Recessionmaxxing at the Sephora Spring Sale
A 75 product guide. Plus: an interview with Dieux co-founder Charlotte Palermino, and a scene report from Sephora Soho.
Your cheat sheet to the best of Sephora has arrived — check out our 75 recs here!💄
You’ve probably heard of the lipstick index before. The theory claims that during economic downturns, consumers keep buying beauty products and other small luxuries. Women will pinch their pockets for their rouge — or, in our modern era, VIB Rouge status. However, beauty sector sales have been slowing for a while now, which might be indicative of just how expensive skincare and makeup has become. Maybe we’ve all hit our limit. With the introduction of tariffs, the global cosmetics industry is due for a scary year. Things are about to get bad.
It’s more important than ever to be informed on what you’re slathering on your face. Imagine spending your hard-earned money on stuff that might not even work at a time like this??
I know the girls need me right now. Back by popular demand (you can read last year’s guide here) I’ve created a detailed master spreadsheet with links to 70 incredible beauty products that you won’t regret purchasing. Plus, Lilly has included 5 curly hair approved picks to add to your basket.
I’m qualified to advise on this because Sephora is genuinely one of my favorite places on Earth. For those keeping track at home, I am a VIB rouge member. You have to spend $1,000 a year to join that tier — hey, hold on now. I have THREE sisters. I buy gifts for my entire family and all my friends at Sephora. I never spend there without doing an extreme amount of research, which is why most of my yearly purchases for myself are tried-and-trusted repeats. When I deviate from my faves, I already know what’s BS and what’s worth it. I know ball. I’m a scholar with a system in place, which YOU stand to benefit from today!
There’s still time to shop, but not much — The Sephora Savings Event ends on Monday April 14th, and VIB Rouge members got first dibs earlier this week. Regular VIB members (the $350 a year tier) and Insiders (the free tier) got access on the 9th. Note that VIB members and Insiders get 15 and 10 percent off respectively, as compared to VIB Rouge members’ 20 percent off. In times like these, we all have to take what we can get! Here’s how I’d guide you through checkout — the top 20 must-buys are highlighted in pink. Plus, I’ve included 5 tips below for shoppers on a budget who still want to pick up something nice. — MF
P.S This letter is not sponsored. TIW! may earn commission on purchases made through affiliate links.
The Top 20 must-buys from the Sephora Sale, according to Melinda 🧺🏃🏾♀️
Caudalie Vinoperfect Brightening Dark Spot Serum Vitamin C Alternative — The only major change I’ve made to my skincare routine this year, and the compliments came rolling in immediately. Plus, it’s currently available in a set with 2 other products for the price of a single bottle.
Clarins V-Facial Instant Depuffing Mask — Sick, hungover, or holding water? 10 minutes with this mask will snatch and depuff your face like magic (and a jar lasts a really long time!)
Tower 28 SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray — A spray to disinfect your face after a serious workout class.
Tatcha The Water Cream Oil-Free Pore Minimizing Refillable Moisturizer — A light, airy cream that gets the job done.
Tatcha The Matcha Cleanse Daily Clarifying Gel Cleanser — And a cleanser with a nice slip to match.
Soft Services Smoothing Solution AHA Chemical Peel Body Exfoliator — This serum will give you baby smooth skin overnight, and it targets stubborn KP better than anything.
Soft Services Buffing Bar Exfoliating Body Bar — And this exfoliating bar is the closest thing to a professional body scrub you can get in your home shower. You’ll be shocked what you slough off.
L'Occitane Cleansing Shower Oil —Go full fancy everything shower with this shower oil — for a nice shave, soft skin, or an everyday spa moment.
Makeup by Mario Warm Eyeshadow Palette — Every eyeshadow color you could need for the rest of your life TBH.
Merit Brow 1980 Volumizing Tinted Eyebrow Gel-Pomade — For a quick fill, this product is underrated for no flake, fluffy brows.
Danessa Myricks Yummy Skin Tint — Everything you’ve heard about Danessa is true. Glowy, easy, natural skin.
Danessa Myricks Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder — A holy grail, hero level product that I wish less people knew about. I’m afraid the price will go up! But I’d literally pay $100 for this if it came to it. Thank God it’s only $36, and even less on sale, and even less in a set.
