Free makeup birthday gifts 2016 - Sephora, Ulta, Urban Decay

We all love birthday gift freebies, so as someone with an early in the year birthday I wanted to share what I got! Sephora, Ulta, and Urban Decay all have rewards programs that offer birthday perks.

Sephora birthday gift 2016

Sephora offers two choices for your free 2016 birthday gift - a skincare set from Fresh or a makeup set from Marc Jacobs. Normally I choose the Sephora makeup set over the skincare, but this year's Marc Jacobs duo didn't interest me. I prefer thin eyeliner pencils over the thicker gel pencils to get a precise, thin line or to tightline and I prefer tinted lip balm or lip gloss to full on lipstick, so I went for the other option.

I was really excited to try Fresh minis of the rose face mask and soy face cleanser - I have loved everything I have tried from Fresh in the past, especially their lip treatments. I am pleased to report both of these are quite nice and don't irritate my sensitive skin. My favorite of the two is the rose face mask - it smells like real roses! Neither product is a game changer, but I enjoy using them.

I didn't love either one of last year's NARS pencils (Rikugien was fine but nothing special and Cruella was crazy drying on me), so 2016 is a step up.

Dear makeup diary - feeling overwhelmed by my makeup collection

Those of you who follow me on Instagram or chat with me on Reddit may already know this, but the tail end of 2015 to now beauty wise has been all about trimming down my collection and appreciating what I own. I wanted to write a little bit about how I've been feeling about my collection - maybe it will help you refocus on your own collection, declutter, plan purchases more, or something else. Who knows.

I have been thinking about writing this post for a long time, but I decided to go for it after reading or hearing other people say things that really felt like what I was feeling. Notably, Dustin Hunter's YouTube video (his #1 tip for saving money on makeup? Don't buy any.), the subreddit Makeup Rehab, and Kimberly Clark's excellent Anti Haul series.

Where I went wrong 

I wish I could tell you that I arrived at my desire for a smaller, more edited collection in an inspiring, zen way. Or I wish I could tell you that I dialed back on buying makeup and beauty products because I found my holy grail in every category or new releases stopped catching my attention. I wish, but no. I started realizing as I was getting ready in the morning that I had much, much more makeup than I was using. I realized that I had products I forgot about for months. I started feeling overwhelmed looking at my makeup table and then I started feeling guilty about the money I had spent on beauty products. I never spent money that should have gone to bills or something more important, but I realized that they money I spent on beauty products a little at a time could have added up to larger more durable joys - a really nice camera, fancy dates with my husband, the comfort of a larger savings account, and a bunch of other things.

The hype machine

Probably like many people, the items I bought when I first started getting into makeup years ago were the products I saw on blogs, YouTube, and on Instagram, not the products that were thoughtfully purchased with my own preferences in mind. In the beginning, buying items based on internet reviews from strangers felt so rational. By comparison to my impulsive Walgreens eyeliner purchases in junior high, YouTube reviews made me feel like I was being smarter with my money. The problem, of course, is that my makeup collection snowballed. When I was first introduced to the YouTube and Instagram beauty community, I was naive enough to not think about where these people were getting their products, photo blurring and overexposed video lighting, how long they had used the item before giving it a thumbs up, and reading between the lines to infer a negative review from a relentlessly positive 'guru'. 

Not only was I literally buying into the hype machine, I didn't know my own preferences well enough to discern the difference between "this color is perfect for everyone!!!" and a shade I, personally, would use often in my routine. I wish I could have learned what my preferences were another way, but I learned what I didn't care for by buying products, trying them, and then realizing that I didn't like a specific shade or finish on my skin. Combining decades of untapped makeup curiosity, the disposable income from a professional job, and the proliferation of makeup focused beauty communities/channels online in the last five years has brought me to the place of having a large collection.

So, I felt super, duper guilty. I realized that I was spending my precious resources - my hard earned money, my time, my mental energy - on something that wasn't giving me the joy it had before. I still enjoyed my getting ready time in the morning, but I felt like my relationship with the online beauty community and shopping had to change.

Concealer comparison swatches - NARS Radiant Creamy / Urban Decay Naked Skin / Maybelline Instant Age Rewind

Today's post is a quick swatch comparison of the three under eye concealers I have in rotation right now. I have fair, dry skin with blue-purple dark circles, so I am always looking for a concealer that will be pigmented enough to cover discoloration, brightening enough to make me look awake, and not exaggerate dry skin or fine lines.

Urban Decay Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla is my favorite of the three for all purpose use. Especially now that I'm nearing the end of my tube, the drier texture can look cakey on dry skin under my eyes. I find it has the best coverage of the three, especially for post acne pigmentation or blue - purple dark circles. The shade Vanilla is a hair too deep for my face and doesn't provide any brightening under the eyes - I wish they made a shade between Vanilla and Chantilly!

Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer in Fair Neutral is the newest concealer to my collection. I kept seeing it in 2015 favorites videos on YouTube, so I wanted to give it a try and see if it lives up to the hype. Fair Neutral is quite a bit lighter than I thought it would be, but the next shade deeper is quite a bit deeper and more yellow. Even on my fair skin, Fair Neutral can give me a reverse panda effect if I am heavy handed. I absolutely love the thin texture - it blends into my skin beautifully and brightens well. It is pigmented compared to a standard concealer like Maybelline Fit Me, but it has less coverage than NARS RCC or Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage.

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer in Fair is in between textures of the NARS and Urban Decay. It feels a little more creamy than the Urban Decay, but is much more thin than the NARS. This is a great concealer if you are worried about dry skin texture and want a little bit of coverage and brightening. It isn't as high coverage as the NARS and it isn't as brightening as the Urban Decay, but it is a good compromising formula. I'm sure a different shade would be more brightening, but this is the lightest in the range as far as I know. This is my hands down favorite drugstore concealer - I haven't found anything with as nice of a texture around the same price.