Things I Learned While Visiting the Motherland

My weekend back home was great. I was visited a few family members and made my rounds to the local beauty supply stores. I never thought I would miss either one as much as I did... Especially the BSS. Lol! Here are few tidbits I thought I should pass along.

1. While the King of Prussia Mall may be great for beauty lovers it is not for those with weak hearts. If you can overcome the moments that you clutch your chest from sticker shock (like the time I was about to tackle 8 y/o Boy Brown for touching a $995 pair of Gucci studded booties), there are some great beauty brands to found. The Sephora is lovely. My local Sephora only carries bits and pieces of some or the higher end brands. I almost broke my neck to get to the Guerlain display.They were having some type of back to school event complete with a D.J. and all. I also saw La Prairie and Sisley of Paris in person for the first time at Neiman Marcus. Yeah... Umm.. Nothing to add about those two.

The infamous Calvin Klein line.

I have never seen a full Korres display. I was impressed. Yeah. I'm easily amused.

2. Apparently salivating over displays is fine but taking pictures is a class A felony. The s.a. at C.O. Bigelow promptly shutdown my impromptu photo shoot of the Kevyn Aucoin display table. She told me that I could take all the pics I wanted of their brand but other brands were a no-no. I have absolutely no knowledge (read as "no interest") of C.O. Bigelow products so I made tracks.

I was about to bust a skinny chick's chops to get this pic! J/K! lol!

3. Despite the popular opinion of the attitude of MAC MUAs, they still wear some of the best faces in the business. The MUAs at KoP were doing the damn thing ya'll! Flawless, perfectly blended makeup on EACH AND EVERY ONE! Not an orange face or cakey finish in the joint ya'll! I was awe struck! Unbelievably enough, I wasn't even trying to pick out which one was in drag. (Don't front like I'm not the only one! I know I'm not the only one that plays "pick out the dude" when inside MAC) I was tempted to whip out my Studio Fix until the mua told me she had on almost 30 products! WTH?!?! I wanted to ask her where else she wearing makeup because I know that the human skull isn't strong enough to wear that much product without getting a depression fracture. But I did see an a Cult of Cherry look that I need to dupe. One of the mua's was wearing the Russian Red look from the Cult of Cherry collex. I was soooo not impressed by this collex until I saw this on her. I am determined to dupe this look without buying the Spiced Chocolate Quad. I bought Momma Brown her first MAC. I got her Lovechild lipglass and a Blot Powder compact. Momma Brown hasn't worn makeup since she ran out of her last tube of Posner Plum Sizzle lipstick in '89 so this was a big deal.

I take pics like a 4 y/o but ya'll see what I mean.

Momma Brown wearing her new goodies. And wondering WTH I'm up to.

4. The CCO at Franklin Mills is the best dang CCO that I have ever been to (a total of 4). I am willing to put money on my beloved hometown CCO. I was going to attempt to give you a rundown on the goodies that they had but my memory is so not that good. There was a tonne of MAC (I had to go metric because "ton" doesn't have a enough letters to do justice). There were about 20 pigments, 70 shadows, 30 lipglasses and 20 Lipsticks. Almost all the the foundations shades were available in one formula or another. The Bobbi Brown stuff was on and poppin'! Bobbi doesn't even do it for me but I caught myself eyeballing the Midnight Metallics trio. But at $32 I was easily able to keep it moving. I know that is approximately $11 a shadow but I was trying to stick to a budget.

All in all... I had a good time back in the Illadelph but I am so happy to be back in slow, boring, safe and quiet Connecticut. Going back home gave me a new appreciation for the vanilla that is my new home. I may not be able to buy a respectable wig, good oxtails, or raw shea butter from the street vendor that is also selling oils, purses, shades, dresses, scarves, belts and bootleg DVDs on the same table... My kids can play outside without me worrying half to death, I can leave my car running when I run in to pay for gas and I have don't have to put a whole lot of effort in being the most fab momma in the grocery store. Lol!

B.B.