Beauty Skeptic

Sephora Flash Price Increase

September 27, 2025August 20, 2018 by Beauty Skeptic

An e-mail sent on August 17, 2018 to Sephora Flash subscribers expressed Sephora’s intention to increase the Sephora Flash membership fee from $10 to $15 for a year. This change takes effect next month on September 26, 2018.

Recap – What is Sephora Flash?

The easiest way to think of Flash is to compare it to Amazon Prime. Granted, Prime comes with a whole host of other perks, but if you focus just on shipping, this is that. An annual membership fee gets you discounted shipping. You can read more about it from when I wrote about it at launch nearly three-and-a-half years ago; and if you’re interested in signing up, you can check that out here.

July 2018 Favorites

February 16, 2023August 17, 2018 by Beauty Skeptic

July 2018 Favorites 1. Mountain Rose Herbs Argan Oil $27 / 2. Biore Aqua Rich Watery Essence SPF 50, $12 / 3. Clarins Glow Booster, $32 / 4. Perricone MD No Eyeshadow Eyeshadow, $35

Thanks for bearing with me for a late Favorites post! What a month. At the end of June, I became a homeowner. July was a whirlwind of work on the property which culminated in the move. August has been a mess of trying to solicit order from the chaos that is a sea of boxes. I didn’t have much time to spend on fun new beauty stuff, but because we didn’t take any time off (yes!) for this endeavor, I relied on a small cache of faithfuls to get me through. See what made the cut for my July 2018 Favorites after the jump.

Coastal Scents Elite Brush Set – Unboxing and Review

August 15, 2018August 15, 2018 by Beauty Skeptic

This is a legacy post that has been given a facelift. Content has been edited for clarity and readability; additional thoughts are noted in-line. Enjoy!

In late 2013, facing a dearth of brushes and a wedding to pay for, I took advantage of a sale Coastal Scents was running and picked up their Elite Brush set. I’ve been meaning to share since then but lost the unboxing photos I took, so that delayed things.

The Details

This 24 piece synthetic brush kit normally retails for $69.95, but I picked it up during something like 50-60% off – all in all I think I spent around $38, shipped. The package, a bubble mailer, came quickly via USPS (shocker, right?). I did notice that the packaging had a peculiar smell, but the contents were unaffected. Inside was this tidy, cute white box that had been protected further by a generous layer of packing paper.

Coastal Scents Elite Brush Set Unboxing

The Brushroll

Popping open the box to slide out the contents reveals a black brush roll protected further by cellophane…

There isn’t much to look at, but the front cover of the brush roll has, “Coastal Scents,” inset. Simple isn’t a bad thing, I don’t think. Tools don’t need to be loud.

Coastal Scents Elite Brush Set - Brush Roll Thickness

The thickness of the rolled up, occupied brush roll is about an inch, maybe a little more. Considering its contents, it isn’t too bad for travel if you genuinely need an assortment.

A Busted BioSilk Cap, A Product Spilled

August 6, 2018August 6, 2018 by Beauty Skeptic

Once I finished my bottle of Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum, I bought a bottle of BioSilk ($25). I’ve been using it for a while, but was not really ready to give a comprehensive review of it. So if you came here hoping for that – this isn’t that.

After leaving my hair in a Turbie Twist for about twenty minutes post-shower, I returned to my bathroom to blow out my hair. Upon opening my hair drawer, I smelled BioSilk’s signature scent. Not a touch, but a lot. Gagging. Too much!

Uh oh.

A Spill

Read more

Stila Stay All Day Liner Review

July 27, 2018 by Beauty Skeptic

This is a legacy post that has been given a facelift. Opinions are the same, content has been edited for readability, clarity, all that jazz. Additions are noted in line. Enjoy!

Stila Stay All Day Liquid Liner

I’m not sure what it is that sparks my desire to challenge, well, everything that I challenge. But like the lipstick, if I see something that claims to Stay All Day, I can’t help but want to prove whether or not it is true. You know, for science, and love and justice, whatever.

In the same holiday set that I received the aforementioned lipstick by the same name, I received a smaller-than-normal tube of Stila Stay All Day Liner. Though more favorable than my initial reaction to the name of the lipstick, I still couldn’t believe it without seeing it. Since receiving it, I have worn it with success but I never really documented how long it lasted – and, “more or less all day,” isn’t enough for me.

The Test

Yesterday, I slapped some on my face before work around 6:15AM (contrary to my programming, I am the early bird at work. 2018 Update: SO CUTE. My makeup is done by 5:45 these days.). This is what it looked like at 6:30AM:

Stila Stay All Day Liner - 6:30AM

Well of course it looks decent, freshly applied. Also, I am an airhead and hadn’t even slapped on mascara, yet.

Discontinued Products I Miss

July 25, 2018July 25, 2018 by Beauty Skeptic

This legacy post has been given a facelift. Content has been edited for clarity and flow, but opinions are the same. Additional (new) commentary is in line.

We’ve all had it happen – find an item we love, use it (if consumable) or wear it out (if not), go to restock or replace only to be met with sadness.

Here’s a list of discontinued products I miss!

Ponds Luminous Finish BB+

I feel like I just reviewed this – I haven’t finished my tube, but now I’m in ration-mode because they already discontinued it. They still have it on Amazon through third-party merchants, but I’m still debating on it.

Maybelline Wet Shine Diamonds – Pink Rhinestone

An ooooldie, but I long for it on the regular. It’s a shimmery light pink that is perfect. The formula was awesome and it was pretty and I went through THREE whole bottles of it. Three. Even though I’m a gel fanatic now, I would gleefully purchase this if they re-released it. Meanwhile, I’ve been unsuccessfully hunting for a dupe. 2018 Update: I still pine for this polish. It has now been well over a decade after I’ve worn it and it tugs at my damn heartstrings because it. was. perfect!

More after the jump…