- Hi, I'm Jazzmyne.
- Hi, I'm Destiny.
- And we used to work at beauty stores.
What are we doing today?
- We're answering your questions.
- Oh, we're answering questions.
(claps)
(cheery music)
- Okay.
- I'm scared.
- Oh.
(laughs)
Do you actually clean any of the tester products?
- The place where I worked was very touristy
and a lot of people were touching it.
And if you, like, didn't clean them,
it just also looked bad.
You don't ever want your store to look bad.
So yeah, yeah we did.
- We clean it, the germs, we don't want people to get pink-
someone got pink-eye once.
That can never happen again so we actually did clean
and, like, restock the testing products often.
- Yeah.
What do customers complain about the most?
There's so much!
- So much.
- There's so much.
- They find things to complain about.
- Yeah.
So the store I worked at, we didn't have, like, sales.
There would be like, a sale bin.
So a lot of people would be like,
"This isn't discounted."
And I'm like, yeah.
- A lot of people would complain about, like,
not being able to cover certain things.
To the point of, like,
maybe you should see a medical professional.
Like we would have people come in with, like,
super, like, dark circles.
- Makeup is only just adding things;
you can't like-
- Like completely erase.
Like we can make it look better and lighter
but like if it's super puffy,
the makeup's not gonna make it flat.
- Mm-mm. Mm-mm.
People are looking for like these quick fixes
that they see online
and it's not always like that.
- What was your favorite part about working
at a beauty store?
And least favorite part?
Everyone's beautiful but being able
to help them feel like their best.
Especially for like weddings and like special occasions,
that was like always-
I've had people like come to tears
with how happy they looked.
Just showing them something new.
- I feel like my favorite part is the same.
I really liked helping people try new things.
Because I wore some, like, crazy (beep) makeup.
I still do.
Trying, like, different lipsticks
that they never would have thought of.
Or like a different eye shadow or something.
- Least favorite part is like,
there's some really rude people.
- Yes!
- The worst thing is like when,
someone will come in and like, they'll be like,
"I wanna try these things, can you do my makeup real quick?"
And then they're like,
"Oh, I gotta go meet my friend for drinks, peace out."
Like I just spent an hour on your face.
Like you're not gonna buy any product?
Like I don't get a thank you?
You're like "Peace out, I'm going to my date"?
- Yeah, people are always trying to finesse.
Do you ever catch people stealing?
Is it common?
Yes, extremely common.
The worst part at my store was just like
having to watch if people were stealing.
It's the worst.
- Our main thieves, like with the nicest stroller,
the nicest Louboutin heels, and they would just-
I watched one lady like-
like stick it right in the stroller.
I'm like...
- That's why you have to watch
to see if they even have anything in those strollers.
When you do confront somebody,
you can't be like, "Open your bag!"
Like you can't be rude
because you're still speaking on behalf
of the company you're working for.
So then you have to be like,
"Oh, would you like a basket
for that fragrance in your pocket?"
(Destiny laughs)
Like...
- Oh my god, there's like a great eye shadow
that would go with that lipstick in your hand.
Like, come here. Let me show you.
- Yeah.
- Do they make you wear a certain look to work?
We were supposed to wear their makeup.
- Oh.
- Yeah.
- My goal was to like, wear a couple statements.
So I could say like,
"This is from here, I'm wearing this stuff."
Versus like, this is another brand.
And I'm like, "Yeah, we sell it."
- Say this brand was coming in
and so all week we're gonna be wearing,
like, the bold eye from this brand.
But other than that, you just had to have,
like, a full face on.
- We would have crazy days where we would be like,
"We're promoting this new pink eyeshadow!"
so we'd put it on.
But most days it was, like, a very soft look.
- I would always walk around with, like,
eye liner on my eyebrows and just like crazy looks.
Or you could do like really natural.
You could do whatever you wanted.
As long as it was like foundation, brows, blush, highlight.
- Okay. I love that.
- Yeah, like legit theater-ass makeup.
(laughs)
I loved it.
- That's how you know someone knows what they're doing.
Like when I go to the makeup store,
I'm like "That girl with the green lashes?
"Come here. I need your help!"
(laughs)
- What was it like working at a beauty store?
I thought it was fun.
- Yeah! You get to play with makeup all day.
Like when the store was quiet we would just
do each others makeup from scratch.
That was, like, very fun.
- I would always make little face charts.
- The face charts! Yeah, those were fun!
Where you get to, like, try new colors, make a new face.
- It was cool just, like, seeing people, like,
try new things.
It's like retail, right?
But it's also being able to be a little bit more creative,
which is nice.
- Yeah, that is nice!
- Yeah.
- Do the higher-priced products work better
than the average-priced products?
- It is so...
to each their own.
Like there are some people that swear by, like,
the 50, 60, 70 dollar foundations.
And there are some people that swear by
five dollar foundations.
And it really doesn't matter.
- It doesn't matter.
- I would always go towards
the little bit more budget-y things personally.
Just because, I don't know,
I felt like they had more fun colors and stuff.
And I was like- that's the stuff I was wearing.
- Yeah. I feel like it doesn't matter.
Like I've been on both spectrums of wearing
super expensive foundation, super cheap foundation.
And, like, I loved the way I looked both ways.
Like I'm like ooh, I love whatever.
- Like just rock it! Make sure you're rocking it. That's it.
- It's the only requirement, yes.
- Do you judge people who come in
with a bare face or poorly-done makeup?
I ain't judging (beep).
- I mean you notice it.
- Yeah.
- I mean, you observe. I'm observant.
But I'm never like, "Look at her face!"
Like 'cause that's probably my face last week.
It makes sense to come into a makeup store
with no makeup on so like-
- So you can try things!
- Yeah, there's nothing to judge. You're smart.
- Yeah.
- There's been so many times I'll go to a makeup store
full-faced and they're like, "Let me take it off!".
And then I'm like...
- Now you're stuck with wondering.
Whatever gets you to the end
and however you gotta do it, do it.
I would wear eyeshadow as lipstick.
I would wear so many, like lipstick as eyeliner.
As long as you just look good at the end,
and you think you look good at the end, yeah.
That's all that matters.
- I agree.
How is the return policy so great?
Do you use the returns as samples?
- It depends on what's done.
What the product is and what is done to the product.
Like fragrances and stuff...
Yes, we can't sell that but we can use that as a test.
But when it gets to be stuff I think,
like, face stuff and
yeah, anything else that's pretty much going on your face,
I feel like you have to be wary of what's going on there.
- Accepted basically anything back. 30 days.
So we had women come in, foundation bottle dry as a bone
and be like "I didn't like it."
- Yeah.
That happens all the time.
- Lipstick gone. Bare. Dry. Empty.
- Done.
- "I hated this color."
Did you though?
- What's the benefits like?
Do you get a lot of free stuff?
We were just talking about this.
Yeah.
- I had everything. I had it all.
- I would go home with bags
of free stuff.
- Yeah, some good free stuff.
Cause they want you to try the new product
before it goes to the public, so you're like, "ooh!"
- Yeah.
- Yeah, it's great.
- It's nice to walk down memory lane.
- It really is.
- I feel like in retail spaces in general,
you have to give people more credit.
Like just, if you're going in as a customer, just be nice.
- Be kind.
Remember that's it's kind of nerve-wracking
to do makeup on a stranger.
And let us know what you want, also.
- Communicate!
- Communication is very key when you go into a makeup store.
Be as detailed as possible and just be patient
if you say you want Brook Shields eyebrows
and we don't, we give you pencil thin eyebrows.
We're working on it.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(upbeat music plays)