♬ Go shorty, it’s ya birthday. We gonna party like it’s ya birthday ♬
While my birthday is in the winter, my mom was kind enough to donate the NYX ‘Happy Birthday’ Palette to me (the summer birthday gift from Ulta)….for research purposes!
But first, let’s talk Ulta birthday gifts/reward system. Let me start off my saying that I think Ulta’s “earn & redeem” reward system is phenomenal. With each purchase, you collect points, which turn into money towards a future purchase. The more points you save, the greater the reward.
And you get a birthday gift, platinum status or not. The gifts rotate each quarter so there is one gift for January-March, one for April – June, one for July – September, and one for October – December. In addition, if you are of platinum status (the same type of title as being a VIB Rouge at Sephora), you also get a $10 off any item, including prestige brands. Sweet deal!
My birthday is in the winter, and my mom’s birthday is in the summer, so she usually shares her birthday gift with me. Last year in 2016, my gift was a sample of the Benefit Roller Lash Mascara. Her gift was a full size Urban Decay eyeshadow single in ‘Midnight Cowboy’ in limited edition birthday packaging.
This year my gift was a 7.5 mL tube of Benefit’s ‘POREfessional’, and my mom’s gift was a full sized NYX ‘Happy Birthday’ palette.
And the NYX palette isn’t available for purchase – it’s made exclusively for Ulta’s July, August and September babies.
Let’s get into the palette!
I centered my look around the oranges, greens, and golds, since all my looks as of late have been focused on the reds. The shades in this palette were a bit tough to apply with a brush (especially the red shades), so you might want to use your fingers to apply, then blend out with a brush. For the look below using the greens, oranges, and golds, I had to apply a few layers of product to get good color payoff.
I think that there is a shade in the palette that NYX could have left out – two of the beige-y gold shades (1st on the top row and 4th on the top row) appeared very similar once swatched on my arm. Perhaps one of the shades could have been replaced with a cool brown transition shade.
Can’t wait to see what Ulta has in store for next year’s birthday!
