On a recent trip to Sephora to gather ingredient lists for a couple of products, a saleperson approached me while I browsed the blushes. The young man was wearing a fitted black tee shirt and a spiky Mohawk, what has become the standard Sephora uniform (well at least in Seattle). Before I knew it, I was somehow sucked into an on-the-spot makeover! He escorted me over to a well-lit mirror, where he began going through the array of makeup brushes he wore on his belt, placing one after another them on the small table like serious medical tools. Even as I protested, he continued, saying that he just wanted to show me what a good bronzer could do — that alone made me very nervous because my complexion is extremely fair! I wanted to leave, to run away screaming as soon as his kabuki brush hit the bronzer, but by that point I felt bound to humor him, imagining this is exactly how many women feel when they are corralled into mini-makeovers either willingly or unwillingly like me who succumb under sales pressure.
When he finished my face, I was visibly unimpressed. I looked 10 years older and like I’d been streaked with lines of brownish gold. Personally, the only makeup I really needed was a new mascara and even though I knew I should consult Beautypedia.com before I hit the stores, in a desperate move to end the makeover before things went from bad to worse I blurted out that all I needed was a new mascara. Before I knew it, he had lead me to the cashier to purchase an $18 tube of Bare Escetuals’ Buxom Lash Mascara, an “amazing” lengthening and volumizing mascara, he explained, with a “ridiculous” oversized rubber brush and intense black color that doesn’t budge. “You’ll love it,” he promised. I was so flummoxed I paid for the mascara and went to get the ingredient information I needed from another store.
When I got it home, it turned out the mascara brush was indeed ridiculous, but not in a good way. Applying the product felt like a circus act, the brush so unwieldy that I couldn’t keep from getting mascara on my upper lids no matter how hard I tried. Even worse, the sheer size of the brush made any discrete application to the corner of my eye impossible. As the day wore on, I noticed the mascara had flaked and smudged below my eyes. Turns out, the product was anything but amazing and I certainly didn’t love it. I was angry at myself for letting the Sephora salesperson have his way with my face and I felt silly and bamboozled into an overpriced and inadequate product. And I know better than this!
After I calmed down, I decided to look up Bare Escetuals’ Buxom Lash Mascara on the web site I work for, Beautypedia.com, just to see what Paula thought of the product, and wouldn’t you know it… Paula’s review voiced every single problem I’d encountered! If only I’d referred to it first, I would’ve saved time, money and could’ve told Mr. Sephora salesperson to get a hair cut and leave me alone!
