Make-over? From Cathy with Love

I'm going to be honest, I am not a sales type of girl. I don't usually like interacting with people at stores except on my own terms. In fact, I really don't. I find it frightening. This isn't because the people are actually scary, they really aren't. Mostly it's just because I hate it when people try to force me to do something I don't want to do. It stimulates my fight or flight response.

Let me give you an example. When I was a freshman in college, one of my friends got it in her head that she should tweeze my brows. Now, I have pretty nicely shaped brows, but my dad is Celtic and my mother's part French. They did need a little shaping. However, I was convinced this was going to be painful and I had no intention of anyone causing me pain. So she, and another of my friends (I use this word loosely here... though I do still like these two women), tried to grab me and hold me down. I'm glad my crazy strength kicked in at that moment because otherwise it could have been really bad - picture tweezers in the eye. :-/

Needless to say, after I dragged two young women down the entire length of the dorm hallway (they were latched onto my ankles), they decided maybe it wasn't worth it to try to pick off a few stray hairs.

You can imagine how I might react to people in stores if I would react to my friends this way.

Still, every now and then, I give in. Today was one of those times. There is a sweet lady from my church who sells Mary Kay. Now, I had never tried Mary Kay cosmetics, nor had I any idea what kind of quality they were etc. I was flying blind. The woman invited me to come to her house for a little session where we could try out some products and do my face. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about it. I was concerned I was going to get pushed or something, but I was pleasantly surprised.

After my facial/make-over

I have to hand it to that company. They know what they're doing. Your beauty consultant becomes your friend. Honestly, the only other time I had felt this kind of concern from anyone was in a lingerie boutique and possibly Sephora (though at Sephora, it should be noted, the associates don't become your friends while they might at a high-end lingerie shop). I left with super soft skin, some awesome looking make-up, and a few free samples (plus Cathy gifted me with some eye cream!).

Unfortunately, a lot of the skin products were a little out of my price range (when I say a little, I mean, quite a lot at this point). But the make-up itself is about the same as if you were buying something from the drug store, except it's way better quality. So, would I buy some of these things if I had the cash? Yes, absolutely. They're still cheaper than the same quality you would get of a designer brand like Chanel etc. Plus, you get to go to little parties at people's homes and you get to try out different colors than maybe you would normally use on a typical day. That's not the mention the fact that you get someone who keeps track of everything that you buy and use and teaches you how to use these things. She becomes your friend. And she's your Mary Kay hook-up. Sweet.