How was your weekend? My weekend was fabulous! =) I attended my company's holiday party at La Primavera in Vaughan on Saturday and then bright and early Sunday morning I went to the Estée Lauder Companies warehouse sale which is usually known as the MAC warehouse sale. =)
Sadly it is invitation only but luckily for me I got some last minute invitations. =) I really wanted to go to the warehouse sales they have, which is four times per year, but I don't know anyone and I don't want to buy invitations. =P
It was located at Markham Fairgrounds which is inaccessible by public transportation but luckily I got a ride. =) We went bright and early and got there around 8:30AM and by that time there was already a line-up.
 |
| The waiting room also had a snack bar and seating |
This was the line up at 8:41AM...not the greatest picture of the line but I wanted a picture of the entrance. =P It was set up as a snake line but only had about six to seven bends...
This is the line-up by 8:53AM and the sale started at 9:00AM. It already surpassed the snake set up.
And this is the line by 8:59AM. It surpassed the entrance to the line-up so people were lining up in the rain sadly... Not the greatest set-up. The snake could've been a lot longer. And these are the only pictures taken at the sale by my cellphone - I got too excited inside and totally forgot to take pictures. =(
This is the stash I bought. I'm not going to show everything because I did buy a couple gifts. =P But in total I spent less than $100 CAD. =)
First two items I picked up are the MAC Lipmixes in 'Fuchsia' and 'Burgundy'. =) It was $15 CAD but BOGO free so really only $7.50 CAD each.
Then from the $4 bins, I picked up two pairs of MAC lashes in '35' and '42'. Even at $4, I think they're still pricey because I can get 10 pairs for $1 from Asia. =P They had two other choices in the bins and they were mostly those two, a sort of half lash for the outer corners and a very dense and short style.
Next thing I got was what I wanted and hoped for. =) The Bobbi Brown creamy concealer kit that comes with concealer, loose powder, and a puff. At only $12 CAD, I was SUPER PSYCHED. This is the old packaging and formula and I'm excited I get a chance to try the old one seeing as I can't get it in stores anymore and I've heard so many good things about it. I got it in 'Beige' and they only had three shades available: 'Beige', 'Warm Beige', and 'Porcelain'. I almost missed these because they were on the eyeshadow tables and not the concealer table... Luckily my friend showed me hers and I was like, "WHERE DID YOU FIND THAT?!! BRING ME THERE!!!". ;)
Onto charity bags! Which are random loot bags you can get after paying for your purchases and they're for charity hence the name. If you ever attend one of these sales, remember to bring cash, because I think the charity bags are cash only. They're $5 CAD each and contains three items in each. I think some actually had four items but the ones I got all had three items. I purchased four and the man handed me a pre-made package and I thought, "Oh yay, it's packaged so...they made sure there are different things inside..." Was I ever wrong, I got two of the same sets of stuff and I was majorly cheesed because they were all eye stuff but I wanted more lip stuff and my sister got the individual packs and they were all lip stuff. *sighs* But whatever, it was $5 so it was a MAJOR steal. =) N.B. Not all four were for me though, I kept three. ;)
I got two MAC eyeshadow duos in 'Double Feature 1' and 'Double Feature 4'.
I also got two MAC Pro Longlash in 'Pitchblack' but I gave one to my sister. And I got a MAC Glamglass in 'Check This Out', the only lip product I got in the charity bags.
I got two Mineralize eye shadow in 'Sea & Sky' but I swapped one for something else and two eye shadow pans in 'Prussian'. I'm debating whether to keep one or give them both away.
And lastly, when you exit, you can trade in your invitation for a gift which was a MAC nail lacquer in 'Nocturnelle'.
So about the warehouse sale... It's actually in barns...huge barns and there were four of them attached. There was the waiting, line-up area and when you enter, there are three rooms to go through so don't get caught up in the first room. You also get handed a transparent plastic bag when you enter which acts as your shopping cart.
Most of the make-up have samples taped to tables in the middle of the warehouse with numbers next to them and you have to write the numbers down on little pieces of paper and hand them to the people set up there in order for them to get you brand new products and bag them. Everything you buy will be put into little plastic bags, sealed, and have the prices written on them. It's a waste of bags but it works for security reasons. The tables are set up by prices and usually by type of product but not necessarily.
Along the perimeter of the warehouse there are tables set up with people directly there to bag items you point at. These are mainly gift sets, fragrances, skin care, hair care, and even make up bags.
In the last room, there is a small section where there are $4 bins that you have to line up for and then get moved a long like a herd of sheep because some people stall at the lash bins because it's assorted so you have to dig. There weren't too many goodies in the $4 bins, maybe because it was the last day...but I was not impressed.
Before you check out, there is a returns table where you can settle yourself and sort through your things before purchasing them. They have signs all over the warehouses that say you cannot sort stuff on the floor. You can tell them what you don't want and they can re-bag the things you want and re-write the prices.
These are all the bags I went through for my purchases sadly. The only good thing is that the people there were fast and they had professional sealing machines that worked efficiently. =)
If I have the chance, I would go again, but I don't know if I would go all the way as to go and buy invitations in order to attend. I'm not a MAC junkie and most of the make-up there were MAC but the prices are cheaper than the CCOs in the U.S.
Have you ever been to a warehouse sale? How did you like it? Leave a comment!
Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment