This year I’m doing a series where I review the luxury holiday gift sets that I’ve purchased; breaking down both the product selection and the monetary value these sets have to offer, in order to help you figure out if they are worth purchasing.
In this blog, I’m delighted to be talking about Yves Saint Laurent Beaute!
YSL was one of the first ultra luxury make-up brands I got into. I even wore their lip stick to my wedding years ago! While I don’t find YSL Beaute to be the most exciting or innovative, I do find them classic and worth the investment. So of course I peaked around to see what they were offering as far as gift sets for this holiday season. And I wasn’t disappointed at all!
So for this post, I’ll be going over the two holiday sets that I picked up at Sephora and letting you know what value you’ll be getting for your money, so that you can decide if its worth pick up for yourself.
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Table of Content
How to get the most value from your luxury set
I always mention Rakuten when I can because it’s a great way to save! And I’m so happy that a lot of y’all are taking advantage of this easy way to earn cash back!
If you don’t know, Rakuten is an automated rebate service that gives you cash back at thousands of retailers, both online and in stores.
Just log in with Rakuten first or download the plugin for your browsers and app for your phone and enjoy automatic cash back from some of your favorite stores.
I picked up one of the YSL gift sets from Sephora during their VIB sale, and got an addition 2% cash back on top of the regular cash back I get with my card. YSL Beaute is also partnered with Rakuten and if you shop directly through them, you can currently earn 4% cash back!
I checked a few other stores partnered with Rakuten that are also selling YSL gift sets and you can earn up to 10% cash back off these sets!
If you’re new to using Rakuten, you can save even more! At this time of original publication, new members to Rakuten can earn an addition $30 when they make their first qualifying purchase using this link here!
Best Of YSL Lipstick Set
I picked up the Best Of YSL Lipstick holiday gift set from Sephora during the VIB Sale. The set originally retailed for $52.00. However, as a VIB member, I got 20% off and got an additional 4% cash back on this purchase through a combination of cash back rewards from my card and Rakuten. In total, I paid $39.50 for this gift set.
This set comes with one full sized Rouge Volute Shine Lipstick balm, and two mini Rouge Pur Couture Satin Lipsticks inside of cosmetics case.
First let me just say that this cosmetics case is one of the best ones I’ve seen this year! To me this totally hits it out of the park. It feels really durable, the inside is wipeable and its made of recyclable materials. There is a QR code on the inside that will take you to their sustainability page if you’re interested in learning more. But as someone who has called for brands to have more sustainable practices, I think this is a really good start.
Of course though, I didn’t buy this set for the pouch, I bought it for the the lipsticks inside.
As far as product selection goes, it think this grouping is cohesive and makes a lot of sense. Especially if you’re looking to explore YSL’s lipstick range, a gift set like this makes a lot of sense.
I think the colors also make a lot of sense and will work well for a wide range of people. With the lipstick balm being so sheer with glitter, most people are going to find that this suits them.
The Satin Lipstick minis I think will also work for a wide group of people. The red has a nice amount of blue undertones in it what work well on most folks and the nude, while not nude for a lot of people, is still a nice brownish, pinkish shade that will work well on its own for many people and even better with a lip liner for many more.
Looking at the monetary value of this gift set, 1 Rouge Volupte Shine Lipstick is $43.00. Meaning if you buy this set on sale, you’re saving money on this product.
The full size Rouge Pur Couture Satin Lipsticks currently retail for $45.00 for 0.13 oz. The minis in this gift set are about 0.04 oz, meaning the minis are about a $15.00 value each. I have noticed these mini lipsticks available in value sets before as well as redeemable for points, but I haven’t personally noticed them available as a gift, which is important because to me that mean this product has monetary value to the company.
Without assigning a value the cosmetic pouch, the total value of the items inside is about $73. Meaning I save $33.50 with the gift set (and got a free pouch!).
This is definitely a buy and something I plan on buying more of as gifts.
