Clinique Bonus Gifts are Awesome!

When I reviewed the Clinique Pretty Wow, Pretty Now set, I mentioned that I bought it at Nordstrom when they were offering a Clinique 8 Pc Gift Set with a $29 purchase. Today, I thought I'd tell you about the products I received in that bonus!

This was a great little bonus set! Everything came inside a large satin zippered cosmetic bag that has a brightly colored fun circle print in pink, green, and yellow/orange. Love the colors! I haven't tried everything in it yet, but I'll show it all to you and give you my mini review on the items I have tried.

Inside the bag was:

• All About Shadow Quad in Morning Java
• Dual-Ended High Impact Mascara/Lash Building Primer
• Chubby Stick Cheek Color Balm in Roly Poly Rosy
• Long Last Soft Matte Lipstick in Matte Beauty
• Rinse Off Eye Makeup Solvent
• Liquid Facial Soap
• Repairwear Uplifting Firming Cream

I'm not sure if this contains exactly the same colors as the Morning Java Quad sold on the website or not. The two darkest colors look the same, but the other two look a bit different - which could just be lighting or monitor differences.

All four shadows have some shimmer, but only the bronze and the gold have a lot of shimmer - the other two are minimal. The shadows seem to have a nice color payoff, which is great. These colors don't work for my "winter" skin tone, which is Casper-the-Friendly-Ghost-white, so I haven't worn them yet. I will probably be able to use them once I have some self-tanner on and have warmed up my skin tone a bit. The price of the regular palette is $28.50.


I haven't used this yet - but only because I've been using the Rimmel products to grow my lashes. I do want to give this a try to see how well the primer works, and if it will keep the mascara on my mascara-repelling lashes! The price for the full-size mascara is $16.50, $15.50 for the primer.


This is such a pretty color! I have to say that I am not a fan of cream cheek color. I don't know if it's because I feel like I have less control over it or because my skin used to be oily and anytime I get a slightly dewy look, I think it looks oily (even when it's not). I need to practice with this because it is really pretty and it was very easy to blend on my hand. The regular price is $22.


This lipstick promises to be long-wearing, non-drying, non-feathering, full coverage, velvety, with a soft matte finish. Those are a lot of promises!

The color is sort of a tawny pink. It looks brighter and darker pink on me than it does on the website. I like this a lot more than I thought I would - and it lasts! I wore it to the movie theater, ate a hot dog and M&M's (don't judge, and yes, I totally blew my low carb, low sugar lifestyle!), and drank out of a water bottle - a couple of hours later, my lipstick was fine! Looks matte, but not "dry"- and it does have a creamy consistency. I didn't have any issues with feathering and it didn't dry out my lips. So for me, it actually delivered on all of those promises! The regular price is $17.

I just reviewed this product the other day, and you can read my full review here. But here's the deal with this product. I hate it for removing mascara and long-lasting eyeliner. But if you mess up your eyeshadow or undereye concealer and need to just remove that and not disturb the rest of your makeup - this stuff works great. The regular size is 4.2 oz. and sells for $19.

I haven't tried this product, and I'm not sure that I will. I appreciate that it's fragrance-free, but I'm a little concerned that sodium chloride is third on the ingredient list. Sodium chloride is very drying to skin, and that is too high on the list to be good. I'll probably just use this for washing my makeup brushes. The regular size is 5 oz. and sells for $14.


I haven't used this on a regular basis yet because I've been testing some other products, but I did try it a couple of times. The consistency is very nice and it did not irritate my skin. It offers broad-spectrum sun protection with Octinoxate 7.5%, Octisalate 3.5%, Titanium Dioxide 1.7%, which is good. It's also fragrance-free, which I always appreciate in my skincare products. There are also some peptides and antioxidants - but they're probably not going to do anything, because once again (look out, I'm getting on my soapbox!), what might be a nice product is packaged in a wide-mouth jar! Once it's opened and exposed to light and air, the ingredients start to degrade. It would be much better packaged in an airless pump bottle. The regular size is 1.7 oz. and sells for $63.

I think the Clinique Bonus Gifts are awesome. I especially like the ones that have makeup as opposed to skincare, since I don't use the Clinique skincare line. They usually contain full-size or very generous sample-size (or travel-size) products and you can really get a feel for whether or not you like the product.

Do you enjoy the Bonus Gifts? Do you use the products that come in them?