Goodies from Sephora & Nordstrom

This is two different Sephora orders, plus one from Nordstrom, with only one nail polish in the whole kaboodle (well, two, actually, but only one is pictured):

The Nordstrom order was the MAC blush (the color is Full Of Joy) - I bought a somewhat darker purple blush a few months ago, and the one I bought wasn't all that dark but I have now learned my lesson that I need blush colors that are quite pale. With that in mind, I've gone on a new quest to find an equivalent for my old favorite, Benefit I Lotus-ed You Looking, which was a sheer violet that's long discontinued. This one is probably at least a little more pink than my discontinued ideal, but it's close enough, I think. So far I really like it. (I thought I had taken a picture of the blush by itself but I can't find it. Well, here it is online, anyway.) (Oh, also? this is my first MAC product ever, believe it or not.)

I had done one Sephora order before I knew about the VIB sale - that was the one with the Jin Soon polish that you've already seen, but some of the odds and ends here are also from that order. Then I did another sale order. In the center is my little birthday freebie box (the Marc Jacobs one) that I was talking about in the last entry. (My birthday isn't til next week, actually, but you can get it any time in your birthday month, so I figured I should go ahead and get that while I was ordering.)

Some of the free samples are ranged around the edges - Nordstrom does three free samples, just like Sephora does - besides that and the items I've already talked about, there is the Lotus mask, and then going across the bottom row, there are two Bliss items which were a set that was on clearance, a smudge brush, a green eyeliner pencil, two bonus items which I'll talk about in a minute, a Formula X polish, State Of The Art, and the egg-shaped thing is a pencil sharpener. (The Dior at bottom right is another sample.)

I had almost 500 Sephora points, which is the level at which there usually are more bonus gift sets available, but I looked at what was available and the 500-point items were all sets of samples from one brand or another. So I had the choice of getting 5 samples for 500 points where I don't have any say on the exact items, or single samples for 100 points each. It seemed better to me to get the 100-point ones and pick my own items. So I picked out these two for now - both hair items, the Alterna CC cream (which a leave-in conditioner) and the Drybar "shot" which is a one-use deep conditioner. I haven't tried the Alterna one yet, but I used the Drybar one today, and I liked it, although I'm not sure I'll buy more at $10 a shot.

I'm sure I'll get around to talking more about the polish State Of The Art later. But let me say now I thought it was going to be more blue than it turned out to be. They called it "turquoise" and that's probably accurate in the sense that I have seen turquoise stones that are close to the greenish-blue color of this polish. However, when most people say "turquoise" this is not the color they're talking about, I think. That said, it's a near-one-coater and it's very pretty, and hey! it's still on sale. Wheel pictures etc to come.

I almost forgot about one last item (pictured with another stray sample that I've already used):

This Boscia sponge is definitely something that I never would have bought if it weren't for having the Play! samples. I bought the cleanser that it came with back in December, and I've been using the little sample konjac sponge all this time - but it finally ended up on the bathroom floor somehow and I decided it was time for a replacement. I probably would have bought a cheaper one (Ecotools has a plain one, no charcoal) if it hadn't been for the VIB sale. I don't actually have much problem with my pores these days but I do really like this. I also really like the Phyto hair mask that's pictured here, but it's really expensive so I doubt that I'll be able to talk myself into that one. (I wonder how many uses you'd get out of 6.7 ounces...)

Added: here's the sharpener and a closer pic of the brush (with a totally unhelpful closeup of the eyeliner, additionally):

The best thing about the sharpener, besides it working for multiple sizes of pencil, is that it holds the shavings. I wanted the smudge brush because I've been playing around with liner a lot. (My current favorite eyeliner is a Lancome purple one that I have no idea where I got. But at least it's not hard to figure out where to find more.)

More sample pictures - the Dior samples were in a whole little portfolio thing with a fancy picture of Natalie Portman on heavy stock. Do you think that helps sell the stuff? I am sort of anti-Natalie generally (for no particular reason, really) so it probably doesn't work on me.

The YSL sample also had a celebrity picture (Cara Delevigne), but not in nearly as large a size so it doesn't seem quite so out-there excessive to me:

(This stuff is much more sheer than you'd think, but not as goopy as a lip gloss. I actually quite like it.)