So recently, Sephora rolled out their new "premium" Beauty rewards level: VIB Rouge. To qualify for VIB Rouge you have to spend $1000 at Sephora within the calendar year. Now, before you slam down your gavel and judge me as frivolous and awful, I have been forcing my sister and my mother to buy their beauty regimen through my Sephora account. I justified this by saying that we could all share in the benefits offered by the VIB Rouge program. Which is true. RIGHT?! FREE SHIPPING ALL THE TIMEEEE.
According to the Sephora site VIB Rouge offers these benefits:
- All Beauty Insider Benefits and All VIB Benefits
- A Birthday Gift
- Free Beauty Classes
- Product Rewards
- Seasonal Promotions
- First Dibs on New Products
- Seasonal VIB Only Gifts
- Advance Access to Sales
- Private VIB Only Shopping Events
- Free Shipping on All Orders
- Unlimited Access to the Beauty Studio
- Exclusive Rouge Events
- Special Surprise Gifts (With Purchase and Sometimes "Just Because")
- Dedicated Concierge
The VIB Rouge welcome kit comes with your VIB Rouge card and a exclusive shade of Bite Lipstick. The card gives you unlimited access to the Beauty Studio, an area of Sephora where you can schedule makeup lessons, new product rundowns, or a skincare analysis appointment with their in-house Beauty Gurus. As a Rouge member you have to have this card, or your VIB Card, to access the beauty studio. I doubt that if you forgot your card there would be severe repercussions, but better safe than sorry.
Bite Lipstick has a philosophy of putting only food grade materials into their lip products, because so many ladies ingest their lipsticks on the daily, shouldn't all their lip products be safe to eat? As a lip product junkie, I really appreciate that they put consumer's safety first. I'm awful with checking the ingredients on makeup, so when a company's mission statement highlights "food grade ingredients" I feel safer. Whether or not that is 100% true is another story, but every consumer should try to be informed =) Obviously VIB Rouge's exclusive color is a neutral shade of red titled, VIB Rouge. How unique! =P The packaging is the same packaging that Bite uses for all its deluxe sized products. A couple of months ago, I got Bite's Pepper Color for 100 VIB Points. Save for the color, I would say both tubes are the same.
As with all Bite lipsticks, the color is opaque and the texture is creamy. Since I just put my Lipstick Queen review up, it seemed natural to draw a parallel between the two. The two lipsticks are both true reds, moisturizing, and make your teeth look amazingly white. I would say the only outstanding difference between lipsticks is that the Bite lipstick's finish is Matte, while Lipstick Queen's Finish is "silky", somewhere between matte and glossy. For me the deciding factor between the two is probably I still feel the Bite lipstick on my lips, while Red Sinner just sinks in and leaves glorious opaque color. I guess the loophole to this conundrum is that they both have different finishes, so you can buy both only if you really want to.
Is it Worth it?
Now, I'll be honest. I'm not very beauty savvy. I like makeup and I like looking chic and put together, but I know my makeup habits are probably very Spartan compared to the other VIB Rouge members. As said before though, it helps that three women are using one account to purchase things, so when we wanted to buy something it was usually in one big purchase versus spaced out tiny ones.When I first heard of VIB Rouge, I didn't have a game plan of how I was going to get it (if it happened it happened) but I did have an overwhelming feeling that it would be amazing and necessary and getting it would make me feel so phenomenal and great.... essentially all the feelings Sephora's marketing team would want you to have. My heart was aflutter!
The only benefits I really see are VIB Rouge exclusive sales and the occasional gifts. However, even as a VIB I didn't feel that I was part of some secret club like Sephora wanted me to feel. I often missed the sales and I don't remember that many VIB exclusive gifts, save the present they would give to your in your birthday month.
The biggest benefit you get as beauty insider is access to the Beauty Studio. Unfortunately, there aren't any beauty studios near me, but if there was one I would still have my hesitations. One of my biggest pet peeves, and the main reason why I primarily do shopping online, is when a sales associate tries to push different or particular products on you. The Beauty Studio is a teaching area where they offer general classes, seasonal make up trend classes and personalized consultations. The personalized consultations, if you weren't a VIB Rouge member, require an appointment or a $50 to $125 dollar purchase. In defense of Sephora, their associates do not work on commission, but I prefer to do individualized research before buying a product versus listening to a sales associate I have no repertoire with. To me it seems like the Beauty Studio is another platform to push products onto you. Although, like I said before, I haven't been to one so I'm trying to keep an open mind about the subject, but that's how I feel at the moment.
Is VIB Rouge worth it? To some! To the average person? Not really. The only thing that I really value is the free shipping on every order. I'm still waiting for their "VIB gifts!"
No comments :
Post a Comment