LADIES! We are talking all about beauty today, and I am super excited to share my BEST OF SEPHORA picks just in time for the SEPHORA SALE. The sale opened to VIB members yesterday.
I did my first ever Sephora Haul in May of 2019, and I’ve been hooked on shopping Sephora ever since, ESPECIALLY during their Bonus Events. I always grab my favorite products that I need to restock at home, and the sale prices also give me a reason to order products I’ve been interested in and wanting to try!
The majority of today’s post is dedicated to personal tried and true favorites of mine.
CODE: SAVESPRING
Click HERE to see what level you are at Sephora so you know when you can shop. Rouge members get 20% OFF right now, VIB members get 15% OFF now and all Insiders will get 10% off their purchase starting 4/7. If you haven’t signed up for Sephora’s Beauty Insider program yet, just make sure you sign up now to unlock 10% off so you can start shopping tomorrow. It’s so easy!
MY TIP TOP FAVORITES
Some of my very favorite products that I absolutely swear by are the lip products below. Like I’m telling you right now, I can’t live without them.
Brazillian Kiss Lip Butter / Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask
The Brazillian Kiss Lip Butter is only $18, and I think it’s an awesome product. First of all, it smells heavenly. It goes on very smoothly and isn’t sticky at all, but the best part about it is definitely the smell.
If you need something super hydrating that will repair cracked and dry lips, go with the Lip Sleeping Mask.
Brazillian Kiss Lip Butter / Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask
This Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask is a product that I absolutely swear by. I keep it on my nightstand and use it every single night. I can’t go to sleep if I don’t have it on, and I travel with it too.
I don’t suffer from dry and flaky lips, which is what this product really targets, but I do love going to bed at night with super moisturized lips and my goodness does this product deliver. For me, it just gives me extra silky and smooth lips. If you suffer from dry and flaky lips, this is going to be a game changer for you. If you apply a thick layer at night, when you wake up the next morning, the flakes are going to be sitting on top of the skin. They then recommend taking a damp wash cloth to wipe the flakes away.
Carter got terrible wind burn on his lips playing soccer last year, and we were able to totally get them back to normal just using this product for 2 days. This mask has over 10,000 5-star reviews, and I totally get it.
These next products are items I’ve been using for at least 2 years now and HIGHLY recommend. I often get questions about how these face products differ. I’m going to talk about each product in detail below, but in a nutshell…
- The Isle of Paradise Self Tanning Drops is a self tanner that “tans” your skin. I put it on at night, the color develops while I’m sleeping, and I wake up with a nice glow. I mix the tanning drops with the Magic Cream, which is my favorite moisturizer.
- I also mix the Magic Cream with the Bronzing Drops. The Bronzing Drops are NOT a self tanner. Think of the Bronzing Drops as a very sheer tinted moisturizer. They provide really light coverage, but with a bronzy color. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.
- The SuperGoop Glow Screen is a heavier tinted moisturizer with SPF.
Isle of Paradise Self Tanning Drops / Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream / Drunk Elephant Bronzing Drops / SuperGoop Glow Screen
The Isle of Paradise Self Tanning Drops were one of the blogger products that I’d heard about for well over a year before I decided to try them for myself. They totally lived up to all of the blogger hype. This product totally blows me away. I used to use the Self Tanning Drops every 3-4 days. (I’ve actually stopped using the tanning drops because now that I’m getting IPL and my sunspots are disappearing, I feel like the tanner would cling to the spots and I’m scared. I’m sad I’m not using them anymore, BECAUSE I LOVED THEM. I still want y’all to know about them though. If you aren’t cursed with sunspots, this product is awesome.)
Here’s what you do. You mix drops of it into your favorite moisturizer (again, I use this Charlotte Tilbury one). The more drops, the deeper the tan. You rub it all over your face, being careful not to miss any spots. And within a couple of hours, a “tan” develops. It’s magical really. (Make sure you wash your hands very well afterwards.)
I appreciate that you can control the deepness of your tan with the number of drops you use. They call it “controlling your glow”, and I’m here for it. I grabbed the medium formula, and I using 3 healthy sized drops mixed in with my moisturizer. I feel like it gives me an even bronze glow that’s not streaky or orange.
I think it’s best to apply it at night so it can develop while sleeping. When using 3 drops, the color fades in about 3 days, so I typically use this product about twice a week. I would like to direct your attention to my arm in the picture below. Do you see the horizontal stripe below my wrist and the vertical stripe down my forearm? That’s the sun-kissed glow it gives!
