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Once upon a time, this was my happy place
I never thought I’d say this, ever, but I’m not sure if I belong at Sephora anymore.
I went in last Saturday for a few staples (mascara, eyeliner and brow pencil) because I didn’t want to walk in the rain to Ulta, which is where I’ve been doing most of my beauty shopping in the last couple years.
Anywho, I walked in, found a few things at Rare Beauty, and then did a few laps around the store looking for something, anything, to move me. And that’s when I realized a lot of the things that I was used to seeing weren’t there.
The Clinique makeup display, for example, which was always a comforting sight, was gone. I mean, I know that Clinique isn’t cutting edge or anything, but I like that you can always find something there to satisfy a makeup urge, no matter what age you are. All their color products are pretty wearable and won’t leave you feeling heavily made up. They did have a handful of skin care products, though, but they were tucked away.
Then, in the skin care section, I realized the most prominently displayed items looked like they were geared toward teens and tweens. Brands that seem very popular on social media with kids, like Drunk Elephant, Glow Recipe, Sol de Janeiro and the Ordinary, were front and center.
That’s when I realized that I kinda sorta felt out of place.
It’s very different now compared to what it used to feel like stepping in the store in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
When Sephora was relatively new to the U.S. shopping there was an experience. There was nothing quite like it. I remember walking through and finding interesting things all over the store, and falling in love with lines that no longer live there, like Stila, Vincent Long, Paul & Joe, Du-Wop and Neil’s Yard.
Oh, and the makeup displays! They were all so neat and clean.
I used to go into the store feeling like it was a magical, special and chic place to find all my beauty treasures, but now between the countless neutral palettes across the influencer brands, the bottles of perfumed shackled to the shelves, the security officers flanking the front doors, and the chaotic state of the samples – which I don’t even want to put on the back of my hand now because they seem so gross and mismanaged – it doesn’t feel like a fun place to shop.
Anyway, maybe I’ll change my mind again in the future, and I’ll probably pop in there every once in a while out of sheer curiosity, but for now, I think I may have outgrown it.
Have you been shopped at Sephora lately? How was your experience?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
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