves that have been trending on social – it’s all fair game! Show off your shopping haul, get help making those hard purchase decisions… and don’t forget to come back to share all your unboxings, swatches, and more! 🛍

If you’re Rouge like us, you can shop in-store or online starting Friday, 4/14 with a 20% discount with the code SAVENOW. If you’re VIB, you get 15% off starting Tuesday, 4/18, and if you’re an Insider, you can get 10% off starting Tuesday, 4/18. And of course, don’t forget 30% off Sephora Collection all promo long, 4/14-4/24! Find out more about the Sephora Savings Event on our FAQ thread here:Sephora Savings Event 2023 FAQs 

Reply below and let us know: What products are you eyeing to buy during the Sephora Savings Event? Be sure to tag any products you mention using the “#” sign!

[Amil12]

Get the Kayali love fest burning cherry. It smells sooo good and I get so many compliments! Skip the Kayali royale sugared patchouli. It leans super masculine in a bad way.

[chloephil]

My favorite picks! Definitely adding those cotton pads to cart 🙂

[sister13]

So many choices but great options on your list! I am sooo curious about the KAYALI YUM PISTACHIO GELATO | 33 EDP INTENSE 3.4 oz / 100 mL eau de parfum spray but trying not to get my hopes up about that one, I haven’t been super impressed by the Kayali so far. I did get KAYALI Vanilla Royale Sugared Patchouli | 64 Eau de Parfum Intense Travel Spray .34 oz / 10 mL when it first came out and I do like it a lot but didn’t LOVE it as much as I’d hoped. I just got a bit more amber than patchouli and wanted more sugary sweetness. I need to find it and spray it again - I did leave a review a while back. Of course, fragrance is so personal, so reviews are all over the place.

I love the Kilian’s and you can’t go wrong with Kilian, imo. @cianni 

[Mcakes]

@cianni If this is chaos at least it s a beautiful well organized chaos! You have wonderful options you’re thinking about, but if you’re only getting 2 of the palettes on that list I would suggest getting the Natasha Denona Glam Eyeshadow Palette and the PAT McGRATH LABS MTHRSHP MEGA: Celestial Nirvana . The Glam palette is one of my go-to palettes for everyday and travel, it just does the job. All the jobs! And the Celestial Nirvana, I see nothing wrong with a palette holding sentimental value and serving inspiration. Even if you don’t use it everyday, it will always make you happy. 

[Mellmars1185]

@cianni So many good choices! I really like the Retro Glam palette by ND. Even though I have only used it a couple of times. It blends really well and goes on smoothly. I chose it because I don't have many of the shades in the palette, and I like the soft shades. Happy Shopping!

[CynthieLu]

I really like my #Natasha Denona Retro Glam Eyeshadow Palette and #Natasha Denona Retro Eyeshadow Palette @cianni and they are both so different. I love wearing the pastel green and light green shimmer most of all from the Retro Glam and the purples from the other bring out my eyes and are just everything I wanted in a purple/ berry Palette. ( they both fill holes in my palette collection, I had nothing like them) Any chance you swatching them in store to see if anything just speaks too you more? 

I'm very am happy with the quality of both 😁

The current sale on some ND palettes had me break my current no spend. I wish I'd moved faster before some mini's I wanted had sold out

[cianni]

@CynthieLu oooo okay good to get your input! i really love purples, so the Retro would be complementary to other purpley palettes i have in my collection. although i will say the purples i do have are definitely different (Huda Desert Dusk, Anastasia Beverly Hills Norvina® Pro Pigment Palette Vol. 1 for Face & Body , Anastasia Beverly Hills Norvina® Mini Pro Pigment Palette Vol. 1 for Face & Body , HUDA BEAUTY Nude Obsessions Eyeshadow Palette Nude Light etc). i have nothing like the Retro Glam, and honestly only a few greens in my collection at all, although something about greens with brown eyes is appealing to me lately.... i guess im trying to figure out if ill really get use out of the Retro because i have other purples, or if its a different enough take on a color story i know i love and wear

[CynthieLu]

Decisions are so hard! Maybe look at swatches on similar skin tones to you online? Than you can try to figure out which has the most wearability? They are both beautiful but so different. I think one draw back to Retro Glam is there not a huge difference in the shades Faye and Lucy (They are different but not by much) but the sparkle shades and the pastel pink and green are so sweet. I love the colour stories in both and happy to have them. 

