Ahh, Milan – where do I start with declaring my love for the beautiful city and even more beautiful Lake Como… I never wanted to come home I felt so relaxed there! As I suspected I didn’t have much time for shopping and I loved exploring the city so much I really didn’t want to start trying to find all the makeup!
So it was a one stop shopping trip for me, Sephora. I actually was half expecting not to encounter a Sephora during our trip, I’d looked and they seemed to be scattered around the outskirts of the central area and I had no plans on dragging Ben across town with the precious little time we had to find Sephora! However when we went up to Lake Como for the day, I spotted one just off the platforms after you’d been through the ticket gate, an odd position as you couldn’t access if if you weren’t going somewhere on a train… we were so late for our train (literally within 30 seconds of getting on it, it left!) and on a Sunday I didn’t think it would still be open when we arrived home in the evening. IT WAS. I asked Ben’s permission promising I’d be quick and it was a relatively quick experience.
The brand’s Sephora carried in Milan weren’t too exciting for me, Benefit and Makeup Forever were the main bulk of the brands carried other than Sephora’s own line which was where my interests lied. There was very little there in terms of skincare brands at all. By this point I’d realised that Milan/Italy was expensive and I didn’t have much money to go crazy – so I kept myself restrained. I wanted the Gel Concealer from their own line badly, I’ve heard and seen so many good reviews on it, but sadly it wasn’t available in that store/Italy, so I’ll have to keep it on the list for a future purchase online from Sephora (probably Black Friday!).
Apologies that the photography in this post isn’t the best, I was desperate to play with my new goodies, so this was taken in sunset on the hotel bed, the lighting isn’t the best!
I had a bad cold and very sore lips whilst out there and the lipsticks took were a waste of time, I couldn’t bare wearing them. I picked up a lip balm as I didn’t take one with me and opted for their own Sephora Collection Super Nourishing Lip Balm which was around 3 Euros. I’ve almost finished this already – it did the job for me whilst there, but was a lip balm which wore away quite quickly – not worth reviewing separately so just a quick mention here will do.
I also realised I forgot to take any cotton pads with me, so picked up the cheapest ones I could find in Sephora, which yet again came from Sephora’s Own Collection – these were 2.50 Euros. Not my favourite as they’re slightly fluffier finish which I find has a tendency to pull off a little around the eye area, but they’re not the worst. Again, they did the job in an emergency situation without!
The single eyeshadows from their own line was something that I had on my list to get, I’d heard good things about them in reviews, and seen one in particular in a tutorial I wanted to get my hands on them. At one point I had 7 in my hands and I decided to put some down. I picked up Midnight Madness a deep off black charcoal shimmer with rainbow sparkles, this is the one I’d seen used in a tutorial by Lustrelux and was on my list. I also picked up Hawaiian Beach a mid-champagne gold with silver glitter. Both of these were 11 Euros each.
Then spotted the sale section, and saw a boat load of discontinued single eyeshadows for 5 Euros. I picked up Provocative, a silver shimmer – which has a grey lace design on the packaging and overlay I presume this was from a limited edition collection, but I’m struggling to see which one! And finally from the singles was the shade Cookie Crunch, a mid brown shimmer with a bronze fleck.
Lastly I spotted something special in the Sale section again. The Sephora Collection Shourouk Eyeshadow Palette was only 5 Euros and I couldn’t resist picking it up having swatched the other SC eyeshadows for myself. This was from a limited edition collection launched with Jewellery designer Shourouk last year, and is in an impractical, bulky jewellery box design with jewel toned shades in which I think are going to be both awkward and glorious to use – especially that shade in the middle!
Swatches
I’m planning on doing a travel post on my Milan/Lake Como highlights and tips whilst we discovered whilst there – I have about 600 photos to go through so it might take me this week to filter through them, I’m aiming to do that over the week so keep your eyes peeled for early next week at the latest!
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I love Sephora’s own brand stuff, I think it’s great value and they have such a huge selection of colours and finishes etc! I was at Sephora in Paris last weekend and had a huge haul, I was so not as restrained as you haha! check my post out later today! 😀
Haha, I could have gone a little crazier had Milan’s food not have been so darn expensive – and I didn’t have a million wedding related deposits to pay this month! But actually the lack of different brands meant I kept quite restrained. They also didn’t seem to have that many different types of product stocked from the Sephora Collection – just 300 different eyeshadows, 300 different nail polishes, so I was limited to just a few items to pick from!
Yeah the Paris one was a little like that too – but I still went a bit crazy haha! The American Sephoras are by far the best because they have everything you can’t get at home.
agreed, that’s why i saw little point looking at MUFE etc now we can get it easier than before otherwise it would have been goodbye money!!!
The palette is gorgeous! I went to the Sephora in Copenhagen last week and they carry a lot of different brands, but I didn’t buy anything from Sephora’s brand
I love the design of that Shourouk eyeshadow palette, even though it does look very impractical to use!
I have yet to check out the single shadows from the Sephora brand, but they’re supposed to be really high-performing. You picked up some nice shades!
I actually don’t think it will be too bad when I’m using a brush, I was a bit hap handed when it came to trying to swatch with my fingers though!
I’ve used the grey and black shades so far and they’re both really nice shades that go on really nicely. I can see myself getting a lot of use from them!
Those single eyeshadows are to die for! xx
Lake Como sounds incredible! I definitely want to photos!
Glad you were able to stop into a Sephora – you got great eye shadow colours and yay on “Midnight Madness”, that was the shade you were wanting. Out of the ones you got, I only own Cookie Crunch.
I’ve never even heard of the collaboration with Shourouk – that palette is cute but those pans would drive me batty! I get what they’re trying to do with the packaging but ugh.
I am still shaking my head that there are no Sephoras in the UK. GEEZ.
There are rumors there is a Sephora store coming, personally I think it’s BS, as the medium of its release (Twitter, via a worker who works in the same shopping center it’s going to) would be a massive PR opp fail by Sephora, but I keep my cynical fingers crossed!
I think the pans on the palette might be okay with a brush I haven’t gotten around to trying it yet but swatrching with my fingers was irritating! I do wonder why no one went, “erm is this practical guys”, they could have made something just as effective with pans all shaped like the one in the middle! But for 5 euros I wasn’t saying no regardless!
It’s funny, i decided to just look at the shades that caught my eye and midnight madness caught my eye, swatched it, looked at the name and was like oh good ha!
Just reading about the Shorouk collection, and apparently it was european exclusive, I almost bought the blush brush which did actually have a big piece on it, but it was still 35 euros so I talked myself out of it!
We’ve been wanting to try sephora eyeshadows! The shades are all so pretty! xx, Britta & Carli from http://twinspiration.co/
I love the single eyeshadows, the shades are so deep and autumnal. Great for a smokey eye x
The placement of the shadows in that palette is absolutely gorgeous!
Me too, I’m hoping it will be actually practical (or at least not too hard) to use with brushes, rather than just being a pretty piece that’s too annoying to use! Some of those shades will be perfect coming into winter!
Love the shadows so pretty X
Thank you! I’m loving the ones I’ve tried so far! Good purchases 🙂 x
Ah, how I wish I could try Sephora stuff, one day! 😄
How could you forget lip balm?!! 😀 On the other hand, it’s a nice excuse to try something new.
The palette is so pretty. Awaiting the Lake Como pics…
If I’m going for a few days I just don’t take one, I can cope weeks without needing to use one, was just unlucky to really need one whilst there!
Those eye shadow colours are so nice! SO jealous that you went to Lake Como too xx
Milan is on my bucketlist to visit.
Looks like you got some great Sephora products too.
Jealous 💕
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