MAs: Do you ever have clients who LIKE their foundation color to be off???

[redambition]

not a customer as such, but my mother. she always wears foundation a few shades darker than her skin tone so she doesn't look "pale"... when in reality she's about the same as me, maybe a shade darker.

today i managed to put some fairly well matched foundation on her (originally mine, given to her because it was a touch too dark for me), and it made a world of difference.

oh yeah, she's also hell bent on buying pink toned foundation because she's scared of looking orange or jaundiced. she actually needs a warm toned foundation and concealer, because she is fairly warm toned and she needs to even out some redness on her face.

 

[lightsinsorrow]

Oh, definitely. I never fight it. It's like...hey, it's your face. If you want to look like that, it isn't my problem. People will continue to wear whatever they like to wear.

 

[Ella_]

My sister is an NW 25, but buys her foundation in NW20. She has skin that has a tendancy to oxidize her foundation - the select spf stuff, so she buys one shade lighter so that when the foundation oxidizes after an hour or so of wear it actually matches her skintone...

 

[MAC_Pixie04]

Quote:

Originally Posted by noahlowryfan what if someone has a difference of color between their face and neck. how do you find their foundation shade?

i usually try to match their neck if they'll let me. but sometimes they don't see that the tones are different. it depends on the client.

 

[sadieboo]

My very first customer this morning wanted me to show her some foundation - she came in with a clean face, but I could still see what she usually wore at her hairline. ORANGE ALERT!!!! She brought in her bottle, it was YSL. So I matched her, picked a great formula for her, and applied it. It looked fantastic, was the perfect match, and her comment was, "I look so pale!!!"

I explained to her that what I put on her was her correct shade, and that if she wanted more color she should try bronzer. I also said, very politely, that I could see what she usually wore and that I thought it was a bit dark for her. She looked doubtful, but she liked the way it felt on her face, so I gave her a sample to take home. She said she was going to ask her daughter - if her daughter isn't nuts she will tell her that the old YSL stuff was TOO ORANGE!!!!

Don't people understand what a freakin' miracle it is to find a great match in a foundation?!?!

 

[giz2000]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadieboo \ Don't people understand what a freakin' miracle it is to find a great match in a foundation?!?!

No..they don't....:|

 

[ladydangerr]

I get this all the time. The teenagers who come in and have a line around the border of their face. The clients who say they will be tanning and want a darker color are another problem. This is how I handle it EVERY time:

I tell the people who like using foundation as their fake tan that it's imperitive that they get the RIGHT color and contour with a bronzer. I always say, "Since the foundation completely evens out our skin tone, you always appear to be more pale because your whole face is one color. Thats why you need to use a blush or a bronzer to put color back into your face. Foundation is just a base for your face, and you can apply color with a bronzer to look tan. This creates an extremely flawless and classy look."

and as for those who say they will be tanning:

I tell them that since we don't know how much darker their skin will get, or what tone it will become, that they need to get their current color and pair it with a bronzer until they reach their desired color. And once they do so, to come back and get matched again. This way they have makeup for when they're light AND dark, and a bronzer to use in between.

Take advantage of the fact that you can power group a bronzer on these people

-Amy

 

[MellissaG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ladydangerr I get this all the time. The teenagers who come in and have a line around the border of their face. The clients who say they will be tanning and want a darker color are another problem. This is how I handle it EVERY time: I tell the people who like using foundation as their fake tan that it's imperitive that they get the RIGHT color and contour with a bronzer. I always say, "Since the foundation completely evens out our skin tone, you always appear to be more pale because your whole face is one color. Thats why you need to use a blush or a bronzer to put color back into your face. Foundation is just a base for your face, and you can apply color with a bronzer to look tan. This creates an extremely flawless and classy look." and as for those who say they will be tanning: I tell them that since we don't know how much darker their skin will get, or what tone it will become, that they need to get their current color and pair it with a bronzer until they reach their desired color. And once they do so, to come back and get matched again. This way they have makeup for when they're light AND dark, and a bronzer to use in between. Take advantage of the fact that you can power group a bronzer on these people -Amy

lmao, this is ironic. Secretly, I tend to float counters and try different products to see whats new and if anything updated works better for me. Products, shades, brushes etc for everything as far as eyes, lips, face ..anything! goes..

For xmas I recieved a $20 gift cert (Better than nothing!) for MAC, and went to a counter and spoke with an amazing MA, remembering I spoke with someone a couple days before who was using studio fix on her face, and it made her filled in brows look AMAZING and perfectly matte, no oil or sheen at all. So he put studio fix on me, and I hated it.. I suppose mainly because I hate buying foundations because my skin tone changes all the time, as I go through these stages where i'll be tanning, and the color drastically changes from day to day, when im originally pretty fair. I think he hated me, since I couldnt decide on which shade to go for! He told me to just buy the one that matched me now, and then get re matched after tanning -- I thought thatd be too much of a hassle, so I ended up getting a new brow pencil, a neutral shadow and a new angle brush.. at least he got something out of all my hassle.

Im a very annoying consumer :X

 

[chinadoll724]

Haha, sorry to butt in as i'm not a make up artist, but one of the MAs at the MAC counter at Saks here has foundation 3 shades too dark. She was proud of it and actually showed it to me and said "I blend it really well so you can't even tell". Trust me . . . you could and it was scary.

 

[MAC_Pixie04]

i know someone who does that with BE foundation...her natural color is fairly light, but she wears Tan, anybody who's ever seen BE foundations know that that's a very very huge jump.

 

[pixichik77]

This happens all the time at my counter, and I won't sell it to them. In the South, that's pretty rude; but I explain that if a SALESPERSON, whose whole purpose is to SELL products, doesn't want to sell you something, wouldn't that tell you that you are looking at the WRONG COLOR??? Most of the time they will meet me at least half way, or I will tell them just to take some samples with them, and not give them the color they think they are (the samples are prepackaged). Or if they come in and say, I need shade number so and so, I will ask, "is this for you?" (they say yes) and I'll say, "lets rematch you; I don't even wear that shade!"

But then again, I am pretty brash. I used to sell cars

 

[caffn8me]

Quote:

Originally Posted by noahlowryfan what if someone has a difference of color between their face and neck. how do you find their foundation shade?

I was taught to match to the neck to avoid a visible demarcation line. Below is a picture of someone who has a pale NW face with a darker NC neck - it was better to match to the neck. Sorry the pictures aren't great as my digital camera is prehistoric. The picture shows just foundation so no blush, contour or lipstick.

I think you can imagine how odd a foundation that matched the face perfectly would have looked against the neck.

 

[littlemakeupboy]

I Despise It