Last week I was fortunate enough to go to Sephora’s Parisian flagship store with the promise of being allowed to pick an “extra birthday present”. Needless to say, I was pretty happy about this. I’ve heard lots about Sephora but have never been to one before so was looking forward to seeing what was in store. I was going to take some cheeky snaps in store to share but I was too distracted by all the pretty, shiny stuff.

I wanted to try stuff that you couldn’t get in the UK or online easily. I didn’t see a lot of difference (I think the US Sephora stores have more variety) so I decided I wanted to try their own brand stuff of which there was plenty of choice.

Strangely for me, I didn’t go mad on the nail polish front. I just picked up the one that stood out to me – Blackjack, a mix of blue and pink glitters in a dark base. I’ve not tried this properly yet but the brush looks like exactly the kind I like – flat but not too thick – so I’m looking forward to trying this. It was about £4.15. I also picked up a three pack of nail buffers that were by the till. Damn strategic placement! I did need some of these and they were pretty cheap.

I know people will say that I should have went into a pharmacy for items like the cleansers above but it seemed unfair to drag David into too many shops in the day and a half we were there for, even if it was my birthday. Again, these are really just to try out and at 50ml each they are pretty handy sizes.

These are too cute! There was a whole rainbow wall of these and at less than 80p each I couldn’t resist getting a few. I’ve used the Peony one and it’s lovely and creamy and does for three washes.

This is the Sephora It Palette. At £25 it contains a base, two highlighter shades, two liner shades, seven eyeshadows, a brown eyeliner pencil and a double ended brush. I’ve had a quick try of this and the eyeshadows seem a bit dusty and have a lot of fallout. However, I’m going to try with a better brush and report back in full.

And the piece de resistance – the Marc Jacobs The Starlet palette. This is my official Birthday Present. It came to just under £45 with the exchange rate. Part of the new range, it contains a taupe, a champagne, a brown, a copper, yellow gold (bordering on greenish), silver and dark grey, all rich shimmers. So beautiful! I haven’t been able to bring myself to dip a finger or brush into it yet but when I do I will share my thoughts. Needless to say I have high hopes!

So I didn’t go to crazy but I’m really happy with what I got. Immediately after leaving Sephora we crossed the street to Laduree and bought macarons and other cakes. Obviously I was a very happy kitty that day.

If you would like to see more pics from my trip to Paris they can be found here.