Chatter

Shopping in Store

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I prefer to shop online.

Not just for beauty items, but everything. I long for my area to have an offering where I can basically buy my groceries online, have someone in the store put together my order, and then just go pick them up (not even asking for delivery – just don’t want to scale the aisles).

Granted, you can’t swatch from the internet – but you can look up the swatches other people have done. It isn’t that I never want to go to a store to shop, but more often than not, I’ll buy online as opposed to shopping in stores.

It isn’t that I’m anti-social (okay, maybe I am – but that isn’t why); I just prefer to be able to select exactly what I need without having to hunt the aisles and browse the shelves. If I’m actually planning on making a purchase, I’m on a mission; I’m much happier if I can just search for that item, add it to my cart, done. If I’m in the store, even if I was familiar with the general store layout, planograms change. There’s no guarantee that I’d know where what I’m looking for is located.

Case and point:

Shopping in Store (Ulta Beauty)

Two months ago I was in Ulta with a friend to buy new heads for my Clarisonic. We went over to where their prestige skincare was, to the aisle that was dedicated to the Clarisonic devices. They had displays and devices a-plenty, they had boxes and testers galore…single brush heads? There were twenty! But who cares, no big deal, I wanted four.

The four pack was a far better deal than buying four individual brush heads, but it was nowhere to be found. It was later in the evening, but not yet close to closing time – but no sales associates were around. I could really see only one, and she was with another customer. We went around that area several times looking for them, but no dice. Eventually, I had to be that guy and flag down one that sales associate as she came near, looking for something for her other customer. She pointed me, “that way,” but had to (understandably) scurry off to attend to who she was working with. Eventually, I found them on a random standalone shelf in direction she pointed which was nowhere near skincare stuff. That whole part of the process took probably 10-15 minutes.

I’m glad my friend is patient!

Related to that, I always seem to wind up with what I don’t need from a sales associate while shopping in stores.

Most retailers’ (all types, not just beauty) policies require employees to greet any customers they hadn’t seen yet – even if they’ve already been greeted. Those policies also require the employees to check back with people periodically. As a customer, I do like to be greeted, and I like to know that an associate is available or where to find one if I need one. I do NOT, however, like to be checked up on every 3-5 minutes. 10-15 is okay – any more frequently when I’ve told you I don’t want/need help or am browsing feels like you’re stalking or hounding me, and it makes me feel like I can’t shop at my own pace. It doesn’t create a good shopping experience.

I feel like I wind up with either extreme. If I don’t have someone breathing down my neck, I end up needing help but unable to locate anyone. It was not busy that evening in Ulta but took a long time to find someone to help me (and I had to steal a moment of her time from someone else). There were employees visible when we walked in, but ten minutes later they had all but vanished. I never seem to find myself in a situation where there’s a happy medium.

I feel more comfortable browsing without intent to buy on the merchant’s website, from home rather than shopping in store – I’m not in other customers’ way, and they aren’t in mine. I’m not a face in the store that the employees feel the need to fuss over (which I don’t like anyway). Plus, pajamas. Paying for shipping isn’t fun and I usually try to plan my purchases in such a way that I avoid paying shipping costs (meeting their minimum or having a promo code).

On top of all that, you can’t use eBates in brick-and-mortar stores. I only recently saw one of their awkward commercials that make them seem a little sketchy, but I can confidently say (with three years of eBates experience) that they are legit. You can sign up for free here – this is a referral link that does end up earning me like $5 if you sign up, but I’m not sharing this to make money off you – I’m sharing it because I believe in it and have gotten over $400 back in three years – here’s a tiny screenshot of my cash back to prove it.

How do you prefer to do your shopping? Browsing the shelves, or behind a screen?

Too Faced Selfie Powders :: An Afterthought

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Too Faced Selfie PowderToo Faced Selfie Powders

When I was researching the Too Faced Selfie Powders for last week’s post, I came across a thread on a popular makeup community discussing the product. The discussion was split roughly 50/50 – with some expressing feelings similar to mine, and others saying it was cute/kitschy/fun/etc.

There were, however, a few people who were neither for the Too Faced Selfie Powders nor against them that questioned the criticism. One participant adds something along the lines of (this is paraphrased):

I don’t understand why the Too Faced Selfie Powders are getting so much hate – why is this worse than silly nerd collections by Indie makeup brands?

It’s a good question, and it makes you think about the product and issue a little more. But I have a good answer.

Here’s the difference:

Geek Chic’s adorable Sailor Moon collection and Hello Waffle’s hilarious Archer-themed collections are just eyeshadows. They don’t claim to do anything special, they’re just cute eyeshadows with fun names. Too Faced Selfie Powders, on the other hand, are literally marketed as being, “filters,” for your real-life face…they’re just colored powders. At best, they’re for color correction. They aren’t appealing to a fandom, they’re marketing a product claiming that it does something that, realistically, it doesn’t do.

