Club Clio had opened it’s first Manhattan store back in Jan 2015 and I didn’t start my blog until today so I thought I would share some things from my first visit and some things I’ve learned since opening day.
Club Clio Union Sq location: 11 W 14th St, New York, NY 10011
More info: http://clubcliousa.com/
Value
I visited early Feb, a month after grand opening and they still had Grand Opening specials. The most enticing offer to me was the Buy One Get One Free offer on all Peripera lip products! The second promo I snagged was the Buy 10 Sheet Masks and get 5 Free (priced at $1 per sheet mask). So for $10, you get 15 masks in total – sure, I can try those out! They also had BOGO on their Goodal Want Sleeping Packs but priced at $40 each (while online prices were cheaper) I didn’t pull the trigger on those.
I went to Korea 2 years ago before kbeauty started making huge waves in the American market and the Peripera brand didn’t really make a lasting impression on me when I visited the Club Clio stores in Myeondong. Brand packaging was inconsistent and didn’t have a theme for me to get excited about. It was obviously aimed at the younger demographic of girls because of its lower price points, cheaper and cuter packaging than its older sister, Clio. I’m approaching 30 and was naturally more drawn towards Clio.
Fast forward 2 years later and Peripera has its new game face on! Its new brand revival is evident in it’s Lumi Pang, Rouge Pang, Butter Pang and Cushion Lips line! Their branding looks great on their newest products like the Cushion Blush and their newest lip addition in 2015, the Peripera Lip Ink! Even I’m almost 30, I can’t help but to lust after these cute lippies!
The Lip Cushions were $20 each and I don’t remember exactly but the Lumi Pangs were $18 each. Since it was a BOGO offer, it wasn’t so bad priced almost $9 each for 4 lippies. However physical locations + employees + imported products = greater overhead costs. Online Clio site prices for the exact same items were consistently priced $2 – $4 cheaper than store prices.
Looking at other online shops like eBay, RoseRoseShop, TesterKorea, Korea Depart and Beauty Net Korea, my entire purchase was insanely overpriced had it not been for the grand opening discounts. Taking into the higher shipping costs for shipment from Korea, my lip products would’ve came out to about $9 each anyway.
Store Experience and Customer Service
There are many perks to going to a physical store location though! I was able to try Clio’s Salon de Cara mascara line that interested me. I tried the pink colored one which is for volume but it didn’t give me separated, voluminous lashes at all. It wasn’t a good value for $30 – I rather buy a Lancome mascara instead. A mascara’s brush and formula combination is key to getting lashes you want and I think this where the formula failed. It was clumpy and felt heavy on my lashes. I was worried about trying a floor sample of mascara but the sales associate said that they actually sterilize everything after use.
No. 1 Roller Cara (Pink) is for Volume, No. 2 Roll Brush Cara (Yellow) is for Volume & Curling and
No. 3 Hand Cara (Orange) is for Volume & Length
Each mascara wand is supposed to imitate the way a hair stylist would style your hair
My sales assistant spent an hour with me picking out the right lip colors and telling me what the store’s biggest sellers are. She took care to give me new cotton swabs for my testing and made sure I had clean tissues wipes to take off the tests. Most Americans aren’t used to having an SA “follow” them around and it feels very awkward at first but this is the Asian retail experience of providing excellent customer satisfaction. I’m not shy to ask for a price check, ask if there are store promotions and ask if there are makeup wipes around! My SA and I had so much fun gabbing about these products that she even gave me the Peripera Soft Touch Waterproof lip and eye remover as part of the free samples with my purchase. I mentioned it smelled so good(!) and she made sure to include it in my bag.
Brands
Goodal is the skincare brand that’s part of Club Clio, just like how Peripera stands as it’s own brand and has it’s own identity even though they’re a makeup aisle away from Clio. I guess this is what makes it “Club” Clio? I had plenty of Goodal’s best selling samples to try and I’m most excited about the Trans Foam Cleansing oil. It’s a foam that transforms into an oil and it’ll surely melt away all traces of your makeup. There are also many raving reviews on their Waterest Lasting Oil but I cannot buy another facial oil product until I finish with my current stock! I already own the Goodbye Yesterday Peel-off Pack and the Phytowash Yerba mate Bubble Peeling but have not yet opened it.
My SA told me that the sheet masks were Buy 10, get 5 free. It was an unadvertised deal as I didn’t see store signage for this. I usually judge a good quality cotton sheet mask by its price so $1 per mask is good value, but does it have good results? I took a chance anyway since it was only $10. Yes, I bought ONE Potato mask as the SA said Potato is great to soothe sun tanned skin (more info on potatoes here).
Ugh, the branding on the sheet masks are way inconsistent with the Clio, Peripera and Goodal brands; the back says it’s “THE CURE” but not sure if that is the name of the company or the name of the sheet mask series. I remember seeing these masks in the Flushing Clio store and they never tempted me. I think these were on sale because they recently re-packaged these with a new look under the Goodal brand and it seems like the formulation has also changed. Pretty! They did a collaboration with Korean photographer, Sung Soo Koo, who is known for his botanical photographs.
Final Verdict
So would I shop at Club Clio stores again? If there were store specials, yes. If I want to check out swatches on a new product before I buy, of course! But let’s be real, why should I pay more when I don’t have to? There are plenty of options where I can purchase an entire haul and avoid inflated USA prices so I would not make a purchase on regularly priced products ($20 for a lippie marketed to teenagers?! But this is $7USD on RoseRoseShop!!). The SA were nice and very focused on customer service. Facility was clean and modern looking very much like the stores in Korea so if there are things that you absolutely must buy without waiting the 3-6 weeks it takes to ship from Korea, then it’s Clio/Peripera/Goodal heaven!
I hope to give full reviews on the Lumi Pang and Cushion Lips soon but it will take some time to wear and rate!
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