Sephora Haul

A little while back, Sephora caused a major stir in the Australian beauty world by telling us they were going to ship to Australia. They then backtracked and said it was a mistake and they would be unable to ship to Australia for the foreseeable future. Mass outrage ensued! For a brief moment, the world of US cosmetics was open to us before Sephora slammed the door on that glimmer of hope. 

Anyway, right after this Sephora debacle, I was in the US for a holiday (if you follow me on Instagram, I’m sure you would have been annoyed by my plethora of seen my holiday snaps). I have been dying to go to a Sephora store for ages and I was amazed when I was in New York to see about 5 Sephora stores within a few minutes of our hotel. I managed to stop myself immediately rushing in and buying everything and waited until the end of our stay to pop in and pick up some goodies. The store was amazing and while I did walk out with a very sad bank account, I feel like I was quite restrained! So here are all the wonderful products I picked up (prices in USD & converted to AUD for rough comparison, US prices don’t include tax either, it’s added on at the end).

1. Benefit The POREfessional Agent Zero Shine ($30.00 USD/$32.44 AUD for 7g) – I have been lusting after Agent Zero Shine since I first heard about it. It was very recently released in Australia but it retails for $44.00 here so I decided to wait and grab it in the US instead. It comes in a really nifty tube with a powder dispenser at one end and a twist out brush at the other. This is ridiculously handy for touch ups on the go as you can just throw the whole thing into your handbag. I tested it out in Hawaii (the second half of our trip) and was very impressed with how well it stood up against the humidity. I have since been using it as a setting powder, it’s very fine and a light to medium toned colour but it blends out so I think it would match most skin tones. 

2. Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette ($52.00 USD/$56.23 AUD) – The Naked 2 is my absolute favourite palette EVER so I knew that I would end up purchasing the Naked 3 at some stage too. I did consider purchasing from Beauty Bay of HairHQ but I figured that since I would be in the US, I might as well wait. The Naked 3 is made up of 12 rose-toned neutrals and has a mix of matte, pearl and shimmer finishes. I haven’t used it enough to decide whether I like it better than the Naked 2 but the colours are beautiful and I am keen to wear them…. a lot! Standout shades are Buzz, Burnout and Blackheart.

Naked 3 swatches

3. Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Original ($12.00 USD/$12.97 AUD for 6ml) – This was not on my original Sephora shopping list but I saw it as I was walking towards the checkout and it must have somehow jumped into my basket! I did have some self-restraint and only picked up the mini size because the Naked 3 palette came with some primer potion sample pods. I somehow always imagined that this had a doe foot applicator but it’s actually just a squeezy tube, not that it’s a bad thing! You only need a teeny amount of this and it really does help with eyeshadow wear.

4. Tarte Bright by Night Skincare Discovery Set ($10.00 USD/$10.81 AUD) – This was another product that I didn’t plan on buying but I’ve heard such good things about Tarte and it was only $10 so into the basket it went! This mini set includes a Maracuja Oil and a Maracuja C-Brighter Eye Treatment. These are very small sizes but as you only use the tiniest amount, I’m hoping they will last a while, also the full size Maracuja Oil is incredibly expensive so I’m not sure if I would repurchase it. I’ve really enjoyed using both of these products so far, my skin seems to love the Maracuja Oil especially. 

5. Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette ($28.00 USD/$30.27 AUD) – I swear I didn’t mean to buy this! I only really wanted to get the Naked 3 but I guess I went a little crazy for Urban Decay, and as it’s so hard to track down in Australia, can you really blame me? The Naked Basics is the little sister to the original Naked palette and contains matte shades including a black (yay!). I think this will be a very handy palette for travelling because it’s the perfect size and has enough shades to create a few different looks. 

Naked Basics swatches

6. Benefit Dr Feelgood Mini ($9.00 USD/$9.75 AUD for 8g) – It was so nice to see so many sample size products available, good for your bank account but still lets you try out a enough product to form an opinion. I had never heard of Dr Feelgood before seeing it in Sephora and I actually thought it was a lip balm. It has a similar kind of consistency but it’s actually a complexion balm designed to mattify and reduce the visibility of pores. It comes in an adorable little tin with a sponge for easy, mess free application. I really like this so far and it works well either as a primer or on its own. 

7. Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer Light Mini ($10.00 USD/$10.81 for 12ml) – I have never owned a Smashbox product before (oh, the shame of it!) but I’ve heard their primers are the bomb-diggity so when I saw this one in a sample size, I had to grab it. To be honest, I thought it was good but I was expecting to have my socks knocked off and it was just a bit “meh”. It also had a weird smell, kind of a chemical or gluey scent and not at all pleasant! I’ll happily use the rest of it because there’s nothing overly wrong with it but I think there are better primers out there. 

8. Nars The Narsissit Cheek Kit ($49.00 USD/$53.11 AUD) – This was very top of my wishlist when I visited the US. This kit contains the Devotee highlighter, Orgasm blush and Laguna bronzer, in other words, three of Nars’ best sellers rolled into one convenient kit AND a travel blush brush too. I have been torn between wanting to use this all the time and dreading using too much because I don’t want to finish it. I think this is worth every cent, I adore it!

And that was my first ever Sephora haul! It was amazing to visit a Sephora store for real instead of fantasy shopping online! Their customer service was really good too, the sales staff were really attentive and very helpful and the lovely lady at the checkout even threw in some free samples for me when I mentioned I was from Australia and couldn’t get a lot of their products (yup, I boo-hooed and got rewarded, not proud..). All up, very glad that I made the effort to visit Sephora, now if they would just hurry up and ship to Australia, I would love them even more!

Side note: So as I am typing this, the beauty world is going crazy with the news that Sephora is going to be opening a store in Australia, GAAAAAAHHH! I do most of my posts in advance so this news is now a week old but still, my excited pants are firmly on! I sincerely hope that Sephora actually comes through on this promise, they would not do well to disappoint Aussie beauty fans AGAIN.

Stay beautiful!

Dani xx

PS - My cat, Earl, decided that he wanted to be a part of this post so here he is with the Naked 3 palette.