Sephora Surprise! Getting a Color Match...

Oh my good golly goodness.  So, if you know me, you know that I HATE Sephora.  More than I hate Game of Thrones (which is a lot.)!  So I am not sure what possessed me to wander into the Lexington Avenue Sephora near the 63rd Street station on one random August morning this past month.  But there I was, wandering around... because it's not like you can ever get any help in a Sephora.  I have never had a good experience there and I am so desperately envious of the women that DO get attention in the stores... Being ignored in there is awful.  It makes me want to jump up and down and scream, "Hey!  Look at me!  I have money to spend too!"

But alas, this has been my one and only good experience there.  It was barely open, about 9am, and it wasn't crowded.  I was greeted once I wandered to the back and the woman who asked me if I needed help seemed a little taken aback that I had said yes.  Either way, I told her what I wanted-- a good matte liquid foundation with full coverage and a good hold-- and she quickly hurried me along to another staff member.  This girl was fabulous.  She had great skin and brows and was short like me... And she was so friendly!  The original sales person told me that she was a great artist and that she would help me find something that I liked.

Here I thought that, like so many others, she would just wave me off in the direction of some random foundation rack and leave me to my own devices.  But no!  This was wonderful.  She was friendly and asked me about what I was looking for.  I told her:

• Liquid Foundation
• Full coverage
• Matte finish
• Long hold
• COLOR MATCH

I kept stressing that I can never find a correct color match and I wasn't going to spend a ton of money on something that wasn't perfect.  She told me, "Okay, I have something in mind, but we'll do a color match anyway and see what comes up and I'll show you a few things."

So she brings me to this little machine and we take off the bronzer that I had put on in the morning.  I had forgone face makeup that morning because I had anticipated this endeavor.  She took this little hand held camera thing and put it all over my face, taking little color pictures.  Then the computer gave us a bunch of choices.  She had me put my email into the computer so that I could have the list of matches.  It was a handful of foundations that would match me, and the names of the colors.

Apparently what she had wanted to show me had come up as a match, so we went over there first.  Now, she didn't just hand me the box of the color that the computer said, nope.  She grabbed the 3 lightest colors of testers, put a blob of each on her hand, and proceeded to color match.  The computer had suggested neutral, but I warned her that I was much more pink.  

It turned out that I was right about the pink.  She explained the benefits of the brand and I was totally sold (that will be my next review).  But she also went a step further, to apply it to my face with a sponge AND a brush so that I could see the difference and how the color could be built up.  She also told me what brushes would be best to use for what purposes.  We swapped some tips.  I probably spent an hour in the store chatting with her and looking at different products.

It was great.  I ended up getting the foundation AND a compact in the matching color.  The brand that she had sold me had a great selling point that I loved-- You are the same color in everything: if you are P20 in liquid, you are P20 in everything else too.  When I was checking out, I ended up having points and was given a freebie at the register.  Before I left, she came back to me with a card where she had given her information and encouraged me to come back when I wanted something else.  Everyone there was very pleasant, especially the cashier.

But overall, this was a wonderful experience.  Usually I leave Sephora miserable and angry, but I was quite satisfied this time.  I do really suggest this particular Sephora.

IF YOU WANT ATTENTION I would suggest a few quick things:

1. If you live in a big city like me, or if your Sephora is the only beauty store for miles, chances are they get kind of busy.  Go on off times like early in the morning, at lunch, and in the evening.
2. If you need samples, be straight forward and ASK for them.
3. If you can't get any help, walk up to an employee and simply ask for it-- if they ignore you, leave and write the company.  This happened to me and I was contacted by the District Manager who issued me an apology and even took the time to speak on the phone with me for about half an hour.
4. Know what you are looking for-- it is hard to help someone who doesn't know what they want, so if you need foundation, say that.  Don't say, "Oh just looking" or "I don't know."  That will blacklist you for the duration of your visit.
5. BE VISIBLE!  If you are just lurking around, no one will see you or they will think you don't want to be seen.  Don't wear black because their artists have to wear black and you may get mistaken for one of them (this happens to me in beauty stores often).