The Face Shop

This review is for the Kahala Mall location. The Face Shop is close to the entrance/​exit by California Pizza Kitchen. There is parking located all around the mall.
I was walking around the mall trying to kill time when I noticed that The Face Shop opened up. I hadn’t visited the store in awhile, so I went in to see what kind of new items they had. The store is large; a lot bigger than the Ward Warehouse or McCully stores. If you have never been to The Face Shop, it’s a Korean brand of soaps, shampoos, makeup, skincare, lotion, nail polish. I’m sure there’s more, but that’s the big sellers.
What caught my eye this time was the gel nail polish. Not only do they have the nail polish, but the gel polish dryer/​UV light appliance, too. With that in mind, I went to ask if they had gel polish remover. It makes sense, right? One of the associates approached me to ask if I had questions. I asked her if they had gel polish remover. She said they did and directed me to the product. I asked her how it worked and I was told that it would just wipe the help polish off. Really? I heard that it was hard to take that stuff off. I still have gel polish on from a month ago because I thought I had to get them off at the salon or blowtorch it off myself. I asked her if I could try the tester and she handed me a cotton pad. Well, I tried. And tried. And tried some more. It didn’t even take the shine off. When I went to tell the associate, she was busy with someone else, so I just left.
I’m not saying that I blaming the associate for the product not doing what it’s supposed to do. I am disappointed that she didn’t know the product that well. I would’ve been ok if she told me that she didn’t know and went to ask a manager. I feel like she just told me what was good to get a sale.
Would I come back? I really don’t know. Sometimes the way you get treated by an employee the 1^st time can leave an impression that lasts a LONG time. And right now, that bad impression isn’t very good.
(7)

I stopped by yesterday afternoon and was super excited that this place opened up so close by. The worker asked if I needed anything and I told her no I was still looking. She kept lingering around me even though there were other customers around the store. I was by the concealers — trying to figure out if I wanted one style over another when the worker told me that they don’t have a lot of darker concealers and this is all they had. I didn’t ask her for a color, I was minding my own business looking at concealers and she made a very weird/​rude assumption that my skin tone wouldn’t match the colors they currently have. I’m pretty fair and wear bronzers but I wasn’t wearing a bronzer that afternoon. Their #V201 concealer/​duo veil in light/​medium shades blends on my skin perfectly. I was pretty annoyed that she basically told me that I was to dark to for their concealers.
With that said, four stars for having a store in Kahala, minus the star for the worker following me around the entire time and telling me that information above. I left the store without buying what I intended on buying and was pretty upset about that fact. Cam asked me if I felt that it was a racist comment on her part or if I felt I was being racist for assuming she was being racist. LOL. I just think it’s rude to tell anyone they shouldn’t try something or tell someone they can’t fit something regardless of who’s trying to get it. Hopefully that makes sense?

I love their products and when I found out that they were carrying gel polishes, I wanted to try a couple so I purchased a plain creamy red color and a platinum glitter one. The red one bled but I liked it enough to keep it and buy more. However, the glitter one was just awful. I swatched the tester in-​store and it looked beautiful but when I went home and tried it, the finish wasn’t striking at all even in different lighting, and it was goopy and went on unevenly so I went back to exchange it.
Here is where the real problem begins:
I went to the counter and told them I wanted to exchange it. The assoc says that all polishes are final sale. Well guess what? Nobody told me and nowhere on the receipt nor the stands say that polishes were a final sale.
The conversation got heated with her pretty much accusing me of being dishonest by when I said that she didn’t tell me when I was checking out. She said that they were supposed to verbally tell customers that it was final. Now mind you, I made the purchase a few days ago and she was the same one who rung me up and never said a word. All she kept saying was that it was their policy and that she was «sorry». She said that people try to exchange polishes for different colors and I told her that I wasn’t exchanging it for the color and instead it was because it was a poor quality product, which I assumed that all their glitter gel polishes were, so I wanted to exchange it for the plain colored one instead. If I had known that it was a final sale, I wouldn’t have bothered driving all the way from Waipahu to Kahala to exchange it. I asked if they could just honor it this one time and she said no.
As I was about to walk away, she attempted to look like she cared by asking to see my receipt. She looks at it and scuffs saying that she was the one who helped me. And so I said «yes, and you didn’t say anything about it.» I decided to just speak to a manager. Turned out that she was the manager. I told her that the problem was she’s the manager and she should have known to tell me in the first place. It was her fault and she couldn’t even grant me the exchange.
That kind of customer «service» is not the kind you give, especially when you’re the one managing the store and that the shop had just newly opened. Their associates are usually friendly and nice. This one just had a façade and did not care to remedy the situation.

Korean cosmetics. I’m telling you it’s a booming business. This is the fourth shop to open in Hawaii and women of all ages love their products.
This store seems to carry a lot more skin care products.
The girls are friendly and try to help you find what you’re looking for or explain the products to you. It’s very overwhelming since there are so many types of face cleansers, skin care products and face powders. But I say try different things out. The prices are reasonable.
I like their fun nail polish colors and now they even have gel nail polishes and a gel light!
I love buying face masks and face wipes here. They make my face feel so fresh and clean!