Sephora Birthday Gift 2016: Marc Jacobs lipstick and eyeliner

It's the end of the year, and I just wanted to give a quick update on the Marc Jacobs birthday kit from this year. To be honest, I always regretted not picking up the Fresh rose mask and soy cleanser in place of this item, as I'm more of a skincare than a makeup product.

The lipstick is really cute, as it's super small and a very nice and wearable color. The eyeliner is a bit tough to apply, but does have incredible staying power (almost too much in fact, as I found I had to scrub quite hard to remove)

The one large disappointment with the eyeliner is that I had it in my travel makeup bag daily, and then one day it just suddenly became unusable. Not sure if it broke or something but literally one day I tried to turn the stick up and it was like the entire stick had disappeared. 

All in all a very nice and generous gift from Sephora, but I'd only recommend this pack if you are a major makeup or Marc Jacobs fan. I found it quite average. 

Shiseido Retinol Eye Mask and Gift with Purchase

This was from a while back, but I purchased two packs of the Shiseido Pure Retinol Eye Mask back when they were doing a free gift with $35 purchase, which worked out to a great deal given the bag and goodies it came with (see below).

The mask itself was fine, though I can't say I noticed much of a difference after using it. Retinol as a whole is meant to be quite effective against wrinkles, and I'm always wary of fine lines below the eyes. The material of the mask feels rather cheap, like rough cotton, unlike the Tony Moly gel eye mask I tried recently. It sticks on well to the eyes and the product is quite pleasantly scented.



The gift came with a very large make-up bag in a shiny metallic pink, plus sample sizes of the Power Infusing Concentrate, WrinkleResist emulsion, eye cream, makeup remover, and moisturizer.



The moisturizer was the biggest disappointment, as the packaging didn't allow for more than a few days use - it seemed to run out very quickly. The concentrate and emulsion feel quite nice and moisturizing, and the eye cream is light and effective. The makeup remover isn't one I'd really recommend as the packaging was awful (it kept getting all over the cap when you shook it to mix it up, despite tightly placing the cap on), and its makeup removing power was quite average, requiring rather rough swipes to remove.

I like Shiseido and would recommend this during another of their product promotions.