Marc Jacobs Beauty Style Eye-Con Reveal

The Sephora US order that I blogged about last week (here) arrived in a record 4 days which helped the soften the blow of the duty & tax charges that I paid. The item within the order that I was most excited about was the Marc Jacobs Beauty Style Eye-Con (or eye shadow palette) in 'The Tease'.  A very sleekly packaged palette holding 7 beautiful eye-shadows in a range of luxurious purple and mauves. In fact, I am so in awe of it that I can't even bring myself to use it yet. Here are some images, in all its unblemished glory ....

The palette is housed in a jet black fabric pouch. Unfortunately the press-stud which closes the pouch came away in my hand as I opened it. Moving on, once I got to the actual palette I was highly impressed. It is glossy and beautiful, the colours are very wearable and there are some neutral blending shades included too. 

Yes, that is the actual applicator supplied ... ridiculous ...

If purple shades are not your thing, there are 3 other options to choose from, the most versatile being 'The Lolita' which has all your nude/day time options covered. My only gripe (aside from the aforementioned press-stud issue) is the tiny foam applicator they include. I feel that this cheapens the product, and can't imagine anyone actually using it to apply their eye shadow.

You can purchase the Eye-Con palettes exclusively through Sephora here. They cost $58 USD or £37.39 (plus duty & tax). For more details on Sephora and their UK shipping options you can go here. 

Sephora and UK Shipping

When I found out the Sephora USA site was now shipping to the UK I literally ran to my computer to see what I could buy. You think i'm joking but I assure you I am not. On my last trip to New York, over the course of 4 days I made about 6 trips to Sephora and came away with multiple items on each visit - such is my love for the place, and for the US prices.

Sadly as I clicked away on the site, my excitement slowly dissipated. There are a lot of brands that do not ship to the UK, including Hourglass, Laura Mercier, Kate Somerville, NARS and any nail polishes. The other annoying thing is it doesn't alert you to the fact that it can't be shipped to your location until you hit the check-out screen. On the plus side Clinique does ship as does Marc Jacobs Beauty. I wanted to pop a few Clinique products in my bag to see how the prices compare once you add in the taxes.

I have been lusting over the All About Shadow palette by Clinique. It retails for £32 here and the online Sephora price is £22.82. I also did a price comparison on the Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey which retails for £17 in the UK, the online Sephora price being £9.51.

Marc Jacobs Beauty is still not available to purchase in the UK, so buying this online is obviously a big bonus.

Sephora are charging a £10 flat rate shipping fee if you spend over £75. The important thing to note is that they still apply duty and tax to your order at the check-out. I was charged an additional £20.97 for my order on top of the shipping fee, making it an additional £30.97 all in (ouch). You can see the breakdown below.

It's a shame but not a surprise that this was too good to be true. I am still really excited to receive my order but I won't be placing future orders unless it is for something truly exceptional that you can't buy in the UK.

The Last of the Beauty Sales ….

I banned myself from from buying any makeup while holidaying in Sydney and that ban extended to the Boxing Day sales online. Oh how it hurt when I saw all the email notifications from Space NK, Beauty Bay, Adore Beauty and beyond. I'm proud to say I stayed strong and haven't bought a thing, however I have done a little round-up of what I think are the best savings still online now - AND they all ship free INTERNATIONALLY!

Beauty Bay 

Beauty Bay have a great range of brands. I have blogged about them before here. They are UK based however they ship internationally for free with no minimum spend. At the moment they have 50% off all Bellapierre. The foundation colours are running low, however they still have loads of their shimmer stacks, eye shadows and blushes here. 

ASOS

ASOS have some good bargains on Pixi Beauty left, notably the Pixi Flawless Beauty Primer here and the Pixi Eye Alchemy Set here. I have been so impressed with all the products I have bought from Pixi Beauty this past year and i'm tempted … (currently sitting on my credit card chanting 'NO')

Adore Beauty

At 20% off, the Adore Beauty won't set any world records but any discount is better than no discount and if you prefer to shop local and support an Australian company, then this is your best beauty bet. My pick of the small selection of sale goods remaining, is the Alpha-H Liquid Gold Discovery Collection. This is a brand I have long been wanting to try. It has received rave reviews in the UK and a set like this containing 5 trial-sized products would be a great introduction. You can see this here. 

I must apologise for the lack of quality images in my posts lately. I have very limited resources working from my parent's house. I will be back in London by the weekend so you can expect my images to be back to their usual quality by next week.

Happy shopping. I am with you in spirit.