So a couple of weeks ago I finally got around to placing an order on Sephora so I could get my 2013 birthday gift and I finally caved but instead of ordering the full size (16 oz, $16.50) I ordered the "Birthday girl vanilla birthday cake gift set" for $20.

One of the perks of being a Sephora Beauty Insider is that every year during your birthday month Sephora will give you an item. My birthday is in late summer so I typically get my gift in mid-September.

The birthday gift in 2011 was a 6 oz bottle of Philosophy's Vanilla Birthday Cake. It took me over a year to completely use it up since I interchanged my shower gels with other shower products but I do know that it became one of my favorite shower gels and I really liked the scent.

The set contains an 8 oz bottle of Vanilla Birthday Cake (value $8.25) and a 0.4 oz tube of Vanilla Birthday Cake lip gloss (value $8). As I mentioned above, the full size Vanilla Birthday Cake retails for $16.50 and it's an 16 oz bottle. The full size lip gloss is 0.5 oz and retails for $10.

So my thoughts. Love the scent of the Vanilla Birthday Cake however dislike the fact that I essentially over paid for this set when the overall value of both items in the gift set is only $16.25. Granted it's only a $3.75 difference between the actual value and the retail value but if I could exchange it or return it I would. I would actually return this set if I didn't toss the Sephora order slip out but I'm going to call my local Sephora and see what they say since it's in my order history. I rather just use the $20 and but the full size Vanilla Birthday Cake and not get the lip gloss or buy both full size items and just pay the extra $6.50 (plus tax).

That all said, this does still make a good gift to give to someone else but if you're going to purchase this for yourself save your money and buy the full size items instead.