Urban Decay Birthday Bash

Hey everyone! Last weekend was so busy, and this was one of the reasons why! On Sunday September 10th I went to the Urban Decay Birthday Bash at Metrotown in Vancouver, Canada. They were having a four day event from September 7-10 to celebrate the one year anniversary of their store opening, and had multiple promotions going on.

1. Each day, the first 100 customers in line would receive a gift card loaded with a mystery amount of up to $500 value.
2. When you spent $65 or more, you received a loaded loot bag that contained a UD makeup bag filled with “the most coveted samples”.
3. With any purchase, you received a key with the chance to unlock a 30-piece Vice Lipstick Vault.
4. You could post a picture on instagram with the hashtag #UDMetrotown to receive a free deluxe sample.
5. You could go in the UD hurricane machine for the chance to win a free full-sized item.

Line Up and Gift Card

I really wasn’t sure what to expect with how busy it would be and how early to go. The mall didn’t open until 11 am that day, so I went to line up for 8 am. I definitely didn’t want to go earlier than that, I am not a morning person. When my sister-in-law and I arrived, there were about 12 people who had arrived before us. I can’t even imagine what time they arrived. We had brought folding chars to sit on while we waited, but a security guard told us we were “not allowed to sit” while we waited. Not only could we not sit on our chairs, you weren’t even allowed to sit on the floor, which is totally ridiculous. Anyways, we got over it and the wait of 3 hours didn’t even feel like it took that long.

When the mall was opening, the employees started to come around to hand out the gift cards. How it worked was they had a chest full of UD eyeshadows. To discover what amount of gift card you won, you had to choose an eyeshadow out of the chest, and the amount of the gift card was written on the back. I only won $10, but you also got to keep the eyeshadow, so the overall worth was $32 CAD.

Shopping

After getting through the line up and choosing our gift cards, we got to go into the store, around 10 people at a time. I wanted to spend around $65 so that I could get the free swag bag. I’ve had an ever growing list of lipstick shades that I want to add to my collection, so I mainly looked at those.

I ended up buying 4 lipsticks, which put me well over the minimum to get the swag bag ($65 CAD). At check out they had adorable UD mini cupcakes. With my purchase I received a key for a chance to potentially open the locked UD Lipstick Vault. Unfortunately, my key did not open the lock, but I mean, I already own 20 of these lipsticks, and I was buying 4 more lol. So, it’s ok.

Instagram Photo for a free deluxe sample

Outside of the store they had a stand set up for you to line up and show that you had posted an instagram photo with their hashtag. The free sample was a deluxe size of their Quick Fix Hydra-Charged Complexion Prep Priming Spray.

UD Hurricane Machine

The last promotion that you could take advantage of at this event was their hurricane machine. What you had to do was grab the one purple slip of paper out of probably 20 other coloured slips within 15 seconds, while they all blow around you. If you did this successfully, you won a free full-sized product, from a selection of products that they had put aside. So it wasn’t just anything you wanted from in the store. I was lucky, in that I was able to grab the purple slip of paper within around 3 seconds. Even though I did it fast it still felt like it took forever. You can see my boomerang video of this here.

The products available were select shades of liquid lipsticks (they were clearly shades they were trying to get rid of), some primer potions, one brow box for blonde hair, and some brow gels. From the products available, I chose the clear brow gel. While this product isn’t all that exciting, I have been wanting to try out a different brow gel that is not drugstore. Brow gel is not something that I want to spend money on, it just doesn’t seem worth it, so getting one free was perfect. Also, I don’t like liquid lipstick and I haven’t heard the greatest things about the UD formula. I also don’t need more eyeshadow primers, so it worked out well.

My Haul

Overall, I am really pleased with this event and all the different things that they had going on. Pictured below are all of the items that I got free. Also, can we take a second to appreciate their ABSOLUTELY beautiful gift bags?! Probably the most beautiful bag I have ever seen. Will keep it forever, lol.

The items that I received free are:

1. The full-size Eyeshadow single in the shade “Psychedelic Sister”, a beautiful deep amethyst (0.05 oz, worth $22 CAD).
   What it is:
   An innovative eyeshadow that delivers a high-pigment, velvety finish that lasts. 
2. The full-size Brow Tamer Flexible Hold Tinted Brow Gel in “Clear” (0.15 oz, worth $24 CAD).
   What it is:
   A lightweight, water-resistant brow gel that provides flexible, comfortable hold and eight-hour wear. 
3. The deluxe size Quick Fix Hydra-Charged Complexion Prep Priming Spray (0.5 oz, worth $4.9).
   What it is: 
   A hydrating, soothing priming spray that visibly reduces the appearance of pores, brightens and smooths skin, and hydrates. 

Here is the swag bag that I received free with my purchase over $65. The bag itself has a pretty purple rose design with a black background, however the material is very cheap feeling. It’s kind of papery/plasticky feeling, and very thin. I’m not totally surprised at this, but it’s too bad it isn’t a bit more sturdy.

Inside the bag we received:

1. Four samples of the Eyeshadow Primer Potion in the shades “Original, Eden, Minor Sin, and Anti-Aging” (4 x 0.01 oz, worth $3.24).
   What it is:
   A 24-hour wear eyeshadow primer that ensures vibrant, crease-free wear. 
2. A sample of the Perversion Mascara (0.1 oz, worth $6.75)
   What it is:
   An ultracreamy, lengthening, and volumizing mascara for stand-out lashes.
   ***This mascara is why I put in quotations at the beginning that this loot bag is supposed to include their most “coveted” examples. They didn’t event put in a sample of their new mascara, just this old one that hasn’t been talked about in forever, if ever at all***
3. Five samples of the Naked Skin Highlighting Fluid in the shades “Aura, Fireball, Luminous, Sin, and Skywalk” (5 x 0.001 oz, worth $0.83).
   What it is: 
   A creamy highlighting fluid that instantly illuminates and reduces the look of flaws for the perfect Naked glow.

Total Value of the Swag Bag = $10.82 + bag

Overall, the samples in this swag bag were not great and not that worth it. However, I was going to buy those lipsticks at some point anyways, so that’s ok. Overall, I’m not too disappointed. Although, it is kind of ridiculous that the minimum purchase was so high for such a crappy loot bag!

Overall worth of free items and gift card received at the event = $71.72

What I Purchased

I purchased four shades of the Vice Lipstick to add to my already extensive collection. Below are the shades from left to right:

1. Plaid: Sheer Deep Berry
2. Hitch Hike: Comfort Matte Brick Rose
3. Crisis: Cream Plum-Rose
4. Scorched: Metallized Metallic Copper

And here is my updated Urban Decay Vice Lipstick Collection. I now own 24 shades, and spoiler alert, I just ordered another one online (the shade Liar; it was out of stock in store). But only because they have a promotion going on right now where if you buy any lip product from them, they will give you two free minis of the shades Backtalk and 714. I own Backtalk and love it, so might as well stock up. The discount code “Vicejunkie” is absolutely an accurate descriptor in my case.

Well I hope you enjoyed hearing about this event! Overall, it was a lot of fun, and worth it, just for the experience. Also, the haul of free items was pretty good! I think I spent around $90, and I received around $70 of free product plus the gift card, so I would say that’s a pretty good ratio!