This thread is an interesting read.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Love Always Ivy
for me, replace it with any form of asian, except the only thing they keep repeating is "just looking. just looking" then 5 or 6 huddle around one product asking each other back and forth about the product and intensely reading the label, but when you ask them if they have any questions they say JUST LOOKING.
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Not sure about other Asians like Indians, but for Chinese (am one) we tend to do the "just looking" thing because of the following reasons:
a. We like to huddle around and yak about a product. It's fun, even when the whole group knows that everyone involved in the yakking knows jack about the product. We also bond by giving each other questionable make up advice. The person offering advice feels like she's helping her friend and the friend compliments the person for her advice. Everybody wins!...sort of.
b. It intimidates us that someone who obviously possess superior knowledge on make up, wears a full face (some of you, anyway) and dons full uniform (all black for MAC) approaches us. We freak out on the inside and try to avoid you by saying "just looking". Also it is partly because we feel very awkward when someone offers you help and invest time to explain things to and try things on you, and you don't really intend buy their products. My experience in Hong Kong is if an SA in any kind of store offers you help and you don't buy stuff, you get sneered at and probably even get mild forms of catty verbal abuse (depending on store and people) for wasting their time. We also believe it makes us look "cheap", a big no-no for the Asian image. So our "strategy" is to smack down any possibility of help from store employees in the first place.
c. There's no delicate way of putting this, but some of us don't trust you guys with Asian make up. It's not a race thing but a cultural preference thing. I moved to Toronto three years ago and found that the way native Chinese-Canadians (friends whose parents were from Hong Kong) do their makeup and the way native Hong Kong-ers do theirs is different. For example, MUAs and women here tend to focus on the exotic features of the Asian faces, such as almond shape eyes, and work with the yellow-ness in the skin when selecting makeup, and also make faces look more mature because mature = sexy. In Hong Kong and Japan, the stuff above is considered undesirable. We like to make eyes rounder and larger, faces whiter and paler, and we make faces look more childish and doll-like because innocent childishness = cute.(which probably explains the non-age appropriate hello kitties, squeaky voices and "V" peace signs) You can say we're not embracing our natural Asianess, you can say we're in denial about our age, but that's just how we do things over there.
d. There are still a lot of us not willing to embrace colors. Some believe that colors unnatural to your face-- that is, anything outside of neutral browns and black-- makes you stick out from the crowd and while generally Westerners consider that a good thing because it shows your individuality, Asians think that is a form of boasting and trying too hard. Also it conflicts with the ideal Asian female image: the virgin, innocent, demure, shy, never-seduces, always-passively-wooed, naturally flawless, ready-to-be-wed young lady (lol as if those really exist anymore). We think MUAs and SAs will always try to recommend some colorful stuff to us (of course not true, because most generally work with what the customers want), so we try to avoid you. Younger generations and Koreans are usually more daring, however.
e. You won't believe how little experience some Asians have with make up. Many of my friends and aunts don't even know how to use mascara. We just follow the group into the make up store and fiddle around with the paints, really.
All of the above in no way excuses behaviours like yelling at SAs and treating store employees like dogs (some believe all power lies in the one with cash in hand, which is BS), but seriously, the "just talking" thing is nothing personal. Most Asians don't even realize it's rude. In fact, some think they're doing you a favor, because they're signaling you don't have to waste time on them.
Juice Beauty makes me hungry... lol.
), but in that particular case you're free to go with any MA you want.
