Every holiday season Sephora releases their own themed collection (with a cute winter mascot) with this year being a frosted winter wonderland party featuring an active chubby little penguin. There were a lot of great value sets with my favourites always being the masks and advent calendars although this year I was both very excited and greatly disappointed and I think you will understand why!
I was really excited about the holiday lash sets because for the most part, they looked fairly wearable. The Sephora Collection #LashStories each pair off with a #Lipstories lipstick and not only come in super cute packaging, but are also great quality for the price. The are cruelty-free and look natural because they naturally taper like real lashes at the ends. I also received a higher price point set of lashes from Lilly Lashes ($33.00 CDN) that I have alway been curious about trying, but wasn't sure if they would be too much for my face. The limited edition ornament has some insanely big lashes for me, but they do feel incredibly weightless! This would be a super cute gift for someone with a bigger eye, but from what I see available on the Sephora website, all of the lashes are pretty dramatic.
Next up, are the eyeshadow palettes which traditionally I always have VERY good luck with! I have almost panned a few shades of last year's Midnight Wishes palette! I received the Winter Eyes 14 Eyeshadow Palette* and the Winter Time Eye and Face Palette*, both of which are fairly neutral palettes with the occasional dark smoky shade. While these shadows aren't the most buttery in texture, the colour payoff is decent though not as pigmented as say Natasha Denona's eyeshadows.
The Sephora Cream Lip Stains were sort of my first foray into the whole pigmented lip cream trend and though I don't use this type of formula as often, they were and still are a solid formula. Compared to last year's set, I found this year's shade choices more wearable as there wasn't a vampy or a super pale shade like before. There are two metallic finishes in pink and red which are perfect for holiday and New Year's parties though wearing them in an office or on the day to day seem a bit much. I remember just wearing an intensely red lipstick one morning on my commute and I felt a bit out of place, but at the same time it's nice to own it and stand out from the crowd!
Sephora killed it with masks this past year and these Instant Face Masks* look like the cutest things ever! There are six "flavours" in total and while I have all of them, I still have yet to try one...I know my bad, but I am WAY better about using sheet masks instead of liquid masks. Maybe that will be one of my new beauty resolutions for 2020 - use masks OTHER than sheet masks. The masks I am looking forward to trying out are the Grapefruit Peeling and Peppermint Gum Masks!
So far, I haven't had one truly negative thing to say until now...the Frosted Party Advent Calendar*. I was unboxing daily on IG Stories until I realized how bleh the items were getting. This is a 24 day calendar that is supposed to be a mixture of makeup, bath, skincare and "accessories" for $60 CDN (Valued at $86). I should have looked more closely at the back of the box before getting excited because I was pretty disappointed at both contents and value.
While I was quite happy with the masks and inclusion of full sized products like the #LipStories lipstick and Watermelon Lip Balm, I found the bath and accessories portions quite cheap. I also didn't like the fact that for four separate days, I received the SAME thing - a set of eye makeup remover wipes and hair elastics. There was also a set of nail stencils that I don't even know will work the way they should because they look so low in quality and more like an afterthought.
I also don't think accessories like this tiny mirror or penguin pin should count as actual things to open up in a $60 calendar.
In general, the Sephora Holiday Collection was fun and had a ton of great gift options as I know that if someone decided to take on the challenge of giving me makeup, I would have been happy with everything (and about 40% of the advent calendar)! I know that advent calendars can be expensive, but at least fill it with different items for each day and definitely don't include things that you can't even buy in store. Generally, I am a big fan of the Sephora Collection and have found some great gems over the years especially in skincare. I hope everyone had a fun Christmas and I will see you all in the New Year!
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