Sephora VIB Sale Recommendations

Dear Beauty Lover,

As you may know, the Sephora VIB sale is coming up soon. The Sephora VIB sale is a twice yearly sale on Sephora items that seldom go on sale. In other words, it’s an excuse to spend money at Sephora. In the fall the sale is usually for 20% for VIB & VIB Rouge and 15% for Beauty Insiders. This sale spring is less impressive at 15% for VIB & VIB Rouge and 10% for Beauty Insider, but it’s better than nothing. I’d recommend only buying things you’d want to buy at full price, because sales can make you buy way more than you would otherwise.

Here are the dates for the sale:

VIB Rouge: April 13-16 & April 20-23rd (15% off with the code YAYROUGE)

VIB: April 20-23rd (15% off with the code YAYVIB)

VIB: April 20-23rd (10% off with the code YAYINSIDER)

Note: to get this discount you need to sign up for Sephora’s rewards program. You are automatically a Beauty Insider, and when you spend X amount of dollars a year you become VIB and VIB Rouge. To learn more check it out here.

Ok, now that the logistics are out of the way, time to get to my recommendations. I don’t have a ton because I honestly believe that a lot of things at lower prices are just as good. With that in mind, here are the things I recommend:If you’ve been reading my posts for a while, this one will be no surprise: The Original Beauty Blender. I love this stupidly expensive sponge and always stock up during sales. As I’ve mentioned before, there are cheaper drugstore alternatives but I always come back to this pink egg. For posts related to this sponge check out:

• Fresh and Glowy Makeup
• Makeup Sponges
• Top 5 Makeup Tools

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder: This isn’t something I talk about a lot on the blog but it is something I absolutely adore. These powders are expensive and sometimes it’s hard to understand exactly what they do. This is a finishing powder, which means at the end of your makeup (before setting spray!) you take a brush and sweep it all over your face. For some reason, this makes all the difference for me. I find it makes my makeup look more blended and overall flawless. I wouldn’t say this is “necessary” for someone starting out in makeup, but I would highly recommend it to someone trying to up their makeup. In addition, any Hourglass powders are great for mature skin as they never look heavy or settle into lines. Both my mom and step-mom are big Hourglass users. (sorry for the expensive habit I got them into 😉 ). I currently own the Dim Light powder, however it is sometimes a TAD dark for my skin. I am considering getting a lighter shade in this sale. My recommendation is to go swatch them if you can. If you can’t then Dim Light is the most popular one and generally a good call, unless you’re much lighter than me. Not going to lie, it’s really hard to show you a picture of the effects of this powder. However, in the picture below I am wearing it. I have pretty large pores on my nose and cheeks as well as texture between my brows. This picture has *no* retouching, so hopefully you can see the powder’s smoothing effects.

Stila Glitter & Glow Liquid Eyeshadow: This is a super unique product that I highly recommend if you like glitter. I have an entire blog post dedicated to it. I personally own the shade Diamond Dust which is described as a “sheer silver & multicolor” glitter. I got this one because I believed it would be extremely versatile for me, and it has been. It’s a super easy way to apply glitter and I find is not bad with fall out (glitter that falls onto the face).  I am actually wearing it on the center of my eyelids in the picture above.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz: This is the eyebrow pencil that I have been loyal to for about 3 years now. I’m all about drugstore makeup, but I consistently dole out the $21 for this brow pencil. I’ve heard that the NYX MicroBrow Pencil is just as good, but I’ve never found a good color. I just find it deposits the right amount of product and comes in a great shade for me. I am wearing this brow pencil in the picture above. If you’ve struggled to find a cheaper alternative, I highly recommend giving this brow pencil a try.

Bare Minerals Serum Concealer: I originally got this on a recommendation from the YouTuber Jamie Paige. She described it as a light weight and moisturizing concealer, which sounded right up my alley as I constantly struggled with eczema and extreme dry skin around my eyes. All my other concealers made my eyes look crepe-y. To be honest, I wasn’t huge into this concealer, but the more I use it the more I love it. I find it extremely versatile; I use it around my eyes, as a spot concealer, and all over my face as a light “foundation” (granted not the cheapest thing to do, but hey I love the look!). I, of course, use my beloved Beauty Blender to blend out this concealer. I use the shade Fair in winter and alternate between Fair and Light in summer. I used it in my most recent blog post, here. Below is a picture of me with it as my only coverage product.

Briogeo Scalp Revival Charcoal + Coconut Oil Micro-exfoliating Shampoo: This is a recent recommendation for me. I just bought this for the first time at the end of February when Briogeo was having a sale. Something I haven’t really spoken much about on the blog is my struggle with skin problems. I’ve had eczema my whole life with a lot of skin sensitivities. Specifically, I am allergic to fragrance and extremely sensitive to lavender in particular. In the past few years, I’ve moved to eliminate most scented things from my life, to the great benefit of my skin. However, I had started really struggling with an itchy and flaky scalp. I was finding it particularly difficult to find a solution given my fragrance free restriction. For the past two years, I’d been using unscented tar shampoo about once a week to manage the itchiness. But in reality, it shouldn’t have been so permanent. Recently, I came across this Briogeo shampoo and thought it sounded amazing, until I discovered it had fragrance in it. However, through my research I found out the fragrances were naturally sourced (think essential oils) and I reached out and was told the shampoo did not have lavender in it (even if it’s a naturally derived fragrance, if it has lavender in it it’s game over for me). I decided to buy one container of this shampoo just to see if it worked for me, and WOW did it ever work for me. I’m happy to report that with a month and a half of using it every time I was my hair I have seen a drastic improvement in my scalp. So, if you’ve been having similar issues I urge you to try this shampoo. Unfortunately, it is expensive but for me it is worth it to reduce the itchiness of my scalp! Note: it now comes in a set with a brush, oil, and conditioner. I will be buying this (and every other product in this line) during the sale!

Any of the Sephora sets!  Maybe you’re newer to makeup and looking to try out a bunch of products. In this situation, I recommend buying the Sephora sets as they let you try a variety of products at a reasonable price. Here are some of the ones that have caught my eye and that I would recommend:

• Give Me Some Lip
• Give Me Some Nude Lip
• Perfume Sampler (this is cool because you get to try the perfumes and then you can get one of the full sizes with a coupon in the kit)
• Iconic Hair Cult Classics
• Lashstash to Go Set (this is cool because you get to try the mascaras and then you can get one of the full sizes with a coupon in the kit)

Anyways, these are my recommendations! I hope you find them useful and please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about these or any other products.

Xo Sophie

P.S. I’ve been posting my makeup more frequently on my Instagram Story so come on over to check it out! I’m at Sophs_10