Leslie Jones is through with Sephora.
The comedian tweeted Tuesday that she sent her makeup artist and her best friend’s wife to one of the personal care and beauty stores on Broadway in New York. However, Lola Okanlawon, of Lola’s Beauty Mark, wound up leaving Sephora upset.
“I sent my makeup artist @LolasBeautyMark and my best friends wife to @Sephora 2103 Broadway store. she needed makeup and to learn how to apply. my makeup artist just called in tears of how bad they treated her and my friends wife!! The salesperson and manager. SO NO MORE SEPHORA” Jones said.
Sephora responded by apologizing and noted they hope to get in touch with the “Saturday Night Live” star and her friends directly.
Jones also posted the tweet on Instagram and wrote in the caption, “I am tired of the f—ery yo!! If we spend money in your store we deserve customer service too. SO F–K YOUR STORE @sephora you got to close your store to teach your employees sensitivity how about fire they ass and hire people who got sensitivity. Cause they exist!!! I’m tired of this s–t!! What happen to customer service. Do we just not give a f–k anymore!! #NOMOSEPHORA.”
Meanwhile, Okanlawon unleashed on the store on her Instagram Story June 4 and detailed exactly what occurred. A video of the Story can be seen down below.
“I’m glad @sephora is closing down it’s store for sensitivity training because the level of disrespect I experienced last night at 2130 Broadway NYC was deplorable! Giselle and Marilyn don’t deserve to work for that company! And the manager Andrea watched as her staff disrespected my friend and I! And did absolutely nothing to intervene!”
Okanlawon explained she walked into the store at 8:45 p.m., not realizing the store closed at 9 p.m. She claimed she was not greeted but instead Marilyn told her the store would soon be closing and “I hope you plan on putting those items back because we’re trying to clean up.”
After telling Marilyn she shouldn’t be long, Okanlawon proceeded to grab the items she needed and tried them on her client, whom she did not specifically identify. Marylin assisted by taking several items Okanlawon purchased to the register. She then allegedly told the makeup artist “the register closes in 4 minutes and per NYC state law…”
“I said ma’am what does the law have to do with my purchase? @sephora” Okanlawon wrote.
She added that after stating she only had a few more items to get, Okanlawon handed Marilyn her basket.
“I can’t do this,” Okanlawon claims the worker said before she dropped the basket and walked away. Okanlawon then approached the manager, Andrea, and explained how “nasty and rude” Marylin was. Although the makeup artist said Andrea apologized, she allegedly did not intervene. Okanlawon said another worker, Giselle, shouted that the store does not close at 2 a.m. like the Times Square location and that she needed to “hurry up.”
Vowing that this shopping trip to Sephora will be her last, Okanlawon went on to say she spent more than $450 and got “the worst customer service and blatant disrespect in my entire life!”
The incident follows another involving singer SZA, who claimed in April that she was accused of stealing from a Calabasas, California, store. In May, Sephora announced it would be closing its stores nationwide for a one-hour workshop focused on inclusion.
Sephora made it clear the workshop was not in response to SZA’s incident, however. It had actually been in the works as part of the “We Belong to Something Beautiful” campaign begun last year.
“Sephora is a client-centric company and creating a welcoming space for all our clients is our top priority,” the company said to Essence magazine. “The ‘We Belong to Something Beautiful’ campaign has been in the works for a year, and the plan to close our U.S. stores, distribution centers, call centers and corporate office for a one-hour inclusivity workshop with our 16,000 employees has been in development for over six months, timed with our first campaign chapter debuting on June 6th.”
