In this post, I mentioned that we didn't have a Sephora store in the Philippines and so we didn't have any way to test some brands like Fenty Beauty, Huda Beauty, etc. since there's no official stores that sell those in the country. Most were resellers and most of the time they won't have any testers (cos they're expensive) so we always just have to guess what our foundation shades are which could be really expensive in case we make a mistake lol.
Since a few months ago we were planning on going to Thailand, I just realized they have a few branches of Sephora there and it was a chance for me to try out some testers!
I went to the CentralWorld branch and luckily I was able to find this considering this is such a bigass mall. The store was not hard to find too since the black and white stripes are so catchy.
They got a lot of testers for us to try!! Most of these brands I can just find online and it was nice to have a choice to test how it looks like on your skin.
I've been hearing about how nice the Supergoop! sunscreen is under make up, but thankfully I found mine that works best for me without having the white cast and stickiness and all so I didn't have to buy it.
The brand that I'm really looking forward to trying was Fenty beauty by Rihanna. There's a lot of really good reviews about this brand. Even though it was made by Rihanna and most celebrity brands are just cash grabs, this actually has really good quality and sometimes even better than those big high-end makeup brands.
As you can see, there's a lot of shades available. Fenty beauty is one of the brands that has this wide range of shades.
I tested them and I finally found my shade which was 290 (Medium with warm olive undertones).
What's really really cool is that there is a dedicated area for you to try the products. You can sit in front of the mirror which nice lighting and also use the cleaner, alcohol, sponges, and the brushes. There was a lady who came up to me and assisted me with testing the products. I asked for her opinion what my skin shade might be and she said I have a lot of yellow undertones.
She then helped me with picking the better shade for the powder foundation that I picked so it didn't look too yellow on me. In the end she also helped me log in and told me I will get some points for the purchase. Love that they gave me their honest opinion and professionalism without trying to trick me into buying something that's not my shade just cos they have those on stock.
There was also another group of Filipinas testing products in the store. I knew cos I overheard them talking hahah. At the counter one of them even looked at me and smiled, probably recognized I'm a Filipino too. And I bet she wanted to say the same thing - "Yes we gotta try them and buy here since we don't have Sephora back home!".
I didn't really buy a lot in here, in fact I only bought 3 products cos they are hella expensive. Look at these Sephora brand face masks for example... 110 Baht ($3) for just one pair of eye masks... and they're just one time use! There's a lot of other brands there that has more quantity and cheaper haha.
There's not a lot of brands here though. I was looking for Paula's Choice but I didn't find any. I guess they need to partner with them first before they can put those products in their store.
I bought what I needed since I have a lot of products already. I got a Fenty powder foundation for lazy days if I don't want to put heavy makeup, a Fenty Pro Filtr liquid foundation for a full coverage makeup, and a Rare Beauty liquid blush.
I'm really loving the powder foundation so far and I can say it's the best that I've tried. It's even a lot better than my Mac powder foundation and I'm so happy to be able to find my shade so I don't look like a pale white lady while wearing it.
So when I need to buy new ones, I can just order online since I know my shades now. :D