Bobbi Brown Skin Color Corrector & Brightening Concealer Stick — A hidden gem creamy concealer that’s perfect for on the go.
Westman Atelier Vital Skincare Brightening Concealer With Hyaluronic Acid — An expensive concealer that’s crazy natural and user friendly. Self-setting, so no powder needed!
Makeup by Mario SoftSculpt Cream Contour & Bronzer Stick —Mario is the king of contouring, and this product is proof — plus, it comes with a built-in brush.
One Size Matte Setting Spray — The heaviest duty setting spray I own. It’s a requirement for a full beat in the summer.
Violette FR Bisou Balm Sheer Matte Lipstick — This French cool girl brand lives up to the hype. It’s a “lipstick” for people who hate lipstick. Buy for a soft, sheer, just been kissed flush. VFR makes a blush, but trade secret: sometimes I use the lipstick as a matching blush, and you only need a little.
Eadem Le Chouchou Exfoliating + Softening Peptide Lip Balm — The lip balm of the moment, and the best I’ve tried in years. Everything else can go.
Dulce by Rosie Jane Perfume — A melted ice cream vanilla scent that works in cold and warm weather, on all genders, for a fantastic price.
said I smelled amazing when we spoke on Wednesday, and I was wearing this (layered with PDM Delina Exclusif, but still!)Juliette Has A Gun Pear Inc. Perfume — A fresh fruity shampoo clean girl scent that I think is weirdly underrated. I always get asked about this one!
To learn more about these products + our 55 other recs, click here!💄
And 5 budget-friendly tips for maximizing your haul 👀
Do an audit of what you already have — Take a long hard look at your medicine cabinet and your makeup bag. Throw out your old stuff. Force yourself to count 5 oddly colored lipsticks you never wear. Sniff the fancy Vitamin C serum you let expire, and admit that it’s past due. Do you have a set of eye glitters that would be perfect for parties, but you always chicken out beforehand? Don’t buy another one. Maybe even throw it out. If that hurts too much, you don’t need another eyeshadow palette. If your glowy foundation makes you look greasy, consider buying a small powder instead of replacing it entirely. Figure out what’s missing, set a budget, and rely on that info instead of chasing the next viral product.
Get ahead on FSA/HSA eligible buys — Instead of waiting until the end of the year, why not grab some sunscreen now? Sephora has plenty, in addition to hand sanitizers, acne products, and eczema treatments that will have practical use in your life, and you’ll still get that dopamine hit.
Tariffs are coming for the electronics — Hairstyling tools, shower heads, red light masks, and other electronic devices are bound to get significantly more expensive really soon. It might be time to bite the bullet on pricier items, like that Dyson or that NuFace you’ve been thinking about forever (and if that’s the only thing you purchase, that’s still really fun!)
Mini sets, refillables, and travel size products are your friend — If it takes you forever to get through one blush stick, go for a mini instead. If you already have a face wash you like, but you’re itching for another, get the travel size and see if you actually like it. It’s popular for brands to offer refillable packaging now, so see if that’s an option — so next time you buy, you’ll save money and the environment. In-store and online, be prudent about finding out if something is available in a set with other products, like the Caudalie serum I’m recommending. If you’re buying Dieux at Sephora Soho, I know you get an in-store gift with purchase. Ask around, look around, and don’t be afraid to go small!
If you’re going dupe mode, do your research — You can’t buy The Ordinary’s AHA/BHA mask and decide you’ve gotten a Sofie Pavitt serum or the Dr. Dennis Gross peel pads. They’re all great, but every product is different. Do your due diligence at home, and decide the margin of difference that you’re okay with (for example, I personally think that PHLUR’s Amber Haze $38 body mist smells so close to Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s $300+ Baccarat Rouge 540 that I’d never purchase the real thing. Real MFK heads would disagree, but doesn’t matter to me!) Find out what matters to you, and stick to it, so you’re not expecting one specific result and feel disappointed if you get another.
To see all 75 products on the master list with extra details, click here!💄
A scene report from Sephora Soho🛍️
I went into the belly of the beast — here’s what’s flying off shelves fast.
