Sephora ME card programme and gifts with purchase

Call them gifts with purchase, freebies, samples, or whatever you like; we all love receiving beauty goodies!
Remember my December haul from Sephora Middle East? I had signed up for their card programme and received a few samples/gifts with purchase back then. I had also said that the US outlets had been more generous sample-wise, when I visited about three years ago, with a dozen or so foundation, skin care and perfume samples from Seattle and D.C. outlets. I have changed my mind! I have been to at least a dozen Sephoras on three continents now. The Sephora outlets in Spain and Portugal and the ones in Singapore and Malaysia palmed me off with perfume vials or a couple of 2ml tubes and sachets.
Sephora Middle East has several outlets across eight countries (there are eight Sephora outlets in the UAE alone). The haul posts can wait. Here is a quick look at my samples and GWPs from Sephora Middle East.
What happens here is, you get a "White Card" - rather like the Beauty Insider in Sephora USA. You get a full-sized body lotion just for signing up, which is free. And then, you earn points. When you have 200 points, you are upgraded to a Black Card - like VIB. But there is no equivalent of VIB Rouge yet.
In the US Sephoras, I remain stuck at Beauty Insider with 108 points to my credit, as I was just getting into makeup slooooowly three years ago.
On the other hand, Sephora ME has me at Black Card status since last December. And, like the Beauty Insider, you get a birthday gift every year and they hold it for you for a bit.
Apart from a full-sized gift for every 200 points, you also get Black Card-only special offers and brand offers. Such as, buy two things from UD and get the N@ked Basics palette free. And, the lady ahead of me at the till was paying up when her mobile rang and she was told by Sephora ME that she had won a travel hamper just for existing. I wish that had happened to me, but the nice bloke at the counter saw my face and gave me an eyeshadow brush just because. Sniff!
Right, here are the freebies I came home with:

Benefit Besties Goodie Bag - Some Kinda Gorgeous, They're Real Mascara and That Gal primer. 

I love the first two products and have more in my stash. The best part is that they gave me the right shade of Some Kinda Gorgeous - Medium. And I like that bag.

Benefit They're Real push-up gel liner (pictured above)

This was unexpected. They were giving one away to pretty much anyone who walked within a mile of Benefit or even glanced in that general direction. Mind you, I am not pleased with this liner's performance (detailed review soon). Perhaps that is why they were this generous!

A cute Sephora palette 

This is my birthday gift for this year. HOW cute is this?

A WHOLE SEPHORA BLOCKBUSTER! 

It never rains, but it pours. I bought one in December just because this was something I had lusted after for three whole years. And now, I have two. Had I known this was a gift for getting 200 points, I would not have bothered to buy one in December. Argh!
This is the back-view of the box, so you can see what the palette looks like. I will write about it in detail once I have a moment.

Two O.P.I. nail polishes, full-sized.

So I was mooching around, deciding not to buy any polishes since they haven't had the latest collections in here yet, and this SA walks up and asks me if I would do a short survey for her. I answered a couple of questions about the shop and she pulled out these two polishes for me - both full-sized. Bubble Bath and Pink Flamenco. Not colours that I would pick, but who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth?

Sephora Medium Shader brush 

This is something the bloke at the till slipped into my bag as a consolation prize after the woman ahead of me won a magnificent travel kit, and I looked a bit wistful. I know I sound more than slightly jealous here.

Clarins Smooth Intense primer - travel-sized

The SA at the Clarins counter/display was a bit peeved that I did not buy anything, so she said I would love this sample. I already have the full size of this primer, reviewed here. This can go into my travel bag.

Dior Miss Cherie EDP vial

Last time, my perfume vials had been unlabelled and I did not know which was which. I told the SA that and she gave me this.

A MUFE mini kit, missing in action. 

I think my suitcase or messy room ate it up. It should surface when I clean up, or while packing for my next trip. It contained a primer, an elixir and a mini mascara.

Lancome samples

I bought a 75ml bottle of Advanced Genefique, since I had pretty much run out of my 30ml bottle and I love, love, LOVE this serum. I have a Lancome counter back home and the SAs there usually give me a bunch of samples as well, as you must have seen in haul posts before. I felt a tad disloyal buying from elsewhere!

The Cleansing Duo kit was a gift with my Advanced Genefique purchase. I also have a Genefique Yeux sample here (I already used up the full-size and reviewed it last year), some foundations in shade 03, and Visionnaire Eye Cream. I had specifically said that I did not want a DreamTone sample, but seem to have got one nonetheless. That can go to my sister.

Shiseido Ibuki and BB Cream samples

I did not buy anything from Shiseido since I already have a nice SA at the Shiseido counter back home, and she gives me refills of my favourite foundation when I turn up. But they asked me if I wanted to try the "Ibuki" range, so here we are.

Yves Saint Laurent perfume and eye cream samples

I finally got my hands on a much-coveted Rouge Volupte lipstick, which I will show you soon! And these samples same with it. I got two more eye cream sachets which went to my Mum. I have no idea what shade that foundation is, and the SA did not match me either or write it anywhere - Touche Eclat foundation, I presume.... I may probably never know, since I cannot open the d@rn sample pot, no matter what.

Givenchy Doctor White Lotion

I did not want this at all, and asked for a foundation sample when I bought a Le Rouge lipstick, but they said they did not "have" the foundation sample and gave me this instead. I love that little bag, though.

I have Lancome, Shiseido, Clarins, YSL, Dior and Givenchy counters back home, but these have exclusive SAs in Sephora ME who are kind of hard to get rid of. I did pick up a lipstick here and there as I felt bad that they were giving me all these freebies. Now if only Too Faced, Urban Decay, Philosophy, MUFE, Smashbox and other brands in Sephora ME had exclusive SAs who keep pressing samples onto customers!

Disclaimer: Post is not intended to brag but to share shopping experiences in the Middle East, on request. None of these was a PR sample - everything was a gift with purchase or for point redemption or cardholder benefits. No Sephora (outlet, staff or management) in any country on any planet knows about this blog. Nor is any Sephora employee anywhere on the cosmos related to this blogger.