If you are still on the fence, I highly recommend hopping over to the site to read some of the other reviews. Because MY GOODNESS, people are obsessed with this product. (You might have seen last week that I’ve also recently tried the Tan Luxe Body Drops and thought they were great, especially for those that apply lotion every day and can just incorporate the drops into their lotion routine every once in a while.)
Isle of Paradise Self Tanning Drops / Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream
Okay, now let’s talk about Drunk Elephant Sunshine Drops. I LOVE THIS PRODUCT. The packaging was recently updated to more of a rectangular bottle, but it’s the same product. I combine these drops with my Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream…and I’m telling you….MAGIC happens.
Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream / Drunk Elephant Sunshine Drops
Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream – I added this moisturizer into my routine after reading about it on several blogs and in several “BEST OF” beauty articles, and now I’ve been using it for about 2 years now. Lots of users compared it to the much more expensive La Mer line, but said they preferred this product! That was it, I was convinced I needed to try it. Officially, it’s a cream that floods skin with moisture for a glowing complexion in a flash. A little goes a long way with this cream, and it’s not greasy, but it is incredibly hydrating. There is a very light rose scent to this cream, and I don’t normally care for rose, but it doesn’t bother me at all.
I’m now devoted to it. It has a cult following and a large group of women that absolutely swear by it. I’m now a part of that group.
Drunk Elephant Sunshine Drops – This product is awesome. AWESOME. I mix it with the magic cream and just use one full squirt of the sunshine drops. It gives a really pretty glow with a bit of coverage immediately! Again, this is NOT a self tanner. It’s a tinted moisturizer. It’s very sheer, and I love the amount of color it gives. It’s a pretty deep pronze! These drops also have a lot of amazing ingredients in them that are great for your skin. They are made of vitamins, antioxidants, platinum peptides, and barrier-supportive fatty acids that defend skin from environmental free radicals. YES, PLEASE!
Below you can see how I just add a pump to the magic cream and then blend it together before applying it all over my face and neck. I’m telling you, it just gives your face a wonderfully healthy looking GLOW.
Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream/ Drunk Elephant Sunshine Drops
GREAT TIPS: For light makeup days, I combine the Magic Cream with the Bronzing Drops. If I want a little more coverage, I combine the Bronzing Drops with the Supergoop Glow Screen. And if I want even more coverage, I combine my It Cosmetics CC+ Cream.
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OTHER FAVORITE PRODUCTS
Check out these Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops! This product is for all skin types and it combats dryness and dullness. It makes my skin feel great, look great, and it smells freaking amazing. My favorite way to use this product is just to apply it to a clean and dry face on the days I’m at home and not wearing makeup. I’ve also applied it to the high points of my face as sort of a natural highlighter, and it can also be used under makeup as a primer.
I picked up the Banana Bright Eye Cream on a trip to Sephora last year. Shay loves it and totally convinced me I needed to try it. #influenced It targets dryness, fine lines and wrinkles, and darkness. It’s enriched with Vitamin C (soooo good for uour skin!) and will revive and brighten your eye area! I love the way it looks because it really does seem to brighten the area immediately.
The Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Setting Spray has FANTASTIC reviews. It’s alcohol free, oil free, and it hydrates while setting your makeup. The reviews convinced me because people say that they’ve tried dozens of makeup setters, and this is the only one that they’ve ever purchased again! I’m bad at remembering to use it every time I apply makeup, but when I do use it I absolutely notice a huge different in staying power.
Banana Bright Eye Cream / Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Setting Spray
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MAKEUP FAVORITES
This next product was my favorite beauty find of 2020, and I’m still using and loving it in 2022.
We’re talking about the IT Cosmetics CC+ Cream.
IT’S TOTALLY LEGIT. And because I didn’t know for a lonnnnnnnnnng time (and maybe you don’t either), CC stands for “Color Correcting.” It makes so much sense. Ha!
IT Cosmetics has the #1 CC Cream in America with over 20,000 5 STAR REVIEWS! It will provide you with:
- Lightweight, hydrating texture that won’t crease or crack
- Hydrating anti-aging serum that improves the look of your skin
- Physical sunscreen with up to SPF 50+—perfect for even sensitive skin
CC+ Cream / Heavenly Skin Skin Smoothing Complexion Brush
So in the spring and summer, I use the products I talked about at the beginning of the post for my face (because I want a light coverage and bronzy color).
But during the fall and winter, I will now be wearing the CC+ Cream. I’ll also be wearing it for date nights, girl’s nights out, and any “special” occasions. But maybe you want full coverage ALL YEAR LONG. If you do, you need to try it.
