Sephora at the Champs-Elysées
 

Hello Ladies! Almost every thread about shopping for cosmetics in Paris mentions Sephora as a must-see. And as a self-admitted makeup junkie I have marked it down on my shopping list, for my trip to Paris. I have a few questions for all the lovely women in here who have paid a visit to this cosmetics mecca on the Champs-Elysées:

1. Is what you see on [www.sephora.com] in terms of brands and products, exactly what you get at the store? Or, does the store have additional brands and/or brand products on their shelves that are not available on their website?

2. Just how big is the store? I've seen pictures and I think I've seen an escalator in there. Is this a multi-floored store?

3. I read somewhere that they have a unique way of organizing the merchandise in the store that's supposed to minimize confusion or getting a head-spin while looking for a particular brand/product amongst the many that they have. Do they have the makeup counters organized by alphabetical order or something? (NB. I've never been to a Sephora store before or live near one).

4. Are the salespersons at the counters pushy or annoying? Do they speak English?

Feel free to write about your shopping experience there and anything worth noting about the store.

Thank you.

1- They have more than you see online.
2- Big.
3- I think some things are better experienced than described to the enth detail..this is one of them. Just imagine the biggest most perfumed space you have ever been in, that only sells beauty/bath products.
3. Everything is organized according to label. All the Clinique products are in Clinique section which is in the make up section. Shampoos/ hair products are in another section..etc.
4- The salespeople are great, on the young side, totally friendly and helpful.
Yes, they speak English.

I went to the Sephora in South Beach. It's amazing. Imagine a nicely decorated cosmetic Wal-Mart (to give an idea of size and wide range of products - not price and styling).

It's quite large, often VERY busy, but if you're seriously shopping, the sales staff will seek you out (eventually). It is a good place to buy skin care and makeup, although I generally prefer to buy skin care at a pharmacy or salon (more relaxed). If you buy anything, be sure to ask for "echantillons", aka free samples. They have oodles of them. The more you buy, the more free samples you'll receive (although, in general, I've found that pharmacies are more generous with free samples than Sephora, but Sephora hands out more than salons).
Don't go crazy on the perfume testing...One very cold winter afternoon when my sense of smell was diminished, I overdid it and came out smelling like a hooker. My next stop was Diptyque on Blvd. St. Germain and my olfactory capacity was so overloaded, I couldn't smell a single candle.

The store on Champs Elysees is MUCH MUCH nicer and bigger then all of the US stores I have been in (I have not done South Beach, but have done several others)

It is quite a sight even if you don't buy!

Are the prices the same, more, or less than in the US? I continually buy a certain number of products at Sephora so that would be good to know for a future trip to Paris.

The store on Rue de Rivoli has an escalator. As I recall, they also have a sofa at the top because I think my husband waited for me there.

I have found the sales staff to be very nice and not pushy. They have always approached me speaking French; when I apologize (in lousy French) for only speaking English, so far they have all spoken very nice English. On my last stop, one lovely saleswoman spent probably 15 to 20 minutes helping me pick out a shade of lipstick and applying it. (Sephora brand lipstick under 10E.) Another offered to give me a manicure when I strolled through the nail section. It's a fun place where all of a sudden you realize that you have been there far too long!

But it is such a girl's playground! Imagine my poor husband, outside on the Champs, watching the world go by while I try to "hurry" through Sephora.

It is a lot of fun and shouldn't be missed.

I imagine the one on the Champs is the largest, but if you don't make it to that one, there are 15 others in Paris:

http://www.sephora.fr/str/listMagasins.do?codeRegion=14

"Are the prices the same, more, or less than in the US"

Statia: One of my favorite fragrances is L'Heure Bleue by Guerlain. I found it to be just about the same price at Sephora on the Champs-Elysees as at Marshall Fields here at home.

Gina

I haven't found much differences in prices either, but the generous supplies of free samples (and I do use them, esp. for travel) makes buying skin care and makeup in France and Belgium more cost effective in the long run.

The one on the Champs Elysee is the biggest I've ever seen and very busy. I do like getting the free samples. The prices are about the same as they are here. I now wait until I get to the duty free shop at the airport to buy my perfume. The best selection of perfumes is at Galleries Lafayette. Best prices are at the duty free shops.

I was not impressed... yes It has along ramp and no walls which makes it seem bigger...we have one nearby that I go to and have been to the store in Vegas ..I was hoping to see something I hadn't seen before.. maybe custom perfuming.. ..It is large,there were alot of people even at midnight and and I wanted to buy something in Paris...I didnt...dont let your expectstions get too high but you will like it better not having been to one before.Im sure as I loved it the first time I went

I think my husband actually enjoyed visiting the Sephora on the Champs Elysee, in perhaps an anthropological kind of way. Although he did spend some time in the men's section, but didn't buy anything for himself.

