make up related .... which made me sort of upset. I mean, the issues aren't important nor life threatening, I think i am majorly pis*ed with my MU encounters today.
The opening of Sephora in my country (Singapore), remember that gleeful happy picture I took standing in front of the store like 1 month before it opened? I was really excited and looking forward to the opening. So today I actually went to check it out. Reasons being:
- I just wanted to see what "200 exclusive brands" are stocked in store.
- I wanted to see how the products are arranged, etc.
- Really just to get a general vibe of the place.
To cut to the chase, I don't think it is going to be a regular place I would check out. The store turned out to be a huge DISAPPOINTMENT, in my opinion. Here is why I think so:
- The claim that they stock 200 over exclusive brands from all over the world is NOT TRUE. The most obvious being, URBAN DECAY isn't even brought in. Not to mention, they don't have other brands like NARS, Smashbox, MUFE, Cargo, not even the Viktor&Rolf parfums, etc. I mean, the glaring and horrifying lack of these cult faves, argh! I think the marketing management just fail to know what draws the customers. Of course, they have the obligatory Sephora huge racks of stuff (but the spread just isn't as impressive as those I saw in Europe, there aren't repeat counters, everything is just one off, so you don't get the dizzy but delirious feeling of swooning over the sheer amount of make up displayed in front of you), and besides Singapore has been stocking the in-house Sephora stuff at a duty free mall for some years already so it's nothing new. I mean, what's the point, if we already have Dior/Lancome/Clinique at every other mall in town??? There just isn't anything to generate excitement in me.
- I think that one of the trademarks of a Sephora store (at least from what I observed), the scents and perfumes are always arranged by alphabetical order, you have all the women's and men's scents lined up from brands A-Z on either side of the store, and you wonder down the aisle.... but here, the perfumes are just displayed in the normal/random fashion, by brand, and you know, nothing special.
- The lighting of the store sucks. It is all white. It just isn't colourful enough.
I guess I can continue to rant on, but I have to give credit where it is due. Some of the brands that they (I don't know who) have the sense to stock are Bare Essentuals, which I think is a HIT among the ladies I saw in store. They also have Two Faced (I think the shadow insurance was already sold out when I was there, good thing I have back ups from my friends who shopped in the States). Yea, that's about it....
And here are the pictures this make up addict took.
*See how white the place looks??
The opening of Sephora in Singapore can best be summed up as an anti-climatic experience for me. I may be harsh, but I am sure if someone esp a BPJ from the States or France were to see this place, she/he will definitely agree with me.
cos it just reminds me of how fab the ones in Europe are!
Wow that's sad to hear - the lack of alphabetical order for the perfumes would bother me too!