Hey all,
Hope you guys are loving the giveaways on the Rati Beauty app these days. Incidentally, if you love the next upcoming giveaway on the app (can you guess the brand?), you have to thank me because it was I who decided and shopped for you at Selfridges, London 😛 And oh, the next giveaway also after that. 😛 😛
So as the official giveaway planner of RB, I have only 2-3 criteria for selecting giveaway products – that the products should be good, should be cute (if possible), and should not be easy to lay hands on.
So, for the Huda Beauty Giveaway, biwi was very sure that she wanted to give the Rose Gold Palette. At Selfridges Huda Beauty counter, the Rose Gold Palette was out of stock, but we found the cute lip sets, so we bought them. Next day, we went to Harrods and the Huda Beauty counter there also did not have the Rose Gold Palette. But a shop assistant at Huda counter told us that they were getting 10 Rose Gold palettes the next day at 11:00 am and that many women had already reserved them. They asked if we also wanted to reserve, and I said no. Ham Indians hain, line mein lagne ka concept nahin hai hamare yahan. 😛 So the next day, we just rushed to Harrods around 10:45 and bought two Rose Gold Palettes. The first giveaway was set. 🙂
The Fenty Beauty shopping became a bit sour. While we were still checking out the products, the SA at the Fenty counter at Harvey Nichols left us after five minutes and started handling other customers, thinking that we would not buy anything. So, we asked for help from another SA. And when this girl started putting one thing after another on the counter, the earlier SA came back and started fighting with this nice girl helping us that we were her customers. Even when we enquired about the samples, the former SA had denied, but when we saw some mini sample lipsticks near the payment counter, she gave us one reluctantly. This experience left a very bad taste in our mouths 🙁 We would prefer to shop Fenty at Sephora Paris instead. Oh by the way, biwi forgot to buy Stunna lip paint in all this hubbub. I reminded her to buy two of them for you guys. 😛
So, if you want to stay in London for shopping, the best area to stay is Soho. It’s really buzzing with life all the time, even till 4:00 am. Two great places to shop – Oxford Street (where Selfridges is located) and Covent Garden, are just at walking distance from this place. Around Soho area too, there are amazing stand-alone stores such as Urban Decay etc. And if you don’t want to shop, but enjoy London, specially stay in Soho. 🙂
Many of you saw Rati’s Blue eye makeup look yesterday. That blue eyeshadow that Rati used (RB App users know the name) has another story – Rati was shopping at Tom Ford’s store in Harvey Nichols. They had some new metallic eyeshadows. So biwi was ignoring my ‘sab khareed lo’ funda and picking and choosing from these; I didn’t mind actually. It was good that she bought what she would use. Then suddenly one blue metallic eyeshadow tester caught my eye because it was a really striking color. I told Rati, “biwi ye khareed lo.” Biwi says mere paas bohot blue hain. That’s when I told her, “I know all the blues you have, but ye nahin hai.” So, biwi took a look and she also liked. The eyeshadow was Tom Ford Tempete Bleu. And then the SA said, oh sorry it is out of stock. I said ‘Koi na, Harrods se le lenge.’ (Harrods and Harvey Nichols are close by). Then we went to Harrods, which has two Tom Ford counters. Tempete Bleu was out of stock in both of them. Now, I was curious. Next day, when we tried getting it at Selfridges, it was again out of stock. We went to Tom Ford Covent Garden stand alone store. Out of stock there also. I was so mad, I said ‘biwi tester utha leta hoon.’ Biwi was shocked at me and we left. So the current eyeshadow, which Rati used yesterday, was the closest dupe to Tom ford Tempete Bleu we could find. Hope you liked the color!
One thing I really regret not buying is the cute mini lipsticks set by MAC for you guys when we had the time. We went to Paris in December and I saw it. I thought about buying it as a giveaway gift, but then I forgot. This time, when we went, I searched it everywhere but it was gone. It was part of MAC Christmas collection it seems.
So another cute incident comes from MAC itself. When we decided to launch the app last year, I had decided that I would get everything swatched on the app. So the first brand I thought that we should have was MAC. So I told my IMBB team before going to Paris, “MAC mein jo bhi Rati ke paas nahin hai uski list bana do.” So, I got one shocker of a list with loads of pages and we entered the MAC store on Champs Elysees. The first thing I always do when biwi is shopping is to find a place to sit. This time, I took a makeup chair and sat down. Biwi hates my kind of technical shopping so she was just roaming around looking at things. The SAs were busy chatting in French. Then one happy SA came to me and asked me if I needed anything. I silently handed her the list and pointed to Rati. And I said ‘one of each’ (I really love to say this you know). After 15 minutes, there was so much hush amongst the SAs – they were loading one basket, then two baskets, and then three baskets full of makeup!!! I am sure many other SAs were thinking why THEY didn’t ask us first. Well, I am sure they would have jumped at every Indian who walked into the store for the next 2-3 days. 🙂 😛
Incidentally, if you ever want to find shades at MAC, it’s better to shop at a MAC Pro Store. You would get most of the things there, some of them are not even available at normal MAC stores. MAC Pro store in London is in Covent Garden and in Paris is at 76 bis Rue des Saints-Pères. Rati got a lot of colorful eyeshadows from Paris, one among them which she hadn’t even seen earlier. 🙂
Incidentally, if you are a professional makeup artist and visiting Paris, do not forget to visit stores such as Paris Berlin and Plein Fard, mainly if you are looking for pigments. 🙂
And my biwi going gaga over the Viseart Grande Pro palette? Andar ki baat to ye hai ki Biwi was not even willing to buy Viseart at first at Selfridges. I persisted ki nahin ek to le lo, app par nahin hai. Then she bought 2-3 different palettes. And now she can’t even let go of the Grande Pro palette. aisa husband and wife dekhe hain kahin? Husband is saying ki “khareed lo” and biwi is saying ki “nahin.” 😛
Till next time folks, will be back with more such “behind the scene” stories to give you an idea of how much planning and effort goes behind each makeup giveaway. Hope you all are enjoying Rati Beauty app. Major changes are coming soon in the app this month – bookmarking option and other such interesting features 🙂 Hope they make your experience even better. 🙂
