Sephora's 2020 Birthday Gifts Are Better Than Ever Before

The Champagne flutes have been clinked, the numerous vision-related puns made, and the post-NYE Gatorade dutifully chugged. Thankfully for our serotonin levels come January 2nd, the new year doesn't just bring sparkly dresses and good vibes galore: If you're a Sephora Beauty Insider, it also means a new year of complimentary birthday gifts — and the store has seriously stepped it up for 2020.

This year, you've got three luxe options to choose from, in addition to a fourth rotating option that's exclusive to VIB and Rouge members. (More on that later.) "Sephora's birthday gifts are something our clients look forward to every year," says Allegra Stanley, Vice President, General Manager of Loyalty for Sephora, via press release. "As our clients continue to show interest in different categories like clean beauty and hair care, we're pleased to be able to deliver differentiated options through our birthday gift offerings, providing clients more choice than ever before."

Now, onto the good stuff: Whereas past birthday gifts skewed towards makeup and skin care, 2020's mini sets include products for hair and body as well, a first for the retailer. Ahead, a closer look at what you can expect to snag during your birthday month — and remember, you can redeem them for $0 both in-store or online.

Milk Makeup Sephora Birthday Gift Set

Can you say "Milk Makeup haul"? This set comes with three of the brand's bestselling products and is perfect for on-the-go touchups. Amp up lashes with a deluxe tube of Kush Mascara, add a flush of color with Lip + Cheek in Werk (a rosy pink), and prep your skin for foundation with a single-use packet of Hydro Grip Primer.

Sol de Janeiro Sephora Birthday Gift Set

Sol de Janeiro's cult-favorite body creams are beloved for creating smooth, instantly radiant skin. If you're all about pampering below the neck, you'll love this duo of Coco Cabana Body Cream and the iconic Brazilian Bum Bum Cream. Both are packed with ingredients like cupuaçu butter and coconut oil for the ultimate glow.

Briogeo Sephora Birthday Gift Set

Briogeo's range of natural hair care has taken the beauty world by storm, and Sephora is giving the Beauty Insider community a real treat with its first-ever hair birthday gift. This one-two punch of Scalp Revival and Don't Despair, Repair is all you need to give your strands some T.L.C. — exfoliate and clarify the gentle way with the charcoal-infused treatment, and follow it up with the deep conditioning mask for ultimate softness and shine.

Jo Malone Sephora Birthday Gift Online Exclusive

Calling all VIB and Rouge members: If none of the other birthday sets strike your fancy, you can also choose from a rotating selection of online-exclusive gifts that will change throughout the year. The first extra-special gift of 2020 is an itty-bitty bottle of Wood Sage & Sea Salt, reportedly one of Meghan Markle's most beloved perfumes.

7 Editor-Approved Nude Eyeshadow Palettes That Look Good On Everyone

Nude is a spectrum, and no one shade is made to match all complexions. When it comes to eyeshadow palettes, the word typically refers to a range of nuanced neutrals; rich browns, soft beiges, and even shimmer-flecked bronze can — and should — all go into the making of a good nude eyeshadow palette.

That said, there are so many options when it comes to nude and neutral eyeshadow palettes, and finding one worth your money (that won't fade in minutes or look chalky in selfies) can be overwhelming. To help you sift through the clutter, we asked our team to dish on their favorite nude palettes, ahead.

Maybelline Nudes Of New York Eyeshadow Palette

"This palette was clearly made by someone who understands the art of a subtle smoky eye. There are shimmery colors for the lids, matte blending shades for the crease and brow bone, and complementary shades to highlight that match perfectly. I use it every single day, both for casual and more dressed up looks — and have gotten more compliments on my eyes than ever." — Cat Quinn, beauty director

Tarte Cosmetics Tartelette Toasted Eyeshadow Palette

"The colors of this palette fall more on the copper side, which makes for a great neutral option if you have a medium-deep complexion like mine. I love to combine Warmth and Flame on my lids when I'm in a pinch before work, but when I have extra time on my hands, Crackle, Cozy, and Fireside is my go-to date-night trifecta." — Aimee Simeon, beauty writer