Here’s what the brand has to say: Infused with hydrolyzed collagen, peptides, niacin, hyaluronic acid, antioxidants and vitamins, this skin-loving full-coverage foundation reduces the appearance of acne scarring, wrinkles, redness on skin, dark circles under eyes and large pores—all while giving you a luminous, supple, flawless-looking complexion. It’s truly your one step for instant complexion perfection!
Well, all righty then!!! Doesn’t it sound amazing?!?
I mean, look how happy it makes me.
CC+ Cream / Heavenly Skin Skin Smoothing Complexion Brush
If you hop over to the It Costmetics site and scroll down, you will be directed to a chart that helps you know if your undertone is Cool, Neutral, or Warm…which will in turn help you choose a color. And if you scroll down right under that chart, you will also see a Before and After picture where the CC Cream is showing off. The After pics are awesome.
Until finding the CC+ Cream last year, I had gotten away from using full coverage foundations because I always found them to be drying and to look cakey. WELL, NOT THIS ONE!
When applying, a little product goes a long way. I dab a couple of dots on my forehead, a couple on each cheek, and one on my nose and my chin. I then get to work smoothing it out with the makeup brush.
CC+ Cream / Heavenly Skin Skin Smoothing Complexion Brush
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The eyeliner and the lash primer are products I’ve used for years and absolutely swear by.
Stila Eyeliner / Diorshow Eyelash Triple Volume Lash Primer/ Charlotte Tilbury Legendary Lashes mascara
Stila Eyeliner – This liquid eyeliner is one of my tried and true products. I use the grey (called “alloy”) because the black is too stark for me. I also use labradorite-charcoal on occasion for a more dramatic line. It glides on SO easily, and it stays on with no smudging during the day. Now, don’t let the “liquid” title scare you. It is like a very fine tip marker that you just easily glide on for a very clean line, and you can decide if you want a thin or a thick line. I can apply it in 1 stroke using only one hand! No need to pull the eye taught or anything!
Diorshow Eyelash Triple Volume Lash Primer – I SWEAR BY THIS PRODUCT and have for years. I sweep it on my lashes right before I put on my mascara. It both lengthens and plumps my lashes with white fibers, but they don’t fall off into my eyes. It’s pretty magical. It goes on white, so you do have to wear mascara over it, but the white doesn’t show through after the mascara goes on. I do one eye with the lash extender and then the mascara before moving to the other eye. I’ve found that my results are best when the mascara goes on before this product dries.
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I love the Maracuja Juicy Lip in Strawberry from tarte. The color is so soft and pretty, the formula is very hydrating, AND it smells like coconut! My entire face is done with tarte products in this picture, and you can head to my instagram story highlights and click on the one that says “tarte” for direct swipe ups to all products used in this picture. Click HERE for all tarte products at Sephora.
Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Glass Bomb Lip Lumizer – I’m a lip gloss lover, but I’m SUPER picky. It can’t be sticky, it can’t have a weird smell, it needs to have staying power for a gloss, and it needs to be VERY SHINY. After seeing the number of 5 star reviews and reading the words “explosive shine”, I grabbed this one. It goes on very smoothly, the applicator is a good size and shape, it’s hydrating, and it truly offers explosive shine.
I have a couple of different full size glosses and I also got a small sampler pack during Christmas. I love every single color I’ve tried. One more thing I love about it? The scent! It smells like peaches and vanilla. It’s not overwhelming at all though, it’s just delightful.
Now I have some product favorites that aren’t makeup…
Breakouts aren’t something I thought I would still be dealing with at my age, but here we are. Now, they aren’t frequent, but they do still happen. For the past couple of years, I’ve been spot treating any little bumps that popped up with the Colleen Rothschild clay mask, and it worked pretty well, but now I feel like I have a secret weapon.
This tiny little bottle is packed full of salicylic acid that powerfully spot treats blemishes. My spots disappear faster, as does the redness that always goes along with them. And I’ve found that it dries the spot out, without over-drying my skin or causing me to peel. The second I even start to think that a blemish is about to pop up, I cover it up with just a dab of this gel. A teeny tiny little bit goes a long way. #alittledabwilldoya The bottle is TINY, but I’ve had it for over a year.
If like me you are still struggling with occasional blemishes, I highly recommend giving this product a try!
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The Peter Thomas Roth Hydra Gel Eye Patches have gained some serious popularity over the last couple of years.
I was first introduced to them in April of 2018, and I’ve been using them ever since.
You use the enclosed spatula to gently lift and separate a patch from the others, and then you apply the patches under your eye to clean and dry skin.
