I'm a big fan of Caudalie, and when I went to the numerous pharmacies in Paris, I quickly realized…read morethat the prices in France are much cheaper than in New York. So early on in my trip, I knew I wanted to stock up on Caudalie items. I decided to get all I need from an actual Caudalie store rather than a pharmacy because I would get points buying straight from Caudalie and it would be easier for me to get VAT refund by buying everything in one place since the overall prices will even out (some items are cheaper in certain pharmacies than the actual Caudalie stores). When I got to the Saint Germain store, I waited a little while because I was told I had to wait for the technician. I figured it's because the technician spoke the most English. It wasn't a big deal to wait and gave me time to do some last minute price checks.
When the technician finally came, I basically told her I have a list of items to get. She was super surprised of how organized I was. I had each of the item's name, the US price, the Euro price, and any special offer combos. She was also surprised at the price difference. For example, a bottle of the make up removal oil was around $22USD, it was just 12 Euros at the store. The technician helped me pick out everything on my list and made some recommendations of what I need for my routine. In all, I left with a little over $240 and she threw in handfuls of samples from shower gels to eye creams. She also helped fill out my VAT refund forms.
The only bad thing I would say is that I get different advice as far as what I need from various staff. The inconsistency makes it hard to buy the "right" product because I never really know what the right products are! But other than that, I love the Caudalie products and this shopping experience was top notch awesome!