I may have screwed up with one of the MA at my counter one night, but it seems okay now. She's always super nice so I feel kinda bad.
What happened:
A few weeks ago I realised that my favourite lipstick was going to run out fairly soon. It's a non-MAC lippie and I'd like to replace it with a MAC lippy that is as-near-match-as-possible. I go to the counter thinking I have the lippie in my purse and it's not there. Cue me getting a little frantic and in the end having to decide whether to go home first to find the lippy or try to match based on my memory alone. Then I see the Antiquitease poster and go, "Ah HAH!" because the lipcolour on the girl in the poster is the exact shade I want. Red-gold with gold tones that can be toned down a bit if wanted.
Now, in Britain, you tend not to get approached by staff. It's considered rude and it's very difficult to get it right. Cosmetic counters are the only place where it's considered correct form to be approached by the salesperson, but even then, British folk tend to hate being approached, and they hate approaching others. It's not uncommon for the approach to start out as, "Sorry, can I help?" or "Sorry to bother you, but could you help me with this?" It's always an apology first around here, I guess it's just a cultural thing.
So eventually my MA approaches and says, "Can I help you?"
Me: "I'm looking for that lipstick. *points to the Antiquitease poster* Is it a lippy and a lipgloss, or a lippy and a liner and a gloss? Or in a palette?"
She says, "It's from this limited edition range, let me show you."
She shows me the colours and swatches all of them on her hand immediately, and after a few moments of looking at the colours I say, "Um. Sorry, but none of these seem to match the colour she's wearing."
At first the MA disagrees, but when I point it out again she is forced to concede that the lipcolour on the girl in the poster doesn't look like what the range offers. She offers to check the facechart for the look, and comes back to say it's Antiquitease l/s with Corsette l/g, with an unknown lip liner (hers didn't show what liner was used for the face).
I say aloud, really kinda incredulous, "Wow, are you serious? It doesn't look anything like the red-gold colour in the photo."
She says, getting a bit frosty this time, "That's what they've used."
I look at her, and say, "But ... do you believe that's what they used? Because it doesn't look similar at all." She stares at me and says, "Yes, I believe that's what they used, because that's what they said they used."
Then she kindly explains about skintone and skincolours and how colours will look different on folk depending on tone. She says, "They probably used a liner that changed the tone a lot." I say, "Ah..." and accept what she says. We chat for a while and we swatch a bunch of different l/s on my hand trying to find a colour I like. I eventually walk away without purchasing anything.
Now, her experience with me may be written up differently from her point of view. Stupid customer who doesn't get it, is rude, etc. I learned something from her anyway, and a few nights later I brought a friend and we did a B2M and I picked up Rage l/s, which for me is a close enough for the red-gold lip look from the Antiquitease poster, especially if I add a gold gloss on top.
She smiled and seemed happy to see me, but I thought about this thread and thought, "Ugh, I really hope she doesn't think I was being rude and difficult last time." Because I really wasn't trying to be - I was just a little ignorant about how products work on others. But in the end I came back because she handled me well - and I brought a friend. We also bought 3 tickets for the Antiquitease event, brought another friend, and all of us ended up purchasing at least £30 of makeup apiece.
I worry about how easy it is to offend the MA because in their opinion, the products are dead simple and easy to understand. For those of us that aren't MA, it couldn't be more confusing sometimes - especially with the huge, versatile range that MAC offers.
