samples

Beauty Insider Points CAN Expire but Don’t Panic

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Lighting in Sephora

If you’re a lunatic beauty hobbyist, you’ve probably heard that Sephora has altered its policy regarding Beauty Insider Points. Before, you could hoard them five-ever and spend them on ridiculous 1000+ swag. Now they have a shelf life.

People are losing their shit.

Twitter is aflame with disgruntled point junkies customers who feel that this new policy is an attack on freebies they are entitled to not actually entitled to. Oh for the love of highlighted cats it’s a war on our deluxe minis.

Don’t get me wrong – I love freebies, point perks, and gifts with purchase. I love that marketing strategy – what better a way to get us to buy product than to give us tiny versions to become obsessed with? At the end of the day, it sucks when perks change – but you aren’t owed freebies. And besides that…

Have you Read the Policy Change?

No? Are you freaking out?

  1. Chill.
  2. Read the policy.

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Value Sets

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Throughout the year (but especially during the holidays!) retailers and brands offer samplers or value sets where you pay $X amount for several products. Like anything else, some are hits, some are misses. I’ve bit on a few of these before – a Marc Jacobs rollerball trio three years ago for $39 (still have more than half of each – definitely happy with that purchase!), The Too Faced Everything Nice Holiday 2014 Set for $59 (while I still love most of the shadows in this, if I were doing it over with over a year of hindsight, I’m not sure I would have purchased).

What I’ve never purchased for myself, however, are the Sephora-curated value sets. It’s foolish really, because some of them have been really good. I think value sets are a great way to a) try new product without committing to a full-price, full-size; b) a good way to revive your collection; and c) Sample sizes are always great for purses and travel.

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Urban Vices Point Perk

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During the 20% off Sephora VIB sale, I lost my mind slightly and went for the Urban Vices Point Perk, blowing 500 of my Beauty Insider points. I was going to spend 100 points on a setting powder, but they ran out. I’ve been banking points for a bit (but not because of the point disaster earlier this year), so why the hell not?

Urban Vices Point PerkUrban Vices Point Perk – Urban Decay for Sephora

The Urban Vices Point Perk set isn’t earth-shattering. It isn’t the best value among the other 500 Point Perk sets they’ve offered, but it isn’t the worst either. It features a shadow quad housed in a cardboard palette with mirror, a sample of UDPP, and a deluxe sample-sized 24/7 liner in Smokeout (which supposedly matches the fourth shade in the quad, and lives in the quad).

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