Free Birthday Beauty Goodies: 2017.

August is my birthday month and although I don't have a whole load of store/loyalty cards it's quite amazing how many retailers offer you some sort of birthday gift.
Some of them entail you making a purchase (I would never advocate buying anything you don't need merely to get a free gift) but there are quite a few that don't require you to shop to get your gift.
If you  need anything and your birthday month is coming up it may be worth your while to hold off shopping until then, either way, if it is your birthday month it's worthwhile to check out what your favourite beauty retailers have on offer.

Sephora

If you are a Sephora Beauty Insider (and if you aren't, why? It's free to sign up and each purchase accumulates points that you can trade in for samples along with other advantages and offers) there is a choice of gifts, one of which you can claim, no purchase required if you pick up in store. This year there was a choice of skincare minis from Caudalie, make up minis from Tarte and even one for the boys from Jack Black. I chose the skincare set (of course) comprised of Caudalie Vinosource Sorbet (10ml) and Vinoperfect Serum (also 10ml) which is worth $36.00 - pretty impressive!

SpaceNK

Members of Space NK NDulge program (again if not, why not? Free to join and you get cash discounts from points earned) received a beautifully packaged three piece gift this year. Again no purchase necessary if you pick up in store. This gift contained a generous sized sample of Eve Lom Rescue Mask (15ml), which is something that I haven't used for a very long time so I'm quite keen to try it out again, a mini Lipstick Queen Hello Sailor Lipstick (1.5g) and a mini Kevyn Aucoin Essential Mascara (4ml). This gift is worth $30.00 which again isn't bad for a total freebie!

Ulta

Ulta is fast becoming one of my favourite places to do a beauty shop! They have very good offers and  some lovely products that are exclusive to them. During your birthday month they offer double points on purchases to members of the Ultamate Rewards program and this month's birthday gift was a full sized exclusive NYX eye shadow palette with no purchase necessary if you visit a store. I can't give an exact value for this as it is specially produced for Ulta as a birthday gift but it is a full sized palette with ten shadows and a mirror so let's guess $15.00? This is a beautiful palette, very on trend, with warm brickish tones that will look good with a bronzed summer look and transition well into autumn make up looks. This isn't something that I would have necessarily picked out for myself - it's a little bolder than my usual more neutral look, but I do love this gift! There are shades here that I will most certainly use and I like the formula and colour payoff of these eye shadows - NYX is possibly my favourite drugstore make up brand offering innovative products at pocket friendly prices. 

Kiehl's

Whilst most stores seem to have upped their game with their birthday gifts Kiehl's seem to have taken a step in the other direction. If you are a member of their rewards scheme you can pick up a tube of  #1 Lip Balm (worth $7.00)gratis but only of you make a purchase during your birthday month. I didn't take them up on this offer as we are well stocked with Kiehl's products but there's one in my picture as we have plenty of tubes of this hanging around. It's a basic petroleum jelly lip balm, not bad, but not my favourite.

Cult Beauty

Cult Beauty offer 15% discount on any orders you make during your birthday month.

Caudalie

Caudalie automatically apply 30 points to your MyCaudalie Rewards on your birthday which you can redeem for a gift once you have reached a certain amount. 

Victoria's Secret

I know that Victoria's Secret isn't strictly a beauty store but holders of Angel Cards get $10.00 applied to any purchase with their card and there are plenty of body products and lip colours to choose from there.

I love all these little beauty perks, they help make a birthday even more fun and it makes me favourable towards stores that reward your loyalty in some way.

These are just the ones that I have received without me seeking them out. There must be many more out there that I'm unaware - so do let me know!

Barneys Love Yourself GWP: March 2017.

Barneys Love Yourself bag event is one of my favourite GWP events and I always plan my beauty shopping so that I can take advantage of it when it happens twice yearly. $200.00 spent on anything in Barneys beauty department entitles you to a free cosmetic bag, jam packed with samples from a selection of high end beauty brands. I was away when the event took place this year, during the second week of March, but I pre ordered with my SA in New York and had my order shipped so I had a lovely box of goodies to open when I returned from my trip.

 I use this event to stock up on my favoured make up base, Chantecaille Just Skin (a tube of which lasts me for almost exactly six months which works out perfectly timewise for this!) as well as stocking up on some Kiehl's products for Mr C&C.

This time from Kiehl's I bought Rosa Artica Face and Eye Creams and a bottle of Powerful Strength Line Reducing Concentrate which is a 10%Vitamin C serum. 

In addition to the main gift bag many brands offer step up gifts which they offer when you reach a certain spending level (they may also offer them to loyal or repeat clients).

 The Chantecaille step up gift is always a selection of samples in some sort of lovely make up bag - Chantecaille really do offer some of the nicest free bags with their promotions. This year there was a waterproof 'Kenya' pouch with an attractive tree and sky printed design, which would be perfect for popping in a beach bag, and samples of Flower Infused Cleansing Milk, Fruit and Flower Acids Mask, Bio Lifting Serum and Nano Gold Energizing Eye Cream. It's a very nice gift indeed especially when you consider that the value of the samples is a little over $100.00!  

The step up gift from Kiehl's had three samples from their Midnight Recovery range - the Concentrate Serum, Eye Cream and the new Cleansing Oil along with a sample of Hydro Plumping Retexturising Serum which is a super hydrating glycerine based serum. I was also given a half sized jar of Tumeric and Cranberry Seed Energizing Radiance Mask.

The Love Yourself Gift Bag contained twenty three products, mostly samples with a few half sized/minis. As usual the bag had a good mix of skincare, make up, perfume, hair care and body care items. There were seven skincare samples and a sheet mask, four make up samples, five perfume, four hair care items along with a mini toothpaste and a mini shower gel.  

