Previously on Currently Obsessed:
I took a bus to Kings Plaza (I debated whether to name the shopping center or not out of safety reasons, but I didn’t wanna keep saying “shopping center” over and over) to check out Kiko Milano, a relatively unknown cosmetic company in the US but a cult favorite in Europe. My journey was kicked off by my search for a lip exfoliator in a tube, which Kiko sells.
Fortunately for me, they had set up shop in KP (Kings Plaza) so I was able to check out the lip exfoliator in person rather than take a chance online. As soon as I got off the bus, the one question I had in mind: would Kiko Milano be able to dethrone Sephora?
I’ll admit: I’m a Sephora VIB Rouge. I had no intention of spending $1000 in the frickin’ store. Believe me. But it HAPPENED. I found makeup items in Sephora that I liked and just had to have, and with a full-time job and steady income, I could finally buy the things I longed for.
So I did. And blazed my way into VIB Rouge in the course of 3 months. Sephora got me good. But would Kiko be able to nab me the same way? MAC couldn’t do it. bareMinerals couldn’t do it. Ulta tried but couldn’t do it (they are situated in the suburbs more… at least, the better ones. I’m based in NYC). Would Kiko Milano be the one to break me from Sephora’s grasp?
If you’re wondering how come I never took pictures of the store, it’s because KP does not allow photography to be taken inside the mall. Yes, smartphones have cameras in them but I don’t want to be banned from the nearest Kiko Milano store, so you’ll have to rely on Google Images. The layout is actually consistent in all Kiko Milano stores – I went to the Kings Plaza and the Queens Center Mall to see if there was any difference.
Nope. Both stores were designed with the same layout.
Kiko had big posters that advertised their 50% off sale, but it didn’t draw people in. In fact, the place was empty. Until I walked in and started perusing what they have. The first thing that drew me in were the Luscious Cream Lipsticks – they were on sale for $3.90 and the color range was from nudes to pinks to purples.
$3.90 for a lipstick. I was sold already! Right then and there, I decided that I was never going back to Sephora for lip stuff… especially the Nars Lip Pencils in Cruella. Ungh… dat shade!
There were testers available for each Shade Number, but I had read an article that said makeup testers were choc full of germs and feces. FECES. Who the hell forgoes handwashing when they use the frickin’ bathroom before touching these things? ಠ_à²
I picked out Kiko’s Luscious Cream 510 because it was a shade that I fancied. I only took 3 because I wasn’t sure if my lips were gonna have an allergic reaction to it.
I also got Shade 514 for free because the store was doing a Buy 3 get 1 free promo at the time.
I also saw the Lip Exfoliators that were advertised on Kiko’s site for $12.00. I took 3 with the mindset that I was already there and I wasn’t sure how long Kiko was going to last.
So I made my blind purchase and went home, unsure of what to expect. Part of me wondered if I was gonna be lucky or if I was going to be proven reckless in my purchase. I didn’t even know how my lips were going to react to these things for cryin’ out loud!
I decided to put the lip scrub to the test, since it was the main reason why I even bothered to check out Kiko in the first place. Having never used a lip exfoliator in a tube before, I decided to read the instructions. The one thing that stood out to me was “do not swallow.”
Geez, I wonder what kind of chemicals are in this thing then, I thought to myself. But I was past the point of no return, so scrub-a-dub-dub I went on my lips like the box told me to do. And bam!
My lips were shedding dead skin. Yep. Dead, dry, cracked skin. I tried to wipe them off with a tissue but the soft approach didn’t work, so I had to help the exfoliator do the dirty work by peeling the skin off my lips with my fingers. I’ll let that sink in for a moment.
But the process couldn’t have predicted the results: baby-butt soft skin. I’ve never, EVER felt my lips like that in my life until I finished using the Kiko Milano Lip Exfoliator. I applied my Burt’s Bees Mango Lip Balm and gone were the old grooves that my Mars-esque lips used to make on its surface. All my lips left on the balm was a smooth, polished look.
If the Lip Exfoliator was that DAMN good on my lips, I could only wonder how the Luscious Lipsticks were gonna be like.
Which meant another trip to Kiko Milano.
blossombeautifulaesthetics.com 