Lorac Pro Matte Palette

"If you ever see me wearing matte eyeshadow, there's a very good chance it's from this palette, which was introduced to me by a makeup artist who was doing my face for an event. As soon as the velvety powders touched my lids, I knew the palette had to be mine. The packaging is no-fuss, but trust me, the stuff inside is worth its weight in gold. The shadows are almost too pigmented, so a tiny bit goes a long way — I love to use a fluffy eyeshadow brush and apply the caramel-beige shades for an everyday look, and go for the smoky with the deeper chocolate and black tones for special occasions." — Karina Hoshikawa, beauty & wellness market writer

Roen Beauty 75° Warm Eyeshadow Palette

"All four of the warm, golden shades in this palette are stunning, but I'm most obsessed with the compact itself: The chrome square is small enough to slip into any makeup bag and has a mirror on the top plate, which is handy when I'm traveling (so I don't have to use the front-facing camera on my phone if I'm mirrorless). The texture of the shadow is soft and buttery enough that I can use my ring finger to pick up the pigment and dab it over my eyelids for a sheer wash of gold or copper sparkle. That's nice because, like my mirror predicament, I'm often without a shadow brush." — Megan Decker, beauty writer

Juvia's Place The Nubian Palette

"This is one of the best nude palettes out there for Black women, in my opinion. It's pigmented and easy to blend with a price point that won't hurt your pockets. It's versatile and great for everyday casual looks, but it can also be dressed up when you have to turn it up for nighttime festivities." — Ineye Komonibo, entertainment writer

Urban Decay Naked Honey Eyeshadow Palette

"Of all the Urban Decay eye palettes out there, this is the only one I genuinely consider nude. I like that the matte shades have warm undertones and don't appear ashy on my eyelids. The shimmer shadows are extremely pigmented, and the range of golds in one palette is impressive. Amber and HBIC are my favorite colors — they look amazing on their own, and I've already hit pan on both of them." — Rebecca O'Haeri, data analyst

Nude Obsessions Eyeshadow Palette, Nude Medium

"I love that this palette includes more peach, chestnut, and pink tones, unlike the typical brown shades in some neutral palettes. The matte shades are phenomenally pigmented, and the shimmer shades have a buttery consistency, so a gentle tap with a brush goes a long way with these colors. Even though the palette is small, you can still create plenty of amazing looks with it." — O'Haeri

6 Stylish Ways to Wear Bling with Your Attire

Do you start your day with throwing irrational tantrums about not having anything to wear? Well, you are not alone because women all over the world face this predicament every day.

According to a survey by Marks & Spencer, women spend an average of 16 minutes a day (equivalent to 4 days a year) fretting over what to wear. 62% of the women surveyed said that they suffered from wardrobe rage – the stress of “not having anything to wear.”

Rather than buying new clothes all the time, you can make the most of what you have by choosing the right jewelry to style your outfits impeccably. The right bling can transform even the most boring and overdone attire into a chic one!

Here are our top six (and one bonus) jewelry styling tips to help you look your fashionable best.

1. Layers and More Layers

Why wear only one piece of jewelry when you can flaunt them all? Layer necklaces, rings, and bracelets by mixing different shapes, textures and colors. Emily Ratajkowski and Hailey Baldwin love layering their necklaces.

You don’t have to wait for a special occasion to wear your statement necklace. Layer it with other delicate neckpieces, and you can carry them off all day. Choose wrap bracelets when you want to layer boldly without wearing too much jewelry. When in a doubt about layering your necklaces or bracelets – choose both. Just select the same layering style for both, your arm and neck.

Another way to layer is by wearing stacked rings. Wear rings of different shapes and sizes, while keeping the rest of your look simple to let your hands steal the spotlight.

