A Failed Shopping Experience

I was in New York City last weekend. The goal was to do a little shopping. I failed. I walked into Lord & Taylor - and couldn't circumvent the Botoxed beauties lining the fragrance and makeup counters - or at least coudn't circumvent all of them. I sampled DKNY's new apple fragrance. (nice) - Decided that Vera Wang's wasn't for me... Then got suckered into a free facial at the Borghese counter.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I've been through the wringer - spent thousands of dollars at the Dermatologist - what makes you think you can fix my skin?" (So glad I asked...) The Borghese line was started by a princess. She fell in love with the healing waters of the land that would soon become the Borghese Spa in Italy. She bought the land - and now, for only 57$, the same facial mud mask that soothed the cheeks of royalty could be mine!

"And besides," said the lady at the counter. "It'll only take 5 minutes!"

Two hours later, she's finishing my makeup. I looked good, I'll admit.

To be honest, I didn't even mind. My friend Audrey and I were having a New York Moment (or 2 hours worth, as the case may be) - discussing everything with the makeup artists from sisters who were on "America's Next Top Model" to what Sarah Jessica Parker looked like when she did a promo thingie at L&T, to children to the hysterical results of Borghese's "Lip Plumper" (It's like my lips got dipped in Novacain - really nutty. "It's not like your friends will notice your lips are bigger - they'll just notice what you're doing with them... LIke what you're doing now!" It's true - I was puckering without realizing it. They were numb!).

It's weird, but over Borghese, we bonded.

At the end of the day, I went home with product that I wasn't intending to buy - but she threw in a free tube of Lip Plumper.

What could be better?