There are a mix of both new products and old favourites here which along with the samples from the step up gifts make up a very generous selection that I am looking forward to using.

(The next Love Yourself event is in September  - worth bearing in mind if you have any beauty purchases to make at the end of the Summer!)

CVS Beauty Day Giveaway #3.

I popped into a CVS store to grab a tube of toothpaste last week and there was a Beauty Day Giveaway going on. These spontaneous events aren't an event as such anymore it seems, it's just a random day when CVS have some free samples and coupons packaged up for you to grab either with or without purchase.

It's always worn while to pick up one of these bags - after all they are free, you don't even have to buy anything to get one for Pete's sake!

The latest one had $14.00 worth of coupons, a bunch of samples and a travel sized item.

Coupons.

$2.00 off any Maybelline face product.

$2.00 off any MUA product.

$4.00 off Centrum Vitamints.

$4.00 off Amlactin Body Lotion.

Samples.

Two samples of Vitamints in the flavours 'Cool' and 'Wintergreen'. I have sampled these before and although I'm not one for mints they are a great idea - a daily multivitamin that comes as a mint!

I

Maybelline Dream Velvet Gel Whipped Foundation in the shade 'Classic Ivory #20'. I'm not a fan of a matte skin finish as I think they can look rather flat in daylight but I am generally impressed by Maybelline products so am interested to try this out. It promises to be hydrating and the fact that it is whipped makes me think that it will be lightly textured...

From Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula there are two face and one body samples.

For the face there is a sample of their Cleansing Oil and a sample of their Facial Oil. Both are rose hip scented ( they don't contain rose hip oil however) and the facial oil contains retinal and Vitamin C.There is also a sample of Palmer's Cocoa Butter Body Lotion, an old classic that I have never tried!

Another lotion I haven't tried is Amlactin Body Lotion.  I have to confess I haven't even heard of this, but it says it is for very dry skin and contains Alpha Hydroxy Acid.

I recently tried to make a dent in my stash of haircare samples and I did a pretty good job so I'm happy to get more shampoo and conditioner samples.

From Carol's Daughter there is Black Vanilla Sulphate Free Shampoo and Hydrating Conditioner. I have used hair masks by Carols Daughter before and they are highly fragranced and smell wonderful so I am keen use these and see if they smell delicious also.

There is also shampoo and conditioner from Shea Moisture, Fruit Fusion Coconut Water Weightless Shampoo and Creme Rinse that I recently received in a Target box. These also smell lovely - fresh, fruity and summery. I also very much like the fact that Shea Moisture samples always offer twice as much conditioner as shampoo, as I always use more conditioner than shampoo. 

Travel Sized.

I'm not a huge fan of in shower moisturisers but will give them another chance with this 2oz travel sized Jergen's Wet Skin Moisturiser. This is another beachy smelling product scented with Monoi Oil.

I'm always pleased to get some new brands and products to try out especially if they are free, aren't you?

CVS Beauty Day Givaway Summer 2016.

I nipped into my local CVS yesterday and they had their free Beauty Day Giveaway bags out. They used to hold Beauty Day events twice yearly and would send out emails about them and have reps from various brands on site. Now, I don't know if it is only my CVS  that this applies to, they no longer hold an event on a specific day or have anything special going on... Nowadays it's just a bunch of sample bags up for grabs.

These giveaway goody bags aren't all that exciting but if you see them it's still worth grabbing one as they contain a selection of mini drugstore items that are very handy to use when traveling, along with a few samples and coupons.

This time around the bags contained foil samples of four products from L'Oreal's Age Perfect range along with minis of Nexxus Therapy Shampoo, Nexxus Humectress Conditioner, CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser, Aveeno Daily Moisturising Body Lotion, Aquaphor Healing Ointment and Garnier SkinActive Sunscreen SPF15. 

There's also a coupon to redeem for a 1oz St Ives Apricot Scrub which isn't something that I would use but many do.

Overall, I don't think that's a bad selection of products and it has a good part of your toiletry needs for a weekend trip covered. 

If you are passing by a CVS why not have a look to see if they have a bag for you?

CVS

Last Saturday I went into my local CVS and they were running one of their Beauty Day Giveaway events. They used to do these semi annually and send out email reminders about them but I have noticed recently that they seem to be rather random events that occur spontaneously.

Now although I'm not going to ever complain about a bag of beauty freebies they aren't normally that exciting and nothing to write home about (or write a blog post about should I say...) 

This time however there were some rather nice Vichy samples in my bag which made it a lot more interesting, in fact with the amount of goodies in there it was really quite comparable to a subscription box!

There were Shampoo and Hair Conditioner samples from L'Oreal and Shea Motion  a travel sized Curel Body Wash, samples of Almay Smart Shade Foundation and La Roche Posay Pigmentclar Eye Cream, a Gycolic Pad from Skin+Pharmacy and $10.00 worth of product coupons to begin with. 

From Vichy there were samples of Idelia Eye Cream, Aqualia Thermal Serum and Liftactiv Serum 10, larger samples of Liftactiv Retinol Ha Concentrate and Neovadiol Magistral Elixir (which is a new face oil) and a handbag sized Vichy Thermal Spray. There wasn't a Vichy representative on site when I visited but wherever they may be I'd like to thank them for their generous selection of lovely samples!

Don't forget to keep your eyes peeled when you visit CVS just in case they are having a Beauty Day Giveaway - it's always worth picking up a bag of freebies, don't you think?