Free Samples, You Beauty!

Last week I was lucky enough to receive a press release from Lush inviting me to trial a couple of their face masks, and since they require refrigeration, I had to go in-store to pick them up. Now, I hardly ever venture into the city (there's only one Lush store in Adelaide and I have to take an hour-long bus ride to get there!) so I thought I'd make it worthwhile by redeeming all my saved up beauty sample email offers at the same time. I've found it's usually just the city department stores that redeem them, as I've tried at suburban ones, with only occasional success.

You may know that I'm on a never-ending quest to find my Holy Grail eye cream. This magical lotion will be a multi-tasking extraordinaire. It will improve my dark circles, puffiness and fine lines simultaneously and magnificently. I recently bought the Thalgo Exception Ultime Time Solution for Eyes and Lips (blogged in this SkinCare Shopping Spree post), and while it's good, it's not great. And it's nowhere near Holy Grail status. So I visited the beauty counters at David Jones and received fantastic, friendly and professional customer service (unlike this recent Bobbi Brown Customer Service Fail), gained a wealth of knowledge and came away with an array of beauty samples to suit my specific needs. My main aim is to try all these wonderful creams and hopefully discover a Holy Grail product that I fall in love with, because it just works that well. Trialling samples gives me the opportunity to discover if I like a product before forking out for the full size. Most of these products are quite expensive, so it's smart to try it first before buying! Yes, I scored a nice pile of freebies, but if I find something I can't live without, I'll go back and buy the full product. And then I'll cry, especially if it's the Chantecaille Stress Repair Concentrate, because that's $254 for 15mls.

I visited Lush in the Myer Centre first, to select my face masks for an upcoming blog post (look out for it in a couple of weeks!). The Sales Assistant was so friendly and helpful, trying out masks on my hands as we discussed my skincare concerns and what problems I wished to address. I didn't even ask for a sample, but she offered to include an Ultra Bland Cleanser sample for me, which is great because it's a cult product and I've never tried it before!

Next up, Mecca Cosmetica. This visit was to check out their eye creams, in particular the Perricone MD Cold Plasma Eye and the Blue Plasma Eye Orbital. When the Sales Assistant asked if I needed help, I told her I was looking for a multitasking eye cream that would first and foremost address fine lines, followed by dark circles and puffiness. She suggested the Chantecaille Stress Repair Concentrate and made up a little sample pot for me, which should last a week. All of these products have received great reviews on the Mecca site, so I can't wait to try the Stress Repair, and I'm still curious about the Perricone MD plasma products!

 


I had an email offer for a 7 day supply of Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Capsules from David Jones, so off I went. I love the gorgeous gold packaging of this little flip-top pot, and I don't know what it is about those little capsules, but they just excite me. This sort of thing seems so luxurious to me, and they're just so motherflipping cute! I think it's the novelty factor, too. The Sales Assistant couldn't wait to show me the anti-ageing range (DO I LOOK THAT OLD?!) and lo and behold, led me straight to the Prevage range, which was on my list to ask about. She tried everything on my (by this stage, very well-moisturised and pampered) hands and then gave me a sample pot of Prevage Anti-Aging Eye Cream SPF15. I'm so happy, because I've been wanting to try this much-hyped range for ages! She did try to sell me a discounted Prevage gift set, but I'm not going to spend a lot of money on something I haven't tried out on my face first.

The Philosophy Sales Assistant was full of helpful tips, like applying an eye serum under your eye cream helps the active ingredients penetrate deeper into your skin, giving you better results, and that the only way to get rid of milia is via a Beauty Therapist, who will lance them out. The horror! We talked a lot about my skincare concerns and she gave me a range of product samples, called things like Time In A Bottle and Miracle Worker (lol) to try out.

The actual Philosophy samples I received:
- Miracle Worker Miraculous Anti-Aging Moisturizer
- Purity Made Simple 3-in-1 Cleanser for Face and Eyes
- Time In A Bottle Daily Age-Defying Serum
- Time In A Bottle For Eyes Daily Age-Defying Eye Serum

Lastly, I headed over to the La Prairie counter to redeem my email offer for a sample of the new Anti-Aging Rapid Response Booster. I was pretty excited because I love La Prairie products (the Skin Caviar range in particular) and the results it gives me, the only downside is the price tag, so I was interested to try the Rapid Response for free. I was disappointed when the Sales Assistant said the samples hadn't arrived in-store yet. She was so nice and very apologetic, as they were supposed to have arrived the week before. She took my number to call me once they arrived and gave me two samples of the Skin Caviar Luxe Eye Lift Cream and two of the Essence of Skin Caviar Eye Complex, which I was so grateful for. I love the Skin Caviar products (here's my review of the Skin Caviar Liquid Lift) and can't wait to try the targeted eye cream samples.

Have you tried any great samples lately? Have you loved a sample so much you went on to buy the product?

I'm linking up to the Monday Makeup Madness Linky Party over at Fabulous And Fun Life! Join in the fun!