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!

[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.

[WinglessOne]

@danielledanielle  Ah, thanks for the heads-up! This reminds me to get on Hyper Skin's mailing list. I'll need a restock by the time Sephora's sale starts, so I might as well take advantage of Sephora's discount (or use my rouge reward beforehand) unless Hyper offers a better discount at the same time. I'll definitely plan for a Black Friday direct purchase, though. 

[cianni]

@WinglessOne i have the solar paint and love it! mine is in the shade flare, but if you'd like i'd be happy to swatch it for you so you can see how glowy it is! i use it for the exact reason you mentioned - i'm not a huge fan of powder bronzer (i'm still a little scarred from my middle school days when i literally used bronzer as foundation..... the kids now have it SO much easier learning about products, their uses and undertones....), but i apply a bit of the solar paint around the perimeter of my face and blend it out just to add some warmth and a little dimension, as i dont contour very often

ETA - i picked up the Spice Market palette while marked down a few months ago because it was haunting me for YEARS. i think it first went on my radar back when certain items used to be announced at 50% off for one day only, and the sneak peeks would be here on the BIC. i swatched it and everything, but then it only went on sale in the US so i didn't pick it up. honestly, no regrets waiting. i use it all the time (not to be an enabler)

[WinglessOne]

@cianni  Thanks for offering to swatch Flare. I'm going to visit one of my local Sephoras tomorrow—err, today since it's well past midnight now—and they have Solar Paints in-store, so hopefully I can swatch a Volt tester in person. 🙂 

I don't contour at all, unless you count the very strategic way I apply concealer(s) to my undereyes. I just like to color-correct my perimeter hyperpigmentation and brighten it a bit with warm slightly red/orange/copper toned products. bareMinerals Gen Nude Blonzer Blush + Bronzer Kiss of Copper is one of my faves for that, but sometimes it can look a bit too metallic. It's tricky to find the right color balance that works on those large patches of skin without making them look grey or obliterating them with red/orange/etc. At least those patches aren't as dark as they used to be, thanks to my skincare routine. 

And I hear you on resisting the Spice Market palette for years. I've had it in and out of my basket more times than I can count for longer than I can recall. 😂 Good to know you get a lot of use out of it! 

[ionianblue]

McGrath makes liquid eyeshadows?!😮 ..... another item to shop the sale for ✔

[WinglessOne]

@ionianblue  She does! FetishEYES Longwear Liquid Eyeshadow launched last month as part of the Love collection. I don't know if they'll hit Sephora, but I assume they might since Bergdorf Goodman's getting them. I've heard folks say Pat's liquid shadows are very similar in look, performance, and INCI list to Lisa Eldridge's. I already have (and like) 3 of Lisa's, so I'm curious to try one of Pat's for comparison. 

[ather]

@WinglessOne  Wow! Impressive. I am shocked with the lack of lipsticks but if you’re trying to keep your stash down that makes perfect sense. I love how you categorized it all.  I like how most of the smoky scents aren’t smoky enough for you. I did not know that is possible! I can’t say I’ve had a smoky candle but I’ve tested a few smoky perfumes before but now I need to smell more to see if I have a threshold of to smoky. I guess it’s never been a scent I’ve leaned towards! Can’t wait to see what actually makes it into your haul!! 

[WinglessOne]

@ather  Adequately smoky fragrances are much easier to find in EdP format than candle format, at least for me. I've got some very smoky fragrances. I wish Le Labo would make a Patchouli 24 candle: that fragrance smells nothing like patchouli; it makes me smell like a bbq pit master. 😄 I often layer it with other fragrances to lend a good smoky backbone. And it's not even the strongest smokiest fragrance I own. 

But yeah, if it wasn't for rules of my lease, fire safety regulations, and my very sensitive smoke detector, I'd build a fire pit in my living room. A true wood-burning fireplace (or fire pit, or bonfire) scent is one of my favorites. I can see why many people aren't fond of very smoky fragrances. Kinda like how I'm not fond of very sweet vanilla and/or powdery fragrances. So when I find a truly smoke scented candle, I get very happy.