2. Mind Your Metals

Not long ago, women liked to match all the pieces of their jewelry, going either all-gold or all-silver, just like they matched their shoe color with that of their bag. Mixing different shades of metals was considered a sin by the fashion police. Not anymore. You can confidently pair gunmetal with yellow gold, rose gold and silver, and gold with oxidized silver. Trust us, we have seen people mixing and wearing rhodium and gold and still looking stunning.

Pairing gold and silver has been one of the coolest trends at cocktail parties. Combine silver pendants with gold chains, and mix and match rings in different metals to create an impression of effortless symmetry while looking graceful.

3. Before You Overdo It, Stop

Sometimes one extra accessory can spoil your complete look. We love how Coco Chanel had put it, “Before you leave the house, look into the mirror, and take one thing off.” This phrase holds true for your jewelry. If you are already wearing a statement necklace, you don’t need big tassel earrings and the other way round. Remember, layering your jewelry and over-accessorizing are two entirely different things.

Here’s a small tip: each piece of jewelry should add value to your outfit. If it isn’t, remove it. Just because an accessory looks good or has sentimental value, doesn’t mean you can wear it with everything.

4. It’s All in the Name

Jewelry trends will come and go, but personalized jewelry is here to stay. This style is going strong with celebrities like Bella Hadid, Beyoncé and Kylie Jenner flaunting customized bling on the regular. Right from the minimalistic take on the initialed dog tag to the SATC-inspired nameplate necklace, it has become quite a trend to wear your name proudly around your neck.

What we like about personalized jewelry is that it is sentimental. Whether it is the initials of a loved one or your lucky charm, there is always a deep meaning and an emotion attached to this jewelry that makes it precious. You can buy personalized name necklaces like the ones owned by Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Aniston and Kim Kardashian from GetNameNecklace. They offer unique designs at affordable prices.

5. The Color of Your Jewelry Counts

Accessorizing is mostly about striking the perfect balance between warm and cool colors. Gems like ruby and canary diamonds are fiery colors (and are called warm gemstones), so they look great with outfits in black and white and contrasting colors like blue and purple. Similarly, cool gemstones like alexandrite, aquamarine and emerald pair well with yellow or orange outfits.

Jewelry that color-contrasts your outfit looks fab. You can pair bright jewelry with neutral outfits and dark jewelry with a white outfit. Several stylists refer to the color wheel for inspiration on mixing and matching outfit colors to jewelry.

6. Your Jewelry Should Attract, Not Distract

The rule of thumb to achieving the perfect jewelry-outfit coordination is that each piece you wear should be in the right ratio to your body frame and facial features. Jewelry that is disproportionate to your body or face will distract others. Remember, a piece of jewelry doesn’t have to be oversized to make a statement.

The right earrings, in particular, can frame your face without making it look too big or small. Women with a heart-shaped face can consider drop earrings while women with oval faces can wear diamond studs to highlight their cheekbones. Drop earrings and long danglers look stunning on women with round faces and those with a square face can go for hoops to soften the natural angles of their face.

Latest Jewelry Fashion Ideas and How to Match Them with Outfits

More often than not, it’s the accessories that make the whole outfit and style. That said, there are plenty of interesting ways to spice up your clothes and fashion with fashionable jewelry. Sometimes, dainty and delicate pieces work the best against the fabric while other times, striking statement pieces look absolutely stunning when matched with certain clothes and colors. After all, even the plainest outfit can turn into runway quality with the effective addition of the right jewelry.

1. Pearls have made an unexpected comeback
Well, the comeback may not have been that unexpected but not that many people could predict the makeover that classic pearls would go through. Both earrings and pearl necklaces, which have turned out to be the most popular pearly choice from Alaska to Australia, were transformed with new statement designs. Oversized necklaces and pearl earrings have become all the rage. This particular trend is rather effective with simple outfits and clean necklines. In general, more formal as well as bohemian looks can really benefit from this particular jewelry trend. And if you can pull it off, casual sporty outfits will look amazing with this type of bling.

