When I was a little girl, I was occasionally so lucky that my mom and my aunt would bring me along for a shopping trip. Sometimes we’d go through the cosmetics department of a major department store – most often Macy’s – and I would be mesmerized by the array of colors, the testers on display, each shade varying slightly from the last: a painter’s palette. It was delightful. There was one brand that had these little eyeshadow samples on pieces of paper covered in plastic you could peel back. I remember my mom admonishing me when I sought to have one in every color. I was too young for make up but not too young to play. I wanted to possess every beautiful shade.
I have always liked to color and paint, work in charcoal or oil pastels, and always loved fashion. 
It came as no surprise that I love makeup. Now that I am old enough to not play with my mom’s makeup, I like the peruse stores in search of an array of beautiful colors to play with: a cosmetics-obsessed Goldilocks looking for the perfect shade, the perfect application, the perfect shopping environment. I LOVE both department store and drug store makeup (I’m no snob), but sometimes the department store feels wrong. Samples and testers abound, but the employees are TOO helpful and I just want to browse, to take in the colors and breathe in the scents. The drugstore employees are often not specialists, and the lack of testers and samples has left me with a cabinet full of duds.
So, I guess it’s no surprise that on my way home last night – after a hectic day at work – I stopped at Sephora. I was feeling dejected, and knowing the hubby would be home late, I needed to shop. I needed the perfect pick-me-up and today it wasn’t new shoes (just got some) or sweaters (the closet’s overcrowded). It was new COLOR for my face. That is what I needed. I like the more laid-back sales approach there, and the rows of eye candy lined up by brand, then application, then shade.
That’s when the Sephora Brand caught my eye, followed by the $5 price tag next to some twenty or so shades of eyeliner, lined up by color like a rainbow. It was Sephora Brand Nano Eyeliner, a highly pigmented eye pencil, and it was pulling me in like gravity. It goes on nice and smooth and (so far) has lasted me all day. And how often do you see eyeliners in beautiful colors like this – and only $5?! I was stoked. I ended up going home with a Glitter Black, a Glitter Brown, an Iced Brown, a Pure Beige, a Kaki Green, a Silver Green, a Gri Gri, a Lagoon, a Blue Jean, and a Wild Spirit – and yes – definitely a wild spirit. It was like standing in front of those paper samples with tiny bits of eyeshadow on them. A little reckless abandon, but I’m definitely young enough to play.
