Thursday, December 30, 2010

My trip to a CCO

If you read as many beauty blogs as I do, you may have heard of the famed "CCO" shops- it stands for Cosmetics Company Outlet. CCO's are owned by Estee Lauder, and they carry discounted makeup from all the brands Estee Lauder owns. At the CCO I went to, they carried (besides Estee Lauder, obviously) Flirt! (the Kohl's makeup line), Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Prescriptives, and MAC, the reason anyone really wants to go in the first place. They also had a good amount of Clinique skincare products, and skincare products from another brand I haven't heard of, American something. I didn't look closely at the perfume brands but I do remember seeing Tommy Hilfiger. The store was at an outlet mall in Aurora, IL. I was visiting one of my grandmas who lives pretty close to that area so my mom and I decided to go to the outlet mall and check it out. :) Sadly I forgot my camera at home that day so I didn't get any pictures of the store for you guys. If you go on Youtube though, some people have uploaded videos of what the stores look like. They had some stuff in boxes you could just grab off the shelf and buy, but things like eyeliners and lippies they only had out as testers, and you would have to bring them up to the counter to get them new in the box. Some of the gloss testers were gross, but it's nice that you know no one has touched the stuff you end up buying. The discount prices aren't huge, I would say most things were 20%-35% off the original price. The items they carry aren't brand new things. For example, the most recent MAC items they had were from the To The Beach collection, but they also had stuff from as far back as the Heatherette, Fafi, etc. collections. They had lots of discontinued items too! I decided to go ahead and buy my very first MAC products :) Right now I am out of town AGAIN for another family thing, but I will do swatches when I get home. I got a mineralized blush, a Superglass, a Lipglass, a liquid liner, a Slimshine lipstick, and a lipstain. The total of these items was a little less than $70 after tax. If you have a CCO near you and you like MAC or any of the other brands they carry, it is DEFINITELY worth your time to go, even if you have to drive a while. Here is a link to which outlet malls have a CCO store. The same outlet mall also had a Lancome Company Store. They had Juicy Tubes and this amazingly cool discontinued product I'll show you later for 55% off, so I got three items for about $20. I also went to CVS yesterday and grabbed a couple clearance lippies from Revlon that were 75% off. They were less than $3 each. If you haven't heard by now, CVS is having their beauty clearance sale. You can find out some great information about it over at Noveau Cheap. At the one I stopped at, I don't think they had finished marking prices, but I did see a LOT of Revlon stuff on sale. So here was my total haul for the week, and everything was purchased at a discount price! If there is anything else I can think to add about the CCO I will, and if there is something you'd like to know that I didn't mention, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to try and remember :P

12 comments:

  1. Well whaddya know? There's one of those like two seconds away from me and I didn't even realize it. Gaffney, SC. Doesn't that sound lovely? We call it the "Yellow mall" because it used to be painted yellow. haha
    I just recently popped my MAC cherry as well. I'm with you on the brand, it seems over hyped and over priced! I do really love what I have though so I'm not complaining. Looks like I'm going to have to take a trip to CCO myself and grab some stuff. Thanks, I never would have known! :)

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  2. I live in London and don't know of any CCOs near me but it looks like you can find some amazing stuff there! If you like Urban Decay enter my Book of Shadows 3 giveaway!
    Kat x

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  3. My parents got me a heap of mac recently on their trip to America and I love it :) Though Still a big fan of Inglot. They had a sale and I went crazy!

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  4. Congrats on joining the MAC club!!! XD Great haul, chica! You know how to pick 'em!

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  5. Ooooh the CCOs are carrying the pro longwear lipstains? I may have to go by mine then! It's about 40 mins away but that might be worth it... nice haul!

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  6. This CCO sounds awesome! I'll have to see if I have one close! Great haul! And I'm still a MAC virgin :(

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  7. I need to hit a CCO sometime. Nice Haul!

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  8. when i went to the cvs sale i also got some of those revlon overtime colorstay sheers and i swatched it on my hand and now it wont come off! I've used 409 on it, bleach and everything! I cant wait to try them on my lips just to see if they stay put as good! I love your haul. Wish i had a CCO around me. lol =]

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  9. Oooh, I am kicking my self now. Before we moved to Texas the outlet my near us had a CCO only I didn't know that's what it was. I saw all the Estee Lauder stuff and just sort of dismissed it because I don't use Estee Lauder. :(

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  10. @Annamax: That's awesome, how lucky! I can't wait to see your haul!

    @Kat: It was really awesome!

    @Kira: Inglot is only available at a few really big cities in the USA, I wish you could order from their website! I've been dying to try them. Maybe someday...

    @femputer: I probably spent a good hour and a half in there swatching EVERYTHING so I could make sure I'd get stuff that I would really like.

    @Cydonian: I'd say a 40 minute drive would be worth it! They had 5 or 6 different shades of the lipstains at the one I was at, and it cost $11.25.

    @The Peach: I think some of the stuff they have seems great and priced well, but I think some things like the tinted lip conditioners seem like a total waste of money. The new Peacocky collection seems too pricey.

    @Phyrra: It's makeup heaven :D

    @ashleygoesrawr: I haven't swatched it yet, but WOW! If it really stays that well I'll probably go back and get all the other shades too.

    @Darling Girl: I have never thought about Estee Lauder until I went in, but I actually saw a lot of stuff from them that I liked. They had the most beautiful blushes, I'd love to try some out someday.

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  11. If they had CCOs near me, you can pretty much guarantee I would LIVE in there.

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  12. Dude! I'd seen references to CCOs before, but didn't really register what they were. Now I know, and will definitely have to check them out! And holy shit, there's one about thirty minutes from me. Sweet!

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