2. Long, dangly, statement earrings
The time of chandelier earrings is back! And, as you can expect, in this day and age, there are plenty of variations to choose from. Long and delicate is as popular as long, heavy and striking. When you decide to wear this type of earrings, you most definitely want to avoid necklaces as the two may clash too much. Obviously, these earrings are perfect for both simple and elegant as well as for unique and creative looks – as long as it’s not athleisure wear. In general, stick to metal shades such as silver, gold and rose gold with some translucent stones or basic pearls. If you want colored stones, make sure that you’re wearing a one-color outfit.

3. Go for personal and unique looks
When it comes to hairstyle, jewelry, outfits and everything else that’s a physical representation of who you are, you’re free to get as creative as you want with your appearance. Luckily, these days there are plenty of options for every style out there. When jewelry is concerned, one-of-a-kind pieces are undoubtedly very popular – not to mention gorgeous. The best thing about this kind of jewelry is that you don’t have to wait for fairs and similar opportunities to get your hands on them when you can shop on the web. After all, most of us get their inspiration for looks and outfits as well as jewelry trends on social media. So, you can simply go and search for the unique jewelry designers and find the one with the best jewelry style for you. Today it is normal and quite common to shop jewelry online in Australia, or the USA, or Europe as well. These days, everything can be found online, wherever you live in the world.

4. Bejewel your lovely hair
One of the biggest jewelry trends these days is undoubtedly the hair jewel trend. The common clips are now full of the beautiful and sparkly stones while there are plenty of clips, hair sticks, and bands that can make a lot of difference for your overall look. There are a bunch of different styles on the market for hair jewelry, just like there are for clothes. In that respect, you can easily match elegant hair clips with sparkly stones with your evening gown, suit or otherwise casual yet sleek outfit. Similarly, you can match hair chains, clips, and sticks with boho and casual yet trendy outfits.

5. Show off your initial/name necklaces
Even though Sex and the City don’t run anymore, initial and name necklaces are only moving up on the popularity list. Both chunky and striking as well as dainty necklaces with initials/names have become a huge trend recently. When it comes to the chunkier ones which are usually chokers, it’s important to have a fashion style to match these; so, something trendy, extravagant and Instagram-inspired would do. When dainty name/initial necklaces are concerned, they look great with almost every outfit, and you really can’t go wrong with these pieces.

In the end, you don’t have to follow the trends if that’s not your thing, and especially not when it comes to jewelry. Always keep in mind that you usually have more freedom with matching your rings and bracelets, but the freedom lessens considerably for pairing earrings and necklaces. If you’re going bold with one, go minimal with the other.

This Is The 2018 Way To Do Go-Go Boots

Just as low-rise jeans and denim Dior epitomize the early noughties, and grunge-inspired flannels with ripped-up mom jeans (think Tai from Clueless) embody the '90s, the go-go boot epitomizes the '60s. Designed by Andre Courrèges in 1964, go-go boots have had their fair share of iterations. And, this season, they're back in a big way.

From the original mid-calf, white boot to knee-high styles in a range of colors to western-style takes, basically every pair of boots we're dying to get our hands on this season (from brands like Aquazzura and Maryam Nassir Zadeh) fall into the go-go category. So while Fashion Month may have pegged spring 2019 as "the return of the 2000s", for now, we're fully on-board with living in a very mod, very '60s-inspired world — at least when it comes to our footwear.

Click on for 16 ways to add some '60s flare to your boot collection this fall.

Thinking About Getting Highlights?

There's a reason all the girls in L.A. go for highlights — single-process color is striking, but those ribbons of lightness do so much for your complexion. Highlights can accentuate eye color, bring out cheek bones, and even slim faces. They show off the lines of your hair cut, create depth, and the illusion of fullness. They are a great introduction to hair color — and, despite what you've heard, they work for all hues.

