The annual 20% off sale for Sephora VIB members is one of the best online sales ever! This beauty geek gets so excited each time one of these sales rolls around. Sephora doesn’t generally hold sitewide sales for the general public, so these few-and-far-between Beauty Insider discounts are a great opportunity to stock up on beauty goodies while you can.

I didn’t spend a whole lot on the 15% off VIB sale this past spring, but this time around I was ready and waiting to give Sephora my money. Because the sale runs for a few days and they allow you to place multiple orders, I actually took advantage of the sale twice…so I got quite a haul compared to my last one.   🙂

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A peek at my November VIB sale goodies!

Here’s the full list of products that I ordered:

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Unboxed and ready for use!

Let’s dive right in, shall we? First up is the Verb Hydrate Kit. I recently used up some shampoo and conditioner and I wanted to try something new. Verb is an Austin-born brand that makes cruelty-free products that are also free of parabens, sulfates, and gluten. This particular kit contains a 12 oz Hydrating Shampoo, 12 oz Hydrating Conditioner, and 8 oz Leave-In Mist. I like the clean fragrance of these three products; there are so many hair care products out there with overwhelming powdery or floral scents, but this is not one of them. The shampoo lathers up nicely and both the conditioner and leave-in mist give my hair a soft feel. I’m pretty satisfied with this purchase so far!

Verb Hydrate Kit

Next is a product I’ve been threatening promising to buy ever since I got a sample size in the Sephora Favorites Soko to Tokyo set this fall: boscia Charcoal Pore Pudding Intensive Wash-Off Treatment. I really do love this mask! It’s nice that the full sized version comes with a mini spatula-spoon (spatoon?) to keep your grubby fingers from introducing bacteria into the tub.*

boscia Charcoal Pore Pudding Intensive Wash-Off Treatment

I’ve been such a fan of Urban Decay’s Naked eye shadow palettes that I really haven’t bought shadow from another brand in quite a long time. When this sale rolled around I decided to try something different, so I picked out the Power Neutrals palette (color option: The Power Neutrals) from bareMinerals. This palette features eight neutral shades—some matte and some shimmer.

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Top row, L to R: Boss Lady, Moneymaker, Schmooze, Boardroom. Bottom row, L to R: Exec, Payday, Magnate, Get Ahead

I swatched the shades on my arm so you can get an idea of  how they look on actual skin. From left to right: Boss Lady, Moneymaker, Schmooze, Boardroom, Exec, Payday, Magnate, Get Ahead.

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I’ve used a few of the shades so far. I like the colors and the shimmer shadows don’t have giant flecks of glitter like some of Urban Decay’s. These shadows do have more fallout and are less pigmented than UD. This will be a good neutral palette, especially for travel; it’s a lot more compact than UD’s standard sized Naked palettes. I’m not overly impressed, though.

I was in the mood for some new lip treats, so I actually ordered three lip products! The first is ILIA Tinted Lip Conditioner in the color Shell Shock. I’ve only tried one ILIA product before and I decided the VIB sale was a good enough excuse as any to try another one. I selected this shade after looking at a bunch of swatches from beauty bloggers.

ILIA Tinted Lip Conditioner in Shell Shock

This lip color looks quite coral in the tube, but on my lips it has more of a pink tint. It’s very moisturizing and has a bit of shine to it. This lip treatment will be great for those days when I feel like wearing a little color but nothing too bold.

ILIA Tinted Lip Conditioner in Shell Shock

The next lip product I picked up is the tarte Tarteist Quick Dry Matte Lip Paint in Bestie, a deep nude shade from their Holiday Kiss Collection. The tube’s cap has a cute limited edition Pucci-reminiscent design:

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I have basically zero experience with these newfangled liquid matte lipsticks, and I must say I was slightly horrified by the color of this one when I first applied it to my lips. But it very quickly dried down to a lovely nude that actually works well on me! This full coverage formula does not fuck around—it seriously does not budge. It does feel very dry, though, so as someone who has to have balm on my lips at all times I can’t handle not patting a light layer of lip balm on top of this product…which kind of defeats the purpose of wearing a matte lipstick. I don’t mind the look of this lipstick when it’s a touch less mattified, though, so overall I’m still pleased with it.

tarte Tarteist Quick Dry Matte Lip Paint in Bestie

The third lip product I bought is the The EstĂ©e Edit The Barest Lip Color in In the Buff.  Can you tell I was in the mood for nudes? This is my first purchase from the brand and I was intrigued by this oh-so-90s brown shade. I looked at beauty bloggers’ swatches of all six Barest Lip Color shades and decided that this nude mauve was right up my alley.

The Estée Edit The Barest Lip Color in In the Buff

The color looks SUPER brown in the tube, but goes on the lips as a shiny, sheer pinky-brown. I absolutely love this lipstick! It’s very moisturizing and will be an excellent everyday lip color for me. I haven’t tested out this idea yet, but I think it would work very well layered on top of Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide-On Lip Pencil in 1993.

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I swatched the three lip products on my arm, too, in case you’re interested in seeing how they look on very fair skin.

Swatches: ILIA Tinted Lip Conditioner in Shell Shock, tarte Tarteist Quick Dry Matte Lip Paint in Bestie, The Estée Edit The Barest Lip Color in In the Buff
L to R: ILIA Tinted Lip Conditioner in Shell Shock, tarte Tarteist Quick Dry Matte Lip Paint in Bestie, The Estée Edit The Barest Lip Color in In the Buff

My final purchase was a 1 oz tube of Supergoop! Forever Young Hand Cream Broad Spectrum Sunscreen SPF 40 PA+++. This was a repurchase—I bought this cream awhile back and am really liking it, so I figured I might as well stock up before I run out! I’m totally on board the Supergoop! train. 🙂

Between my two orders I spent $166.36, for an average of $18.48 per product (when you count the Verb kit as three separate items). Shipping on both orders was free! I made it a point to buy only products that are paraben-free, and most of them are also sulfate and phthalate-free. I’m very happy with my VIB haul this time around.

Did you take advantage of the VIB sale? If so, what did you end up buying for yourself (or others)?

*I get that bacteria from your hands can transfer to the product in the tub, but come on—you should really wash your hands before you use them to slather anything on your face.

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