A short while ago, I had a sty in my eye. Normally, when I have had them, they’re small but tough blisters on my eyelid. I scrape them with a toothpick and they’re gone.

Not this one.

This one lingered and went into my upper eyelid. I had drops and it finally went away. But not without some really bad pain. One night, when I squeezed my upper eyelid, I was rewarded with some of the worst eye pain I’ve ever had. I was convinced there was something in my eye. The mother of all eyelashes maybe.

That “something” turned out to be a tiny glob of skin from the blister I’d popped. The skin was trapped between my eyelid and eyeball, and I fished it out with a cotton swab. I took a photo. It was small, yet big enough to be agonizing.

I was glad it went away, but not happy with having to repurchase eye makeup. It’s one of the reasons I try not to spend a lot of money on mascara, eyeliner and shadow. Because… WHAT IF?

So I went makeup shopping. And it was disappointing.

Back home, I’d just go into Ulta when I wanted something. Their clearance racks are legendary, and NYX has become my go-to brand. Urban Decay had a shadow called “Lounge” that was game-changing.

Here, things are a little different. I’m exposed to a lot of brands, many of which I can’t afford. Dior. Chanel. Tom Ford.

Which is why I was thrilled to discover Wow Colour, and The Colorist. Back in the day (five years ago or so) I walked into Wow Color and nearly fainted. Imagine a store with literally dozens of different makeup brands, some known, some obscure, plus a bunch of beauty tools. Add in a place for bored boyfriends to hang out, and you’ve got the gist of these stores.

I LOVED them. They also carried a tiny selection of some more expensive brands (samples, mostly) but they seemed to have it all. Except for one thing. The eye shadow seemed the same.

It didn’t matter what brand it was, it seemed like every single eye shadow palette featured warm pinks, peaches and browns, with some orange thrown in. Blushes tended to be warm, as well, and sometimes neon pink. The eyeliners featured a huuuuuuuge (sarcasm) range of brown to black. And for a long time I was baffled.

Then, it hit me. It was because basically everyone looks the same. I know it sounds mean, but it’s rare that you see a young person with blonde hair, or anything other than black/brown hair. And for the girls, it will be in a ponytail. Add in similar skin color, and it’s obvious I’m not in Kansas anymore. Or Toronto. I’m sure that I was Wow Colour and The Colorist’s oldest customer; a quick glance around the store and I was the only foreigner as well. But I didn’t care. Let the older Asian women go to Carslan and SKII. I wanted a bargain.

Alas, that was before.

Years ago, seemed like both shops carried American as well as Asian brands, one had Wet and Wild, the other had L.A. Colors. I found a Wet and Wild palette with ten colors that were actually differemt. They had a couple shades of green that were great, and a sparkly brown. I should have taken a picture of it before I threw it away, because I don’t think they make that palette anymore. It also had some lighter shades as well. But not wanting to risk another infection, I threw out all my eye makeup, and the brushes. I even threw out my recent Make Up For Ever eyeliners, which I’d had for less than four months. That hurt. It’s not like they’re $5 apiece.

So I replaced everything, but I had to go to four stores. And as for eye shadow, I had to get that online. Sephora, MAC, KKV and Make Up For Ever just weren’t cutting it. And “Lounge” is nowhere to be found.

Another annoying thing about the more upscale stores is that you look around and think, “geez, this is a lot of makeup.” On closer inspection, you see the displays tend to repeat themselves. Every time you think you’ve found a new collection of eyeliners, you realize it’s the same stuff you first looked at when you walked in the store.

And why didn’t I go to Wow Colour and The Colorist you may ask? Well, I did. But they’ve shifted their focus to more skin care than makeup. The makeup brands hardly feature any western names at all. And Foccalure, which actually had purple eye shadow at one time, vanished. I remember their eye shadow display boasting a 16 square-foot assortment of eyeshadows that nearly made me gasp. They were individual colors, which I like because you can put together your own collection, instead of having to buy the palette for the one color you want, and wonder how you’re going to use the rest of them.

Even going to KKV, which fascinated me when I first discovered it a few months ago, wasn’t very impressive for their makeup selection either.

As for blush, I’m not out of that. But because I just can’t seem to find what I want, I used a Kiss Me lipstick as cream blush, and it works. It’s the right color, a cool, deep pink instead of the neon girly pink I seem to see a lot of.

You also may ask, “why didn’t you check out Walmart?” Are you sitting down? You sure? Because here’s why:

Walmart does NOT have a cosmetics section.

I’ll repeat:

Walmart does NOT have a cosmetics section.

Some Walmarts may have an in-store kiosk dedicated to L’Oreal or Maybelline. But mostly, it seems that the Walmarts (always located in a mall, I’ve not seen stand-alone Walmarts here) usually have makeup kiosks meters away from their mall entrances. But the stores themselves devote what would normally be the makeup aisles to skin care. I loathe Walmart, but when I get back to the states, I might just go to one and drift around the makeup aisles and soak in all the fabulousness. Then, I’ll go to Ulta. God knows what I’ll do there.