Flash forward a year or so. My husband decides that he needs an exfoliant. I take him to our local Sephora, where he asks the sales girl where the men's skin care products are. She shows him half of a shelf! In Paris there was an entire wall, with many different exfoliants. Here, his choice was limited to two--one from Clinique and a Dutch brand (Logistics by Anthony), which is the one he ultimately bought. Now he wishes he has spent more time and money in the Paris Sephora.

Thanks for the pricing info. I stick with buying fragrances (when I buy them) at my local duty free shops since I'm in the West Indies and it's always cheaper here. However, it's good to know the cosmetics/sking care products are more or less the same price as in the US since I only buy skin care products there. Thanks again.

Just out of curiosity, how many ladies here carry a small "supermarket" list when they go shopping for cosmetics? I never approach a cosmetics counter without knowing exactly what I'm going to buy. And unless I put it in writing I'll probably forget the fancy product names by the time I get to the department store. I often get dirty looks from pretentious, snooty saleswomen, who look like Cruella from 101 Dalmations, when they see me take out my piece of paper. They raise their smudgy penciled-in eyebrows and wear a silly false smile on their darkly-lined lips, as if they've just caught me pulling a celery stalk from my jeans pocket. Is it taboo to have a paper in hand at the cosmetics dept? I've been trying to cut my pieces of paper smaller and smaller to better disguise them in the palm of my hand, but I've found that size has nothing to do with it. As soon as the saleswoman's hawking eyes catch a glimpse of my head tilting towards a crumpled piece of paper, she starts giving me the "look", which I can't quite figure out. Maybe she thinks that I've just invalidated her in some way with that memo. Or, that I'm not going to be easy bait when she tries to pull off her expensive sales pitch because she's got a pre-decided customer on her hands. And maybe she finds it prototypical of grocery-store conduct, but what's an absent-minded gal to do?!

As I said I wouldn’t dare walk into a cosmetics dept/store for candid viewing. I know from previous experience that the saleswoman is just going to use all sorts of mind games to lure me and talk me into buying something I don't really need or even like! (Yes, it's that bad…I have an image of my Cruella's reading up on Freud at night, from above hubby's shoulder as he ummm, you know lol it's quite amusing actually). Anyways, where was I…Yes, when I do go, I go armed with a straight face and my little piece of paper, to avoid the sales pitch/mousetraps. Befriending the woman behind the counter is a perilous deed my friends. She will use and abuse that newly-founded friendliness until she sucks the life out of you as she closes the sale at the cash register. If you look grim and keep your distance it should be relatively "eas-ier" for you to blurt out, "No, thanks! But I don't really need that," when the psychological manipulations kick in.

I get my recommendations for makeup from consumer opinion websites and makeup boards online. I think they are the best places to get honest, impartial, and interest-free advice/reviews on products. I never ask for recommendations from salespersons. How can I trust what they say when their commission is driven by pushing a certain brand on me? Nor do I consult fashion & beauty magazines for that sort of thing, because many of them are biased towards the companies that advertise with the magazine. I'm guessing that it also takes quite a bit of "bribery" from the cosmetics companies to get the magazines to write up rave reviews on their products (gift baskets of MU goodies, free coupons, a day at the spa, a date, a wad of folded bills tucked between the bounteous cleft of the company reps' bosoms--who knows!). So I always count on the profit-free environment of the boards to get the skinny on the best out there.

I think the Cruella's at Sephora-Champs Elysees are going to faint when they see my "supermarket" list; this one I can't even fit in my pockets.

(NB. Do they have those cute little shopping carts @Sephora? I don't want to break an arm carrying a shopping basket. I have a feeling mine's going to be heavy.)

I don't recall shopping carts at Sephora, at least not at the Champs Elysees branch. It's too crowded for shopping carts...shopping baskets only.
Re information sources, your concerns are among the reasons I usually buy skin care products from a pharmacy that carries several lines. The pharmacists have a different outlook than regular sales staff at places like Sephora. At my favorite pharmacy in Brussels, for example, the lady pharmacists are very candid about which products are better for my needs--on more than one occasion they have steered me away from a more expensive product and toward a cheaper one or suggested I simply didn't need that product at all. If I'm not sure about which product I want, they are usually happy to give me free samples from the various lines to try *before* I buy anything. Of course, I am a regular customer. I'm not sure whether they would hand out so many "echantillons" to a first-time customer who hasn't bought anything.

However, Sephora staff haven't been too pushy. In December, when I told the salesgirl I wanted an eye gel, not an eye cream, she suggested several different ones and we discussed the merits of each. There was no push to buy the most expensive. However, there was a slight push to make up my mind because the store was just SO busy, there were quite a few women waiting in the wings for her attention.

If I'm tagging a guy along where can he wait after he's done with his 5-minute cologne shopping? Is there a seating area on premise, or a next door cafe or store of interest? Any tips on how to keep guys busy, for a good hour or so, that don't involve running off with a mademoiselle would be appreciated.

