Where Do You Shop?

[Caribbean]

I'll be arriving in BA for the firs time in a week and just wondering about certain things. I'm from the US and wondering where you all shop for beauty products? Is there a place similar to a Saphora cosmetics? Do you know of a place that carries a great line of makeup/ colors/ products? Where do you shop for face creams, lotions ect. Also a is it easy to find feminine products( tampons ect) I love a good drug store to find basic mascara and face powders...is it pretty similar there. We are transioning from India so I figure if I could find CoverGirl and Olay there...I should be able to find it here....right? I may just have to pay more for it?

 

[Ceviche]

Its difficult to find yr preferred products in BA. Please get yr stock for 6 months/1 yr from where ever u r coming from.

Perfumes are though easily available in the duty free shopping and u can take advantage of the blue rate.

 

[Vagrant Violet]

Caribbean- Ceviche is absolutely right. Finding most any kind of product (not just limited to beauty/grooming) is very challenging, if not impossible here. I have never seen any Oil of Olay products, and Cover Girl cosmetics are sold in high-end, posh shopping malls and cost far too much.

The closest thing that I have seen here that could compare to a Sephora is a MAC Cosmetics stand in the Alto Palermo Mall, but *ouch,* the prices hurt!

FYI- My Argentine sister in law had a friend who wanted to buy some high-end cosmetics (I think they were being advertised as Estee Lauder) on the Mercado Libre website. Long story short, they turned out to be cheap knock-offs.

Stock up on whatever you can while you still can.

 

[Julia2]

Feminine Product you will find in supermarkets and at farmacity everywhere in BA. You will find brands like OB and also lokal brands that are okay. Cosmetics are a bit more expensive (depends where you come from, compared to Europe about the same), but I never had any problem to find what I was looking for. In shopping centers or at falabella you will even find exclusive brands like MAC etc. That was the situation one year ago, when I left.
In general: If you are flexible with brands, you will not have any problems.

 

[Supercharged]

You can find the best variety in the city at Pacifico (Cordoba y Florida) and then Fallabella. They got the French lines, Bobbi B and MAC in the same place (no brainer). Other than that, you can also find the cheap lines (cheap for the US) in Farmacity but I would highly recommend to use the store "Pigmento" rather than Farmacity because they are cheaper and their lines are as good.

I personally stock a bunch each time before coming over here. You might find some cosmetic deals online at ALAMAULA.com a version of EBAY but you will need and Argentine friend for that. No Sephoras here, and even if we had some they would be a total rip off!!

 

[irina]

As everyone said, stock up. Where do I shop here? I don't. The first and last time I bought some clinique powder here was 3 years ago and even then it cost nearly double what I would have paid back home. I always buy all of that when I'm back home and have built up a nice little stock pile of everything "beauty" you can imagine haha, it's like Preppers: prissy edition

 

[Jaredberryman]

Always buy anything that's not a food product, house, or car in the US and bring if you can, even if you have to pay extra baggage. It will be well worth it.

 

[Caribbean]

Thank you all so very much, I'll be stocking up before we fly down Sunday!!!

 

[lu_bsas]

you are coming to a place where top branches are limited and if you get them after walking blocks, you must pay twice or being happy with the color you dont want.

 

[syngirl]

you are coming to a place where top branches are limited and if you get them after walking blocks, you must pay twice or being happy with the color you dont want.

Regarding color -- also be aware that even when buying a foreign brand (ie MAC) they may not have the full range of colors here -- I use the palest color of powder, my compact from home cracked, tried to buy a replacement here, thought well, MAC relatively cheap at home can't be all that expensive here -- well, one it was (at the time, a few years ago) more than 2x the price at home, and they didn't carry the lightest shades of makeup.