Sephora US Haul

I can be really restrained when it comes to buying beauty products these days — Boots doesn’t really do it for me, and I try to avoid Space NK or Cult Beauty unless I need to top up on my Drunk Elephant skincare. Last year I had a huge clear out of my beauty drawers, and found myself becoming a little more mindful on what I actually needed over what I thought looked pretty. 

Of course this all goes to poop whenever I’m away and in beauty stores that aren’t so readily available in the U.K. Take me to a Sephora and I can ramp up my V.I.B status in 5 minutes flat — a skill that even a couple of lovely American ladies I drunkenly made friends with on my recent trip to New York were impressed by — they aren’t even V.I.B’s and they have access to Sephora every day! I was quite proud of myself...

I used to stock up on my US beauty favourites, Drunk Elephant, Milk Makeup, etc whenever I visited a Sephora, but now they’re readily available in the UK, I didn’t think I would actually get too spendy in the store. Something I now realise was delusional of me. 

OK, so there were a few items I needed to stock up on that you can’t get here in the UK, as I was running a tad low, but then I went a bit crazy around the aisles, and of course the miniatures at checkout got me massively. I visited one of their stores really early in the morning, and so I pretty much had the whole store to myself, which was heavenly and I totally recommend doing. 

Let's start with the products that you CAN’T purchase in the UK; First on the list was the new Summer Fridays R+R Mask. This was released by the brand earlier this year, and is yet to reach Cult Beauty in the UK (although it is coming!) I use their Jet Lag and Overtime masks weekly and love them, so this had to go straight in the basket. I stocked up on the Drunk Elephant Sukari Babyfacial — I’m scared that the bottle I already have is going to run out soon, so that was the perfect reason for this to go in the basket. 

Another repurchase was the Superberry Hydrate and Glow Oil by Youth To The People. I use this daily and love it. Whilst browsing the rest of their products, I picked up the Superfood Air-Whip Moisture Cream, which I was recommended by one of the in-store skincare consultants. I ran out of my DE Protini Moisturiser before my US trip, so was in the market for a new moisturiser, and thought I’d give this one a go. 

I also picked one of Drunk Elephant’s ‘mini tubes’ these house a couple of their products but in travel sized forms — I’m not sure if Cult Beauty or Space NK actually do these, but I tend to pick these up in Sephora as they are super handy for travelling. Their ‘Out of Office’ one has a mini version of their D-Bronzi Anti-pollution Sunshine Serum, which I love. Finally, and I know you can sort of get the brand here (but not fully) I picked up a Pat McGrath mini lipstick trio. I love her lipsticks — super pigmented and long-lasting too, and I hear her full collection will be launching in Selfridges very soon, hurrah!

Next up were a couple of purchases from brands that you can pick up easily over here. I’ve been in the market for a new cleanser for a while — I use the Eve Lom cleansing balm, and whilst I love it, I feel like I want to try a new one, so I picked up the Farmacy Green Clean cleansing balm. I tried this in-store (I had a facial with Sephora) and it felt so nice on my face, I decided to make the purchase...and pick up a travel sized one too. The lady who did my facial recommended a jade roller — something I’ve seen a lot of over the last few months, and I’ve heard only good things, so I picked the Herbivore one up. I stocked up on the Milk Makeup Flex Concealer in Vanilla — Cult Beauty keep selling out, and whilst at their counter, I grabbed one of their travel-sized lip + cheek tint sticks in one of their new shades. The last thing to throw in my basket was another travel-sized product (I told you their checkout area is where all the naughty shopping happens!) in the form of the Kate Somerville ExfoliKate Cleanser.

All in all, I think I did pretty well (understatement of the year) and I will not be buying any beauty products for a while!

Shop the post