If you apply with the pointy side up, you will target under eye puffiness and wrinkles. If you apply with the pointy side down, you can target your crow’s feet. They feel nice and cool on your skin when you put them on (I’ve heard some even keep them in the fridge), and I leave them on for 10-15 minutes. The caffeine that’s in them helps de-puff the eye area, and the 24K gold will leave your skin appearing firmer, lifted, and brighter! #YESPLEASE
They are expensive, but I really do notice a marked difference after using them. I don’t use them every day, only when I look extra tired or have extra puffy eyes.
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Moroccanoil– Y’all know I love the Colleen Rothschild Smooth and Shine Serum, but this product is awesome too. It’s used for conditioning, styling, and finishing. It claims to detangle, speed up drying time, and boost shine. It does not contain Parabens, Sulfates, or Phthalates.
The main benefits I’ve noticed is that it tames fly-aways and BOOSTS THE SHINE LIKE CRAZY. My hair is silkier, softer, and more manageable. It’s seriously SO SOFT and SO SHINY.
I do wish it came with a pump dispenser, but I just turn it over with my middle finger placed on top to make sure I don’t pour too much out at a time. I rub it on my palms or on my fingertips, and then I apply the oil all throughout my hair. It’s not greasy, but it’s incredibly moisturizing. It doesn’t weigh my hair down, and it smells amazing.
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These masks are placed strategically at the check-out counter at Sephora. #wellplayedsephora
They are brightly colored, look like a lot of fun, and the packages tell you what the masks target. For example, the pink mask is “ultra moisturizing and brightening”. The yellow mask is “pore perfecting and smoothing”.
I grab one or two masks like this every single time I place an order or go to Sephora.
Click HERE for a large selection of single use masks to choose from!
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Sol De Janeiro Bum Bum Cream – Okay, this product has been all over blogger’s feeds for a good long while. People scream and shout about it. People say it smells like a little piece of Heaven. People says they will never go without it. But even with all of the hype, I’m going to be honest, I had no idea what it was for. WELL. It’s what it sounds like. It’s cream. For your bum bum. But not just your bum bum. For your whole body really. It’s thick and rich, and it’s supposed to combat dryness, dullness, and uneven texture. And it’s formulated to promote firmness and elasticity. And after reading tons of online reviews (and seeing some before and after pictures), some users are even reporting that it combats cellulite! WHOAH. Other reviewers say it’s worked wonders on their dry and cracked heels and hands, so I’m going to start putting it on my heels for sure.
I like that it’s not oily or greasy, and it really just absorbs into the skin. It has a very subtle shimmer to it, but don’t let that scare you! It’s VERY subtle. I’ll be honest, I’m not great about consistently applying body butter or lotions to my body, so I don’t notice any big time results….but it feels and smells amazing, and it’s super hydrating.
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And just because we’ve now talked about soooooooooooooooo many beauty products today, I thought it might not be a bad idea to highlight one of my favorite beauty organizers again!
I’ve been SO HAPPY with the purchase of this 360 degree beauty organizer. You can adjust the shelf height for your personal needs, it spins all the way around, the products are super accessible, and it holds ALL THE THINGS! I highly recommend this baby.
I’ve also been totally pleased with this organizer. I bought them both so I could have pretty pictures for a previous beauty post, and now I can’t imagine my life without them.
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Whew! That’s all for today, y’all!
Tons of beauty products that I LOVE, ADORE, and HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
In closing, I wanted to give y’all a reminder that if you aren’t in the program already, you can sign up to be a Sephora Beauty Insider for free! As an Insider, you will receive birthday gifts, product samples, and access to the special events where you get discounts. After you are in the program, you will start collecting points based upon your purchases, and your points will determine your level (which determines when you can shop during these events). As soon as you sign up, you’ll be classified as an Insider.
So now I want to know…
Do you have some Sephora favorites that you think I need to try? Influence me in the comments!
Meagan Ruse says
I am obsessed with the banana bright eye cream! I bought it when Shay first mentioned it and I dramatically saw a change in my dark under eye circles. It really works! Love it! Great post! I added lots to my cart!
Shay Shull says
This sale gets me every single year because it’s so GOOD!!!! I just added three things to cart thanks to your post! My skin thanks you!
Robin says
Just an FYI for any of your readers with a sensitivity/allergy to lanolin. The Laniege Lip Mask does contain lanolin. I tried it because a friend raved about it. It felt wonderful initially, but I woke up with raw inflamed lips.
Darn my super sensitive skin!
Sheaffer says
Hi, Robin! Great tip!!! Thank you! xoxo