What's the best time to go to Sephora-Champs-Elysées? Early in the morning right after they open their doors, or around midnight right before they close? Crowded spaces are a turn-off for me. I hate the elbow-jostling that often comes with shopping at cosmetics stores.

My friend Marcy and I were at Sephora at the Louvre (not Champs-Elysees)as soon as the doors opened. This was in January and even though it was during the Paris sales, the store wasn't crowded. At least not for the first hour we were in there. :d We didn't find the sales people pushy at all. I got a makeover, which was great fun since the woman who did it didn't speak a stitch of English. Lots of pantomine and pointing going on! (Great results, though.) The Sephora brand is on the left as you enter the door. More expensive brands like Christian Dior are upstairs. Perfumes around the perimeter of the store. Don't worry about the layout, though. Go in and stroll around first, see where everything is, and then start sampling. Enjoy!

I'm not a real makeup junkie so don't do a lot of shopping for that in Paris, but when I do, I just like going to the regular department stores which should have most every brand Sephora does (except Sephora). Sephora is an experience if you like that, though, and haven't been in one.

IN any case, the Virgin Megastore is practically next door to it, so the male companion could easily go in there to spend some time (they have a popular cafe in there, also).

Another great place for skin care products on the Champs Elysse is L'Occitane. If you are looking for unique perfume check out the Annick Guatal (sp) shops. They are elegant.

I used to love to shop at Occitane and bring back soaps, etc., but while I was in Paris in March, '04, a store opened here in Pgh., and now there's one at our airport, also. This past trip I didn't even go in Occitane. It's nice to have the products available all the time here at home, but Occitane always symbolized shopping in France, and now that's gone.

I was in Sephora on C-E on a holiday weekend a couple of years ago, and the salespersons could not have attempted to be "pushy." Rather, it was the customer who were pushy, of necessity! That cavernous store was elbow to elbow with shoppers, and you had to literally push your way to get around. I couldn't believe it!

There were no Sephoras in the US when I first visited the store on the Champs Elysees.
I am glad that I saw it that way, since now they are so common, it sort of takes away the "thrill" of walking into that store.
The guys standing by the door with the long black coats and gloves..the scent ! my husband would walk outside to get a breath of fresh air then come back in. He enjoyed looking for soaps and shampoos..my kinda guy :)
Even if you don't care about brand names etc, it is fun to see in Paris.
Otherwise, I would not really think it was a great treat anymore in a mall somewhere.

I don't have any idea what it was but as I was out walking on my way to Rue De Rivoli. I passed a cosmetics store that looked very trendy and was very busy. It may have been on Ruc Richilou.

I have so many allergies that I'm lucky to be able to wear Almay. So if I need anything in Paris it's off to Monoprix for me.

Suzanne, I had the same problem. I do wear perfume but with all the different perfumes drifting through the air was more than I could handle. My husband didn't even come in for that reason.

I like Monoprix, too. I bought a compact of about 4 lipsticks by a brand I have not seen here in the US. Just loved it. The brand started with a B and it wasn't Bourjois. Last November I noticed beauty salons with the same name in the window. I did find it in Monoprix but alas, they changed colors and didn't have the one I had before. Anyway, if anyone knows what this brand might be, I don't think it is imported into the US yet so might fill the bill for "something you can't buy in the US."

Rhonda,
I think your lipstick has now been imported into the states at Sephora.

This may not sound very exciting, but in Europe Nivea has make-up (rather than skin care products) that you can't get North America.

Last year in Monoprix I bought a liquid blush for my daughter that she loved so much that she has asked for more. She says it blends beautifully and smells of roses.

I found my old lipstick - the brand is Biguine. Their web page is www.biguine.com Look under collection for some of their makeup.

I have some Biguine makeup I bought in Paris. I liked the packaging a lot, it was a little different. They sell that brand at any of the major dept. stores, as they do all of the main brands (I bought it at BHV). I don't think prices really vary much on those cosmetic brands at any of the stores, whether Monoprix or Sephora or a regular dept. store. I've found the French brands cheaper in the US than in Paris (and that was before the dollar was as low as now), so I don't bother buying anything I know is readily available at home. I've bought some Bourjois blush for gifts and myself as they have a very nice case that is good for purses (the small round one with a mirror and very small hair brush inside). I don't really like their makeup very well, though. I think it's better for women in their teens or 20s (very highly pigmented, not a wide range of colors), which I think is their target market.

I like shopping at Bon Marche best for makeup for the ambience and tranquility and sales staff; cheap brands I pick up when in BHV or Monoprix while shopping for something else.

Biguine skin care and makeup products are produced in the same place as the (more expensive) Sisley line and many of the products are quite similar...so if you like Sisley, Biguine is a good choice.