Retail - that says it all.
I cant tell you how many of my friends complain to me about working there, they thought it would be so much better on the "other side " ( vs working at Clinique or Estee or Lancome ) and while some bennies are better its still the same, you have to book, do makeover, deal with bitchy clients, teenage girls who come with - can you do my eyes? and buy nothing but take up tons of time, clean all day, work crap hours and esp at holiday times and depending on your location it can be til 11 or 12am!
And it is about selling, not always about makeup, you have to sell more than one item, you have to link and bridge the sale, the brushes, the skincare, the new stuff, etc etc. and put on a whole bunch of foundation on someone for an hour and they still hate it. Its not glamourous at all, not even at mac unless maybe your doing runway and even then I am sure the models are bitchy.
And your sales goals well, sometimes you will do anything to meet them, your managers riding your ass, some days are awesome, some are bad. Sure a lot of your co-workers will help - and then you always have the ones that dont, the ones that create drama. There is one at every counter. For some reason they get away it and they stay there for 20 years too.