Sephora | Beauty and Fashion Tech

Top Five SephoraClaus Wishes

This is pretty darn cool. Sephora is playing Santa! Tweet what you want in this form: Dear @Sephora, All I want for the holidays this year is _____ with a product up to a $150 value and use the hash tag #SephoraClaus, or visit SephoraClaus to send your request, and SephoraClaus will grant one wish each day until December 19. One entry per person, per day.

So, what should you wish for? Here are five great ideas. These would all also make great holiday gifts as well.

Coming in just under the $150 limit is the favorite skin care tool of many, the Clarisonic Mia™ Skin Cleansing System . It even comes in pink (there is a white version as well).

This Marc Jacobs Daisy Gift Set includes the following versions of the popular Marc Jacobs Daisy fragrance: .4 oz Eau de Toilette Spray, 0.02 oz Solid Perfume, and 5.1oz Luminous Body Lotion.

For beautiful, useful, shades in a unique and pretty makeup kit, the LORAC Double Booked Full Face Collection can’t be beat. Lorac always has great kits and makeup palettes.

The Givenchy Prismissime Eyes Palette in Tempting Chocolate is pretty, pretty, pretty! this limited edition palette is a must have holiday item!

Good tools are essential and Kevyn Aucoin makes great ones. The Kevyn Aucoin The Mini Brush Set comes in just under the SephoraClaus $150 limit.

What are you wishing for?

Popularity: 1% [?]

Contest: Win a $10,000 Sephora Shopping Spree!

This contest from Total Beauty is open until December 31. It is one heck of a great prize!

Enter for your chance to win a $10,000 Sephora Shopping Spree!

How much stuff could you buy with a $10,000 Sephora Shopping Spree?

Where do we start?! How about 416 DiorShow Mascaras. Or 41 ghd flat irons. Or 51 Clarisonic Skin Care Brushes. The better question is what couldn’t you buy? Answer: Nothing! Enter for your chance to win by writing product reviews on TotalBeauty.com or signing up for TotalBeauty.com’s newsletters, it’s so easy! Find out more here.

See how to win

Popularity: 1% [?]

Mascara Monday: Get the New Sephora Lash Stash

Sephora Favorites Lashstash Mascara Deluxe Sampler is back. This Sampler of 11 mascaras if a fun way to try out a variety of brands. But it is limited edition, so order now!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Sephora Brand Pressed Mineral Foundation

Awhile back, I was searching and searching for a pressed mineral foundation that did not contain bismuth. I was already using Neutrogena’s pressed foundation (read previous review), but wanted something with a bit more coverage. I also found Jane Iredale PureMatte Finish Powder, but it is advertised as being sheer. After I had given up, I was in Sephora wandering around, and low and behold, they had one! Turns out that I really like it too!

Sephora Brand Mineral Double Compact Foundation SPF 10 is a medium coverage pressed mineral foundation with a bit of flexibility—included is a sponge that has different textured sides. One side gives a sheer to medium coverage and the other provides heavier coverage. I also got medium coverage applying the foundation with a brush, but I prefer the sponge with this one. It is available in a number of shades, and best of all, there is no bismuth!

Here is what the company says about it:

This silky foundation provides buildable coverage and protects skin with an SPF 10, while the long-wearing formula creates a luminous finish. Tested in order to minimize the risk of allergy, our mineral foundation is talc-free, paraben-free, fragrance-free, oil-free, and noncomedogenic. Use the dual-sided sponge to achieve your desired look: the fuzzy white side for light coverage, or the black spongy side for full coverage.

Good pressed mineral foundations are hard to find, so if you are looking for one, particularly if you want it to be bismuth free, check out Sephora’s offering!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Sephora by OPI Nail Polish, Lost Without My GPS

Being a geocacher and avid GPS user, I just had to buy the SEPHORA by OPI Nail Colour in the shade Lost Without My GPS. Plus, I really liked the shade when I saw it in the store!

Turns out that this is not only a great spring/summer shade, but it lasted incredibly well for me. I wore it through a weekend of garden work that included some serious work with tools and wearing garden gloves, etc. Normally my polish would have been dead within half and hour of that, but the Sephora polish made it through. Then it lasted several more days past that. Color me impressed!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Total Beauty and Sephora Contest

Total Beauty is giving away a couple of fabulous Sephora shopping sprees! See the link below for details!

The TotalBeauty.com Sephora Shopping Spree Sweepstakes

Enter for your chance to win a $5,000 Sephora shopping spree – we’re giving away two of ‘em!

How much stuff could you buy with a $5,000 Sephora Shopping Spree? That’s 263 Shu Uemura eyelash curlers. Or 43 T3 hair dryers. Or 50 Go Smile teeth whitening kits. So clearly you’d be winning a glee-inducing pile of beauty loot. So how do you enter to win? It’s so easy, just head over to TotalBeauty.com, sign up for the newsletter and/or write a few product reviews. Click on the button for the full details. Good luck!

Get the details here

Popularity: 2% [?]

Mascara Monday: Sephora Brand Curling Mascara

I grabbed a Sephora Brand Curling Mascara in Brown while at Sephora a couple of weeks ago. I’m going to give this one an good/average rating depending on the desired use. The mascara does a decent job lengthening, nothing too dramatic, but not bad either. Clumping was minimal, and overall, the mascara gives a decent look. It wore pretty well too, no smearing or flaking. I bought this one in brown, and liked the shade quite a bit. It wasn’t as dark as many brown mascaras, so it gave a nice natural look.

The brush on is slightly curved, I imagine in order to assist with curling. However, the mascara had minimal actual curling for me. Something to keep in mind though is that few, if any, mascaras can really give much curl on their own. If you want true lash curling, use a lash curler. I like the basic Maybelline Expert Tools Eyelash Curler (a great value) and Japonesque Go Curl Double Pad Eyelash Curler (which takes some getting used to, but works wonderfully). Where I tend to prefer curling mascara is when I want to be sure that my lashes stay curled after I have used a tool. Curling mascara can add a bit there. The Sephora brand is quite adequate in that regard, but nothing overly special either.

On the whole, I recommend this one (particularly in brown) if you want a light natural look from your mascara. As a bonus if you like brown mascara, this one is only $5 in brown, but is $10 in black.