Sephora

This is one of my favorite Sephoras that I’ve been to. I love the layout of the store. Everything is visible and easy to find. The staff is always helpful! I’ve been matched a few times and had questions about certain products. They are always very informative. If your ever at the Colonie Center, stop here and get some makeup!

This is what I call candy land. I love coming in here to browse around and try all the new beauty products. Some of the staff are more friendly than others, but Courtney is the absolute best. She is always cheerful and we always chit chat when I see her. I’m always on the look out for Kat Von D products that I don’t have. I loving coming to Sephora.

If you are a women of color it might be best to look elsewhere or know exactly what you want without needing any assistance.
Every time I have entered this Sephora I have never been greeted or had anyone come up to me asking if I needed help. I have always had to chase someone down for assistance.
I agree with Samara S., this location has zero diversity. They don’t know what to do with colored people.
For example, I received a gift card and along with it you get a 45 minute makeover. Setting up the apt. was great, they were super sweet about the timing and I was genuinely excited. That’s when it went all downhill. I came for my apt. and I had an older women do my makeover, I forgot her name. I’ll spare you all the details of what went wrong but let’s just say, thank god I had sunglasses with me and when i came home the first thing my bf asked was «What’s on your face?»
The part that sucks is that the only other Sephora near me is located in Crossgates Mall and trust me they are not any better. I went there once and they have a much smaller selection and same issue with lack of service.
My advice is to go in knowing exactly what you want, read all the reviews online, do your research and swatch. They do have a good return policy if it doesn’t work out.

I will say this. I really like Sephora. Borderline love, but this location ruins my experience EVERY time.
Colonie Center lacks diversity. I’ll go as far as saying that Albany lacks diversity. But when I come into a store, I expect someone to help me.
Every time I go to this Sephora I spend the whole time twiddling my thumbs wondering where to start & leave without being helped EVERY time. The only time someone helped me, I was color matched with a shade 4 shades darker than my actual skin. I was so upset. A person working in a beauty environment should know ALL forms of beauty. Not the most prevalent/​common.
They need to hire some new people.

Was immediately profiled as soon as I walked into the store. I had 3 employees following me around the store to the point of harassment. I was smelling perfumes when a security guard confronted me with accusations. I was not shoplifting nor had the intent to immediately left and left my basket of over 100 $ worth of make up that I was about to purchase. If you aren’t wearing a north face and uggs I don’t recommend visiting this location.

I like eye makeup, but I don’t wear foundation or anything on my face as it makes me break out or gives me hives or both. That being said, I have a wedding coming up and know that I need to use foundation unless I want to look dreadful and the people at the Clinique and MAC counters were annoying me with trying to up-​sell me on BS products.
I had a long list of demands for the foundation: no spf (that makes the break out worse), light to medium coverage (I don’t want to block out all my freckles, but I need to tone down the redness), for people with wrinkles and mature skin, for people with dry skin.
Sales woman ran through her mental inventory and came up with a product. Asked when the wedding was and told me to pick the lighter shade as my freckles will fade a bit by then. She asked if I needed anything else and when I said no she said «okay have fun at the wedding»…she didn’t try to sell me anything else!

I am a total skincare and cosmetic snob, so this place should be my heaven. And a couple of years ago, it was, but I’ve noticed a definite decline since it first opened. They are ALWAYS out of what I want. I’ll stop in a couple times a week and they won’t have restocked anything. They always say that they’re getting a shipment in two days – then I come in that day, and nothing. I don’t really believe that somebody is waiting for them to restock so they can buy it all out. Half the testers are missing or unusable – I’ve even seen testers of stuff that’s expired, still sitting there. They’re real pissy about getting samples together for you – years ago, I was looking to buy a new skincare regimen, and I was looking at the nice stuff – Caudalie, Nude Skincare, etc. A new regimen in one of these lines is at least $ 200, likely more, and I wanted to try them out before I spent that money. One girl absolutely refused to prepare more than one sample of the products – she said I had to choose what I wanted a sample of. Well, I ended up buying that entire regimen at Bella Rouge in Clifton Park, where I’ve been a regular since then.
In any case, they stopped carrying Pop Beauty and Nude Skincare, seriously decreased the amount of Guerlain products, and they are consistently out of half the Nails Inc. colors I want. The store is dirty, and although one has to expect to pick up a certain amount of glitter in a cosmetic store, I’m always afraid to touch ANYTHING because it seems like they never clean the displays. The staff is not helpful and not at all knowledgeable about the products they carry. They’re supposed to get training, but I’ve never seen any evidence of that, and I can’t really convince myself to blow hundreds of dollars when I know more about the products in question than the staff.

