VIB ROUGE: Beauty Before Brunch Event + Haul

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a Sephora VIB Rouge Event called Beauty Before Brunch. Being a VIB Rouge member comes with a lot of perks and I rarely take advantage of most of them. If you aren’t familiar with Sephora’s tiered rewards program, click here to find out more. In a nutshell, I have spent too much money at Sephora. However, my Rouge status will likely expire this year as I am adjusting my budget so I am taking advantage of these perks while I still can! Today’s event provided VIB Rouge members with a morning of closed-door shopping, 4x the reward points, mini-makeovers from brand ambassadors and a free bag filled with deluxe samples.

I took the opportunity to get the “Berry Lip” treatment from Stila using their Stay All Day liquid lipstick in Aria. I came very close to buying this lipstick but ultimately decided against it. But I really liked the color, the staying power, and the fact that the name reminded me of Pretty Little Liars.

The reason I decided to go to this event in the first place was that I had run out of my My Burberry perfume and thought I needed to find a new signature scent. I went in with the intention of buying Chloe Eau De Parfum by Chloe but then was ultimately swayed by the signature Tory Burch Eau De Parfum. I’m terrible at describing scents so I’ll just copy what Tory Burch says:

The first fragrance from Tory Burch captures classic elements in unexpected ways: feminine and tomboy, easy and polished. Floral peony and tuberose blend with crisp citrus notes of grapefruit and neroli anchored by earthy vetivera bright and complex mix. The fragrance comes in a super-chic glass bottle with a signature fretwork top.

My take? The Tory Burch scent smells clean and sophisticated. This may become my new signatures scent.

Recently I was staring at my incredibly well-stocked beauty closet and realized I was dangerously close to running out of my vitamin C serums. I had received various serums from companies to review but I will always eventually find my way back to the Ole Henriksen Truth Serum. It’s always made my skin so smooth and bright. It’s pricy but actually really worth it. I bought the $48 version.
While I was at Sephora earning 4x my Beauty Insider points, I decided to stock up on my favorite bareMinerals Complexion Rescue tinted hydrating gel cream. I use this EVERY DAY. This is essentially a tinted moisturizer on crack. I feel like it’s improved my skin ten-fold since I started wearing it. It’s very sheer but I have found the longer I’ve been wearing it, the less of it I need? bareMinerals, shouldn’t you make me need MORE of your products? Anyway, this stuff is fantastic. You should all buy it. While I was stocking up on some basics, I decided to buy a full-size version of Urban Decay’s Eyeshadow Primer Potion. I decided to go with the Anti-Aging version which I haven’t tried before because don’t we need all the help we can get in the fight against wrinkles? I have been using their original version daily as a base for my favorite Colourpop eye shadows. A little goes a LONG way so I know I am going to have this for at least a year or more.

And now for the fun free things! Sephora gives a special NARS set to VIB Rouge customers for their birthdays and my birthday happened to be last weekend so I am glad I was able to pick this up along with the rest of my haul. I love that they included their Velvet Matte Lip Pencils in a classic red and a more neutral pink in addition to their Night Series black liner. I took a few swatches below.
Because I was hanging out with the Stila rep who did my Berry Lip, she hooked me up with a free Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Liner for free. It’s a beautiful shimmery brown and I am pleased I now own it. FOR FREE. BOOYAH. (Though the Sephora staff was amazingly helpful through the whole shopping experience, I did feel like I got the B-Team when I was being checked out. The dude tried to charge me for my free gift. I had to explain to him how it worked.)
Here are the swatches of the NARS lip set, the eyeliner and the Stila Smudge Stick:  One of the main perks of this event was receiving this awesome grab bag of samples. The B-Team register guy tried to let me go without giving me one. I was not having that and asked for it. I was annoyed because I had just spent a lot of money and he tried to send me on my way without my gift. Ugh. Oh well. I’m not blaming the store for the one bad apple.

I’m not going to review all the samples but I’m excited about the L’Occitane hand lotion because it’s the perfect purse size. I also thought it was funny that I ended up with another Chloe perfume sample which is what led me to Sephora to begin with. I’ve always been really into the Korres Wild Rose Advanced Brightening Sleeping Facial so it’s nice to have a more travel-friendly version.
I feel like I had a great shopping experience this morning! I was able to stock up on some basics while racking up the points and getting a bunch of free samples! Not a bad way to start a Sunday morning!

Purchased. Post contains affiliate links.