Story time!
I went to the mall yesterday at 8:00 am, but instead of going straight to the MAC store and wait for it to open at 9:00 am, I went to the food court at the third floor (west side of the mall) to do unfinished homework. Once the homework was done at it was a minute before 9:00 am, I went on my way to the MAC store that's on the first floor (far middle east side of the mall). As I reached halfway through the second floor, I saw a trio of women giddy, liveblogging, and extremely happy with their MAC bags talking about their fav girl Selena. I was like: "oh shit, better speedwalk to the store or else everything is sold out." As I speedwalked through a crowd of senior citizens doing their "mall walks" (some early exercise program that the mall has), another trio of women taking selfie with their MAC bags, and took another escalator to reach the first floor, I finally made it to the first floor. I looked from afar at the MAC counter at Macy's and saw that they most likely didn't had the collection available, so I left in what felt like a nanosecond. As I walked close to the store, I see a giant display of the promo image of the collection in the middle of the hallway along with a few makeup foldout chairs. This was going to be big!
When I got to the MAC store, I noticed that there were three security guards surrounding the place, another trio of women with their bags all happy, an SA, and one person in line. I've done a waiting line for a makeup event except for common things like a bank, grocery store, and college registration (along with its issues), so the concept was new to me. The SA quickly noticed me and asked me if I came for the Selena collection, and I said yes, so she gave me a purple color ticket and a paper like the one squirtlesquad got that serves like a mini checkout list of what you want. The tickets were color coded by three: purple for early bids, yellow for afternoon, and green for afternoon/night. Once the tickets ran out it meant that the collection sold out. I checked what I wanted, and looked at my watch; it wasn't even 9:05 am! For the list you had a maximum amount of three quantities for each item (ex: 3 of Como la Flor), but the SAs would side eye real hard if one person wanted three of everything because they are all aware of the online resellers. No side eye for family or friends, but it became noticeable that some women were coming to the store in groups of three (mom and two daughters, three sisters, three friends, three cousins, etc.) The SAs (at least the ones from PR) don't hesitate to shut down upcoming collection info, and are very secretive with info unless it's for something that will become permanent. Just when I finished checking the SA let me in and I got greeted by another SA who was standing next to the collection. He asked for the ticket and list, and if I wanted to see swatches. He was going to swatches on his hand only, and no customer was allowed to touch the testers. It sounds gross, but there are cases of people stealing testers, and that's why the SAs were very strict about it. I was bit unimpressed with the Fotos y Recuerdos es swatch, but was surprised at the Selena es. He swatched the powder products and Amor Prohibido, and once I told him what I wanted, he sent me to the checkout line.
I bought one of each: Amor Prohibido lipstick (great neutral!) and the eye shadows in Missing My Baby (mucho love!!!), No Me Queda Más (my fav song from Selena), and Selena es. Techno Cumbia is too dark for me and I rarely buy LE MAC brushes. Como la Flor is pretty but I have to much reds, so it got skipped. As I checked out at the register, another SA and I were talking about the online release and how messy it was. She was really bummed out about the gloss being an online exclusive. The majority of the SAs had either Dreaming of You or Amory Prohibido on their lips and a neutral eye look. After that I shamelessly took a selfie with the Selena display and left for college. I look at my watch and it 9:20am. If the collection didn't sold out yesterday, it might today because the mall is extremely packed on Friday and Saturday. My order of Dreaming of You lipstick arrived yesterday and my haul was complete (I gave up on the BBBB gloss restock, lol). I'm really happy with what I bought and will use the stuff during Fall and Winter. I just wish MAC would have more stock online for the people who missed out because it's a great capsule collection.
