Like every other girl in India I was excited when the beauty giant Sephora opened up in Delhi in the Select City Walk Mall, Saket in December last year. Although I decided not to visit for some initial couple of months because of all the rush and sephora crazy girls! I like to shop quietly taking my own time with every product that catches my fancy (which is rare btw).
But a few months back I decided to break my sephoraginity. All those photos of Sephora UK and US started swimming in my mind. I won’t be lying if I say I wanted our desi Sephora Delhi to be an exact look alike of Sephora Kaula Lampur with its triangular structure and edgy design. Who was I kidding! Blame it on the foreign beauty bloggers who post photos of Sephora stores around the world. Sephora was a luxury. Sephora was a dream. Sephora was unreachable. And now THE Sephora was in my own neighborhood.
And I was there. It looked like any other usual store on the ground floor of the mall. Alright it was not edgy and the decor was not mind blowing but who cares. Its a shop and only the products matter at the end of the day. Right. So I thought I would just browse through the aisles to check out some Benefit and Soap & Glory stuff along with the goodies from Sephora’s own label.
BUT no it didn’t happen. Don’t you just hate the SAs which hawk you and follow you like your own shadow. You know they are there hiding behind the pillar watching you. And what if that shadow comes out and stand next to you when you want to see every product your dream land has to offer. It gets so irritating! Okay then I tried explaining sailor rather loudly what exactly is Benefit moonlit highlighter and the number of shades it comes in. I was also rather a little loud when I told him how Burt’s Bees lip balms are all natural and how I am a fan. But NO some people just don’t get the hint.
The biggest let down was the empty and dried out testers. I tried swatching the Nyx Soft Matte Lip Creams but nope nothing came out. The same was with Dior and Benefit and other brands there. Most of the testers had nothing in them. Finally I gave up and moved towards the brushes and tools rack. I wanted an electric eye lash curler and a couple of face makeup brushes. Again most of the stuff was not there. No sign of eye lash curlers. All I could spot was some nail filers which btw were priced around 800 bucks!
So I decided not to haul anything and was just aimlessly clicking some pics of the racks to put up here when the SAs started murmuring in hush hush voices. Then their leader (I think!) came to us and told us we can’t click photos. What?!! But beauty bloggers from around the world click photos. That is how Sephora got so famous! I tried telling her that but nope.
Here are some photos I clicked before that:
And as far as my Sephora experience goes, I was dejected. Those dreams of the candyland were shattered.
The next time I am at Select City Walk, I would be happy to totally skip Sephora and visit the new Bobbi Brown store in DLF a couple of steps away (which btw have some really well trained and friendly staff). Alright who am I kidding. I badly want some Sephora nail paints so…BUT no more enjoying sephora trips! How has been your shopping experience at Sephora Delhi?
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Oops ! That is absolutely disappointing :( I guess from here on we must walk-in with least expectations into any store ! And that point which you mentioned about people who keep following like shadow; Huhhhhhh ! That really freaks me out too Sometimes I wonder if I look like a shoplifter that they keep following me every nook and corner; even when I pretend to be on mobile :P
yeah! plus if she was following to help me den i made it totally clear i dont need any help. but no!
hey ! after reading your blog, I think it will be possible to create some sort of hype to reduce this unacceptable behavior, we do not deserve such atrocities. Ideas are either we write complaints on their fb page collectively or mails to the Indian store manager.
I had a terrible experience with their billing. they billed three times and each one was incremental! Plus staff was rude when I pointed it out. Am wondering where I can complain???
seems like sephora hasnt changed even after an year. complain on their social media
Thats bad....I have heard from a few friends about Sephora..they didnt like Sephora either...And too bad they didnt allow you to click photos...That's silly & yeah....Can't stand it when SA's follow you in and out...It's very irritating..That's y I like MAC...They help you only when you ask them & they don't follow you all the time...
i second dat. mac MUAs are always friendly
I agree with you like totallyyyyyyyyyy!! They never have anything in stock, especially NYX! And the SAs are not at all friendly, when asked if these products would ever be in stock, their response is - Ya maybe.. sometime.. I mean really???
Agreed with the testers part too, they are always empty and dried out..
yeah i could count dc nyx stuff on my fingers! no round lippies..no blushes..nothing
Oh wow..ive been there 4-5times and never been bothered by the SAs barring one time where one of them just wanted to point out i could get the soap and glory stuff in bigger sizes. But i totally agree on the lack of testers. They didnt even let me touch the Sephora Kabuki as they have any testers :(
Didnt* have
oh n btw i cant even find their fb page nemre to complain abt it :p
let me go find dat fb page :P
I can totally feel you. It is all a fad.
btw, Bobbi brown is in Select itself (right next to Chanel) and not dlf.
oh thanks for letting me know..i thought i read its in dlf
oh thats bad! i've thankfully have good experiences with them so far, but yes hatee the testers!!! ive been a lot of times n by now kindof know what i want frm reviews n only go to by that so i just get what i want n thats it !
yup..u cant test d new stuff. thrz tons of benefit stuff i want to test on my skin but cant!
That's a very disappointing experience. I think most stores in India have to stop training their sales people to act like store monitors and to be accomodating ofa the customer. Even i don't understand why photographs are not allowed? What, like are we going to steal the product by clicking a picture of it? Like eyeliner is going to ooze out through a photograph?
Seems like Sephora needs to buck up
exactly. plus its free publicity dammit! who wouldn't want dat
ohh..thats sad
yeah
This is sad! And I agree, SAs in India really scare me, they seem to follow me everywhere spoling my shopping experience :O
But beautiful photos :) Those ducks looks adorable :D What are they???
dey r soap and glory mascots
Not clicking pictures is one thing I don't get these days, specially when such stores come forward and stop us doing that. I also don't get the reason behind it? are we gonna bomb them, make duplicates of the products (it's already being duplicated honey), or make them popular or unpopular - that you are going to be anyway! And about the empty products and SAs - I get so nervous and irritated when an SA comes around and keeps looking at you like you will just buy the whole store and if you won't they'd give you a nice bash.
My first visit to the store was good because I wanted Sephora in my city and wanted to feel what other bloggers and vloggers already experienced. But I must say that it was not up to the par but I was happy to visit the store.
<3