Beauty Hall Advice

Beauty Halls can be intimidating. Half the time you can barely get in the door without someone trying to spray some new concoction on your wrist. Then after that there are so many counters with the beauty advisors eagerly waiting to ask you if there’s anything they can help you with (because you glanced at their counter), or ask you if you’ve tried their new *insert new amazing product here*. Like all professions, there are the good beauty advisors and the bad beauty advisors. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some genuinely lovely and talented make-up artists and beauty advisors but I know from personal experience that they’re not all like that. I certainly appreciate that beauty advisors do have to deal with some quite rude customers (I actually had one that brought me close to tears), so sometimes it’s helpful to consider things from their perspective, which ultimately will help you get get the most out of your consultation (and possibly a few extra samples).

1.       It’s their job to welcome you to their counter and to see if you need help so don’t snap at them. If you’re just in for a look, just say that. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been on the receiving end of pushy sales people who didn’t seem to understand that phrase. When that happens I just leave the counter, that’s just a bad sales person and I wouldn’t want them getting the commission.

2.       Let them know if you’d like to try something on. Testers are the breeding ground for all sorts of nasty bacteria and they will be able to pop products on in a more hygienic way than if you just pick it up and pop it on yourself. Or if you’d prefer to try something on yourself, you can always ask them for some tissues and a brush and they’d normally give the product a clean too (if they don’t ask for their brush cleaner and give the product a spray and a wipe with a tissue, brush cleaners are anti-bacterial).

3.       Appreciate that they do have targets to make. On average it takes 20 minutes for someone to pick a lipstick. If it’s busy let the beauty advisor help other people while you have a look and pick some options. They’ll be a lot more patient (and helpful) if you let them deal with some of the queue than if you wanted to try on every lipstick they stock with no intention of buying while there’s a queue of people out the who waiting to speak to them.

4.       Equally, if you need help, don’t be intimidated to ask. They’re there to help and most brands offer great training for their beauty advisors so they should know a great deal about their products and are able to answer any questions or offer tips and tricks on how to apply products.

5.       It’s ok to ask for samples. Premium cosmetics are not cheap and some things just don’t work for everyone. If you’re a bit unsure about a product, there’s no harm in asking for a sample. Not all counters are big on sampling, but sometimes they’ll put some in a little pot for you to take on and try. Also, most counters do only get a limited number of samples in so they’ve learned to spot the people who are just chancing their luck and have no interest in buying. This isn’t really fair on the people who are genuinely interested in buying the product and can’t get a sample.

Do you have any other tips?