When the people at Anya Hindmarch sent me their bag, they also sent me their book: 'Change The World 9 to 5'... Today I'm gonna combine two of the actions on their to do list :

'Praise People' and 'Support Small Businesses' The thing is, now that I have dough, people send me free stuff. Which I love of course, but there are still some things that I want to pay for. Concerts for example: I pay for them. Even though I'm a music editor and I can get in for free. Over the past year I went to see Klaxons, Cat Power, Jay-Z and 36 other bands... I paid for every single concert (I am not including corporate festivals where no money goes back to the artists. In those cases it's guestlist all the way for this girl). It's not something to be proud of , it's the decent thing to do. I like those bands. And in order for them to be able to keep doing their thing, you have to pay for that shit. With a smile.

I feel the same way about the people at this fab lil store in BX Capitale called Cosmeticary. Almost two years ago, one of my girls gave me a gift certificate from their store and instead of just an envelope with a card inside, i got this cute bag that was absolutely jampacked with samples.

A couple of months later I had to do a big article for ELLE about Hot & Green must-haves so I called their press people for some samples. Two days later I got a box of full-sized to die for stuff and I was told that from that point on I would receive a full blown discount on all their things.

Adorable & highly professional behaviour like that makes me want to spend money.

So I went in there a week ago and this huge & handsome dude (I think he's the boss) listened to my wishlist. I'm a bit uptight when it comes to hair & skinproducts because I always think that nobody gets my skin & hair (which they usually don't). And then he continued to show me two different variations of every product I asked for. The one that I thought was best for me and the one he thought would be best for me. Without being obnoxious or patronizing.

That kind of shop assisting makes me want to spend even more money. So I decided to buy everything in the colour or formula he advised me to. And then I decided that I would not tell him who I was and that I was entitled to that huge discount. I paid, but before he handed me the bag he started filling it with Dr. Brandt (quite expensive + genius stuff) samples that are gonna last me ages and probably equal an actual bottle.

That kind of client service will make me go back there & spend more money.

And it doesn't stop there... Today, their lovely PR An (who just like Amandine from Ed Banger sports a KNOTORYUS sticker on her agenda) with whom I mail sometimes but we never met , sent me two full blown By Terry Glosses. One because that's what every journalist got. The other because she saw my pic on this site and thought that it would look really good on me. How sweet is that? By the way, they were both right, the Big Monsieur & Miss An... I'm looking mighty fine these days.