One of the most ridiculous parts of my day lately—especially
now that it’s summer—is foundation matching. Oh-my-goodness...it should be
simple, right? And about 55% it is. However, that other 45% is just killing me
right now. Each day I’ve grabbed my three foundation shades, intent on finding
the perfect match for the person in front of me—
—Only to find out that’s not what they want. Sure, fine. I’ve
been in this business long enough that I can roll with just about anything. I’m
used to that client that doesn’t want the foundation to match.
You all know the one.
In fact, I automatically go for the lighter colors as a
general rule now when I find myself in this situation. It never fails, though…I
never start light enough. It’s as if my brain simply cannot grasp that they
really do want that number one or number two shade—the one made for the most
porcelain of porcelain skins.
The lighter/darker foundation thing isn’t what frustrates
me. Not at all. You
want
to be paler than you are now? Cool. I’m not wearing it, so it doesn’t affect me.
You want to go ten shades darker so you look like you have a tan? Fine—it’s
your money.
See, what bothers me is the guessing game. Because now I’m
in a position where I need to match a color that’s envisioned in my customer’s
head. I have no idea what that color is. None. So I start slapping stripes on
these poor girls, trying to determine if it’s too yellow, or too pink—or too
light, or too dark. They get frustrated, I get frustrated. If it was always the
same, if they always wanted to the same look, things would be different. But
they don’t.
And I am not a mind reader.
If I was…I certainly wouldn’t be slinging lipsticks.
Then there’s the other side, the ones that don’t like
foundation because it washes them out. We do our best to explain that a
foundation is supposed to neutralize the color on the skin—lessoning the red,
as it were. Yet every time we match a color, it’s never right. It’s always too
light for them. So we go darker, and darker. And darker. Eventually, we come to
understand that foundation is coming back as soon as our customer catches sight
of themselves in the daylight. There will be no covering that orangey, streaky
mess with bronzer. No sir, not this time. There’s simply no way to make that utter
disaster look natural.
We only hope the rest of our fellow peers/makeup artists
aren’t looking. We don’t want them to
think that we think we picked the
right color for that person.
We have an image to maintain, after all. We’re artists.
There’s one last thing that gets under my skin during a
foundation matching…and that’s watching some customers put on their foundation.
When they start rubbing it in like they’re massaging a strained muscle—with vigor
and far too much pressure—and then tell you they don’t see anything. I want to
smack them atop their head. Of course you don’t see it…you just rubbed the damn
thing away silly.
Makeup application is all about education, education,
education…
…and lately, class has been in session all day long.
Cheers to you all! And happy shopping:)
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