HUGE Combined Makeup Haul: Sephora, Mecca, Beautylish

Its been a couple of months since I did a beauty haul and I have so many things to show you that I've picked up lately. With holiday limited edition products being released as well as end of year exams I've had a lot of reasons to shop - yes exam stress is the best reason to shop!

I'll start off with what I picked up from Sephora! I went to check out the new Sephora Broadway store when I was procrastinating from studying and picked up a few items I've had my eyes on for a while. Firstly is the Cover FX Custom Blot Drops. After seeing Tati's review of this product a couple of months ago I knew I had to have this to try and tame my oily-ass skin this summer. After stalking Sephora in the city so many times I finally found one left in stock at Broadway - hooray! I also picked up the Commodity Cocktail Kit which have ten mini fragrances. I've been spraying myself every time I walked into a Sephora trying to pick which fragrance to buy so I was excited to find this kit so I can try them all! I was also excited to see Sephora Australia had updated their Beauty Pass rewards and are now offering little samples in exchange for points, so I was happy to take home a mini Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Mascara to try.

I also placed an order from Beautylish because by some miracle they had the Anastasia Modern Renaissance Palette back in stock and I couldn't wait any longer to get my hands on it! I have another one of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Eyeshadow palettes and the quality is AMAZING! Can't wait to play around with those gorgeous burnt red shades! (So many exclamations! Can you tell I'm excited?! - also sorry friends but it seems to be out of stock again *sad face*) I also picked up the Becca Blushed With Light Palette. I've been meaning to try some of Becca's blushes and didn't want to buy the Jaclyn Hill palette since I already owned Champagne Pop so I was super excited to see this palette released.

 

Finally, I hit up Mecca and grabbed a few holiday releases. Of course, I could not help but get my hands on the Hourglass Surreal Light Palette. I got the ambient lighting palette last year and love it so much! Not only did I want to pick up the palette because I love the product, but the packaging is so beautiful and as a makeup collector I needed to have this in my collection. I also got the Sun's Up Face & Body SPF Duo which is such good value and perfect coming into summer! As a 'translucent white' I need all the SPF 50+ I can get. I also love the little neoprene bag it comes with which will be great for beach days. Finally from Mecca I picked up the Ciate Kiss Collective holiday gift set which includes three minis of their Liquid Velvet lipsticks in the shades Wonderland, Pin Up and Starlet. Unfortunately it is no longer available online but definitely worth seeing if there are any left in store. I love the texture of these liquid lipsticks, they have a moussy formula and are super comfortable on the lips.

So that's my huge *cringe* haul! I'm not planning on picking up anything else for myself, its definitely time to think of presents for my friends and family!

xx Cat

SEPHORA SYDNEY ! Opening Day and US Price Comparison

Friday 5th December 2014 marked the opening of the first Sephora store in Australia, located on Pitt St in the centre of Sydney's CBD. I never thought I would be one of those crazy people who lined up for the opening of a store, but with Sephora, I didn't even think twice. I spent around 6 hours lining up from 6:30am with the lovely Cathy from Silver Screen Beauty Queens and our new friend from Germany (also named Catherine!). We were entertained with a DJ from 8am, stilt walkers, dancers and Sephora staff handing out freebies including compact mirrors, popcorn and gelato! The countdown the midday was particularly exciting, ending in an explosion of confetti and Taylor Swift blaring through Pitt St! Inside the store was really crazy and they didn't stagger entry as much as I would have thought - it was a pretty intense shopping experience!

As one of the first 150 people to enter the store (105th to be exact!) I received a gorgeous Sephora makeup case, making it well worth the early start and 6 hour wait. As well as this, I was also one of the first 300 people to purchase a Kat Von D product, meaning that I received a mini Studded Kiss lipstick and bracelet as well as the guarantee of a spot at her meet up! Today I ventured back to Sephora for the meet up and was so honoured to meet the absolutely beautiful Kat Von D. She loved my Wheels and Dollbaby dress and told me she was shopping at their Surry Hills store yesterday!

Price Matching Promise?

One of the biggest dramas surrounding the opening in the last few days has been the revelation of a significant mark up of prices on the products in Sephora despite their promise to remain as true to US pricing as possible. Australian consumers are used to paying a lot more for products in stores, so is Sephora ripping us off?

I put together a table of the items I bought on the day, comparing the US prices to the ones in the new Australian store. Of course, a few factors need to be taken into consideration regarding the mark up of prices:

• US prices do not include tax, in Australia, all items are taxed at 10%
• The Australian dollar, while fluctuating, historically is valued less than the American dollar - so exchange rates need to be taken into account. 
• Shipping Costs
• Import Taxes - which for cosmetics is 5% (http://www.customs.gov.au/tariff/tariff2012.asp)

So I added the estimated the percentage mark up of 35% to the US prices to take into consideration the above factors. This came to an additional $75, still making my purchase $55 more expensive than it should have been, if prices were 'comparable'.

