How I Conquered My Cystic Acne, In (Just!) 17 Painful Steps

Fighting acne is like fighting war. There is collateral damage. Things get worse before they get better. Whole villages of innocent, noncombatant pores stand in the line of our chemical weapons. And like war, fighting acne can be "controversial." Last week our Sephora Spy, Jasmine made an offhand comment about how acne can render a person "homeless," and some of you commenters declared mutiny. This week Jasmine is back to defend herself and what she feels is a just war on her adult onset cystic acne. It is, after all, her own experience with adult-onset cystic acne that launched her into the never-ending quest for a cosmetic cure and the accompanying lame retail job she works at to fund her, um, research. Because when it comes to the skin on your face, cysts aren't a shallow concern: They're deep. Really, really deep. (Which is pretty much also why they suck so hard.) More »

I Work Here To Feed My Sick Fancy Product Addiction; The Least I Can Do Is Help You

Remember life before Sephora? When lipstick was lipstick and foundation didn't need to be "primed"? Well, ever since the the Berlin Wall fell, Pakistan developed nukes and "cosmeceuticals" joined the Oxford English Dictionary (okay, not really, but!) the world of beauty has been much more complicated and perilous to navigate. And that's why we brought in Sephora Spy, our double agent in your personal War On Ugly, to offer up beauty tips (and a few wild war stories.) This week she gives us some tactics for buying eyeshadow, weighs in on how dirty the testers really are, and shares the riskiest thing she ever did to get clear skin — and yes it was illegal! She shares all that and much more with commenter LoMorale after the jump. Questions? Comments? Email SephoraSpy@gmail.com! More »

Meet Jasmine, Our New Sephora Undercover Agent

Remember life before Sephora? When twenty-seven dollars seemed a good price to pay for jeans, but not, like, a blusher packaged in a little brown paper box? Remember when eyeshadows were actually sold with their very own applicators and "cosmeceuticals" was not a term? Remember when ten bucks seemed like a lot to pay for foundation? Suffice it to say, we at Jezebel consider Sephora a scam on par with Scientology, and we have long desired to find a spy inside the company to tell us how it works. Well, we found one! Her name is "Jasmine", and like a Scientologist, she speaks in code. (Did you know that when a Sephora employee insults another Sephora employee's outfit, the insult is known as a "gift"? Jasmine would like to be the gift that keeps on giving.) After the jump, Jezebel operative and beauty expert LoMorale breaks down the method behind the makeup retailer's madness and interviews Jasmine about her life and work. Questions? Concerns? "Pushback"? Email us! More »

If You Go To Work For American Apparel, Can You Really Expect Dov Charney To Wear Clothes?

Just when you thought a day could not pass without a post on American Apparel, the best worst company in America, we get this alarming tidbit courtesy the New York Post: one of the sexual harassment cases against chronic masturbating abusive perv-with-a-heart-of-gold-lame-leggings American Apparel founder/CEO Dov Charney is going to trial. Tomorrow! Former sales manager and aggressive in-line skater Mary Nelson accuses Dov of attending a sales meeting wearing nothing but a "cock sock." Do you go to work for Dov Charney expecting him to wear clothes to meetings? Nevermind, that! The news here is that Dov Charney is so morally certain he is entitled to run his company however like a corporate embodiment of a Vice Magazine coffee table book he wants that he is eschewing the easy way out to take his case before a jury. Knowing a little bit about the case from when it was filed in 2005 — briefly, considering it's American Apparel we're talking about here, the plaintiff's story isn't that salacious — I thought I'd check back in on its progress since... More »

Working At American Apparel Is All It's Coked Up To Be

When last we chronicled our adventures working retail, a boring high school job at an Indiana Hollister store culminated in a stockroom orgy. So you can imagine what it's like working at American Apparel. Or maybe you can't! Anyway, because the chain has once again been in the news for, once again, objectifying young women and crap, I decided to finally come forth with my tale of how I, like so many other embittered twentysomethings, worked at American Apparel once. And lived to tell the tale.

More »

Hollister: Sort Of Like "Girls Gone Wild", Only With Girls Too Young For Joe Francis

It's Fashion Week, and we know how much that means to you all, but we thought we'd throw a bone to Jezebel readers who'd trade their newfound understanding of Vena Cava for a decent glass of vino. This is the story of Hollister, a powerful branch of the Abercrombie & Fitch youth retail empire and the sort of work environment and probably middle America's closest approximation to working in fashion. All through the country, thanks to retailers like Hollister, average heartland American teenagers are trading wages for status, obsessively attuning themselves to tiny aesthetic tics, throwing themselves into the insecurity-superiority spirals and learning to hate bread. And the tiny crop of straight dudes smart enough to plant themselves in the middle of it is getting unjustly and prodigiously laid. Meet The Douche. His name might have been Scott. Reader Christine has blocked it out. He was her first retail boss, and he was verrrry good at preparing his charges to meet Joe Francis. Welcome back to "I Work Retail," the Jezebel column about the only industry more depressing than women's magazines.

More »

The Devil Wears Prada Because Prada Is Hell

Welcome to our second installment of "I Work Retail," in which we investigate the very peculiar torture of selling designer goods. The anonymous author, C, worked at the Soho Prada flagship store, the site of a five-alarm fire last year. She saw symbolism in that, and shared with us this cautionary tale.

More »

Anthropologie Doesn't Care About Black People

Working retail sucks; this is a given. You make $9 an hour hanging up clothes made by people who make 90 cents a day so that people like Dick Hayne of Urban Outfitters and Mike Jeffries of Abercrombie & Fitch have not just millions but billions of dollars to throw around on Rick Santorum and plastic surgery. But working retail wouldn't be the worst job in America if not for the unreal ratio of reality TV-esque attitude: The high school cliqueyness; the insane pressure to blow your whole paycheck on clothes; the district managers who determine you have "the look"; the airhead clotheshorses who get promoted... all are burdens endured by retail employees so that we, as customers, can feel sufficiently fat and insecure while shopping. Welcome to "I Work Retail," a column about the stupid shit many people deal with in the name of acting out some insane person's idealized "lifestyle." We invite your submissions, and will pay $200 to those we post. Today, Intern Maria, a former employee of everyone's favorite feminine boho-chic retailer Anthropologie, tackles the issue of racism. Hey, it's not just for Abercrombie!

More »