Now I come from a small town where we have 1 Debenhams which has a selection of smallish counters such as Benefit, Urban Decay, Bare Minerals and a few of the high end ones like YSL, Clarins, Estee Lauder. Now you know I love Benefit and I genuinely can not knock the girls on my local Benefit counter who are always and have always been lovely whenever I go to browse.
I think this stigma comes more from larger counters in larger stores, allow me to provide you with 2 examples.
Last Christmas I went on a shopping trip by myself up to Manchester town centre to do some Christmas shopping. While there I decided to nip to the Mac counter to have a look at the Mac Soft and Gentle Skin Finish which I had seen so many beauty bloggers raving around. I wanted to look at the product and swatch it to see for myself what it was like. Now picture the scene. It was the start of December, it was cold, I made the 2 mile journey by bus from my house to the train station and caught the train and got to Manchester where I walked up from Manchester Picadilly into the town. By the time I came to going to Mac I had a few bags with me. I had just had my hair done which my then hair dresser at the time had made a right mess of (I wanted a subtle caramel highlight in my hair and they came out blonde) and I was 3 and a half stone heavier and squeezed into a winter coat which I basically brought because it fit and was more practical than stylish. Anyway you get the picture - I'll admit I probably didnt look my best.
When I got to the counter I browsed a little. I hadn't been to a Mac counter before but I had read lots online through the various blogs I read. I mooched around a bit trying to find what it was that I was looking for while waiting as you do to be pounced upon by a member of the Mac staff. Now if you have been to a Mac counter before you will know that they have tons of staff and usually they are very busy. However when I went, they had the ton of staff but it wasnt that busy so a lot of the staff were just standing milling around. I carried on mooching before eventually I went over to one of the girls who was standing talking to another assistant and when I asked if they had Soft and Gentle you could I sworn I had just punched her across the face the way she looked at me. She went off and got it and handed the box to me with it in and then I had to ask her again if she had a tester that I could have a look as I had never had it before. She pointed me over to where they were and left me to swatch it for myself - never once asking me if I would like to try it on my skin. Had it not been for the fact I really wanted to get it once I swatched it on my hand I would have left there and then. Not a good first Mac experience.
Fast forward 12 months, 3 and a half stone lighter. Yesterday we went to the Trafford Centre. I decided I wanted to have a look at the Mac counter to have a look at the eye shadows, because you know how much I love the Mac Pro Palette I picked up when I was in Birmingham. I wanted to have a look for some eye shadows that I could wear to my Christmas Party and wanted an idea of what kind of thing to wear as my dress is black and nude and I wasn't sure what kind of thing to go for with it being so neutral. Me and my parents decided to split up as they both wanted to head off to get a few bits - including things for me and i needed to pick up some things - including something else for my mum I had seen. We had lunch and I decided to head straight to Mac first as I was by Selfridges anyway.
When I picked up my last Mac Palette I had got it from the Mac shop in Birmingham not a counter and knew exactly what I wanted when I went in so I hadn't really spend much time mooching.
This time I was again pretty nervous. What is it about mooching on a high end beauty counter that makes you nervous like you shouldn't be there? The Mac counter in Trafford is situated right by the door as you go in and is absolutely massive. I wandered over to the eye shadows to have a look and within a minute of standing looking a young bubbly girl came over to me and asked if I was ok and if she could help with anything. I explained what I was looking for and she asked me what my dress was like. I had taken a picture of it on my phone and she looked at it. Now she didn't just glance at it she had a really good look at it - all the time chatting away to me. She then showed me some of the ready made Pro Palettes that they had. She asked me about what kind of colours I would usually wear in the day and night and I explained I tended to keep it quite neutral for work. She showed me one of the palettes which contained 3 purply shades and explained that these would look nice with my dress because it was neutral and also with my green eyes. Now she hadn't looked me straight in the eye so she had clearly been paying attention when I was talking to her. She swatched a couple of the back of her hand showing me and then asked if I would like for her to try them on me. I was quite taken aback as I didn't think Mac did this kind of thing without you booking an appointment. She sat me down on a chair and gave me a mirror and told me to hold it up so I could see what she was doing. Now this is the first time at any counter this had happened. This is one thing I always hate when you go to a counter or make up stall for advice, they offer to do your make up for you and only give you a mirror when they have done, great if they are just trying stuff on you but I don't know about you, I like to watch as they stick it on so I can pick up tips! I watched intently as she did one of my eyes and she asked what I thought. Before she did my other eye she asked me if I wanted the other eye doing as she knew it was quite a night time look for walking around the Trafford Centre - not to turn down the opportunity to see the completed look she did the other eye and then finished it off with some mascara.
Out of curiosity I asked her about what colour lipstick she would pair with this look and she went off coming back with a lovely pink one. She explained that she would go for something like this one and tried it saying she could pick something different if I didn't like it! When she was done she asked me if there was anything I wanted to take away with me, but funnily enough I didn't feel pressured into buying anything. I decided to take the palette and lipstick with me and as she run them I paid she carried on chatting to me.
Overall I came away feeling amazing! What a difference in experience!
Now obviously I cant cast judgement that there is a stigma with make up counters and I am not going to sit here and say 'they ignore me because I am fat' or 'they ignore me because my hair does look perfect or I am not dressed up to the nines' but lets face it, I know for a fact I had been in large department stores where the Make up assistant has ignored me when I have been standing mooching for ages and spoken to someone slightly thinner or slightly better dressed or they ignore you because they think your just looking with no intention of buying. We all know this stigma heck it could even be called discrimination exists but no one ever challenges it! Some of these counter assistants look at you as if you shouldn't be shopping on their counter and in fact I have had some who completely ignore you until you strike up a conversation and it actually sounds like you know what your talking about. Yes I am not a make up artist or a professional but I read a lot of blogs and I have become to get a grasp what I am talking about when it comes to certain things but what about beginners? it is no wonder that some people get put off??
What do you think? Have you ever experienced bad counter experience which has put you off and do you think this Counter Stigma exists??
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