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Now I’ve never been to Sephora, but I sure have heard a lot of about the store, and surfing the online store on Sephora.com sure has whet my appetite to a whole new level. So when Tim and I made the decision to go to the US for a holiday, Sephora was a MUST-GO stop.

When my aunt brought me to Macy’s at Westfield Oakbridge Mall, we also had a look around the mall. Lo and behold, we saw a Sephora store in the mall. It was pretty small, but as I stepped into the store, it was as if I died and went to makeup heaven.

What was so interesting about Sephora stores was that they allow you to play with as much makeup as you’d like. There were disposable makeup applicators, mascara wands, sponges, facial cotton, cotton swabs and tissues at the side of each makeup aisle. You could literally walk into any of their stores with a clean and bare face, and come out all fully made up! Now how fun is that?

It took all the self-control I could muster to not blow our bank account away at Sephora, because there were just so many things I wanted to buy. Cosmetics, makeup brushes and tools, skincare products, etc … all that I’ve read on beauty blogs which were not available in Australia and Malaysia were suddenly easily available to me. I had to really narrow my shopping list down to the items I really wanted.

My first haul from Sephora:

NARS blush in Dolce Vita (I wanted to get more NARS eyeshadow duos, but seeing that I’ve already bought so much eyeshadows, I had to give that a miss. It wasn’t easy, I tell you, putting them back onto the shelf)
Make Up For Ever Super Matte Loose Powder (always wanted to try this; it’s much cheaper in the US)
Blinc Kiss Me mascara
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion (duh :p)

I was surprised to find out that Sephora’s pretty stingy with samples. When the cashier rang up my purchases, I asked if I could get a sample or two of the Smashbox’s Photo Finish Foundation Primer, she gave me one miserable tiny sachet. I only received the other free sample just because my purchases amounted to over USD100. That’s pretty pathetic really, when shopping on Sephora.com would get your three free samples with every order. You only qualify for free shipping on orders over USD50, but really, it’s easy to go over that amount. If you buy in the store, you only get ONE free sample, and you only get that if your purchases are over USD100. It’s funny, isn’t it? Might as well just see what you want in store, and then buy ’em online!

It’s nothing to get me really worked up about, but just something I wanted to let off my chest :p

Anyhoos. I went to Sephora again at Las Vegas, and walked out with some more stuff. I couldn’t help it! Bad Sephora, bad Sephora. No no, scratch that. Bad Tine, bad Tine!

My second haul from Sephora:

Smashbox Best of Sephora Beauty Kit (yes, you can tell I have become a Smashbox fan :p)
Sephora bronzer brush #48
Rosebud Strawberry lip balm
Sephora lip gloss

The stuff from the Best of Smashbox kit

Since these items totalled to over USD100, I received another free sample. This time, it was a small jar of Benefit’s Doctor Feelgood.

There ya go, my Sephora haul. It irks me even more that we don’t have one here. But then again, everything would be ridiculously overpriced, so there won’t really be a point to having one now, would it? Sigh.

Do stay tuned to my last post (aww no more!) where I’ll show you the bags I bought in the US 😉