Is It Worth The Wait?

Yesterday, my dear friend A. was picking up her wedding set for the second time and invited me to tag along with her to the mall. The trump card? The mall has a Sephora. Did I agree? You bet your ass I did. To say that I was excited would be a gross understatement of fact. I was utterly euphoric.

I woke up bright and early, though not as bright and early as has been my habit these last few weeks, and set to work on my face. Silly as it may be, I didn't want to walk into the store of my dreams with a naked face. As I carefully primed and patted and blended, visions of Cosmetic Paradise danced through my head. I saw clinical white walls and stainless steel accents. I saw sales people in immaculate black clothing with outrageous, flawless makeup. I saw thousands of little packages, all stacked just so and begging for me to take them home for a spin.

Our adventure began when we missed the exit to the mall. No biggie! We finally made it to the mall and picked up A.'s beautiful ring, then went in search of my dream store. A., I must interject, is a three product girl. Though she always looks fabulous, the world of liquid pencils and tone-correcting concealer is a foreign one to her. While I babbled on about products I love (and love to hate) we began browsing this little slice of heaven. It started out so well!

We entered the store a little after 1:45 pm and were approached by one sales woman with an enormous pink bow, a promotional gimmick for the new Hello Kitty! line and no doubt about it. We declined her offer for assistance and began browsing the Kat Von D collection. A. found a perfume she adores (it smelled great on her, but I can't remember what it's called at the moment) while I carefully opened sample pallet after pallet of eyeshadow. It was that moment when I first felt a little shiver of foreboding. The entire section was a mess. A hot mess, in fact. Shadows were dragged into other shadows and over the containers. The little shelves they were set into looked like they hadn't been wiped down in at least a week. It was at this point that we were approached by another sales woman. Again we declined her help and moved on.

As I moved through the store, my horror grew. It wasn't just the Kat Von D section that was filthy, they were all filthy. The products were stacked, but mixed up and messy and when I finally did have a question, we got a very nice man who (thank heaven) was allowed to forgo that ridiculous pink bow. I asked my question and he sampled the Tokodoki liner on the back of my hand before telling me that they are out of the black, but he could show me another liner that he thought was similar in quality. Okay, no problem. We headed over to the Stila stand and he samples that pen, too. I thank him and set about calculating my makeup finances and decide that 20 dollars is a little outside my makeup budget for a liner, even if said liner is fantastic. Meanwhile, Mr. Stila-Pusher is hovering. When the silence finally grew painful (remember, I'm deciding if I'm going to splurge), A. engages him in conversation before he excuses himself abruptly and walks away. Rude.

We made our way through the store, A. commenting on the beautiful packaging of some of the products while I check out the prices on some of the products I wanted to check out in person before buying and finally stumble across the Clinique stand. Finally a bit of luck! The Black Honey Almost Lipstick was sold out at the Clinique I usually use, but the Sephora had it stocked to the rafters! Okay, not really, but they had at least seven sticks of the lipstick and as many of the gloss. I grab the lipstick and we mosey through the rest of the store before going to pay. No one offered assistance again, though we hesitated at several sections. I am choosing to believe they thought I knew what I was doing rather than purposefully ignoring customers, but. . .

All-in-all, it was a disappointment. It was kind of like finding out my favorite person in the world moonlights as a $2 crack-whore. Painful all around. Will I go back? Probably, though I might just go down to Annapolis instead, but I won't be nearly as excited as I was to go the first time.

In other news, today I tested out several products. There are several eye shadows from new companies and, of course, the Black Honey, but I will be writing about those in another post. Here's a quick break down.

♥ Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer. I wanted to love this. I really did. I've been reading about it for years now and the only thing stopping me was the high price tag. Am I glad that I didn't pay for this! Maybe I'm using it wrong, but about 4 hours into my day, my 'skin' was peeling and flaking and super oily. I didn't notice any discernible difference in how well or smoothly my foundation applied or looked after using the primer. Won't be purchasing in the future.

♥ Ulta Extreme Wear Gel Eyeliner in Primetime. Love! This is a black liner with a multi-color glitter. Some reviewers have had issues with clumping, but this went on smooth as silk for me. I set it with a translucent powder and it didn't budge until I removed my makeup tonight. In fact, I like it so much I might try to get my hands on some of the other colors! I know some other reviewers have had issues with the product drying out so I'll keep you appraised.

♥ Ulta Amped Lashes. I usually use CoverGirl Volume Exact mascara and I love it, but it does have some flaking issues. The Amped Lashes didn't flake on me at all. I'm not comfortable saying I love it just yet, but I'm cautiously optimistic. I'll be using this mascara instead of my normal for about a week and I'll let you know!

Yesterday's Look:
Primed: Urban Decay Primer Potion, Ulta Eye Crayon - Birthday Girl, Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy.
Colored: Inner Corner - Cirus Insanity Eyeshadow (VIE) - Panda. Center - VIE - Cotton Candy. Outer Corner - Aromaleigh - Hades.
Highlights: Ulta in Truffle and Platinum
Lined: Ulta Extreme Wear Gel Eyeliner - Primetime.
Lashed: Ulta Amped Lashes - Jet Black