LimeCrime – No Thanks, I’m Fine

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Years ago, and I do mean years ago – like six or seven of them – I spotted an oddly colored cyan lipstick on an obscure website (kind of like Urban Outfitters, but smaller). I have no desire to slap cyan on my face, but I was curious enough to see what other weird things this LimeCrime brand had. They had some unique ones, for the time – a minty green, a fun, pale tangerine, but at like $18/tube (I think!). I wasn’t into cosmetics at the time so I did pass them by, but I did remember the LimeCrime brand just because I’d never seen anything like them…but remember, I also wasn’t into makeup at the time.

Since I’ve gotten into makeup, though, I’ve learned about how LimeCrime’s proprietress, Doe Deere (and is that your real name? No – but I don’t really care about that) lacks a professional touch…to put it succinctly.

I still liked seeing the silly purple tubes when they’d pop up on YouTube and actually really liked the look of a few of the Velvetine shades, but I could never bring myself to pull the trigger and make a purchase. The cost, the ultimate wearability, and the fact that, well, I’d be supporting someone with a well-documented history of a) not being cool and b) being awful to customers when problems are reported. We make mistakes, we’re just people. Running a business comes with its own challenges, too. Most of us learn and grow, apologize for our missteps and commit ourselves to doing better next time – but the overwhelming volume of evidence suggests that Ms. Deere thinks she is exempt from these things.

Most recently, they have become embroiled in a pretty substantial credit card fraud scandal. At minimum, hundreds of customers’ credit cards were compromised (PayPal transactions seem OK) after making purchases from LimeCrime’s site. Instead of handling it properly, LimeCrime stayed VERY hush-hush, like, “If we don’t talk about it, maybe it will go away!” until the collective outcry became so great that they had no chance but to acknowledge it…which they did with a load of BS (was linked, but they deleted the post; go figure). They have not been helping concerned customers, and everything about it has been immensely unprofessional. Unapologetic. So many things.

I’m not going to flood you with a wall of text on this. There are many walls of text already written, such as this one, that chronicle the history of LimeCrime and their questionable business practices, and social media is rife with disappointed customers sharing their stories.

I will not be making any purchases from LimeCrime either directly or through resellers. I won’t tell you what to do with your life/money, but if business ethics/general decency of the companies who get your money concerns you, I suggest looking into it so you can decide for yourself.

Too Faced Selfie Powders

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I’m kind of an Instagram fledgling. I mostly use it to follow makeup artists and brands I admire; I’m not into selfies, and I’m mostly posting blog content. Given that it isn’t my most-active platform, I’m usually surprised when I learn about new products via Instagram before I hear of them elsewhere.

Too Faced Selfie PowderToo Faced Selfie Powders

 

 

The Too Faced Selfie Powders are one such example. Too Faced has been flooding the tubes with #tfnofilter for a little bit, but until they dropped the Selfie Powders I just figured it was the standard cutesy, “nofilter,” hashtag with some branding slapped on. Basically, Too Faced has come out with luminous powders that claim to act like Instagram filters IRL.

“Light-filtering, photo-enhancing powders.”

Yeeep.

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Double-Sided Z-Palette

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I got my first Z-Palette last year as a gift from a friend made from a community we both belong to. The hype is real, and worth it. As someone who has little space to store my makeup, the fewer bulky, individually packaged items the better. I haven’t filled my large, hot-pink Z-palette yet (and probably won’t for a while), but I love it.

If you aren’t familiar with the brand/product, let me bring you up to speed. A makeup artist wanted a solution to simplify her work and what she needed to bring with her. She created an empty, magnetized palette that you can fill with whatever depotted makeup (or pan refills) your heart desires; mix and match to your heart’s content. It sounds so simple and straightforward, but most, “build your own,” palettes limited you to a specific pan size/shape (sometimes limiting you to their brand).

Four main things I love:

  • It has a clear window so I can see what I put inside.
    My genius (cough) is unfortunately punctuated with bouts of airheadedness, so this is a big help.
  • It isn’t limited to one pan size or shape – it is completely free-form.
    This is a nice contrast to other companies’, “Build Your Own,” palette options. I have two MAC shadows, a MAC blush, a Sephora shadow, a wee Stila shadow amongst other things in mine – all different pan sizes.
  • They come with magnets to secure depotted items that may come in non-magnetic pans.
  • They aren’t bulky. They are travel friendly…in all sizes.

So last Monday when I got an email from them announcing their Double-Sided Z-Palette I was pretty delighted. Although this isn’t something I’m ready to buy because my collection doesn’t call for it, it is a really awesome new offering.

double-sided z-paletteThe new Double-Sided Z-Palette

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PSA: Sephora Flash Shipping

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I just signed up for Amazon Prime last month because I, like many people these days, prefer to shop online. It allows me to make better use of my time. I’m not here to shill Prime to you. If you’re here (…on the internet?), reading, you know what it is, you’ve heard about it, and you know a lot of the benefits.

I had a completely different post scheduled for today (something else new, fun an intriguing), but this is too good, friends.

To my delight, I happened upon this glorious page on Sephora’s site – Sephora Flash Shipping.

Sephora Flash Shipping

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