Like this is not disturbing enough...
For those of you not familiar with the concept, yes it's white people painted in black. And it's even more disturbing in person. Somehow this is not seen as racism in the Netherlands.
I still tried to make the best of my day, after all I dragged my boyfriend all the way over there, it took us one hour just to find a paid parking that wasn't full. I ended up shopping around in de bijenkorf. The one in Eindhoven is especially nice. They have a lot of skin care brands dr. Hauschka, Ren, Kiehs among others. They also have a lot of make up brand. None of which are impossible to find in Belgium. They also have two ici paris and one Douglas (I didn't go in because there were those creepy white people painted in black in front of the store).
Here's a couple of pictures I took in de Bijenkorf (sorry for the quality I forgot my memory card)
And it all ended in an Irish pub...
The verdict?
Eindhoven is a nice shopping city, but I wouldn't say it's worth the detour striclty for makeup. I would recommand Bruxelles over that because they have a full Bobbi Brown make up store, a make up for ever store and many others. I think the next makeup "Pilgrimage" will be in June 2014 at Imats London! And I want to thank my boyfriend to be so patient and bringing me there and fight through the parking madness.
A pity that the INGLOT store wasn't there anymore! I know you really looked forward to it. Did you go to Primark? There was a lot of buzz about that too. Brussels is definitely closer, so worth the trouble much more :)
ReplyDeleteThere was so many people and at least 20 Zwarte Piets everywhere I got creeped out a little bit! We didn't stay sooo long. I just bought a bit of MAC make up and we went to the Irish pub.
ReplyDeleteHey Judith, aww I'm so sorry to hear about the disappointment! Inglot went bankrupt in the Netherlands very recently (I heard the owner died of a heart attack). Also about the Sinterklass thing: kids here take it very seriously. The story has been around for SO long that it continues to include Zwarte Piet. I personally try to ignore the "racist" component in there and just treat it like any other folklore!
ReplyDeleteThe owner died last winter I think. I guess I have to see it that way, but as a North American with all the shame around the slavery and the way natives got treated it's hard to take those things lightly. But then again here there's the whole colonial history. Oh well...
ReplyDeleteYeah I also find it quite surprising how unapologetically racist people here can sound at times, especially the older generation. I guess they never learnt what you are free to think but not say. The younger generation has definitely made some progress though!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that Inglot went bankrupt. Such a shame. No Inglot in Belgium that is.
ReplyDeleteOnly Inglot Netherlands went bankrupt as far as I'm concerned. They are suppose to relaunch the brands in a couple of months according to their facebook page. Of course I had to read through a lot of comments to get this information. Not very transparent information to their costumers to say the least.
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