Tuesday 7 May 2013

Debenhams VIP Personal Shopping Experience

I wanted to post about something a little bit different today. This might be a long one and I didn't think till afterwards that I should have taken pictures, so sorry for the lack of them! My mum had got a voucher for a VIP personal shopping experience with some money to spend on a gift card as a retirement present from work. She wanted someone to go with her as she isn't the best shopper and wasn't sure what to expect, so today off we toddled to White Rose to see what it was all about.

First things first, we wondered over to the personal shopper area where we were greeted by Jacqui who was looking after us. She sat us in a little room with a sofa, brought us a couple of drinks (tea, coffee, wine...etc) and asked my mum a few questions about what she wanted. She then disappeared for about 45 minutes to pick some clothes, leaving us sitting feeling a little bored and forgotten about.

She returned with a rail of things for my mum to try, some of which were pretty awful to be honest and not really suitable for what she was wanting, but she tried plenty on and managed to find a few nice bits while Jacqui hovered around offering opinions and fetching other bits. She was pretty helpful but I didn't get a good vibe from her and she made a couple of fairly rude comments at the end to do with my mums choice of clothes which I found pretty awful considering her job was to make you feel good about yourself! I have to say if it were me I probably would have said something to her, but my mum isn't the type of person who would. I don't know whether she was put off because I was there and she felt like she couldn't get involved or what, but I wasn't impressed with her. 

My mum was pretty happy with her new clothes though, so we headed off to the next part of the experience, a beauty consultation. My mum was kind enough to let me have this one as she wasn't really fussed so I chose Benefit (MAC were going to charge £30 for it!). I was greeted by a lovely Benebabe who unfortunately wasn't wearing a name tag so I don't know her name, but I ended up having a good chat with her and found we even had some mutual friends! She talked me through the steps as she did my make-up. 
This was the finished look (excuse the puffy tired eyes!) I'll list the products used below:
Base: POREfessional
Foundation: Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow in Believe in me Ivory
Concealer: Fake Up Light (I was disappointed with this, I expected it to be better than my Collection one at hiding my dark circles but it wasn't!)
Blusher: Hervana (Amazing!)
Highlighter: Watt's Up (Also amazing!)
Eyeliner: Magic Ink
Eye shadow: Longwear Powder Shadow in Nude Swings, Gilt-y Pleasure and Kiss Me I'm Tipsy
Brows: Browzings Medium
Mascara: They're Real 
Lips: Dandelion Ultra Plush Lip Gloss

Overall although I wasn't impressed with the concealer and the brows are a little much, I loved the blush and highlighter and was tempted to get them, although I had just taken my car for some new tires so couldn't bring myself to get them too! The girls there were fantastic and I picked up some good tips! I can't recommend them enough, I loved having my make-up done by them and they were all so friendly and chatty.

Once I had my make-up done and we'd been for a wonder round the rest of the shops, we headed of for the last part of the experience, free drinks and cake in the cafe! This was just what we needed after shopping and the cakes were amazing!

Just a quick couple of pics of the other bits I bought!
Sandals £3.50, dress £13, Primark. I love this dress, its such a nice print and really flattering on, but how cute are those sandals! I love lilac and they were such a bargain!
Maybelline Mega Plush Mascara (£5.99 on offer) Polka Dot Color Show Polishes in Shooting Stars and Speckled Pink (£2.99 each buy one get one half price at Boots) and my little freebie foundation sample. I wanted to try the new mascara and have been looking for these gorgeous polishes so couldn't resist picking them up! I have Speckled Pink on now and its so pretty!

Overall, a lovely day! I'm not sure I would recommend the personal shopper just for the sake of going but as a present, with a gift card, the whole experience was really good. Perhaps if we'd had someone else it would have been better but I really enjoyed the whole day and my mum did too! 

Have you ever used a personal shopper? 


2 comments:

  1. I've always wanted to do this, I love Debenhams but hmm... I was hoping for more xx

    http://beautyqueenuk.blogspot.co.uk/

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  2. GlitterandGloss7 May 2013 at 20:36

    I know, I mean don't get me wrong we have a really good day and she did come away with what she wanted but I really didn't like the woman and it was awful for her to comment on what my mum had chosen, I mean you do go to get some help with your choices but you shouldn't be made to feel bad if you don't pick what they think you should! I don't think I'd personally go again but its a lovely idea and a nice treat x

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