All little girls have dreams. Mine was to become a Broadway dancer, until I realized at age 14 that my inability to even do a split would probably prevent that dream from ever coming true. Since then, the only other job I've been dreaming about is to become a beauty writer, and if that hadn't happened, the only thing I can imagine that might be better is working at that mecca of makeup, Sephora.

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with several of Sephora's writers, as well as the fragrance, skincare, and color merchants (a.k.a., buyers) at the company's U.S. headquarters in San Francisco. And let me tell you, I was like a kid in a candy store. To hear all about my insider's look at Sephora, read more

I got to meet with the woman whose opinions I value as much as my own mother's: the editor who writes all of the copy for Sephora's web site. As we talked shop for about half an hour, she enthusiastically described the ins and outs of each detail of the Sephora Monopoly Game, and we cooed over the game pieces (lipstick, compact, and hairdryer, naturally) and the property names like "Curl de Sac," "Rue de Toilette," and "Go To Jail For A Bad Hair Day."

Then I went up to the the dot-com area, where the perfume bottles, anti-aging creams, and lip glosses flowed freely throughout the desks. There, I spent a few hours with three of the most fabulous beauty product passionistas. Like the hundreds of other gorgeous men and women at Sephora, the dot-com team were all clad in the black, white, red, and gray office "uniform" required by Sephora. The office walls were decorated with press releases and merchandising posters, and there were even store mockups and future merchandising plans adorning some of the large cubes. But the most exciting part was just witnessing the office that works so diligently to bring us the world's biggest and best beauty stores for customers whether they prefer to shop in person or online or both. Viva Sephora!