Limitless by Sephora: Ticket Beauty Box and My Opinion of the Event

Limitless by Sephora was an online event prepared by Sephora Portugal that was supposed to happen the past 20th of June. You could get access to the event by buying a beauty box filled with goodies for 30€. When the boxes sold out, you could get the ticket for the event alone for 10€. Now, this was the first time something like this was organised by Sephora. Did I mention it was online?

You know what they say, life is what happens when bandwidth allows it.

The event was a series of talks about beauty related subjects, by a panel of different people for each session. There was an online “pop up store” with products that were mentioned during the talks at 20% off, and there some contests where you could win some prizes.

The day came and the site crashed. It was kind of entertaining to keep hitting refresh on the page and see different server errors. You never knew what error you were going to get. Also, Instagram and Facebook were on fire with complaints from a lot of furious customers. The event was supposed to go for about 3 hours, it started one hour late, and lasted for one hour before the server broke again and Sephora decided to postpone the whole thing.

In their defense, a first ever online event going without a hitch is as likely to happen as a printer working when you’re in dire need of it.

In spite of the premiere debacle, I think they handled the situation very well. They rescheduled the event for the week after and it would be available for re-watching for one full week after that. Plus, they offered us the choice to either watch the event or give us a full refund, even for the people who bought the goodie box. So I could’ve gotten the box for me.

You could hear seagulls on the background.

But I didn’t. That wouldn’t be fair. I was interested in the box first and the event second, and I got my stuff. Plus, I want to watch some of the talks.

The talk about skincare.

The first talk was about skincare, but honestly, the panel wasn’t very informed, nor did it have any experts (no aesthetician, dermatologist, not even a pandemic-spawned skincare enthusiast). Honestly it just looked like an excuse for product placement. Plus, the products they were suggesting were very expensive. Look, the three things you need for good skin are: good ingredients, consistent use, and plastic surgery. So if you want to spend that amount on skincare, save it for surgery, you’ll get more bang for your buck.

The second talk was about sustainability in the beauty industry, and it was interesting but there wasn’t a lot of focus on the link between beauty and environmental care. It wasn’t the moderator’s fault though, he tried to keep bringing the subject back to beauty, but the panel knew more about than sustainability that beauty.

The third session I watched was about being a beauty influencer in current times. Now this was a great one. The panel was relevant for the conversation, there was someone from everywhere on the spectrum (an influencer, someone representing the brands, an agent) and it was interesting hearing about the influencer sphere from a portuguese perspective. Really enjoyed it.

The session after that was a makeup masterclass, that I watched just the first 20 minutes, and after that one about man wearing makeup that I wanted to watch but had no time. Overall, I enjoyed the event, but I would have preferred if it was live and the audience could make questions, like with youtube streams.

Now, for the goodies. I think they claimed it’s a 87€ value, and I don’t know, I didn’t do the math, but I believe it. Makeup wise, there was only one full sized product, Fenty’s Killawatt Foil Duo in Mimosa Sunrise/Sangria Sunset. The mascaras, lipsticks and primer are mini sizes, and I’m not mad about it, because it takes forever to use up that stuff. I think I finished up a whopping two lipsticks since I’ve been into makeup, and one of them was a miniature. I already know I like Fenty’s Killawatts duo and I’m excited to try the newly launched Benefit They’re real Magnet mascara, the Dior Velvet lipstick and the Sisley lip pencil.

One of the other surprising things about this box is that they included two fragrances: Bon Parfumeur’s 203 and Clarins Eau Dynamisante. One positively impressed me, one predictively pestered me, both will have their dedicated review.

Last, they included a shower foam from Rituals (The Ritual of Sakura scent, not too bad), a Sephora 2 in 1 oil Sheet mask, and a few samples from Clarins, Dior, Wishful and Laneige. The box seemed to foreshadow the event: not that strong skincare wise, but the makeup was good.

So, my final thoughts. I’ve always felt that which major beauty retailers like Sephora, here in Portugal we always get the short end of the stick when it comes to novelty and events, specially when compared with the States – which is true and fair, to be honest, because the US is a much bigger market and spend a lot more money in this industry, collectively and per capita. So even though this event was not without it’s hiccups, I commend Sephora Portugal for making an effort to provide this just for us, and cater to the portuguese beauty fanatics . The ticket box was exclusive to this country, and it was a really good value, better (for me) that any of the current Sephora Favourites boxes.

I hope the fact that this did not go smoothly does not refrain Sephora Portugal from doing more of these things. B- for execution (the way they handled this PR disaster was really positive and raised this grade forme), but A+ for effort.

You may also like

2 Comments

  1. I never joined any of these beauty online events, it sounds like a fun experience. Such a shame that connection problems ruined the event. At least you got a pretty good beauty box out of it!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *