The Make-Up Incident

I hardly ever wear make-up, only when it's absolutely necessary. It's partially because I'm lazy, partially because I'm not very good at putting it on, and partially because in a tropical climate most of it melts off my face within the first hour that I put it on. But the other day, it was very important for me to put make-up on and I wanted it to be done well, so I decided to head to the mall.

In the US, at least in New York, you can walk into any department store or cosmetics store and the make-up artists will happily do your make-up for you, showing you how things look to try to get you to buy as many products as possible. They're normally extremely nice, sometimes even overly nice, since their main objective is to get you to buy stuff. They are usually assertive and decide what they think is best for your face and skin tone, but make sure to accommodate you at the same time. With this in mind, I assumed it would be the same in Rio.

So I headed to one of the cosmetics stores at the mall, which was completely empty. I told the one attendant that I'd like to have my make-up done. She called a girl, who emerged from the back room, who was all but pleased to have to deal with a client. She sighed deeply and asked, "What do you want me to do?" I explained I wanted her to try a little bit of everything. Resigned, she began assembling her brushes. Every step along the way, she asked me how I wanted her to do it, which product I preferred, and threw in a few tips along the way.

It wasn't until she began powdering my face that I noticed she'd missed part of my face. "Um...can you do the other half of my face, too?" I asked. "Well, I'm just doing this half for now for you to see the difference, like before and after," she said. So she stuck entirely to the right side of my face.

When she was finished my eyes, lips, and cheeks, she showed me the result in the mirror. "It looks great! Can you do the other half of my face now?" Then she got uncomfortable. "Yeah, well, um, we don't do that. We don't do make-up. We just test it for you."

With a big WTF flashing across my forehead, I realized she was not doing the other half of my face. Since my face looked a little Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, I asked her to take off the make-up. She looked perplexed. "You want me to take it...off?" "Well, yeah, you only did one side." I wasn't about to go out lopsided. She sighed deeply and took it all off, and in my desperation, I bought the cream powder she'd used, so I could go home and put it on myself. I left the store with the super-fancy shopping bag and a fresh dose of culture shock.

Comments

[Augusto Sales]

Curti bastante o blog. Parabéns. Boa sorte no ano novo. Take care,

[Manoela Assayag]

Rachel,

Unfortunately they're usually like that (I mean 'all but pleased' to deal with us). I go further: I suppose you went to 'Contém 1g', where they master in giving you a bad experience. The only store where you can have your make-up done without having to buy every single lipstick on Earth is "O Boticario". You should go there next time.

(This must be the first time I comment here, but I've been a closeted reader for ages)

Manoela

[Rio Gringa]

Manoela,

Yup, you got it. The great irony is that I was torn between there and O Boticario, and in my haste I just picked Contem 1g. Lesson learned! Thanks for the tip :)

[Nancy]

Hi there
I think it can be a little difficult when you have Dior, Lancome products on your face just when you need them. Here in England I can have my face done with this fab products at my lunch hour if I want to go out after a working day. What a difference though.....
Nancy
xxxx

[mallory elise]

hahahahahaha. damn rachel, i haven't even gone to a department store here in the us to get it, you're so brave! hahaha. thanks for the laugh :) yeah i don't know how one could wear makeup in the heat...maybe just eyes then.

[Mrs S]

Well its definetly not just Brazil. It's like that here too now. Well at least recently. It stinks! I hate that they only do half your face!

[Carlos A.]

LOL
Super funny! xD
What amazes me, is that she got surprised when you didn't want to leave the store whith makeup in oly half of your face.

Wish you the best in 2009 ;)

[polyana]

def. listen to manoela. i came to comment just to tell you to go to o boticário next time! :-)

[Mandy]

HAHAHAHAHAHA you just made my day. Seriously? getting my makeup done is like my favorite indulgence. Lately, though (maybe it's the New York bug) I have been just going into Sephora and using all the samples to create a new look when I am bored. I think you should have gone out with just half your face done. That would have been an attention-grabber :)

[Natalia]

lol you should've gone to a store that sells imported stuff. i've only done that twice here in rio, but in both cases they did the whole shebang and i left the store w/ such beautiful make-up i was ashamed of my hair.

[sara]

actually they do that in here america too. some counters will do the whole face, others (like prescriptives) just do half so you can see the difference. its not at all uncommon.

[Alexandra]

Rachel, next time, try a beauty salon... that's where I went whenever I needed to have make up done (I'm also not very good at it)

[Margot Abirato]

Hi there, Rachel! I loved the cosmetic experience tale. I think it is fascinating that even after such long time living abroad we still find ourselves expecting things to be as they are at home. I am Brazilian and I have lived in the US, France, Netherlands and now in between France and Switzerland and I have plenty of cultural shock stories of all the different places I have lived in. I would like to know, however, if you now find yourself as a foreigner when you go to the US. Because eventhough I feel very much Brazilian abroad, I know I am now a foreigner in Brazil as well. Maybe you've already written about it? Well, it was nice finding you, I'll try to come back more. Cheers.

[Camila]

Did she really expect you to go out with make-up on half of your face? Only in Brazil... I think the MAC in Ipanema will also do the make-up for you...

[André]

So what is the cultural shock after all? Instead of going to beauty parlour and PAYING for the service of a professional like HONEST PEOPLE DO, you tried to be A MALANDRA and turned out an OTÁRIA? The cultural shock here is not that service in Brazil is bad opposed to America. The cultural shock here is that though cariocas are the ones to carry the stereotype of malandragem, you just proved that American girls are scoundrels who exploit mall workers to get free make up with no intention of buying anything. Thank you.

I just got to this blog today, after the note in Gente Boa, had some fun with the top ten lists, even commented on another topic. In general I was finding it amusing, but I completely lost respect for you as a writer after this story. It could have been very good if you had some self awareness, if you were able to see that you were doing things wrong. But no, you just see what the others are doing "wrong" under a biased point of view. You're just a common arrogant gringa that writes from the point of view of "how it is done in America is right and if it fails to match is wrong".

It´s not about cultural shock when you discover you have to pay for service. It's about you being obliged to be an honest consumer. That is supposed to be an universal value.

[André]

By the way, I bet the make up girl was laughing her ass out as you walked out of the store...

You got it all wrong.

[Beta]

andré, você querido é um babaca

[dictionary]

Andre,
I think you're misinterpreting the definition of "culture shock." Culture shock doesn't mean that the experience was bad; it simply means that it's different. In no portion of that post did she act like a conceited American. It would be culture shock to YOU if you went to America and someone said, "Here, let me do your makeup for free." She wasn't trying to STEAL a free makeup job, as they are FREE in the United States. It's comparable to having a drink in the U.S. and then having it in Rio and it tasting different. It's not WRONG it's just DIFFERENT; and I think Rio Gringa did a wonderful, unbiased job of illustrating that fact.

I think you should be less defensive and try to think of what it would be like if you were in this situation in a foreign country.

[Carol]

I am a marketing student and found your blog to reason further about purchasing experiences in Brazil. I chuckled because right before I read what you had to say about your cosmetic experience, I read that cosmetic companies had a hard time launching if they were not willing to go door to door. So I guess, maybe you need to find an Avon lady calling;-)