Dior Warehouse Sale

One word: Meh.

Held at the basement carpark (B1) of Menara Milenium, Jen and I caught glimpse of it the moment we entered the parking lot in search of a spot. It was tiny. And dingy. Sort of.

I was thankful that I came prepared. I knew events like these would not allow for handbags to be brought in so I stuffed cash, IDs, credit cards and my mobile phone into my pockets and walked in. I was right.

The guard eyed us warily in search of a handbag. There was a cashier on one end of the room and then tables were fashioned into a long 'L' shape following the length and width of the room. Products on sale were mostly the regular stuff. If you're after a limited edition palette you missed out, sorry to say you'd have your hopes completely dashed.

The first few tables were Dior body products which I skipped entirely. Then it was the Dior whitening range but I was not interested. Their Prestige range was on sale as well but I'd never be able to afford it so I moved on. Lip products were really cheap.

All lip products (glosses and lipsticks) were going for RM40 each or RM70 for 2. There was only one green and one pink shade of gloss from the Diorshow gloss range. There was a green Dior Kiss gloss but I was not interested. They had some of the older Dior Addict (not Dior Addict 2) range which was not too bad. Dior Rouge was there as well. This, I can vouch that it's very cheap. Your regular Dior Kiss gloss would be RM68, Dior Rouge would be above RM80 and Dior Addict would be close to RM80.

For eye makeup, the older single shadows were on sale for RM30 each. They had quintets from previous seasons as well. One of my favourites- Stylish Move (970) was on sale for RM70. There were a few other quintets but I cannot remember the names nor colour code. Grabbing a quintet would save you by more than 100 bucks because each one currently retails for RM178.

Moving along would be face products: blush and foundation (liquid and powder). They had the regular rectangular pan blush which I was not really interested. Dandelion has served me fine and it shall continue to do so until I decide it's too young for me. Diorshow blush is one of the cutest things I've ever seen and I've really liked it from afar for a long time. Retailing for RM132, it goes for only RM60 at the sale. Unfortunately, there was only ONE colour on sale and the colour would turn my cheeks bright orange.

Diorskin Flash was going cheap as well at RM60 a pen. I can't remember the current retail price.

I do like Dior foundations because they are completely lightweight. But there were not enough of colour selections and I wouldn't dream of buying foundation in that kind of lighting, no matter how cheap it is. One good thing about this event was that there were no sales assistants hovering over you. No one was trying to push products. They would give suggestions or help when asked but other times, they just stand around and wait for you to make the first move. At the foundation counter, one of the girls tried to sell her foundation on me. She picked around for what she thinks is the correct colour (I would think it is the correct colour too) and tried it on my hand. I politely declined citing of my complete sloth-like attitude when it comes to foundations.

Curiosity got the better of her, "So, do you use anything? Compact powder? Loose powder? Compact foundation?"

Errr.... nothing. Only sunscreen, actually.

She took a careful glance at my skin and conceded to keeping away the testers,"Oh. Yeah, you're right. Lucky you, then. You've got good skin."

I replied my thanks with a beaming smile. I mean, who wouldn't be pleased at hearing that?

THIS is the kind of attitude that Malaysian sales assistants need to learn! To know when to back off and to know when to try and prod a sale along! Last lot of makeup products were brushes. A complete brush set goes for RM280 with a casing but I've already got a pretty good brush set so I gave that a pass. They've also got the concealer brush going for RM40. I can vouch for the brush set that it's a good investment. I've played with them at the regular counters and I love how soft they were. And, they are not usually for sale. I've seen that it's on sale at either Jusco or Metro at MidValley but that's about it. So, if brushes are what you need, I would say, go for it.

Following tables were filled with fragrances. The usual Dior Addict 2, Dior Addict Shine, Dior Addict 2 Peonies were there. Then, their older Poison and Pure Poison sets were available as well. Jen was rather taken in by the Dior Homme fragrance. When I first gave him a sample, he exclaimed loudly,"UNCLE SCENT!" However, having tried that a couple of times more, he found that he quite liked it. It was going for RM90 for a 30ml bottle. I gave him a Baldeserrini last Christmas and it's not even half-used, so I suggested he should give this a miss. He was a bit upset that he didn't manage to get anything but, really, at the rate he uses fragrances, I should be getting him 10ml bottles next!

By the time we were about to leave, the crowd had started to come in. Office workers who had finished work by 5-ish started to stream in and I was right: Events like these are vicious! I was still at the lipstick table with Jen when these 2 women with their backpacks pushed their way in. I was in a relatively good mood or I would've elbowed them. Jen left to make way for me as I continued browsing.

Quite a number of men were there as well. One of them wanted a Diorisime but was told that they don't have it. Like I'd said, it was pretty small and products on sale were from their regular range. I could see only the Dior Addict 2 Peonies to be from the limited edition range. Another man was walking up and down all the while describing each product to his other half, I would presume. It was kinda hilarious. So, Boss, don't be afraid of going there without HY, yeah?

I guess my only peeve were the LABELS. Dear Lord, the labels! Sales assistants had merely torn off lids of cardboard boxes and scrawled names of products and prices, then propping them up. Imagine seeing luxury makeup products being labelled with a cardboard box! My instant reaction, "Aiyoh!!!" It's like wearing a vintage Chanel gown and pairing that with RM3 flip-flops from pasar malam.

It was an eye-opening experience, I would say. Because they had quite little products, the crowd was thin, which was something that I like. If other warehouse sales were this simple and straightforward, I think I would attend more.