The two most common techniques used for highlighting are balayage (freehand painting), and foil. Different artists will use one or the other depending on the desired look and their personal preference. But a skilled colorist can achieve any look using either technique.

Ahead, you'll learn about some of the most important factors to achieving a perfect highlight: size, placement, amount, and lightness level. With the right colorist and technique, you'll get the streaks you want in no time.

Hire your wedding dress today and return it tomorrow - fashion archive

It has long been an accepted expedient for bridegrooms to hire their wedding regalia; more often than not the Best Man's duties include the return, next day, of two morning suits and two toppers. And now, it seems, a similar duty sometimes devolves on the chief bridesmaid on behalf of the bride.

Soon after the war, a London dress firm announced themselves as "Bridal Specialists." The idea was to act as fairy godmother to girls coming out of the forces who had so many clothes to buy as well as their wedding garments. But the young are incorrigibly conventional: "something borrowed" they must have for luck; but something hired, what next!

It was not until evening-dresses had been added to the repertoire and were being hired by well-dressed, moneyed women short of clothes coupons, that girls began to feel that to hire a wedding dress was not to do a shamingly undone thing.

Clothes coupons are old history now, but clothes are much more expensive than they were. This, combined with the capricious desire in nearly every feminine heart for a white wedding, has led to this one firm hiring out during what is probably known as the peak nuptial season, several hundred wedding dresses a week.

The dresses cost from 4½gn. to 20gn. to hire, including all accessories: headdress, veil, flowers, gloves, shoes. Bridesmaids' dresses are from 2½gn. to 6gn.; children's 2gn. There is no deposit. The dresses are cleaned after each wearing, and none is worn more than five times before being discarded. There is a postal service for provincial hirers; if the bride cannot come to London to make her choice and be personally fitted, she writes for a catalogue or sends her own sketch of the dress of her dreams. From this sketch, a dress is chosen for her by the "show-room visualisers." One imagines these visualisers as wearing confetti-tinted spectacles, and having a permanent pew at the back of St Margaret's, Westminster.

The choice of dresses is very large and a new collection is designed each season. There is, however, a perennial demand for something "traditional." Most people's idea of a wedding dress is a kind of hybrid period dress, in which the medieval and the ecclesiastical are hopelessly confused, the whole being topped off with a neo-Italianate head-dress – and, as like as not, a Victorian posy. Also, of course, they see a high modest neckline and long sleeves; for in these decolletés days, when a little exposure goes no way at all, a mildly low-cut or short-sleeved wedding dress is quite out of the question. Tradition is against it. Yet, how long is tradition?

The white wedding-dress itself was an innovation of the early nineteenth century not, as is generally believed, a symbol of virginity. It came in simply as a fashion trend following the manufacture of lace, which had brought about a vogue for wearing white in court circles. But right up to late Victorian times wedding dresses were often coloured, frequently grey or lavender; and up to Victoria's accession they were often low-necked, and short-sleeved. In fact, they followed the fashion of the day, instead of casting back, as they do in our times, to earlier periods. It was really not until daytime skirts became short and skimpy, in the 1920s that the wedding dress became a separate fashion feature, virtually fancy dress.

The hire of an evening dress, inclusive of gloves, evening bag, and shoes, is from 2½gn. to 10gn. They are cleaned after each hiring, discarded after five. Furs are from 1gn. to 7gn. This evening dress service is most useful for those who only hit the high spots once or twice a year but want to hit to kill; and also for those who hit them so often in the same places and with the same circle of friends that their wardrobes are unable to give a continuous variety performance. In addition, there is a brisk tourist trade with visitors to this country travelling light by air and not wishing to pack evening clothes. And again, British women going on cruises can make special arrangements for longer periods of hire, thus being able to take three or four dresses with them for the cost of buying one.

So there we are. Never again need we turn down the last minute invitation which finds us with not a stitch we would care to be seen dead in; and never again need we refuse that attractive proposal to get married next week and sail in luxury for a honeymoon in the Bermudas.