livin' it up

[swingchickie]

so, anyone who's been reading my LJ for a while can figure out that i'm a retail whore about a few things: shoes (on sale)... shiny things (sometimes on sale)... and makeup-y stuff (which never seems to be on sale). so, a couple of months ago (actually, the day i met D), i went to a new level on my personal retail-whore-meter... i bought a jar of creme de la mer.

if you read beauty magazines at all, you've heard of creme de la mer... a super-expensive moisturizer that a gaggle of celebrities swear by. according to the legend, it was created a while ago by a NASA scientist... some experiment went wrong and exploded in his face, and he was badly burned and scarred... nothing he tried was working... so he used his scientific knowledge to take extracts of sea kelp and other stuff and make it into a cream that would restore his skin to working order. he died a few years ago, and one of the big makeup companies bought the rights to the stuff, and the rest is marketing history.

so anyway, a couple of months ago i had my tax return burning a hole in my pocket, and decided to splurge on a jar of creme de la mer. my skin's been less-than-great over the last year or so, so i figured i'd see if it could do anything to help. and i was fully prepared to be disappointed, despite the price tag... a teeny jar of this stuff, about the size of a shot glass, was $115. but i have to say, within a week, my skin really was better. my red cheeks were evened out, the dark circles under my eyes were fading, and my skin literally glowed. co-workers were asking me what i was doing different, customers told me i looked radiant. damn, i now had a $600-a-year addiction.

another interesting thing happened as a side effect of buying this cream: i started getting treated like i had money. catalogs from designers started arriving in the mail... i was getting invites to trunk shows at bloomingdales... and the girl at the creme de la mer counter actually sent me a hand-written thank-you card. *grin* then last week, i got an invitation to a private sale at the counter... and i could get a gift with purchase. *drool* so today, i brought 2 girlfriends from work to bloomie's to check it out. but from the moment i stepped through the door, i was completely out of my league... the women that were in the store today, were there to SHOP. i was in awe. women were plunking their charges down for piles of jewelry, designer shoes, kate spade handbags... i even overheard a girl who had to be all of 14 say to a girlfriend, "ooh, this is only $182!!!" eek. suddenly i wanted to run for the nearest Tar-zhay, where i belonged. but i was brave, i headed to the la mer counter to check things out. i tried a new product i had heard about, this serum that you put on before the cream to firm your skin... but good lord, it was, as the salesgirl put it, "only $220". my courage zapped, i bought another jar of the cream i already use and got my gift with purchase, a trial set of all their major stuff (so i can get hooked on what will turn into $1000/month of products).

can't wait to see what new designer catalogs i'll start getting again in a few weeks.

Comments

[shanabanana.livejournal.com]

"...NASA scientist..."

*bristles*

This is like when advertisers use the phrase, "space age technology." Well, except they look even weirder because the "space age" was about 40 years ago.

[shanabanana.livejournal.com]

Um, I should clarify. I get annoyed when marketers evoke random references just because they sound good. So what if a physicist made a face cream in the 60's? Wouldn't it be more impressive if it was a chemist? Wouldn't it be more impressive if it had been proven to improve skin?

I'm really skeptical about the cosmetics industry, especially in the potions and lotions section. I've read numerous places that the $40/bottle makeup remover is about 95% witch hazel...$4/bottle at your local drug store.

I'm sure your fabulousness has more to do with you than the creme. Not that it's a problem to buy it, I just think that using NASA to sell a face cream is a bit silly.

[swingchickie.livejournal.com]

i know, and i agree. one of my customers spent part of his medical residency as a chemist for estee lauder, and he's told me all sorts of stories about how they make creams and makeup and such, and what a rip-off a lot of department store products are. what i can't argue with is that my skin really does look and feel better... and literally, i have tried a good chunk of what's on the market, both drugstore and department store. the NASA thing doesn't really mean squat to me, i think it's a hoot... they could tell me it was distilled from cat poo, and i'd still buy it. that's how different this is from other stuff i've tried...