Mini Black Opium & Libre Eau de Parfum Set
As part of the VIB sale, I also picked up this mini perfume discovery set YSL Beaute has to offer. This retailed for $35.00. But as a VIB member I got an additional 20% off as well as a total of 4% cash back, bringing my total amount to $26.60.
I think YSL did a great gob again here with this pairing. This makes a lot of sense. Whether you’re a perfume lover or someone looking to try out some scents from the brand, having two of your best selling fragrances is a set like this allows new customers to come in see what works best for them without breaking the bank.
This worked out perfectly for me, as I already knew that I enjoyed Black Opium as a fragrance but never tried Libre for myself. So getting to try the fragrance for essentially $13 was a no brainer for me.
I also LOVE how beautiful miniatures look–it brings me an insane amount of happiness. The one thing that I don’t like (and this is just an issue with perfume miniatures like this in general) is that you have to dab with bottles like this, meaning there’s the potential to spill these fragrances everywhere.
I think money wise this gift set is great value as well. Before discounts you’re paying $17.50 for 7.5 mL of product. Compared to the travel spray option where you’re paying $34.00 for 10mL or product– almost twice as much in price for only 2.5ml more of product. While you do get an atomizer with the travel sprays, if you’re just looking to dip your toe into these fragrances or want to collect cute miniatures, this is also a really good deal to snacht up.
Mon Paris Eau de Parfum Gift Collection
I’m going to be honest. This set was only on my radar because of the mirror, Which I can only find in this perfume set and with their advent calendar (which I do not plan on buying). I was able to find this set on the Macy’s site for $142.00 for 1 3.0 oz perfume, 1 travel size spray and a mirror. With Rakuten and my card, I was able to earn 10% cash back total bring my total to $127.80.
Concept wise, the mirror seems a bit random in this set. Having the mirror in one of the beauty gifts sets makes way more sense to me. I don’t need a mirror while I’m putting on my perfume. I do need a mirror for makeup. But I’m guessing that they added the mirror to this set to drive sells of this perfume. Because I’ve never heard of it before.
What does make sense to me is having both a full sized and travel sized perfume grouped together. During the holidays, you seen plenty of perfume and fragrance sets and I think this is perfect. If I like a fragrance, I’m probably going to want a bigger bottle to have at home and a smaller one I can use to touch up.
Looking up the price of the Mon Paris fragrance, it retails for $136.00 off of the YSL Beaute site (and you can get an additional 6% cash back with Rakuten!). This is right within shooting range of the gift set retail price. The travel perfume retails for $34.00, bring the total value of the set without including the mirror to $170.
Meaning buying the gift set saves you $28.00+ before any of the rebates. After the rebates, I saved a little over $40.00 on this set.
That is an amazing deal, seeing that you also get a beauty mirror (and the marbling motif they went with this years is insanely beautiful). However, unless you actually like this perfume, or really want this mirror without having to invest in the YSL advent calendar, this one may not be worth it. As the real value in this set comes from the significant saving you get of the fragrance.
Final Thoughts
YSL Beauté may not be the most exciting beauty brand out there, but I think they have some wonderful holiday options as far as gift sets go.
I think the Best Of YSL Lipstick set is the best luxury make up set I’ve seen yet this year in terms of presentation and value. I’m RUNING back to Sephora to pick up another one for a gift.
If you want a full luxury advent calendar, the YSL isn’t a bad option either coming in at $400.00. The majority of the products in the advent calendar as miniatures, but they do have a wide range of beauty products, covering make up, fragrance and skin care.
It was a bit of an impulse buy for me, but the Mon Pairs Set is a great deal if you like the fragrance with the added bonus of this limited run YSL compact mirror. In general, they seem to be having some great gift set deals with their fragrance sets, including the mini perfume sets.
Over all, I think YSL is a great option if you’re looking to pick up some luxury gift sets this holiday season while getting the most value for money.
Let me know if you plan on picking any of these sets up! And don’t forget to check out my IG and Youtube pages!
Ciao!
Monnii
