Tonight was the first time that I was "taken" or swindled here in China. Here's what happened: I noticed that across the street from our place there was this make-shift kind of tent set up and stuff being sold underneath. Curious as always, I walked over to have a look. To my delight, it was all cosmetic-type stuff. Not that I'm a big make-up person or anything, but there is this one kind of moisturizer that I really like to use, made by Clinique. At home it costs about $40 for a bottle, which lasts about 6 months. (For any guys reading this who think I'm crazy for spending that much on face cream, let me just say that it's completely justified! Any girl will tell you that when you find a product that works well for you and makes your skin feel great- stick with it!).
Anyways, so under this tent was all kinds of stuff made by Lancome, Olay, Clinique, etc. I noticed that they had ONE bottle of the kind of Clinique moisturizer I use and it looked totally real. I even ran back up to our place to get my half-empty bottle of the same stuff to make sure it was the right size and labeling, which it was, but the box was wrapped in celophane-wrap, so I couldn't take the bottle out to look. I asked the guy how much, and he said RMB 150 (divide by 6.2 to get it into Can. $). I thought it was too much so I walked away, and he yelled out 100 after me. I said 50, and we settled on 70. Pretty good, right? A $40 bottle of cream for just over $10. I ran back home with my purchase to proudly display my find (and boast about my bargaining abilities) to Andrew. That's also when I was able to remove the celophane wrap and take the bottle out of the box. Uh-oh! The font of the writing was off, which was my first clue that something was amiss. Next, I tried some of the moisturizer on my face. Hmmm, it felt kind of oily, didn't absorb well, and smelled of granny perfume. Woops! Not that same stuff. Rats!
O well, at least it was only around $10 and I learned my lesson. A bit disappointing though as I thought I'd found a deal. I'll know for next time.
1 comment:
The same thing happened to me in Thailand with "Chanel" and "Bobbi Brown" and "MAC" products. The cool thing is, I actually really like most of the stuff. Now I'm thinking, where do I find knock-off Chanel in Vancouver? Richmond night market?
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