Earlier this Monday Bobbi Brown Cosmetics kicked off their first-ever public sample sale at 260 Sample Sale‘s Fifth Avenue location. The much anticipated event promised to offer a wide selection of makeup products at unbeatable prices and with discounts of up to 75% off retail prices were really good. Joining Bobbi Brown at the sale was Bumble and Bumble, another label under the vast Estée Lauder umbrella. The seven day long sale certainly delivered when it came to prices, with almost everything $15 or under. Selection and shade variety on the other hand left something to be desired.
Bobbi Brown popularized the whole “
no makeup” makeup movement in the 90’s so it’s no wonder that foundations are the brand’s star products. The good news is that
pricing was great!
Foundations were just
$15 and
concealers $12. Bobbi Brown face products usually retail for $50 so that’s at least 75% off savings. While the sale did indeed offer nearly all varieties like
Intensive Skin Serum,
Long Wear Even Finish,
Moisture Rich, and
Skin Foundation (and that’s just the
liquid foundations) the bad news is that
shade choices were limited. There were
pressed and loose powders,
cream foundations,
stick foundation,
concealers,
correctors,
CC creams, and
under eye brighteners. The big issue revolved around finding your shade in a type of foundation you wanted. Certain varieties were only available in 1-2 shades. For example the
Skin Foundation Stick came only in
Cool Golden. I was told that since this is such a popular product for them this was all they had. The Skin Serum was available in several light (
Ivory) to medium to dark shades (
Cool Espresso).
CC cream came in
Warm Nude and
Pale Nude.
Long Wear Even Finish liquid foundation was available only in
Cool Ivory.
Serum Concealers only had two lighter shades:
Light Pink Bisque and
Extra Light Pink Bisque. I think you guys get the idea. I was told that while there is a lot of backstock it is only in those shades that are already out on the tables. For someone like myself with super pale skin the only shade choices that worked were alabaster and porcelain which were only available in Moisture Rich Foundation that I know my combination skin wouldn’t like. Thankfully there are testers and you can swatch to your heart’s content! You can even see my sorry mislabeled attempt in one of the photos lol
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Moving on to lip and eye products (all $8) you’ll find a pretty small selection and much of it is already sold out. By noon all lipsticks and mascaras were sold out. There were just two shades of lipsticks to begin with, a matte orange and a raspberry pink. It is unlikely they’ll be restocked today (Tuesday) but the staff is hopeful that there will be a new shipment later this week. I also saw some lip glosses but again they were available in only one color: orange peach. Same goes for eyebrow pencils: only in Wheat. There were a couple of potted gel eyeliners (no liquid liners) but I don’t recall seeing black.
Near the coat check you’ll find
brushes and applicators. Sadly there was just one type of
eyeshadow brush for
$10. Various
puffs and
sponge applicators were all priced at
$3.
Makeup removers were
$8 and
cleansers were
$10. The only skincare consisted of
$10 Rescue Recovery Kits (retail $35). The sale’s most expensive item came in the form of Bobbi Brown
“Beach” perfume: $24 (retail $76). There were
highlighters,
blushers, and one type of
bronzer (
$12). Overall the selection was underwhelming. I was expecting a sale similar to
last year’s M.A.C. sample sale but the lack of shade variety and limited color cosmetics definitely hurt this event. There were no makeup sets, no eyeshadow palettes, no limited/special edition items, etc.
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