Even in frigid April weather, bundled up shoppers lined the block this past Wednesday in Soho to get a taste of skincare-inspired ice cream. The crowd was full of fans of Dieux, the cult skincare brand co-founded by
, a licensed esthetician and the author of on Substack. Instant Angel is a favorite moisturizer of mine. I’ve been a dedicated fan since it launched in 2022, so the soft serve comparison immediately clicked for me. I waited around 20 minutes, and while my hands were frozen by the time I got to the front of the line, the “white chocolate lipid-rich soft serve with maple, EVOO and sea salt” was actually really good — exactly the kind of sugar fuel I needed to enter the madhouse that is Sephora.But first, I caught up with Palermino to chat about the success of the Angel line, the pop-up, and her sale picks. You can listen to our quick convo below — text is edited for clarity.
👼🏾Melinda Fakuade: People are so excited about this pop-up — how did it come to be?
👼🏻Charlotte Palermino: Instant Angel has been doing incredibly well at Sephora. We’ve been there about a year now, and we just found out we’re one of the top moisturizers there, so we wanted to have a moment to celebrate — to say thank you to Sephora, but also to say thank you to our community. This is our first time doing something public, and I truly believe that brands can’t get to where they are without their people. We’re really excited to meet people IRL! And we also put peptides and lipids in the soft serve, so it’s basically Instant Angel in a cup [laughter] but we do recommend applying your skincare.
👼🏾MF: For people who are discovering Instant Angel or Air Angel for the first time at the sale, what would you say are some things to know about the product and how to distinguish between the two?
👼🏻CP: I have really really dry skin, and I’m 38 so my skin’s starting to change. So Instant Angel for me is actually year-round. I use Air Angel during the day and Instant Angel at night in the summer. It’s also based off where you live, so if you have more mature skin they both work because they both have a peptide that helps with collagen production. If you have oily skin or you live in a really humid climate, you’re going to want Air Angel. If you live in a dry climate — it is freezing in New York today — you’re going to want something like Instant Angel.
👼🏾MF: What are three products you’re picking up at the Sephora sale?
👼🏻CP: Sofie Pavitt’s Mandelic Clearing Serum, Dr. Idriss’s Flash Mask — clearly I’m an exfoliation girlie — and Instant Angel from Dieux.
Inside Sephora, things were exactly as you might expect. I was able to defrost, but soon I was sweltering under the hot lights and getting shoulder checked by high schoolers and their moms. My path was clear by the Pat McGrath stuff. While they didn’t have the lipgloss color I wanted in stock, everything else seemed to be available. An elderly employee named Lois helped me in the Tatcha section. I asked her how she copes with all the chaos. She said that this was her 17th Sephora sale — she had built up quite the tolerance.
Patrick Ta seemed to be in the middle of being ransacked. Similarly rummaged through was Charlotte Tilbury, where I couldn’t get the setting spray size I wanted and the dark shade of powder I was interested in was completely at pan in the display. There was a lot of foot traffic around Kosas, and Violette FR’s bisou balms were totally gone — the samples were missing, and there were about two jelly and matte formulas left. You could tell a storm had passed by, but since VFR is so new to Sephora and the display is somewhat small, who know’s what lurking in the back room. Shockingly, there were plenty of Eadem lip balms in stock — besides the one I wanted of course — in the clear shade.
I chatted with a rep for YSL named Kristina, who told me that the best course of action is to come into the store a week before sale, to scope out your list and get shade matched. She’s right — my smoothest sales have been due to this method. But this year, I was a little more laissez faire. Like makeup influencer and Substack essayist
’s advice on letting your phone die in your hands, this year I decided to just…let some things go out of stock. You know how they say that rejection is God’s re-direction? Yeah, let those empty displays and pans wash over you. Let them ring out in silence when you go to reach for that product you wanted, only to find nothing there. If there’s only crumbs left when you get to Sephora, you can survive til the fall on crumbs! (But also… you can always have them check if they can order it for you online. No harm in checking, right? ) —MFIf you liked this issue, let this recession be your redirection! Tell us your thoughts in the comments or on Instagram (@lilly_milman | @melindafakuade), and share this guide with your favorite beauty insider!