So.
Yet again, another 1-year (almost) wait before I actually post something new. I guess it doesn't really matter though, since this blog really just existed as an outlet for all my rants and rages.
In any case, I've decided that I want to talk about skin products for a while. Why this sudden interest in the matters of facial vanity? Not that I've never cared about how I look physically, I've just been too lazy. Yes, I will occasionally feel the urge to apply a clay mask or think of properly following the "3-steps" of skincare (cleanse, tone, moisturize, Baby!!), but it usually dies off after about a week and I'm back to just splashing my face with warm water in the shower.
Over the National Day weekend, however, I was pulled along (quite happily, may I add) by a friend to one of these "private party" events hosted by SKII at CK Tangs. The printed advertisement made it sound like a posh product launch, promising exciting goodie bags and an opportunity to experience how SKII might change our lives! *Cue frantic fanning with hand. Look up like you're about to faint, look up!*
Sadly, my friend and I lost interest within about 10 minutes. Firstly, it wasn't much of a party. No little tea cakes, not even complimentary paper cups of lukewarm, tea-flavoured water. Then there was the general lack of organisation and communication between the staff.
SKII already has a counter inside CK Tangs, but that weekend they also had a pop-up store just outside the entrance. Assuming that was where the (non-)party was, my friend and I went to announce ourselves only to be told that it was a members-only event. *GASP* How rude! We properly registered, thank you, and even received an SMS-confirmation by someone whose parents (or maybe herself, which makes it more sad) obviously wanted their child to have a classic name, but with a twist. As it turned out, we weren't the only ones that faced such elitist discrimination. A couple more eager would-be converts to the cult of SKII also turned up and were turned away, despite one of them waving the printed advertisement in the event staff's face. When we finally located the above-mentioned twisted name someone at the indoor counter, it was revealed that "Aiyah! They never update the Excel ah!!"
Fantastic work guys. Great communication NOT going on there.
In any case, my friend - I shall call her M from now on. One less word to type - and I finally managed to get our promised goodie bags and well, let's just say the most exciting sample we got was a 350ml bottle of distilled water with an SKII label on it. Well, alright. I guess I am being mean. With the water, we also got little net bag containing an 11ml bottle of cleansing oil, a 2ml tube of treatment repair C and a 0.6g sachet of Whitening Source Dermadefinition UV Lotion. I'm guessing that's just a fancy type of sunscreen, and nobody wanted to explain how Facial Treatment Repair C was different from Treatment A or B. M and I must've been terrible candidates for SKII cult membership because we were immediately ignored as soon as we received our bags. So we left the chaos and went off to investigate the other beauty counters.
Quite typical for a free goodie bag I guess, although the advertisement and hype kind of made me expect a little more. I was actually looking forward to having someone tell me how by-product from fermented Japanese rice can make my skin glow 0.001% more than usual, and let me tell you, that doesn't happen very often. Most times I just want to punch salespeople in the face as soon as they speak to me.
Would you look at that. I actually started this post with the intention of talking about Skin Food's Peach Sake Pore Serum, and I've ended up ranting again. Oh well, I suppose that can wait for the next post. This one's long enough. I'll also talk about some Kiehl's samples that M and I scored after leaving the SKII pretend "party". We even found free "Exfoliating and Relaxing!!" hand massages at Aveda! Smelled great too. Then of course, I was subjected to Skincare 101 by M. (T_T)
ANYHOW!! Until next time. Hopefully not 1 year later.
*Disclaimer: I have nothing against SKII or their products. I've never tried them, so I don't know if they'll work for me, since everyone's body chemistry is different. I'll definitely try the freebies they gave at some point, and maybe I'll talk about it. What I've written today is essentially about M's and my experience that day.
