Tag: Shopping

These 6 products including a 10 dollar in house mascara represents 170 giftcard dollars. I would never spend 170.00 dollars on make up but
I had a giftcard to Sephora for a lot of money.Well, to me it was a lot of money.
And it sat in my wallet for over a month. I figured I’d better spend it rather than lose it,right?
And so I went to the Sephora on Broadway and Prince and maybe that was my first mistake…because on Sunday afternoon in Soho, the crowds are tremendous.But I had planned to go next to Crate and Barrel to get wine glasses and then walk up to Trader Joes and get some stuff for dinner.So it made logistical sense to start at this particular Sephora store.But it didn’t make sense to deliberately subject myself to shopping in one of their smaller stores where stuff was sure to be sold out.Message to Sephora: you should never be sold out of anything! Seriously, that isn’t cool.Thanks to you I do not now own Clinique Crushed Grape lip sticky thing.
Will I die? No, but I won’t be as cute as I could be!
The best Sephora is on 34th and 8th.It is really huge and it’s 2 levels.And the top floor is usually totally empty.

I have a problem with the way Sephora lights it’s stores,too.
I sometimes have to hold an item away from the really bright lights in order to see what color it really is.This always makes me look a little strange since it looks like I am waving a lipstick in the air.But I just can’t see if it’s light or dark with a hot bright light in my eyes.
I also have a problem with the mirrors– they make me look like a junkie. I don’t look like a junkie, in other mirrors. I’m not a junkie by the way.Ok, mom and dad?
The mirror with the hot lights and suspect ulterior motives made me look like I was 1,000 years old. I really hate looking that old.I really really hate how no matter how nice I think I look before leaving the house I will always look awful in a Sephora mirror.

I usually let things like some redness around my nose slide but in S.’s mirror to not have something there is a big no no.So I scurry to Benefit because a lot of their stuff is for redness fighting. I bought Boi-ing the industrial strength concealor ..18 dollars.

I’d really intended just to get some perfume and maybe some fun makeup like eyeshadow or lipstick but seeing that I looked like an ancient pin eyed ghoul, I was forced to purchase a corrective product.
I have relied on Max Factor’s concealor for years and lately I’ve used it instead of all over foundation.But it isn’t really meant for all over your face.So I was looking for a stick foundation,too.But at this Sephora their testers are all used up or covered in lint.This is unfortunate.I’m not putting lint on my face,thanks.
I’d previously gone to the very well maintained store near the World Trade Center and loved the Make Up Forever stuff.But in Soho it was all covered in lint and used up and so I ended not buying any.
I did buy some cheek stain by Tarte in Flush. I really love it. I needed an alternative to just making my lipsticks do double duty as blush.
I bought some Stila stuff because I love Stila and don’t have any.I don’t know why but I am obsessed with having thicker eyebrows so I bought this thing that is supposed to do that called Brow Polish.The lipstick from Stila is Electra and it is just great.
The perfume…let’s just say that I kind of lost my ability to function by the time I got done testing out all 9 of Fresh’s scents. I ended up with Pomegranate Anise.It starts out smelling good but ends smelling a bit like those 8 dollar body sprays you can buy in Duane Reade.This means that on me it “turns”.And although it doesn’t smell bad–it just doesn’t warrant 75 bucks…I should’ve just gotten Fresh Sugar .I have Lemon Sugar already and it stays smelling the way it is supposed to on me.
I’d really meant to buy a perfume by Guerlain but Fresh won.That’s ok.

I have a $200 giftcard to Sephora.I haven’t spent a dime off of it yet. I got it for my birthday on Dec.4th and the guilt of getting stuff for myself even with a birthday giftcard instead of picking up x-mas gifts for my friends and family overwhelmed me.
But in the past I ‘ve been really bad about buying stuff for myself when I’m supposed to be getting stuff for other people but I don’t think I’m so unusual.I’m blessed with a normal amount of aquisitiveness.So when out to shop for others I’m bound to see a lot more stuff that I’d like to have,too.Anyway, everyone knows it’s easier to shop for yourself than someone else.There’s just so much stuff you can buy for your self that you can’t buy for someone else.Like shoes.Or pants.I hate to put someone throught the torture of trying to return a gift that they don’t like or need or want or that doesn’t fit.It seems like these days it gets harder to return stuff and one has to sign a contract before they get a credit or a refund with lines of customers sighing and fidgeting behind you as you get your issue sorted.
But now that things are back to normal and I am allowed to shop again for some reason I’m shy to go.
I’ve gone to Sephora plenty of times when I couldn’t spend more than 50 bucks.
Now I have a lot more than that and I guess I know what’s bound to happen.I’m going to get all nervous and cheap and try to keep a balance on the card instead of just buying like mad until every last cent is gone.
I love the makeup they have at Sephora and I love having new makeup but so many trips to the store to buy new makeup have returned disappointing results.
I no longer plaster every centimeter of my face with foundation and I no longer have to have powder on top of it in order to feel facially armed enough to go outside. I guess this is in part due to feeling more comfortable with the way I look to others.It took a few decades but thank God! Because it used to take me so fucking long to get myself made-up.And I probably could’ve used a few obsessive/compulsive treatments.Somehow though I grew out of it with only a few relapses now and then when I cannot make myself look “OK” according to my OCD.
It’s in part due to the fact that I never had perfect skin but I always wanted perfect skin and the only way in my mind to acheive it was to paint it on.Certainly any other method didn’t work.It wasn’t until I discovered a simple soap called Basis All Clear Bar that things got more under control.
And due to a past course of retinol my skin changed from quite impervious to really sensitive.I used retinol for about 3 years in my late teens and early 20’s. And it is my theory that it made me allergic to most facial moisturizers. I have tons of proof of this.I used to use a clinique moisturizer-the yellow one- but after retinol my face would react like it’d been burned.
I found the only thing I could use to keep my face from resembling a dried out river bed was plain old Vaseline.And we all know what Vaseline can do to exaserbate an already troubled skin.This is where Basis came in,it turned out that it was stress that mostly made my face break out…but processing stressful situations is a talent that comes with time,I guess.I really didn’t need the big guns of retinol after all. Turns out a simple glycerine soap with tea tree oil was sufficient to combat minor zits from occurring.
And to go back to the make up issue-I’ve noticed that since I stopped using so much everyday my skin looks a lot better naturally.It really does go hand in hand in my case;less make up equals less breakouts and therefore less need for make up in the first place!
But don’t worry I’ll empty that giftcard–you can be sure of that.
I’m also a perfume junkie 🙂 And there’s this bottle of Guerlain that smells like oranges just calling to me.I wish Sephora was in Brooklyn.But that’s another story.