Holidays at Sephora | Gift Sets from Boscia, Kat Von D and Atelier Cologne OH MY!

I'm not very good at holiday gift guides because I always want to talk about one thing at a time, but as much as I wanted to devote a single post to each one of these glorious gift sets, my work schedule is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. I am not disciplined enough to get up at 6am to blog and with hubby away in Montreal seeing his family, I have been having trouble sleeping. Someone told me to go and pick up a body pillow since I am missing the presence of a body in the bed. Cat sandwiches just don't cut it.

I thought these gift sets were pretty cute and made me really happy when I received them so I thought I would share the love!

August Empties!

August 2012 Glymm Bag

For those of you looking forward to Yoshi presenting, I am sorry, but he was just not in the mood. He was crammed in a corner and unwilling to even give the camera a glance…

I am one month away from the end of my year long relationship with Glymm and this month’s bag is not making me want to renew my subscription which makes me a little bit sad. I don’t want to break up! I feel like once those jellybeans disappeared from our boxes, things went a little downhill. I hope that the items I received add up to $10 because there isn’t one full-sized or even travel-sized item in this month’s bag!

Here is what I received this in this month’s Glymm Bag:

 

I haven’t been a fan of the makeup bags we have received so far, but like a lot of other people, I LOVE this month’s bag! I love patent leather so this is perfect!

Naked Shine Luscious Lip Gloss in Barely Nude

This sexy gloss stimulates collagen, is non-tacky and plumps your lips ever so gently.

Thoughts: This is a tiny sample! I actually think this will be the first lip gloss I will fully finish in awhile! The colour is quite nice and smells and feels great on the lips.

Full size: 2.96mL/$26.00

I received: 0.24mL/$2.11

The Laundress Delicate Wash in Lady

Take care of your beautiful delicates and lingerie with a wash that's effective yet gentle.

Thoughts: I do handwash some of my delicates so I will use this sample. I thought this was an interesting addition to this month’s Glymm bag.

Full size: 500mL/$22.00

I received: 15mL/$0.66

Mai Couture Highlighter Paper in St.Barts

The Papier collection by Mai Couture exudes novelty and modernism.
Whether you need coverage, color or highlights you’ll find a quick and effective solution.

Thoughts: I love the concept of having a single sheet be enough to highlight your face, but I don’t think I would ever spend the money on these considering how expensive they are.

Full size: 50 sheets/$26 (at the most)

I received: 2 sheets/$1.04

Vitamine & Sea Mineral Clay Mask

This natural facial mask made with clay directly from the Dead Sea will tingle as it softly exfoliates, eliminates toxins, promotes circulation, cleanses and strengthens your skin.

Thoughts: It smells exactly what I would imagine a volcano would smell like! This smells very old and “fossil-esque”. It’s not my favourite scent and I hope it does more good to my skin than to my olfactory buds.

Full size: 210mL/$62.00

I received: 10mL?/$2.95

Bentaberry G-1 Moisturizing Face Cream for Boys and Girls

This cream is made from 100% natural active ingredients: burdock, jasmine, mandarin, blueberry, white dead-nettle and zinc pidolate.

Thoughts: I guess this face cream had better be good what with the extra long product name and the ongoing list of natural ingredients! I’m having a hard time figuring out what zinc pidolate does which sort of bothers me…

Full size: 30mL/$22.00

I received: 3mL/$2.20

Atelier Cologne Vanille Insensee

An electrical current runs through the subtle sweetness of vanilla, jasmine and fresh lime to bond with rich oak moss, woods and spicy coriander.

Thoughts: I loved the Orange Sanguine sample I received before so I had high hopes for Vanille Insensee as well. I do like the scent, but I think I prefer a more citrus-like scent. The vanilla scent will be nice for the coming colder months.

Full size: 30mL/$70.00 – this is $65 on ebeauty.ca

I received: 1.2mL?/$2.60 – we’ll go with the lowest pricing

Total Value of Glymm Bag: $11.56…I’m not including the actual bag for $12 because I signed up for product and not packaging. Value was a little disappointing this month, but I did a cute makeup bag out of it. Those that received the full-sized nail polish definitely got the better Glymm bag this month!

eBeauty.ca (Very Reasonable!) Mini Haul

 

Thanks to a heads up from Margo at City Girl, I decided to take advantage of ebeauty’s 20% coupon for this month. I was a good girl and only got things I had really been pining for.

Atelier Cologne in Orange Sanguine 30mL ($55)

Ever since I received a sample of this in April’s Glymm Box I have been in love, but it is a pricier perfume and not readily available in a lot of department stores or the Shopper’s Beauty Boutique. You can find this fragrance on the Glymm website, but the 30mL bottle is $5 more and I’d rather use my last Glymm points on Butter London polishes. Wouldn’t you? If you haven’t guessed already, this smells like oranges! Blood oranges to be more precise. What’s nice about the bottle is that the pump is removable for splash or spray use. The label on the bottle is actually covering a very long plastic tube that you can use to dab the fragrance on your skin. The other interesting thing is that there was a little card inside the box that said there were refills available and that all I had to do was email and they would send me a metal funnel. I just don’t know where I’d get the refills from!

LaVanila – The Healthy Deodorant in Vanilla Grapefruit

I love the Vanilla Grapefruit fragrance so I thought the deodorant would be just as appealing…it wasn’t…it smelled like neither to me actually, but the scent overall was still quite pleasant. I currently use a salt-based deodorant which I love because there is no scent or any scary ingredients so I’m really excited to start using this to see how it works for me.

Boscia Vanilla Blotting Linens

I actually didn’t think I would be able to smell the vanilla, but you really can! These will make a great addition to my purse for touch-ups during the day and I have a feeling I am going to love these! The blotting linens are a great size and more than enough for the entire face!

Did anyone else take advantage of ebeauty’s promotion?