gift of self-giving, part 3

I'm really getting in the groove of this self-gifting trip I'm currently on. I just came off the Benefit Cosmetics website where I laid down 76 of my hard earned american dollars on a beauty self-gift pack worth 1 c-note and 1 dollar. All bought for me, myself and I. My love for all things in pretty packaging is a blessed curse and Benefit has me wrapped around their pinky finger. Benefit, is a bene fit for me! Laughs, it was worth a shot, I always think it, corny as it is :D

Like many sites I sign up with, Benefit always have, on any given week, special online offers and today I discovered in my inbox, a generous virtual gift certificate worth USD25. The catch? I have to spend a minimum of 100 bucks worth of products to be eligible for said discount. No problem. I have not purchased any major makeup stuff since March of this year, aside from 2 CoverGirl Amazemints and some Garnier base/moisturiser and am due for some restocking in the beauty category.

Now, if it appears as if I'm buying just because of the online deals, well, in a sense that's true. I would probably have waited till next year to get the stuff I needed as I'm pretty at the limit of my budget on the personal expenses front this month but in my book of shopping do's & don'ts, you don't turn down a free cash gift. Hence, a deal's a deal and so I went to town shopping, in my own small way, at the Benefit site.

Last month, I had been looking around my makeup stash to see what needed to be replenished and saw my reflection at the bottom of my Dandelion blush when I opened the cute box, my Benetint was at the point of empty and my Some Kind-A Gorgeous foundation faker is nearing the end of its foundation faking days. So, I had a set list of the products I would have to get and with that in mind, off I navigated the browser to the wonderfully girly world of Benefit.

The first thing I put in my shopping cart was the Best of Benefit: Beauty Uppers, which is a special holiday gift set worth 86 US dollars containing a full size Dandelion all over face powder, a full size bottle of Benetint and a full size tube of the newly enhanced with spf, You Rebel Lite tinted moisturiser. All this at a cost of a further 15% discounted price of 58 dollars from the listed price of USD68! Woohoo! The set had 2 of the products I wanted and an added bonus of the tinted moisturiser, which I had always wanted to try but thought too pricey. I was damn happy to get ahold of this set as usually around the season of giving, most gift set items on the site are sold out.

While I was putting the Beauty Uppers set into the cart, the site subtly pointed out that their liquid foundation, Non Fiction, was going for 50% off the retail price. Now, in the coming days, there are multiple invites to gatherings and although usually I am not a heavy makeup wearer, I thought, hell, might as well widen my beauty repertoire to include not just a foundation faker, but real, honest to god, liquid foundation. A girl's gotta learn to put it on sometime right and it might as well be at a price of 15 dollars, a price comparable to any drugstore version foundation. After deliberating between warm beige and warm sand for my light olive skin tone, I finally went with warm sand and into the cart went Non Fiction.

Now, my total was just USD73. I'm 27 dollars short for the gift cert redemption. What luck that the Some Kind-A Gorgeous weighed in at USD28. I am now 1 dollar over the minimum purchase requirement and ecstatic to checkout my fabulous total of 5 fantastic products at a total cost of USD76. Now, if my math is correct, and it usually is, had I bought just the 3 products I initially wanted; Benetint, Dandelion and Some Kind-A Gorgeous, it would have costed me a total of 84 dollars. Instead, I have 5 full size products and a savings of USD8 from what it would have cost me with 3 items. And now I'm done makeup shopping for 2009. How cool is that? Completely and utterly worth every cent I'm gonna have to scrimp on this month's groceries. Why couldn't math in school had been something like this?

My general beauty routine does not entail a full face of makeup every day but on the occasions I do have use for makeup I like to look youthful-ler than my already youthful face and as au naturel as possible (basically not looking washed out after a late night), that's why I am a big proponent of Benefit Cosmetics. I believe Benefit delivers for me in terms of quality and price. The packaging makes it fun, it's all soooooo pretty!