I bit the bullet and ordered #Natasha Denona Pastel Eyeshadow Palette , the colours are soo pretty!

I didn't want it to go out of stock on me 😅

[aryannastow]

The Natasha Denona Zendo Palette and Retro Glam are two of my favorite palettes in my collection. That’s saying a lot, I’m sure you get that lol! The Kayali Lovefest is on of my favorite night time and holiday perfumes! I picked it up during the fall sale and wore it the entire Holiday season. It is so much different than anything I own and I personally like it more than Tom Ford Lost Cherry! ❤️

[cianni]

@aryannastow thanks for the input! i can definitely attest to how big of endorsement it is when you have a FAVE palette, considering the size of alot of our collections! i dont really own anything like lovefest either, and kayali always intrigues me. i've tried a couple and didnt love them, but they were blind buys so thats the way it goes sometimes! what kind of fragrances are you normally drawn to? 

[WinglessOne]

Trying to limit my list to things I can’t currently get from other retailers at a better discount. Let's see... 

Test subjects 🔬: 

• Youth To The People Retinal + Niacinamide Youth Serum 1 oz/ 30 mL - last night I finished a DS of this 0.15% retinaldehyde serum. (I normally use Avene’s 0.1% retinal.) There was only about a week of product in the DS bottle and I need to use this serum for at least 4 weeks to decide if it’s effective for me, so… I’ll either buy it during the sale or grab it with a Rouge Reward. 
  
  
• Glossier Solar Paint Luminious Gel-Cream Bronzer Volt - need to play with a tester in person first, to see how glittery this shade is or isn’t. But this seems like a good "let's warm up that stubborn perimeter hyperpigmentation" shade for me. 

Restocks 👍: 

• Hyper Skin Brightening Dark Spot Vitamin C Serum 1 oz/ 30 mL - still my skin's favorite source of kojic acid. 
  
  
• Paula's Choice 10% Azelaic Acid Booster 1 oz/ 30 mL - depends on whether or not I move up to Rx strength azelaic acid soon. 
  
  
• SEPHORA COLLECTION Dry Shampoo Brush Cleaner - I'm glad it's back and the reformulation works well. I use it on my squirrel brushes between true washings, so I go through cans of it pretty quickly. 
  
  
• The INKEY List SuperSolutions 10% Urea Moisturizer Textured Skin Solution 1.7 oz / 50 mL - I've been using this on my neck and as a nighttime hand cream, applying it after my nightly hand/nail oil. Sometimes I need to top it with Aquaphor Ointment around my nails. But I like this moisturizer enough to buy another tube. 

Expanding the family 👩‍👧‍👦: 

• Boy Smells Thé Fantôme Candle - according to reviews, the smokiness throws a lot of people. Not me: I like smokiness. Heck, 99% of “smoky scented" candles are not smoky enough for me. 😄 I already have and love Boy Smells Hinoki Fantôme Candle 8.5 oz / 240 g Candle so it's about time I adopt her sibling. And speaking of that fragrance... 
  
  
• Boy Smells Hinoki Fantôme Eau de Parfum Travel Spray 0.34 oz / 10 mL eau de parfum spray - I have (and love) a full size bottle of Violet Ends. Hinoki Fantôme is Violet's slightly tamer sibling. HF is great for layering with other fragrances. I'm also considering Boy Smells Marble Fruit Eau de Parfum Travel Spray .34 oz / 10 mL eau de parfum spray but I'm not fully sold on it yet, though freesia is among my favorite florals. (I have tester vials of Hinoki Fantôme and Marble Fruit from the Boy Smells discovery set sold at Sephora.) 
  
  
• Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder Flushed - Matte Color for Cheek & Lip - I have Golden Hour and will add another shade. Just need to decide which one. 
  
  
• Natasha Denona Mini Love Eyeshadow Palette 5 x 0.028 oz/ 0.8g - despite being tired of certain brands' flood of pink palettes, I wouldn't mind having this mini for travel. I'd definitely buy this instead of the full size (eh, midi size) Love palette. 

