Sephora is the shop Birmingham definitely doesn't need but we really really want

For a really long time I think I'd have told you that I had no idea what it was about Sephora that made me run like the clappers to it any time I visited a city that had one. LA, New York, Rome, Milan, I have left men standing outside feeling like they're wasting their holiday time while I colour the back of my hand with expensive lipsticks and eyeshadow swatches in malls around the world. I'd have said that I couldn't quite place why the likes of Boots , Selfridges, Debenhams, John Lewis or Harvey Nichols could never scratch the same itch that Sephora does.

But now that I'm 37 I think I'm ready to admit it: I am chronically (and I mean CHRONICALLY ) influenced by American YouTube beauty girlies. It might be the trait about myself that I'm least proud of. Now that the worst kept secret is out and Brummies are learning that Sephora is set to open in the Bullring , I'm going to be able to make like a TikTokker and go and do 'a haul' in our very own city, swanning around town with one of those stripey paper bags from all the videos.

We all are...

if we can afford it (more on that, later). Read more: Sephora confirms new store is coming to Birmingham Here in 2024, I'm far less likely to spend hundreds there than I might have done had it opened in the height of the online make-up boom of 2016. And that's because Boots, Superdrug and Selfridges started significantly upping their game to match what the Americans were getting and started to fill the gap that was missing.

Many of the .