my yelp review: Aveda

Aveda Environmental Lifestyle Store
Categories: Massage, Nail Salons
Neighborhood: Back Bay
100 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 236-1917
Aveda Environmental Lifestyle Store
3 star rating
11/2/2009

Every now and then, I try to step into the world of women who put goop on their faces in order to look more natural. This involves the grueling process of talking about my skin, which is like chalk scraping against a blackboard to my sense of identity. A year and a half had passed since I'd made the mistake of buying Aveda's tinted moisturizer ($28). Because of their incredibly generous return policy, you can return any product, even if opened, without any time restriction. I went back last week, thinking I was ready to try another skin product, something less like makeup, maybe one of their moisturizers.

Let me say I am a BIG fan of Aveda as a brand. All that pure essence of plant and flower shit makes me swoon, much less their focus on sustainable business practices, for which they deserve to be the market leader they are. My allegiance started with their shampoos, one whiff of Shampure to be exact: "a calming mix of 25 pure flower and plant essences," according to the bottle. AND DID I MENTION THAT IT SMELLS FANTASTIC?! Then those sweet little postcards luring me in with free samples or a small bottle of free scent on my birthday (one of which I dropped and found myself actually crying about, although the bedroom smelled wonderful to me for months and months afterwards!). At first I brought the postcards into the Copley store the next day. But every now and then, I'd realize I didn't need or want one of the freebies. In other words, the brand's glow had its off moments. And it is at those moments, when the brand's products aren't keeping their promise, that other aspects of the brand, like warm, welcoming service and fantastic return policies repair the void, ultimately redeeming the customer's brand experience.

This did not happen for me. Of the two employees I met, one was too new to know the welcome drill, withholding the signature licorice tea for a cruelly long period, and the other (the manager) seemed too weary. (You'd think Aveda would stock free energy-boosting treats for staff like the AcaiBlaster antioxidant soft chews I bought from GNC downtown.) Before giving me the spiel about what special ingredients were in this concoction or that concoction, which is what I go there for and what I enjoy, the manager quizzed me in an impatient manner, suggested a four-bottle Botanical Kinetics regime for $90, and then hurried off to the one new customer, leaving me with sticker shock and paranoid thoughts. Wasn't I dressed expensively enough? Do I really want to shop in a place that you feel you have to dress up for? I had come from work, so it wasn't like I was in sweats. I managed to leave with a (relatively) modest 1.7 fl oz bottle of what was labeled a massage oil ($21) (and which I thought my husband would, ahem, enjoy), the energizing composition, but I think it's the staff who needs a good dose of it.