Gratis

A post for girls

As I am a girl, it's normal to be so much into makeup and cosmetics, I guess, but my boyfriend sometimes says I am over the top with these things, which I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing. I think loving cosmetics it's a necessity and a hobby at the same time, but my love for makeup is more like an addiction than anything. Of course I also have that type of skin that is extremely sensitive and not so perfect, so I use a lot of make up on a daily basis, not because I may need it, but make up gives you that extra confidence you need. My history with make up goes back to some year of high school, as I remember. Growing up, I always looked up at my mom and she did her make up every day before going to work. She had all this make up things and I always felt very interested in trying them. But not until late high school years I decided to use full cover make up everyday. There was one particular girl in my class that she used daily makeup, but it was always so sparkly and colorful that she looked more like if she was clubbing than at school. And then there were these two girls, Magda and Anda. They discovered for the first time foundation so they used a super dark formula and their faces were like if they were using a mask and their necks were super white. I remember my English teacher telling them all the time that their foundation was a bit too dark for their skin.

It wasn't like I choose to wear makeup, it was more like a duty. I had acne problem almost all my high school years and I did struggled for some time, and almost all 3 years in high school I didn't wear any make up at all. I was more like a tomboy so I didn't pay so much attention to fashion or make up. In my senior year I started to change my attitude and to pay more attention to my look and became more feminine as time passed. I started using foundation and mascara and this felt more natural that I could cover my bad skin in that time. Of course I was using as well a darker color than my actual skin tone, but almost 10 years ago of course we didn't know about how to find your own skin tone foundation or how to contour, these things are all new and it's so easy now to watch YouTube videos about how to put makeup on. Plus there were not so many cosmetic reviews and all the advertising that there is now. I didn't know the difference among cosmetic brands and all of that, I just found a foundation my mom had and used it.

Time passed and during my university years I became one of the most "popular girls", always very good dressed and my make up was on fleek. I invested my time in learning more about products and clothes and I started to know what is working and not on my skin and body. I started to invest in products and soon I realized I had a lot of make up and products to choose from. I can easily say that a lot of money since then was spent on make up. Fashion is a big part of my life, almost all my Erasmus money went to clothes and make up and the other part for traveling, but yeah, I am obsessed with always buying something else even if I am not always using it. I read reviews all the time, I check new products and I am always going to Gratis shop.

Gratis

In Romania there is a place where I always buy my make up products, but since I am in Turkey for more than an year, I have Gratis shop. I found this shop really randomly, I didn't know anything about this chain store or anything. It is not international, you can find it just in Turkey. After I came to Trabzon last July of course one of my first trips was to the closest shopping mall, which is Varlibas Mall, very close to my apartment here. After checking all the shops I saw one particular shop of only cosmetics and make up, so I said "I need to get in to check it". After checking it I was so addicted and impressed by the variety of brands and products they had inside. Brands like Maybelline, L'Oreal, Rimmel London, Dirty Works, etc. , and cosmetic products such as Himalaya, Neutrogena, Garnier... and basically everything you ever wanted, but I don't want to write down all the names, of course. In my shop back home is hard to find so much variety in one shop, it's true, so maybe that's why Gratis is my favorite make up shop here in Turkey.

They have competition, another make up and cosmetic shop very similar to Gratis but with another name, "Watson", but I like Gratis better. Whenever I go buy something, for example, let's say I just want cotton pads or something, I end up buying for 100 TL (35 euros) and I find myself going too much at Gratis. Actually, yesterday after I cleaned all my apartment I went because I needed a few things, so I thought I would take some pictures and show you guys, I mean, girls. If you ever go to Turkey don't go Sephora or other shops you can find everywhere, just enter Gratis shop and I promise you that you will not be disappointed.

The shop looks like that, yes, tiny, but trust me, they have plenty of products inside and a few products for me as well. This shop is in the Varlibas Mall, but in this city there are another three shops. And all over Turkey you can find them in every city. And Watson as well.

The best thing about Gratis is that you can request a fidelity card in which all the time you buy something you get some points and whenever there are discounts you can get super price, and trust me, there are always discounts, these days before the Qurban feast started (which is today), they had 50 % discount on almost all the products, so I always take advantage of these promotions and even if I don't need something I always end up coming home with a big bag. So in short time I managed to gather a stock of products here as well, Muhammet says he doesn't have space from all my products display.

This is what the fidelity card looks like.

Yesterday I bought some things I was missing. When I came from Elazığ I decided to let my almost finish products there, so I bought a new cleanser from Neutrogena, which I heard is good but still haven't tried it and some cotton pads, Bio Oil, which I used before and loved and a package of nose pads which are amazing and totally work.

These products I bought yesterday were 19 TL (6 euros) with my fidelity card, but usually they are around 40 TL (13 euros).

Some of my favorite products from Gratis

Some of the products I love and use from Gratis are the Himalaya brand which I discovered recently, I use the Himalaya face cream and the shampoo, which are amazing, especially the shampoo. Himalaya is an Indian brand of cheap cosmetics 100 % entirely made from plants, which is awesome. Other products I use are of course L'Oreal for foundation and powders, the lip liner from Flormar, which I use like a lipstick, they have some nice bronzer pads from a brand called Gia, which I believe is French. I use a bunch of things from Neutrogena as cleansers and recently I also discovered this brand Dirty Works, which is a British cosmetic brand. They are a bit pricey but now I use the tonic water from them and so far I love it.

Garnier is another product I use as tonic and I love it. They have amazing products as I said before and I love that I go one time and I find eveything in one place, which is super comfortable.

The insights of the shop.

As you can see, yesterday there were a lot of discounts and also men were so curious about it, so funny. For Muhammet it's not the best place, especially if he is waiting for me outside. I always tell him I will stay just 10 minutes and then I stay more than half an hour. But yeah, it's hard to shop fast when they have so many good products inside to choose from!

So girls, as a conclusion, I totally recommend this place, I gave it 5 star rating because for me it's the place where I'd rather spend all my time while shopping. And soon I need to go back!