La Ilusion
Well-known member
Hello, ladies!
My mother and I went to the closest MAC freestanding store a couple days ago to look at a few things. One thing we sought was an eyeshadow for my mother to use for highlighting the brow bone. She's an NC44-45.
We had just begun to browse the shadows when an MA (who looked like an NC30 wearing NW20 foundation so that her face did not nearly match her chest and arms) approached us and asked if she could help. We told her that we were looking for a highlight, and she immediately began to grab just about every nearly white frosty cool-toned neutral she could find. She slathered the first one on, beginning at the inside edge of the eyebrow and extending well beyond the outside edge until she had created a shimmery highway line of whitishness.
She asked my mother what she thought; my mother turned to me. Shocked and not knowing quite how to respond, I said I thought she was looking for something more subtle and warmer in tone. My mother agreed.
The MA then put on another shadow that didn't look any different than the first. After two or three more, the colors did begin to look a little less disco ball. Finally she smacked on some Llama (still all the way across and beyond, instead of just from roughly the peak to the end), which looked like it would work with the colors my mother usually wears (Woodwinked, Sumptuous Olive, Firespot, Club).
She took so little care. I've never known a MAC associate to slap makeup on someone's face like that. And it's not the fact that she began with very cool, intensely pale colors that shocked me. I understand that sometimes you have an idea of what will work and then need to tweak it. That's not only natural, but expected. Rather, it was that she seemed not to understand why a sparkly silver streak was not exactly what a mature woman would want to highlight her browbone!
I must note that we generally have a good experience with MAC. We visit the Macy's and Nordstrom counters in our area much more often than the freestanding, but I don't think we've ever sensed such indifference in an MA in any of those locations.
Has anyone else had or witnessed a similar experience in which an MA whose skin tone (in both darkness and undertone) is significantly different from the customer's seemed not to understand (or care about, for that matter) the customer's needs?
My mother and I went to the closest MAC freestanding store a couple days ago to look at a few things. One thing we sought was an eyeshadow for my mother to use for highlighting the brow bone. She's an NC44-45.
We had just begun to browse the shadows when an MA (who looked like an NC30 wearing NW20 foundation so that her face did not nearly match her chest and arms) approached us and asked if she could help. We told her that we were looking for a highlight, and she immediately began to grab just about every nearly white frosty cool-toned neutral she could find. She slathered the first one on, beginning at the inside edge of the eyebrow and extending well beyond the outside edge until she had created a shimmery highway line of whitishness.
The MA then put on another shadow that didn't look any different than the first. After two or three more, the colors did begin to look a little less disco ball. Finally she smacked on some Llama (still all the way across and beyond, instead of just from roughly the peak to the end), which looked like it would work with the colors my mother usually wears (Woodwinked, Sumptuous Olive, Firespot, Club).
She took so little care. I've never known a MAC associate to slap makeup on someone's face like that. And it's not the fact that she began with very cool, intensely pale colors that shocked me. I understand that sometimes you have an idea of what will work and then need to tweak it. That's not only natural, but expected. Rather, it was that she seemed not to understand why a sparkly silver streak was not exactly what a mature woman would want to highlight her browbone!
I must note that we generally have a good experience with MAC. We visit the Macy's and Nordstrom counters in our area much more often than the freestanding, but I don't think we've ever sensed such indifference in an MA in any of those locations.
Has anyone else had or witnessed a similar experience in which an MA whose skin tone (in both darkness and undertone) is significantly different from the customer's seemed not to understand (or care about, for that matter) the customer's needs?
