As we, the beauty addicted all know by now, there’s been a Gigi Hadid Maybelline collaboration. It’s a super pretty slick and sleek-looking collaboration together and the advertising, photography and promotion were amazing.
On that campaign alone I would have bought the entire line, but of course, it hasn’t hit our sunny shores of Australia until recently, so I was thrilled when I stumbled over a display in Yamba, a little coastal town on the NSW North Coast of Australia.
UPDATE: this was not the full range.
Heart Broken over What I’ve Seen So Far
First of all the entire “West Coast” side of the display was empty, probably sold out, or just not restocked, with the mascara shove into the slots instead.
This particular Priceline Pharmacy isn’t very well maintained or nice to shop at, there’s crap all over the floor, staff standing around talking to each other and not one person asked if I wanted assistance. In Priceline Mosman, Warringah Mall or Dee Why in Sydney I cannot take a step without being helped, suggested and treated like a customer. Priceline Yamba, check your stock levels, fix your testers, help your customers, put the huge product launches such as Gigi Maybelline, filled, front and centre with a full stock count. If you want to survive over online sales, this is retail 101. OK, rant over.
Back to Gigi/Maybelline Review
The scale of everything in the eyeshadow palette was so tiny. Really tiny. I actually needed to put on my glasses to make sure there were pans in the palette. Why are they so small? The price range was large enough to give us decent-sized pans. It was mind-boggling.
The colour pigments were OK, what I could find in the palette to swatch, but I’d use use this palette in a month and it would be an embarrassment in the kit professionally.
I wanted to try the lipsticks, but they weren’t on or near the display.
Trying Products, Testers and PR samples
I couldn’t try the liquid luminiser as there was no tester. I have the regular Maybelline cream luminiser and love that. I won’t buy a product that has no tester. I have been known to buy a test by accident because I haven’t used my glasses, but will never buy a product I cannot try in-store.
I am not breaking open a product for a tester, so folks at Priceline Yamba, get your tester situation sorted out or you won’t sell the product and it is peak tourist season so fleece us city slickers while you can. If I can’t test it, I will just get online. I would have spent up to $100 had I been able to have tested the range to do a full review but due to a lack of stocking, merchandising or customer service I left with A Rimmel Contour Stick with $6.
Let me just say I LOVE Maybelline products. As a chemist brand, they are my favourite for a few items. Maybelline is very forward-thinking in its new product development. I use the great mascaras and liners in my kit and myself, and in my professional kit, I have all the matte neutral lipsticks for my brides and smokey eye looks.
I was expecting something divine. I wanted angel song. I wanted it to be a must-have for my kit. I am a big Gigi fan. I think she’s a great businesswoman and beautiful and she could pretty much sell me anything. This line thus far is a heartbreaker.
The palette above was not in Priceline Yamba. The only products that they had were the teeny mini palettes, a mascara that was the same as Lash Sensation except for a different tube, the fibre lash mascara, which I have a million of, and the highlighter which is a more golden colour of the regular highlighter cream.
I am not the only one who was disappointed. I have huge respect for Tati Westbrook and her opinions:
If you go online you can buy the West coast Collection for $232.90 AUD
It’s not awful, but there are better travel palettes out there that have bigger pans, are just as portable and just as pretty.
I wouldn’t send this one back if I was sent one for a test and a makeup tutorial, back if I got it for PR, I’d give it a good go, but I am not buying, swatching or trialling it out of my own money. I’ll go to my regular Priceline and see what they have to test and get back to you.
