luxury beauty products totally worth the hype

The worst thing about paying an arm and a leg for a product is if you are not blown away, and you start making excuses to yourself about why the product is worth the hefty price tag.  Unfortunately this happens more often than not.  It's uncommon for the product to actually be bad, but if a lipstick costs 3 times more than other lipsticks you do want it to be magical, no?

However, on a rare occasion, I've taken the plunge (after watching all the hype on youtube or reading reviews online) and found myself absolutely amazed.  Like - where have you been all my life - amazed.  Call it luck or maybe it's simply too much shopping, but this year isn't over yet and I already have THREE AMAZING PRODUCTS WORTH THE HYPE!!!

sephora vib rouge sale (and ulta sale too) - tips and recommendations (april 2016)

Every year I look forward to the two VIB sales at Sephora (one is usually in early April (15% off) and the other one is in November (20% off)) to stock up on makeup, skincare and gifts.  Beauty products rarely go on sale so these events are a great way to save money (if you can control yourself)!  

I am a little embarrassed to admit that I'm a VIB Rouge member which means I get slightly early access to the sale.  Last Friday, I got my notice in the mail that the early access sale is scheduled for April 7-13, which means the sale should open up for other VIB members on the 14th.  Sephora used to do cool in-store events for VIB Rouge members and serve coffee and treats and give extra goodies, but they seemed to have stopped doing that last year (boo).  Regardless, I still got excited when I got my notice in the mail and started "planning".  (Ulta sent out their 20% off sale early last week so I was sort of expecting the Sephora sale to start soon since they are usually about a week or so apart.)

Typically I break down my lists as follows: