Did you feel the ground move beneath your feet Tuesday night?
In the biggest happening of the Bangkok cosmetics scene this year, Sephora, the well-known and most raved-about French cosmetic retailer, landed its multi-million-baht beauty products in a flagship store on the ground floor of newly renovated Siam Center.
For a decade, Sephora has been an obsession of Thai women, who always make it a souvenir-stop when traveling abroad due to our weakness for foreign-branded glosses and glitter eye-shadows with prices printed in double-digit dollars.
But does Sephora Thailand offer Thai women the same shopping experience they’ve had abroad?
Ultimately, while it’s great to have Sephora close to home, my first look of the Siam Center store was a let down to my high expectations.
After queuing for an hour, I entered the store with hundreds of Thai women flocking and swarming at the beautifully displayed cosmetics stands. Sounds of stainless shopping baskets clanking, and the crowd mobbing limited-edition cosmetics increased my excitement.
Circling around the store, I can report that Sephora-branded products take up the most space and remain the biggest wow factor, ranging from the colorful bath gels, a huge stand of nail polishes in any shades, base makeup and point makeup.
Exciting news is the introduction of Tarte and Ciaté brands in Thailand, along with limited product sets from Benefit, who won the most-mobbed-product-stand award. I guess Thai girls dig its supercute packaging.
NYX, the budget-yet-high-quality makeup which previously opened it first official counter at Zen, is surprisingly included in Sephora, along with Asian beauty brands like Shiseido and Ettusais.
Most brands that the Siam Center branch carries are not a big surprise for the fact that they have been sold in Thailand for ages: Dior, Nars, Annasui, Make Up For Ever, The Balm, Bliss and Philosophy.
I was disappointed not to find some of the most-demanded brands like Urban Decay and its NAKED pallets. Also, the store lacks their popular gift sets and Sephora Favorites sets, which include 10 to 15 small sizes of makeup or perfume for a great deal. Instead, there are skin and hair care products most Thai women haven’t heard of such as Murad, Strivectin, Fresh, For Beloved One, Bamboo, and Caudalie, while the small men’s section stocks Lab Series and John Masters Organics.
Overall, if you are looking for a perfect, single item, Sephora makes it convenient to try on different products easily, but I must say that I walked out of Siam Center Sephora empty-handed and feeling quite disappointed.
With a huge target market like Thailand, we expected utter extravagance from its new anchor in Siam Center branch, which announced itself as Thailand’s flagship store. However, anyone who’s been to the shops on Singapore’s Orchard Road or in Times Square should prepare to be a little underwhelmed. Our Bangkok store is small by Sephora standards and was not prepared to handle a line of 100 women waiting patiently to check out, something not likely to change until the fever dies down.
Also, Sephora Thailand brought very little innovation to the cosmetics scene, but mainly stock the products that were already available. The reason Thai women enjoy shopping at Sephora when traveling abroad because they stock the Internet’s famous tools and makeups we don’t find in Thailand. Besides Sephora’s own branded products, I spotted only a few well-known collections in the Bangkok store.
However, a sales person told me there will be more selection in the future, which I hope helps the new “flagship” live up to that name.
My final take is that if you have time, definitely go check it out. But if you already know what you want, stick with the large cosmetics department at Siam Paragon, at least for two months until the crowd moves on to the Victoria’s Secret Beauty & Accessories shop to open in Siam Center.
Personally, I’ll eventually go back to splurge on Sephora primers, for now I’ll stick with the old tube I haven’t used up. After all, it’s only makeup, right?
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