As ones birthday month approaches, the anticipation of growing older draws near, and the suspense of being showered with gifts, cake, and much attention without feeling self-centered creates a thrilling sensation.
For makeup and beauty brands like Sephora, showing appreciation to loyal customers is a priority, as they reward their customers with gifts during their birthday month. Sephora is one of many to invest in their shopper’s admiration, enriching them with samples from annually chosen brands. But is Sephora considering consumer preferences, or are other contributing factors affecting the loss of enjoyment from receiving a Sephora birthday gift each year?
In January, Sephora announced their yearly birthday gifts that customers can choose from as part of their rewards program. This past year, Sephora’s gift arrangements included skincare sets by Youth to the People, lip treatment and gloss by Kosas, and hair care by Moroccanoil, adding Gucci perfume samples later in the year. Many avid makeup enthusiasts wait months throughout the year to redeem their rewards. When learning about these assortments compared to 2023, you can’t help but feel disappointed by the selection.
Throughout the years, Sephora has stuck to the same variety of products included in their birthday gifts, whether it be makeup or another step to an everything shower. While this was the case for 2024, the brands chosen have yet to impact the beauty industry this year, making it hard to choose a worthy cosmetic. Last year, I found it almost effortless to pick a product I would value, but as the new gifts were released this year, none sparked my interest.
Skincare birthday gift
Glow Recipe greatly influenced the 2023 skincare community, which, in effect, caused high reviews on that year’s selection of Sephora’s birthday offerings. For me, picking this skin care product as my gift was a no-brainer. This caused the feeling of fitting into society’s new trends without paying the price of expensive skin enhancers. Having the opportunity to sample popular products gets customers excited to redeem their birthday gifts while, in return, selling more to Sephora as these products are gaining popularity. This makes me wonder why Sephora would not choose a popular brand to fill in the standard of Glow Recipe, instead filling in the skin care spot with Youth to the People, which has had no significant effect on 2024.
Haircare birthday gift
Moroccanoil is lacking the influence that OUAI had on haircare fanatics. This year, Moroccanoil was chosen to represent Sephora’s annual hair health present. While an extent of customers enjoyed the selection, many can’t help but wish to go back when OUAI was an option. If you were to ask me a year ago what Moroccanoil was, essential oil would be my first thought. But, after finding out a few months ago that it was a hair care brand sold at Sephora, I was dumbfounded. Sephora should be giving birthday gifts to customers with the intent of satisfaction, so not considering their thoughts and opinions is discourteous.
Makeup birthday gift
The Illia mascara was by far one of the most popular mascaras of 2023. The opportunity to sample it without paying the price encouraged shoppers to choose this mascara and multi-stick combo. The multi-stick was not only pigmented, but its versatility was unrivaled. The multi-purpose uses of lips, cheeks, and eyes are perfect for when you are in a rush or don’t want to do heavy makeup; it could do it all. For 2024, the Kosas lip and brow gel is the selection for this year’s makeup birthday set. Unlike Illia, this year lacked versatility and popularity. Yet Kosas Cosmetics is a popular makeup brand, and it is not known for its lip or brow products. I like the idea of switching up the type of makeup, but I wish Sephora would have chosen a brand that specializes in that area of makeup. It would help customers feel better about choosing the birthday set they waited so long to get.
Perfume birthday gift
The current year’s birthday perfume set looks more like tiny collectors’ trinkets than a real sample of perfumes. Gucci Flora perfume was one of the selected options, making connoisseurs delighted to learn that one of their favorite fragrances is a choice. After closer inspection, the perfume packaging is not only miniature but comes with a minimal amount of scented fumes. The lack of product makes it no longer worth it to pick this gift among the others.
Every year, I get excited to discover what birthday offerings Sephora is going to release. This year, many brands were unheard of and were overall disappointing, especially in comparison to last year. When brands like Glow Recipe, OUAI, and Illia are the products of 2023, people are expecting the same, if not better-tier cosmetics. So, many Sephora shoppers were saddened by the options this year.