Product	USD$	AUD$
Tarte Bon Voyage Holiday Set	$59	$78
Tarte Pin Up Girl Blush Palette	$42	$58
Tarte Gifted Mascara	$20	$29
Sephora Pro Angled Blush Brush #49	$32	$43
Sephora Cream Lip Stain in ‘Always Red’	$13	$21
Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in ‘Trooper’	$18	$28
Formula X Base Coat	$10.50	$20
Anastasia Beverley Hills Brow Wiz	$21	$34
TOTAL	$215.50 + $75 mark up = $290.50	$345

Not only that, but at the moment the Australian dollar is at a low point, meaning that when the value of the dollar increases, this also increases the gap from what we should be paying to what we are being charged in stores.

It's obvious that cosmetics costs more in Australia, but the question remains - why? Particularly since Sephora did make a big deal about remaining comparable to US prices.

Final Thoughts

Overall, opening day was really fantastic! Not only did Sephora put on a fantastic show and really looked after all the beauty fans who were lining up for hours but Westfield Sydney was absolutely wonderful! Not only were the staff from Westfield extremely patient with the huge crowds of people blocking entrance ways but brought out muffins, banana bread and coffee when we all needed it early in the morning. Despite the significant price inflation, I will definitely continue to purchase from the Sydney Sephora store. Prices of drugstore brands are also ridiculously inflated in Priceline etc. but it is still the easiest and most convenient way to purchase those products. I'm so excited to be able to access brands like Kat Von D, Make Up For Ever, Tarte, Bite Beauty, Anastasia Beverly Hills and IT Cosmetics!

Will you be braving the Sephora crowds any time soon? If you did, what did you pick up?

Don't worry a haul post featuring lots of product photos and swatches will be up soon !!

xx Catherine   

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Weekly Beauty Edit #4

1// Sephora Comes To Australia!

Probably the most exciting news of the week, and if you've been living under a rock, makeup giant store Sephora is set to open a store in Sydney in 2015. This is very exciting for all beauty lovers and will hopefully allow Australians to access some cosmetics and skincare brands that are hard to get in Australian stores. The big question will be of course the mark up on prices and how much extra will Australians have to pay? This is also particularly interesting news following the news early in the year that Sephora opened its shipping option to the UK and although there seemed to a shipping option to Australia, it was a mistake. In any sense, the fact that Sephora could open a physical store in Australia by next year is very very exciting!

2// NYX Stand Opens in Target Rhodes

While NYX has been stocked in Target stores since last year, a stand has finally popped up in my most frequented Target shop - a moment I've been waiting for since the first release! The Rhodes store is one of the smaller Target stores so hopefully this means NYX stands will be rolling out to all stores. If you missed my post earlier this week, NYX is currently 3 for 2.

3// Essence Eyebrow Designer

I picked this up for an upcoming post and it's one of the best eyebrow pencil I've ever used. It is quite a firm, waxy pencil and not very creamy but I find that creamy eyebrow pencils are very difficult to work with to create a natural looking brow. I got the shade Blonde and is only $2.50 available from Priceline and Target - definitely to best value beauty item I have picked up in a while, I much prefer it over my Revlon eyebrow pencil which was ten times the price.

4// Lips Lips Lips

I have gone a little bit crazy this week on buying new lip products - the official count is 10...oops! All from the drugstore I'm excited to try some Ulta3 products as well as the new Essence lip glosses and a Sportsgirl lipstick.

5// Chi Chi Glamorous Colour Kit Nudes

Another absolute BARGAIN I recently picked up. This entire gift set comes with 2 Chi Chi eyeshadow palettes - including the Nudes palette which I've been dying to try - as well as a bronzer, blush and 2 lip glosses. It was on clearance for $15 and with another 25% off it came to $11. This is amazing value as the palettes alone are $22 RRP.

Catch up if you missed any of my posts this week:

• FOA Screen Siren Nail Polish Review
• Drugstore v High End
• Style Stories - an inside to my style

I hope you have a lovely week and don't forget to check for new posts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

xx Catherine

Tarte Cosmetics/Sephora Mini Haul

 

 

When I hear someone is travelling to the US or anywhere with a Sephora I get VERY excited. I immediately thought of all the makeup I could buy! However, I thought to be considerate of the person kind enough to shop for me and also keeping in mind my budget, I chose a few special things that I've been lusting over from Tarte because there is literally no way to get their products in Australia unless you use a shipping service. Taking a few recommendations from one of my absolute favourite Youtubers Essie Button I picked up the;

• Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush in Natural Beauty
• Amazonian Clay Airbrush Foundation in Fair-Light Neutral
• Airbrush Finish Bamboo Foundation Brush

I just wanted to share with you these beautiful products before I try them out and do full reviews - but really I just couldn't contain my excitement!
Thanks to Maddy's mum for picking up these products for me at Sephora and of course Maddy for helping organise everything <3

Hope you enjoyed this special haul as much as I did !
xx Cat  ^.^