Barneys Love Yourself GWP: September 2018.

Oh my word! I am so far behind with C&C it's kind of scary! Already Christmas Advent Calenders are being revealed by beauty retailers and I still haven't written up my NYFW goody bags! I almost skipped these two posts but they are ones that I enjoy writing so, hey ho, better late than never! Maybe writing them will get me my blogging mojo back and there may even be an upside in that I have actually already used some of the products so can mini review them.

Every cloud etc etc...

First up, Barneys New York Love Yourself GWP.

Barneys run their Love Yourself promotion twice yearly, in March and September. Any online or instore beauty purchase of $200.00 or more (pre-tax) entitles you to a fantastic goody bag of samples, minis, and even full-sized items, during the time the promotion is running. In addition to the main gift, various brands offer stackable step-up gifts.

I always use this event to stock up on Kiehl's items for Mr C&C and Chantecaille make up for myself - each time I buy a tube of their Just Skin Tinted Moisturiser which I wear every day!

The gift always comes packaged in a stylish toiletries bag, this years was a large clear plastic one printed with the black Barneys NewYork logo, and there is a choice of gift bags for either men or women.

When I picked up my bag, the Madison Avenue branch was missing some samples but rather than omit them completely they subbed them with doubles of others. This didn't bother me in the least as I received double samples from Byredo, ByTerry, YSL, and Zelens. Even with the double substitutions the bag contained a great selection of products. This year the bag contained one bodycare item, five make up minis, four perfume samples, six haircare items and ten skincare items all from premium beauty brands.

Bodycare.

I have already used the mini shower gel from Molton Brown. These body washes have a great formula and the scent of this one, Rose Absolue, was divine, it was a deep warm sexy rose, not a sweet girly rose. I loved it.

Makeup.

The makeup minis are always the least favourite part of gift bags for me. However, this time around I'm excited to have the opportunity to try out the new Hourglass Caution Mascara and pleased to have not one, but two, mini ByTerry Hyaluronic Hydra Powders as they are something that I use regularly to set my make up and keep shine at bay. There is a blister strip of Gucci Westman Concealer which is disappointing as I dislike these blister packs of makeup but I will try it to see if I like the formula. I'm keeping the Givenchy Noir Revelateur Lip Gloss to play around with but the Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil has gone to my giveaway pile as the shade is far too red for me to carry off.

Perfume.

I always love the perfume samples that Barneys give away as they are from such niche brands and even if I don't like them they are quite educational!  This year I got two samples of Byredo Eleventh Hour, along with one from Tiziana Terenzi and a beautifully boxed sample of Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady which I have already worn and love.

Haircare.

I always happy the haircare samples from Barneys as they are always so generously sized!
 There's a good sized bottle of shampoo from Vitabird and conditioner from Sachajuan. I'm excited to try Davines Quick Fix Circle Hair Mask and I passed a big tube of David Mallett Moisturising Hair Mask along to Mr C&C as he needed some. I've already used the small tube of Rene Furterer Hydrating Shine Leave-In Conditioner and I did like it but not enough to repurchase it. I love OUAI products so I'm looking forward to trying out their Leave-In Conditioner next.

Skincare.

There's a good mix of skincare items in this bag.
I'm already halfway through the mini Koh Gen Do Cleansing Spa Water (aka micellar water) and it's nice but not something that I would purchase for myself. I've previously used 3Lab M Cream, Chantecaille Rose de Mai Cream, La Mer Eye Concentrate, Malin+Goetze Brightening Enzyme Mask, Verso Day Cream, and Zelens Hydro Shiso Moisturiser. They are all fantastic products so I'm very happy with all of these!
The only skincare item that is new to me is YSL Forever Youth Liberator Concentrate, but I have two samples so I should be able to get a good idea if I like it or not!

Step Up Gifts.

Kiehl's didn't have a step up gift as such this time around but as you can see they gave me a generous and varied selection of samples, most of which I have passed onto Mr C&C as he loves a bit of Kiehl's!

Chantecaille always have great bags with their step up gifts and this framed purple Save the Elephants makeup bag is not only lovely to look at it is exceptionally well made. I love it! It came with samples of their Stress Relief Concentrate and Bio Lifting Cream and Mask. These tiny samples may not look like much but Chantaecaille skincare is extremely expensive and these three have a value of over $80.00 which isn't at all bad!

As ever I am thrilled with my Love Yourself gifts, and I will certainly be shopping at the next Barneys Love Yourself event in March, will you?  

Barneys New York Love Yourself GWP Spring 2018.

It feels a little odd writing Spring when it's chucking down snow outside but at least yesterday when I went to Barneys to pick up my Love Yourself purchases and bag was warm and springlike!