Oh Sephora, You are my downfall.
It’s like the «grown up» girls playground!
I had stopped in on previous occasions to other Sephoras, seeing the prices and quickly turning around.
The first time I had stopped in to this location I was looking for alternatives for my make up and skin care (and by alternatives to skincare, I mean any skincare)
New york weather has been awful on my skin. It apparently prefers dry heat desert weather.
I heard that you could try the products and return them with no hassle if it didn’t work. Wasted money on cosmetics that sit in a drawer makes me cry a little bit.
If I rated this place after the first actual visit .it would have been a 5. If I had rated this place after the 2^nd and 3^rd visit it would have been a 3.
It’s evened out to about a 4.
Here’s the important bits of Sephora.
(1) Service — It’s hit or miss. Sometimes it’s hard to even find someone to make eye contact with you and sometimes I can’t bat them away, Go on a weekday.
(2) Samples — They give you samples of stuff you are iffy on purchasing. Even perfume! They even put it in a little spritzer, they last about a week for me. The first time I went the girl gave me samples of the whole Bare Escentuals set that she tried on me and I was unsure of. (not for me in case you were wondering.)
(3) Returns– They will RETURN anything that you don’t like .
Sometimes you’ll get someone with an attitude but most of the time it’s great. (keep the receipt and at least the package to make it easier)
Yes, you may spend more money but you won’t waste money on products that you don’t use and you can try about anything right there in the store.

Here’s why Sephora gets five stars despite the minimum $ 30 that leaves my wallet every time I cross their threshold.
Got some gift cards for the holidays, they were burning a hole in my purse, so I headed over to Sephora in search of a new perfume. There are hundreds of bottles of perfume lining the walls here, and it becomes overwhelming to both the nose and brain fairly quickly.
I asked a hurried sales associate for help, and even though the line was practically out the door, even though they were elbow-​to-​elbow with people cramming the store, she stopped what she was doing to spend a full 20 minutes filling samplers for me to try different perfumes at home. No commission, just great ethics.
Perfumes there can go for $ 40-​$ 110 easily, and this extra bit of customer service meant a LOT. I buy all my cosmetics here, all my perfumes, and I will continue to spend money on great products that are worth every penny.

One of the only places around where you can get quality male skin care products. Also a very good selection of mens cologne.

I love Sephora! I was super exicted when they came to the area, as there are no other stores like it around here. If you go there be expected to spend some serious cash as the brand name cosmetics there are not cheap.
I also love their Beauty Insider program (which is free to join). Once you’re a member, every $ 100 you spend gives you enough points for a deluxe sample in store or online. They also offer 3 regular sized samples free with every purchase made online, and usually free shipping over $ 50 (sometimes its $ 25).
The best part of Sephora is their return policy… you can return anything for any reason, even if you’ve already tested it. (Thank you Sephora for this!!!)
The only negative thing I can say is that their in-​store testers are really gross! I wouldn’t recommend using them unless you wanna catch some funky disease… just ask the sales associate for a sample to take home instead!
I have spent way too much money at this place since they’ve opened, but yet I keep coming back for more! …lol… What can I say, it’s a girls’s dream come true, right here in Albany! :)

The Sephora store just opened in November in Colonie Center in Albany. I was not sure what to expect since I have been a long time shopper and browser of Sephora online but had not yet been in one of the retail stores.
This is a nirvana of make up and skin care products wrapped in a brightly lit and energetic feeling space. No matter what your preference or particular skin problem, you are sure to find a product for you. Best of all, if you are unsure of which of the thousands of skin care products would suit you best, fear not… there are a lot of pretty staff members walking around with headsets who are happy to help you decide.
When I was there, I was interested in organic skin care products for sensitive skin. A staff member happily approached me and informed me that she would be happy to help me decide on a product and that they did not work on commission, so all she wanted to do was help me find the best thing for me. She patiently and enthusiastically spend the good part of 30 minutes with me, walking me through the several brands and products that she would recommend for my skin.
In the end, I felt very good about the products I decided on, especially since my salesperson informed me that Sephora’s policy is that if you do not like any product you buy, you can return it at any time for a full refund. Wow…
Also good to note that you can have a skin care professional give you a complimentary skin care analysis. All you have to do is ask. and maybe wait in line. I went there at the start of January and they were packed with people. The lines were long as many people were buying things, but if you are patient enough, it is worth the time.