It's snowing. So I went shopping.

I know I'm supposed to decry the Estee Lauder corporation's acquisition of super kewl boutique brands like Bobbi Brown and MAC ... but I'm a middle-aged, lazy housewife, it's cold and snowy outside, and frankly, I couldn't be more glad that I could just head over to the Gloss website and order what I needed without firing up the minivan and heading to the mall.

What I needed was my favorite day time moisturizer--Estee Lauder's Resilience Lift lotion. I love this stuff because it's light, moisturizes well, gives me a glow, contains SPF15, yet doesn't reek. In fact, it smells like cantaloupe. I'm on my last week's worth of the stuff, and I was beginning to panic, wondering when I could get to a Major Department Store and buy some.

While I was on the gloss website, I decided to pop for a couple of MAC eyeshadows. Usually, on those rare occasions when I can be bothered to mess around with eyeshadow in the first place, I stick to Jane Eye Zings, but MAC has some interesting shades you really can't get anywhere else. So I ordered MAC shadows in Juxt and Vex.

And now, a word about gifts with purchase. In true Estee Lauder style, Gloss has them. (Estee Lauder being the inventor of this excellent department store tradition.) But on Gloss, you get to pick your gift. This means that when I checked out, I could get a sample tube of Origin's A Perfect World moisturizer, as well as sample sizes of a Clinique lip gloss and eye shadow,
which I like much better than the idea of acquiring Yet Another Tube of Estee Lauder "Rosa Rosa" Lipstick in Yet Another Fugly Cosmetics bag. The GWPs and samples can come from any of the Estee Lauder companies, (or Gloss affiliates) which at present are:

Bobbi Brown
Chanel
Clarins
Clinique
Darphin
Estée Lauder
Jo Malone
La Mer
Lab Series
MAC
Origins
Prescriptives
Rodan + Fields
Stila

As I said, I'm pretty much over gifts with purchase--at least, GWPs of Estee Lauder products. Resilience Lift moisturizer is the only EL product I use. But the companies Estee has gobbled up? I'll totally take their stuff.

Oh, and there was free shipping, too--nice!

So that's the good news.

The bad news is that while Gloss works perfectly well for restocking items you've already used or color cosmetics you've already seen in real life, they have the WORST on-screen representation of makeup colors I've ever seen. They are way, way off. So watch out for that.