Barneys Love Yourself event is one of my favourite beauty events to shop. Purchases of $200.00 or more (pre tax) get an amazing gift of samples, mini and even full sized beauty products all packaged in one of Barneys own design toiletry bags. These goody bags are always packed with a range of high end products and along with Space NK Beauty Edit bags are my very favourite gifts! Barneys offer either a male or female gift bags(I always get the female one!) and in addition to the bag itself many brands offer extra samples or small step up gifts with a certain amount of purchases. 

The Love Yourself gift bags always contain a mix of skincare, haircare and perfume items. This time around there is only one make up sample, which I don't mind as make up samples with the exception of mini mascaras are the samples I tend to use the least. There's also no body care items this time unless you count a mini tube of toothpaste as body care! 

It's certainly a skincare heavy bag although I can't see anyone being disappointed with this as a gift!

There are thirteen skincare items, including the standout item of a full sized box of five Vitabird Dual Mask Sheet Masks. I'm not a huge fan of sheet masks as a rule but I'm quite excited to try these out as I was so impressed by the Vitabird C powder that I received in the last Love Yourself bag.

Whilst I'm in the mask department I'll mention that there's also an eye mask from MDNA Skin included, a sample of Malin+Goetz Detox Face Mask, which is a deep cleansing gel mask along with a 20ml sample of The Organic Pharmacy Collagen Boost Mask. (I feel bad complaining about free samples but The Organic Pharmacy Mask has hardly any product inside - maybe three or four ml at the most - I hope I was just unlucky and they are not all like this. This would have been a great sample if it were full as it's almost half size and would have been worth over $50.00).

Moving on to other skincare items there are three cleansers. 5ml of classic Eve Lom with a muslin cloth, a tube of Cle de Peau Softening Cleansing Foam (excited to try this as I'm hoping it's similar to The Ginza Foaming Cleanser!) and a big 30ml sample of Sunday Riley Ceramic Slip which I'm very pleased about as I love this cleanser, especially in the warmer weather or if my skin feels a little congested.

There are two super fancy eye cream samples: Revive Anti Age Eye Serum and 3Lab Super Eye Treatment. These two samples alone are worth $71.00 which makes up for my Organic Pharmacy Mask disappointment! 

Finally for skincare there are four samples of luxurious face creams: Sisley Black Rose Skin Infusion Cream, La Mer Moisturising Cream, Georgio Armani Crema Nera Extrema and Chantecaille Anti Pollution Mattifying Cream.

There are four generously sized haircare samples including a tube of my favourite Oribe Gold Lust Shampoo. I also love OUAI Hair Oil and I like Davines Oi All In One Milk so I'll use all these up pretty soon. There is also a sample of Sachajuan Ocean Mist Salt Spray which I will eventually use, although not for a while as I have so many salt/texturizing sprays already from gift bags which is good as it means I never have to buy any!

There are six perfume samples including the 'his n hers' samples by LOEWE that seem to come in every Barneys' gift bag. Other perfumes are Maison Margiela By the Fireside, Tiziana Terenzi Andromeda (I just had a spritz of this and it's gorgeous! It's a fruity white floral with outstanding sillage.) and two very different rose fragrances - the very wearable Diptyque Eau Rose and Byredo Rose Noir which is a heavier musky, almost leather like rose. 

Final bag items are a mini Marvis Toothpaste, always a useful if somewhat odd inclusion in this bag I feel, and a mini Le Rouge Mat Lipstick from Givenchy is the shade 'Rouge Stiletto' which, although I adore anything by Givenchy, is not a wearable shade for me so I will pass it along to someone who can.

And now for the extra samples I received...

 As ever I used this event to stock up on items from Chantecaille and Kiehl's. 

Chantecaille's extra gift was a yellow reusable shopping tote commemorating their twentieth anniversary along with samples of a mask, serum and cream from their luxurious Bio Lifting range.

Kiehl's gave out luxury samples of their Super Multi Corrective Cream, Super Multi Corrective Eye Opening Serum and the classic Midnight Recovery Concentrate Serum.

I was also given three Diptyque samples. Along with their 34 EDT I was given samples of their new Fleur de Peau EDP and Tempo EDP. Both of these new fragrances are gorgeous! Tempo is exactly my kind of scent and although I had intended my next fragrance purchase to be Byredo Velvet Haze I'm now undecided after trying this... I can't get them both as they are actually very similar to my nose....ahh decisions, decisions!

I didn't picture my purchases as they are always so similar for this event - I definitely use it to restock rather than explore! But in case you are interested I bought Chantecaille Just Skin TM along with one of their Cheek Gelee cream blushers in the shade 'Lively'. From Kiehl's I restocked Mr C&C with a bottle of Midnight Recovery Concentrate Serum and a tube of Midnight Recovery Eye Cream.

My beauty cupboards are full to bursting now, and while I'm not exactly on a 'no buy' I've plenty of things that need using so it's going to have to be a super special deal to tempt me to buy anything soon!

If you've read this far and want some Barneys' beauty goodies for yourself (or as gifts?) the Love Yourself event is on until the end of Sunday 11th in stores and also online at barneys.com

Happy shopping!