I'm sure you've seen the ad here in the uk, but let me just give you a refresher.
The L'Oreal Paris Color Riche Collection Privée
The L'Oreal Paris Color Riche Collection Privée
L'oreal TV AD- Click me baby
This is the ad currently airing in the UK. There are different versions on youtube as i understand different lipsticks are being released in different territories. There has been fanfare that L'oreal have designed a nude lipstick for all skintones. Their L'Oreal Color Riche Collection Privée range. I was excited to read about this colour range online and i thought the next time I'm at the L'oreal counter I'll swatch Liya's shade and buy! ( Barely Moka nb7 by the way) But something strange happened. In shop after shop i could not find Liya's shade, i at first blamed it at these concession stands being small ( every other shade Cheryl Cole, Eva Longoria, Doutzen Kroes, Freida Pinto and Julianne Moore was there) but i finally saw Liya's shade in a Superdrug. Alas the tester compartment and section was empty. Totally empty. Hmm maybe it's all sold out i thought. I asked the sales assistant. She actually went into the back and began looking for the shade. It wasn't there, ( she had wheeled the box the lipsticks in to me) and she confessed she HAD NEVER seen the lipstick there at all. Ever.
I called Boots customer service. The lady there couldn't even see the lipstick on the system. Then she asked one of the online staff. It was online only. OH. So no if i wanted to get the lipstick i would have to buy blind. No boots store will be stocking it, in stores. I emailed L'oreal asking if it were available anywhere in store. As of today still no reply. ( I wrote to them on the 12/9/13)
So Why would L'oreal go to the trouble of creating a lipstick, advertising it and then making it unavailable in stores? What would be the point?
More troubling is that they decided that every other skintone could be stocked in store but not Liya's. I visited 7 stores and did not find Liya's shade. If it is available in stores ( most probably Superdrug or independent Chemists, as boots aren't) then it must be one or two in London. Even in a heavily "ethnic minority" area, it wasn't stocked. Lets not even get on to the fact that Fan Bing Bing's lipstick isn't stocked over here when there is a sizable East Asian community in the UK
It just baffles my mind. Why advertise the fact that the shade is available but make it online only? Making the inevitable sales figures low. Most people are not willing to A- Buy blind or B- traipse all over London in pursuit of one lipstick they may or not buy. Then when the next time L'Oreal think about stocking darker shades or ranges, their data says it doesn't sell. Its a vicious circle.
L'sigh. People wonder why i like to purchase from brands that actually cater to me ........
