Bye-Bye Baggies

Bloomies at 57th and Lex just gave their cosmetics department a face-lift, and this gave me the perfect excuse to run over there and pick-up one of life’s little necessities. To be honest, if I hadn’t read incessantly about Bloomingdale’s cosmetic’s department’s rehab in the NYTimes, I probably wouldn’t have noticed; I tend to be a bit myopic and focused on what I’m doing. I do remember when I was at the Clinique counter a few weeks back I was trying to make my normal cut through to 59th Street and the passage I took was completely closed and I got lost on the main floor of Bloomies: construction was going on!

According to the NYTimes, Bloomies cosmetics had an extreme make-over that’s been in the works for the last 11 years, and gives the area a more spacious, welcoming feel with more helpful, less intrusive salespeople. Hmmm…I’ll let you know….

conveniently purse sized

I was there because I was dangerously low on one of my make-up essentials, my YSL Touche Éclat. Commonly called a concealer, I knew and believed what YSL claims: Touch Éclat is 8 hours of sleep in a pen. I have migraines. I don’t sleep well. I have brown spots that no laser or dermatolgist’s cream has been able to erase. I need serious concealer. And Touch Éclat provides serious coverage.

I was turned on to this sweet little beauty secret about 10 years ago by good friend C in Paris, who had just finished attending cosmetics school in Paris…was this a good friend to have or what! This was her great discovery, and she dragged us all down to Printemps, and we were in this fab Paris luxe department store and with C’s help we experimented and discovered our perfect shade and went home with Parisian beauty in our bag. On subsequent visits back to the US, I discovered that Touche Éclat was available in the States, but not in all 4 shades; however, now all shades are available in the US.

My perfect shade is 2. I wear it alone, I just dab it on with the little built-in paintbrush, and sometimes finger-blend it in. I brush my bronzer right on top of the spot on my cheek where I use it to cover a stubborn brown-spot. Touche Éclat has been a regular in a lot of beauty magazines’ “recommended by the experts” lists, and was  recommended by InStyle Best Beauty Buy 2009  and is featured in More November 2009.

At $40 per pen-sized tube, it sounds expensive, but its worth the price. 1 tube lasts about 1 year for me. It doesn’t dry out, it covers well, and is easy to use, convenient to carry, and doesn’t require a separate brush or need to be carried in a clear baggie for air travel. Earlier this year the NYTimes had an article on drug-store replacements for expensive brands, and I checked out their recommendation for a $9 concealer, and I wasn’t happy with the results. In the trash: a wasted $9.

So how can we save a little $$$ on a pricey item? Yesterday, my YSL salesrep Maggie introduced me to their new Touche Éclat VIP card. Buy 7, get 1 free. So I bought 2: 1 for my bathroom, 1 for my purse. That should last me about 18 months. Only 5 more years to go. I’ll probably lose the VIP card by then.

On the other side, Maggie did load up my little brown bag with a slew of YSL samples: gotta love the freebies. Thanks Maggie!

little brown bag freebies

And when I looked around, what did I notice at the Bloomies redux? First of all, no customers: more salereps than clients. Second, the aisles were wider. Thirdly, everthing seemed black and white and shiny: hi-tech. Fourth: lots of video monitors mounted on the walls displaying product. Fifth:  I had to wander around until I found the YSL counter, even with lots of people to direct me.

Better? I don’t know. Different? Definitely. Check it out for yourself. Girls trip to NYC, anyone? She’s Shopping Now!