Sephora Favorites Superstars Review

Hello, everyone!  I hope you're having a wonderful morning!

Last year was the first year I purchased one of the limited edition Sephora Favorites Superstars kits.  I loved everything in it (minus the Benefit Cosmetics They're Real mascara - I do not like that mascara) and have been waiting patiently for this year's kit to be released.  Of course, I purchased it ASAP.  This kit comes with seven full size products, one travel size product, and five deluxe sample size products.  The full size products are an original Beauty Blender, Lancome black pencil eyeliner, Urban Decay eyeshadow in the shade Lounge, Nars Dual Intensity eyeshadow in the shade Himalia, Clinique Chubby Stick highlight, Touch In Sol Stretchex mascara, and a Stila Stay All Day black liquid eyeliner.  The travel size product is the Smashbox primer water.  The deluxe sample size products are a Tarte bamboo contour brush (original size is double ended), Makeup Forever foundation primer, Laura Mercier powder highlight, Benefit They're Real mascara (ughhhhh, seriously again?!), and a Tarte contouring stick in the shade Park Avenue Princess.  This retails for $75 but has a value of $207!

Smashbox Primer Water

Makeup Forever Step 1 Primer

Beauty Blender (Original)

 Tarte Bamboo Contour Brush

Benefit Cosmetics They're Real Mascara

Lancome Liqui-Pencil Eyeliner

Stila Cosmetics Stay All Day Liquid Eyeliner

Tarte The Sculpter in Park Avenue Princess

Touch In Sol Stretchex Mascara

Laura Mercier Powder Highlighter

Clinique Chubby Stick Highlighter

Urban Decay Lounge Eyeshadow

Nars Himalia Dual Intensity Eyeshadow

*Left is a dry swatch.  Right is a wet swatch using the Smashbox Primer Water.*

As I'm sure you can guess, the number one product in this year's kit that I hate is the Benefit Cosmetics They're Real mascara.  I gave it to my sister and she really likes it though.  I've never heard of the Touch In Sol brand before, but I'm curious to try it.  Honestly, I prefer the Real Techniques Miracle Sponge over the Beauty Blender.  I already have a Beauty Blender Pro (black) and I'm not a huge fan of it, and the original didn't seem to work any better.  They both leave a porous look to my skin instead of an airbrush finish.  There's been a lot of hype around the Smashbox Primer Water and the Makeup Forever Step 1 Primer, so I'm excited to give those a try and find out if they're worth their hype or not.  The Tarte contour brush is cute, but not practical.  Honestly I was expecting the handle to be a bit longer.  In reality though it's very short and gets lost in my brush holders.  I have another full size Stila Cosmetics Stay All Day liquid liner, so I already know I like it but it's nice to have a back up.  I've only tried one product from Lancome before and it was a deluxe sample of their Hypnose Drama mascara, but I've been wanting to try more of their products.  I haven't tried a cream contour before, so I'm glad I get to try out The Sculpter from Tarte.  This is my first product from Laura Mercier, and it is stunning!  I wore it for the first time for mine and my husband's anniversary and have fallen in love with it.  Speaking of highlighters, the Chubby Stick from Clinique looks amazing!  The Urban Decay Lounge eyeshadow is really cool.  It's green with a red/brown shift.  I didn't swatch it wet, but I bet it's even more stunning applied that way.  It also looks great over a black base.  The eyeshadow from Nars is very beautiful too.  I actually had this exact shade (Himalia) on my Sephora wishlist for a while, so I was pretty stoked when I saw that it was included in this kit.

Did you pick this up or are any of these products some of your favorites?  I'd love to hear which ones you're loving right now.  I'm most excited about the Clinique Chubby Stick, the Nars eyeshadow, the Urban Decay eyeshadow, the Tarte contour stick, the Smashbox primer water, and the Laura Mercier highlighter.

I hope you found this helpful!  Thank you for stopping by!