I have several The Body Shop items in my regular skincare routine that I love, like the Bouncy Sleeping Mask, so I am always on the hunt for the next product from their range to find a new home chez moi.
Perusing the shop, I found a promising vitamin C serum that I thought could be a nice addition to my skincare wardrobe. However, as soon as I tried my newly purchased The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost, I knew that this one would be not like the others.
Because I think that posts that review favourites are as useful for a blog’s readers as posts showcasing products that didn’t perform as expected, let me introduce you to my new Bye byes post featuring the Nyx Jumbo pencils and Rimmel Scandaleyes Eye Shadow Paint.
If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen me feature the Nyx Jumbo pencils a few weeks ago on this photograph. I must confess that a couple years ago I bought into the Jumbo pencils hype and ordered a few of them in basic colours. I was very excited when I got them as I intended to use them as eye shadow bases and they had the reputation of being excellent for this purpose.
I recently visited Claire’s, originally because I wanted to check out their rings, and ended coming home with this small beauty accessories haul.
This review is about the Mini Blending Sponges that I bought. When I saw them, they immediately reminded me of the new mini Beauty Blenders that were launched not that long ago, so as they were very affordable I decided to give them a try. What if I was about to find a good dupe? I simply could not not pick them up!
I was very excited to try them out when I got home.
Each clear box (5,95€) contains 3 of these mini pink sponges which could mean that I could use one or two for concealer and carry one in my make up bag for touch ups.
I had been coveting this product for a long time so when a few months back I had this epic haul, one of the items that I bought at the NARS stand was the Nars Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base.
I had been using the Urban Decay Primer Potion for a couple years before so I impatiently waited for my last Urban Decay tube to finally be empty so I could try the Nars Primer.
However, I have mixed feelings about the Nars Primer and I am afraid that I don’t have the best opinion of it.
I had been layering the UD Primer Potion and the Mac Paintpot in Soft Ochre as my eye shadow base to be able to deal with my oily lids and neutralise the veins and pigmentation of my lids.
So when I started using the Nars primer I too layered it with Soft Ochre. Big failure there! The first week alone my eye shadow creased on me three times!
On a trip to the local drugstore, my eyes were drawn to these two beautiful liquid eyeshadows.
Yes, any kind of cream or liquid eyeshadow acts as a magnet for me and I end relieving myself from some of my hard earned money.
In this case, the formula that I got to try is the Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeshadow Paint. It has a creamy consistency and has a metallic sheen. It is important to know that it dries quite quickly so there is not much time to play with it before it sets. Once it does, it will endure many hours with little to no fading.
I have worn the bronze shade to work and after an eight hour shift I still looked put together and not, as has been the case with other products, like I was wearing the previous night’s make up.
For many a blogger out there La Roche-Posay is a well known entity. For me however, until very recently, it was a brand that I saw everytime that I went to the chemist’s but that I was never drawn too. Maybe it was the wide range of products that they offer, but my eyes simply skipped the shelves with their products.
However, when I recently vowed to take better care of my skin and decided that I simply had to jump onto the cosmetic acids bandwagon, I found a fantastic glycolic acid on those often overlooked shelves.
The Pigment Control serum is a serum that contains glycolic acid and kojic acid and promises to treat dark spots and uneven skin tone.
The benefits of glycolic acid as a AHA are well known so I was sure to get an improvement in how my skin looked like. On the other hand I had not heard of kojic acid before, but it seems that while it has a lightening effect as well it is very unstable.
Depot lover that I am, would you be surprised to hear that I even decanted many of the products that I took with me for a trip to the Caribbean in February?
Due to our laughable flight connections during winter, we were flying with a low cost airline before embarking on the transatlantic flight. That means that I was packing as light as possible! It was not my first rodeo in this arena, but I had a new strategy this time: decant as many products as I could into the gazillion sample MAC containers that I have accumulated.
HealGel Intensive is a well known product that I decided to try after reading various online reviews.
It is a clear gel that is said to have been developed by doctors and it is supposed to “soothe, repair and protect”. All in all, a miracle in a bottle kind of product.
As I like doing things in convoluted and mysterious ways, my first dry shampoo was not Batiste, but an Osis+ which I reviewed here.
So, when I saw this 50ml container of the famed Batiste on an online shop, I thought I would give it a try and take it with me on a trip. As you can imagine, silly that I am, I came back with an intact bottle, so as I ran out of Osis+ I thought that I would finally give it a try.
As someone who has worked in retail, I am a firm believer that the way to fidelize your customers is to give them something that makes a difference.
There are stores much like Zara that rely on overwhelming the customer with plenty of choices and a reasonable or cheap price. Other stores can’t compete with this strategy and opt for a better and more personalized customer service.
I have been shopping at my MUS store since they opened their doors and their products are second in number in my stash only after MAC. I have seen their evolution and many a sales assistant come and go. The sales assistants have mostly been friendly and helpful but with some I developed a closer and warmer relationship, while still retaining our roles as customer and employee. We live in a small sized town after all, and people get to know each other. And after this long shared history, today they made me feel like a mere number.
I was interested in some of their Cybershadows, and, before going to the store, I checked out their website to know the shades available and prices. Surprise! Some of their shades were on a 30% off. Hurray! I went to the store and purchased my items while chatting with the sales assistants (“Oh, I’ve seen pictures of the new packaging” “Yeah it is very nice. And they are also launching new and better brushes” “Sounds like I’ll have to check them out!”). So imagine my surprise when as I was once more on the street, I look at my receipt and I see all the items at full price on it!
I went back and asked for a refund. At first they were reticent, telling me that those offers were only available online (a lie, when I have had the discounts applied in store before) but as I would not budge they gave it back to me in the end. The price difference? 15€.
I could not care less about those 15€. Hell, last week I spent quite a bit on brushes alone (Wayne Goss and Laura Mercier), but I refuse to let them get away with it. If I frequent a store it is because I like the relationship you develop with the staff, being able to share the excitement for upcoming releases and being able to check the items in person before you purchase them. If I get none of the perks and on top of that I feel like they are ripping me off, then I am afraid that the store has lost a customer. They can try to give me whatever excuse about “the system” and “orders from Stockholm”, but the truth is that my value as a loyal customer was diminished when confronted with potential face-less online customers. Cashing 15€ was more important than a loyal customer. Why should I be less?
I still like the brand, but from now onwards I will be very selective on whether I buy an item and if at all possible, on WHERE I buy it.
What about you? Any retail anecdotes?
Transient Beauté 