My LA LA Land Adventure: The L’oreal Paris Store

One of the stops on our beauty tour of LA was the L’oreal Paris store in the Beverly Center. It’s L’oreal’s version of Sephora with testing stations throughout the store and experts on hand to help you choose the best products for your coloring, skin type, hair texture, etc. It’s the perfect beauty junkie playground. If only we could test out all drugstore lines this way.

The store is divided into sections by product line (color cosmetics, hair care, hair color, skin care, sun care) including special displays for the HiP line and Europe exclusive products. One of the best features of the store… the L’oreal TrueLight Pod. A what pod? It’s this amazing enclosed space that allows you to see your makeup in different types of lighting. No more worrying about whether that foundation that looks amazing in store lighting will look the same when you step into the sun. How cool is that?

Now other than the HiP line I haven’t owned any L’oreal makeup in almost a decade. So it seemed like a strange twist of fate to be there. Why the product ban? A terrible allergic reaction I had to one of their foundations. Like my entire face was swollen and red. It took me ten days on steroids to overcome. Not a lot of fun. Of course now that I’m on allergy meds I figured it was safe to wade into the L’oreal waters again.

While there we went on a mini shopping spree and it was quite overwhelming. Just the rack of mascaras alone is the size of a normal L’oreal drugstore display. I swear at one point I was spinning around like a fool due to visual overload. Somehow I narrowed down my choices and found some goodies to bring home and play with. So what are some of my favs?

Infallible Lipgloss – I’m so in love with this gloss, I can’t even stand it. It hasn’t left my purse since LA. Normally my makeup bag is filled with MAC Lipglasses but they’ve had to make room for Infallible. It really does last while remaining smooth and glossy, even after drinking. What I really love… the applicator. The arrow shaped tip makes precise application foolproof. I even talked my friend into picking up a tube last weekend during an emergency stop at Big K while on a winery tour and now she’s in love too.

Wear Infinite LE Eye Shadow Quads in Coral Craze and Bronze Bliss. These quads are part of the Summer Limited Edition collection and instead of spending half a day debating between the two, I just got both. I really love the pink and dark brown in Bronze Bliss and the light and dark tans in Coral Craze. I’ve tried a few different combos between both sets and they’ve all been summer-tastic.

Of course I had to stock up on some favorites too; Sublime Glow gradual self tanner and HiP Cream Eyeliner. And while I still have others to try out, the shadow quads and lipgloss are immediate stand outs. The only hard part will be shopping in a boring old drugstore from now on.