Haunting me 👻: 

• Natasha Denona Pastel Eyeshadow Palette - I’ve kept talking myself out of this since it launched because I’m not normally big on pastel eyeshadows. But this palette always reads (to me) as Circo Loco’s pale sister—and Circo Loco is one of my favorite palettes by any brand. Hmm… Pastel might end up being a Rouge Reward item instead of an OOP purchase. 
  
  
• SEPHORA COLLECTION Spice Market Contour Powder & Blush Palette 5 x 0.123 oz/ 3.48 g - don’t need it but I’ve almost bought it so many times by now, I might as well just grab it already. Especially since it’s already marked down. 

TBD 🔮: 

• If Pat McGrath's liquid eyeshadows and/or new shades of SatinAllure lipstick hit Sephora during this sale, I might buy a shade or two. 
  
  
• I'd love to have more fun shades of SEPHORA COLLECTION Retractable Rouge Gel Lip Liner but doubt any will be added soon.
  
  
• "Hey, there are no lipsticks on your list besides this TBD section! What the heck?!" Yeah, that's partly me trying to keep my hoard under 500 lipsticks. 🤦‍♀️ We'll see how I manage. 

[Loretta55]

Not trying to enable @WinglessOne but Youth to the People direct has a sale at the moment of 25% off plus an additional 25% off using code 3-STEP-KIT.

[WinglessOne]

Thanks for the heads-up, @Loretta55 ! I was gonna buy that YTTP serum anyway to continue my test, so I happily jumped over to their site 5 minutes ago to order a full size bottle for ~$39! 🙂 

[Loretta55]

Glad to help @WinglessOne.

[Mellmars1185]

@WinglessOne Well thought out list. The DM blurring balm seems to be a hit! Great job on resisting lipsticks!

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @Mellmars1185 ! Gotta confess that I did very recently buy 2 lipsticks while YSL was 4x points at Sephora. All the more reason to resist buying more lipstick during the upcoming sale. 😂

[CookieGirl1]

Good range, @WinglessOne. I mean, you're covering a lot of ground here 😉. 

[WinglessOne]

@CookieGirl1  Gotta get a little bit of everything! Or, almost everything: no hair or nail products. Not yet, anyway. 

[CynthieLu]

Wow! This is a very thought out list @WinglessOne it's impressive! ‌😀‌

Have you used the Inkey lists Azelaic Acid? Just wondering on thoughts on it vs Paula's Choice if you'd used the two?

[WinglessOne]

@CynthieLu  I finished a tube of The Inkey List's azelaic acid serum last month. It might be a good option for folks who hate the texture of The Ordinary Azelaic Acid 10% Suspension Brightening Cream but want something slightly thinner and much less expensive than Paula's Choice 10% Azelaic Acid Booster 1 oz/ 30 mL . TIL's cream played nice with my skin (no irritation), didn't pill, and penetrated quickly. 

I occasionally alternated TIL's cream with my usual Paula's Choice azelaic acid cream. I noticed that after several mornings and nights of using TIL, switching back to PC for a night caused some itchiness. That's a common side effect of azelaic acid that's temporary for many people, including me: the PC cream made my face itch the first several times I ever used it, and then my skin acclimated and that side effect disappeared. So feeling it again made me wonder if the azelaic acid in TIL's azelaic cream was really penetrating my skin deep enough to be effective, compared to the PC azelaic acid. I can't test that myself since I'm not a chemist and don't have a lab. 😄 Besides, it could be that TIL's is formulated specifically to reduce the itchiness: both azelaic acid creams contain anti-inflammatory allantoin. PC's contains additional skin soothers though, so... hmm. I also noticed TIL's cream wasn't as effective as PC's at reducing PIH (post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation). That doesn't mean TIL's cream isn't effective at all though, and other people's results may vary. 

I'm currently testing Peach Slices Redness Relief Azelaic Acid Serum, another 10% azelaic acid option. It contains centella asiatica, one of my skin's favorite anti-inflammation ingredients, plus allantoin and panthenol. It has a much thinner lotion texture than the TIL and PC creams. It costs $2 USD more than TIL's cream. So far, I like it better than TIL's. 

[danielledanielle]

@WinglessOne , I usually wait out the direct site for Hyper Skin Brightening Dark Spot Vitamin C Serum 1 oz/ 30 mL for a discount.  Sometimes they clear inventory, and you can get 25%.  Black Friday is usually a discount, once it was BOGO, last year was 35%.  They also started their own rewards program.