This is a pretty late entry (I will try to blog more promptly in future), but back in early Sep, 5th of September to be exact, I accompanied a friend with Sephora’s White Card (VIP member card) and went down for Sephora’s new store launch at Suntec City Mall. 🙂

I’ll let the photos do the talking and end off with a review of Sephora’s Suntec City Mall outlet launch event, also named “Beauty Night Out”. If you’ve read a post I wrote previously on “My Business Ideas“, in it I wrote that I’d love to have a beauty (makeup and skincare line) some day, so attending these events are not only great for my current job networking but also research for the future, heh. 🙂

Ahh.. It is a hair accessories and styling brand from Australia. For more about them, check out their website http://www.ladyjayne.com.au/. They have a SG Facebook page here.

Because I think you’d appreciate me sharing with you images of Ciate Caviar Manicure and chalkboard polishes, in case you have not seen them before!:

You can buy it on Amazon here at USD$25. (You’re most welcome.)

You can get the white one here and black one here, on Amazon.

Those cute little black ribbons just kills it doesn’t it? Makes these cute little bottles so charming!  I am a sucker for ribbons, totally.

My thoughts:

The Good

It’s always nice to start off with what was good, or great. I thought the free makeovers and nail booths were very generous indeed. I liked that the venue was spacious while still feeling cosy and the handful of local celebs and another handful of famous/semi-famous (depends on how you look at it, if you know them they’re famous but if you don’t then they are not) bloggers like LadyIronChef and Melody Yap and many more makes one feel good to hobb nobb with an exclusive crowd. I also had my star moment, meeting Oon Shu Ann of Tried and Tested on Clicknetwork.tv and I wanted to take a picture with her but also shy and afraid I’d disturb her. (So unlike me, I know.) I liked the free flow of sweet bites and drinks. And the atmosphere of the event was very appropriate for an opening, understandably very enthusiastic with a host and video crew to engage the crowd’s interest throughout the night’s event. The goodie box, without a comparison, was not bad with several tester size products. I took an Urban Decay pouch and passed my colleagues the rest. I will try to review the tester products! 🙂 The photo-booth was really cute, if not for the fact that I wasn’t dressed for the occasion (I woke up that morning and forgot I had to attend the event) I would most certainly have posed gamely for it.

The Not so sure

I can’t say that I enjoyed the rousing cheer leading performance and the lead into the new store. It felt like it was a civilized version of a Lion Dance that got me very amused. I am not sure what stores usually do for openings, but I do think a local band performance with cute male and female models/talents flanking the grand opening entry will be more palatable for me.

For those of you who don’t know what a Lion Dance is, you may check and watch the above video to acquaint yourself with something quintessentially Asian, and perhaps soon to be dying traditional and cultural form of dance.

The Bad

As a VIP card holder’s invited guest, my friend (the card holder) and I were disappointed that we were given a goodie box, without a bag to bring home while we saw the media folks bring home what seemed like a very generous bag 4 times the size of what we had. As a marketer by day, it is a lesson I will learn for any brand/s I may manage now or in the future. I think VIP guests (and their friends who are likely to convert to VIP guests as well) are a big deal to any brand and they should not have to feel slighted at any event. Perhaps the organizer should take note to separate the guests and media event, so the former won’t have to feel slighted by the latter. Also, please, provide a bag for your guests so they won’t have to go to another store and be offered by the store with their bag. Which is what happened, my friend went to Royce to get chocolates and the nice store lady offered us their paper bags.

Additional Thoughts

I generally like Sephora’s clean and sleek image with a black and white colour theme so that all the pretty beauty and skincare products will stand out against their simple scheme. However at times, it can be intimidating when the space is empty (i.e. no one is around) and I will tend to want to exit as fast as I can as I don’t feel comfortable just browsing casually. I also understand that it’s Sephora’s branding policy to keep their brand element consistent, but I can’t help but feel, am I the only one that gets bored of brands that look the same every where? I much prefer H&M’s concept, to jazz things up a little with each venue, so no two shops look identical. What do you think? 🙂

Visit them at Sephora’s Suntec City Mall Address

3 Temasek Boulevard
#01-314/315/316 Suntec City Mall S038983
Opening Hours Daily: 10:00 – 22:00

You may like to visit Sephora website, FB page and their Tweets.

More about Sephora, from Insing:
With more than 750 stores worldwide, Sephora is a chain beauty product store that carries over 250 brands of items including makeup, fragrance, hair products, skin products and more. They also carry their own private label lines that feature beauty tools, travel kits, bath products, make up and much more.

This is not a Sponsored Review.

If you’re from Sephora or a beauty brand and would like to invite me to your upcoming beauty event, simply drop me your invite at enabalista@gmail.com. I look forward to your invite! 🙂

xx Ena