Best Things in Beauty : Prestige Warehouse Sale (Paul & Joe)

Prestige is holding its warehouse sale from today until Friday 4 December at 6 Jalan Kilang from 10.30am to 7pm. (It is opposite ABC Brickworks.) I had attended the sale previously in November last year so I knew roughly what to expect. There was another sale earlier this year but I skipped that.

I arrived there very early at about 9.30am as I had thought that the sale started at 10am. It was blazing hot and by 10am, a long queue had already formed. The sale started late as the staff took some time to get organised and unpack some late-arriving boxes, and then they held a prayer circle. Similar to last year, once the sale started, most ladies swamped the Paul & Joe and Givenchy makeup/skincare counters (these are the only two makeup brands that Prestige distributes) and the 2-3 staff manning each counter ended up having to serve a few customers at the same time. It was only awhile later that the staff asked a queue to be formed for the P&J counter.

The selection is less extensive than last year as there was no loose powder, pressed powder, bags, pouches or the latest products like the Lip Lacquers. Instead, the selection comprised mainly discontinued items or limited edition items from past seasonal collections such as the Collection Sparkles lipsticks and eyeshadows from Autumn 07 & 08 and Spring 08. They also had the cream foundation, a foundation in a white compact, creamy powder compact foundation, eyeshadow singles, soap dish, round mirror, lip liners, lipgloss, eye gloss, pearl powders, refreshing leg lotion and treatment oil. I didn't see what was available at Givenchy makeup/skincare as the counter was too crowded.

Again, like last year, it was not very well-organised and the long slow queue for the cashier is very frustrating. But given the deep discounts, especially on the perfumes, the Prestige sales remain popular and one should not expect to shop in an department store-like environment. For example, of the 2 cashiers, only 1 was working this morning. The queue for the cashier was horrendously long and slow.

One tip for those buying Paul & Joe/Givenchy, after you pick your items, they are packed into ziplock bags and you are given a piece of paper with a number (unlike perfumes which you can take and put in your basket). The ziplock bags are then transferred to a small room behind the cashier. So before queueing up at the cashier, go retrieve your ziplock bag from the room first and verify your items. Otherwise if you queue up and get to the cashier without the ziplock bag, they will make you go out of the queue to get the bag. When I got to the cashier, first they could not find my ziplock bag. And then after they finally found it, I had to get back in the queue, only to be stuck behind two ladies who insisted on splitting their purchases into several payments, argued with the staff over the correct price (a difference of 50 cents), had items with no bar codes etc.

The staff are generally quite helpful though, with many staff on hand to help you test the perfumes. I left my handphone at the cashier desk by mistake and when I drove back to get it, the staff promptly found it and returned it to me, for which I was deeply grateful.

I picked up the Nail Enamel #1 (S$8), Stick Concealers #1 and #2 (S$20 each), Lipsticks CS #56, #57 and Lipstick L #2 (S$12 each), Gap Body Mists in Dream, Dream More, So Pink and Heaven (S$12 each except for Dream which is S$18), and Moschino Hippy Fizz (S$19, 30ml) and a FCUK Him (S$18, 100ml).

I wasn't sure which shade of the concealer suited me so I just picked the two lightest shades, figuring that I can always blend them if necessary. This is the discontinued version, which has been replaced with Stick Concealer N.

The lipsticks with the red face and beige &green/cat packaging are from the Spring '08 collection, "Bonbon Factory". These cost S$37 originally, I think. The red lipstick is from Holiday '08 and originally retailed at above S$40.