Happy Sunday, Beautiful Blossoms! This week’s TRE is more of a rant than a raised eyebrow – a rant that has been brought up time and time again but clearly ignored by the recipient. Why would they? The complaints haven’t stopped people from going to their stores and buying makeup.

Any time I step into a Sephora, it’s always swamped. Rarely is it ever close to empty unless it’s near closing time or because a blizzard decided to pay a visit here in NYC (I actually went to my nearby Sephora a day after it hit and it was enjoyable). But yesterday wasn’t the case and I was wearing my camera bag to do a livestream in Macy’s Herald Square (more on this on Wednesday’s vlog) and I could swear that every time I heard someone say “excuse me” I was getting a verbal side-eye for it too.

Geez – I went to the gym before finding out I couldn’t go to Herald Square because the Q was out and I was packing my livestream gear. With that being said, let’s get to what caused Sephora to be the TRE topic this week.

I actually went on a makeup and skincare binge even though I told my sister (she went with me to the gym and to Sephora because she wants to experiment but she gets anxiety walking into one of the stores) that I was only going to go there to get a Smashbox BB Cream replacement (I was almost out of one shade that was darker than my complexion but I wanted to make the most out of it). That was all I had a budget for.

Until I got a windfall. Let’s just say the amount was enough for me to do a haul and eat sushi with the sis. But the more I thought about it, the more I didn’t want the Smashbox BB Cream anymore because it was just tinted sunscreen. All of a sudden, I wasn’t so keen on paying $39 for a tinted sunscreen. Instead, I got me another Urban Decay Spectrum Palette (yep. I’m willing to shell out $55 for an eyeshadow palette that I already have. But it’s LIMITED EDITION THO and I love the shades), Clinique goodies, a Kat Von D ELL, makeup shampoo, and NARS Velvet Lip Crayon in Cruella (I did say just how much I love the damn thing last Friday XD).

So off to the counter I went before I ended up splurging more than I should (I couldn’t find anything more that I wanted to get but I knew I could buy it impulsively – the Sephora effect got me good) and I checked the minis lining up to the registers. I couldn’t find anything I wanted to take a chance on, so off to the register it was.

When I gave the sales lady my VIB Rouge card, she congratulated me on making Rouge level again. I was like, “whaaaa?” I was under the impression that I was set to be Rouge until next year considering how much money I blew at Sephora in the course of 27 days (yep. I spent $1000 in Sephora in 3 weeks – I didn’t even know until I checked with Sephora to see what was going on with my VIB Rouge shit).

But because I made it to Rouge again, I get a VIB Rouge welcome product – the Marc Jacobs Le Marc Lip Creme in So Rouge. Considering that you have to spend $1000 in a calendar year to make it to Rouge level, you’d think that You’d get a really spankin’ cosmetic product as Sephora’s way of thanking you for blowing that much moolah to them.

All I got was a big box, a congratulatory card, and this:

And yes, I know I said I was gonna post ALL images in my Instagram. But I realized that if I did, my followers there will start going WTF because there is no context behind the post pics. Plus, these images weren’t taken with my Pentax so the file size shouldn’t be THAT bad.

But yeah. You can see my ire regarding the VIB Rouge welcome kit. They did the same with the NARS Blush in Goule – sample-sized product as a reward for spending $1000 in the store. It’s an outright insult but despite all the complaints that makeup aficionados have made regarding the VIB Rouge rewards system, Sephora isn’t gonna bother doing an overhaul because the complaints haven’t stopped people from going to their stores and shopping.

Let’s face it: drugstore makeup shopping ain’t exactly thrilling or exciting. And not everyone has access to an Ulta (I have to drive out to Long Island for the good one and even then, it was eh). Sephora’s pretty much dominated the Manhattan scene and branched out to the other boroughs.

I do wish enough of us Rougies would band together and show that we are not gonna blow $1000 in Sephora until they fix this shit. Because if we can do that damage to our bank accounts, do they really think that getting a sample-sized Marc Jacobs will make us happy when we can get the full-sized one anytime?

And this is why I’m going to go to Macy’s Herald Square. They got most of the stuff that Sephora sells in a giant floor anyway.

Next week: Kylie Jenner releases an eyeshadow line for Estee Lauder and it will be a Sephora exclusive! I guess Estee wants a head start on the younger generation, but will having a line curated by Kylie be enough to shed its your-moms-makeup image?