Not So Sweet: Mary Kay

What about me screams "gullible," I wonder? I was walking around the grocery store a couple of weeks ago, looking at the canned food, when a smartly dressed woman walked up to me and said, "Hi, can I ask you a favor?" I asked her what I could help her with. Before she answered, she stuck out her hand and introduced herself; this seemed a rather suspicious response, seeing as I was expecting her to ask me to reach for a can of beans or something. She explained that she was from Mary Kay and wanted me to be a "face model" and asked if she could give me a call sometime. I walked away feeling a little smug; a face model, eh? I guess my little trip to have my brows done at Anastasia was worth it.

I arrived at her house and listened to a 15 minute spiel about the value of exfoliating one's hands before touching one's face before being allowed to actually do so. Then, she squeezed various products into a tray and told me to apply them to my face. I should have asked right away if this was what being a face model entailed--modeling the products in front of a 2-inch mirror before buying them--but I didn't want to be rude, so I kept my mouth shut. Besides, not surprisingly, I rather like trying on products, so I didn't feel I had much to lose.

After I applied the serums and moisturizers and what not, she started applying the makeup for me. Right off the bat I knew the color of foundation she chose was too dark (I have light olive skin), but she insisted that I try it before judging, which was fair. I looked at my face near the window and realized that it was in fact too dark and that I looked rather ridiculous. But she refused to admit this. She kept insisting that it looked "fine" even though I could see a clear line of demarcation! She then applied bronzer in a very blotchy fashion with a cotton ball. Once again, she insisted that it looked wonderful even though I was clearly looking more and more like a clown right there in her living room. If she had really wanted to sell her products, she could have just admitted her mistake, asked me to go wash my face, and started over.

Then she started talking. I could accept that my dreams of modeling for Mary Kay (*cough*) were never going to be realized and that I was there to buy stuff, but then why was she going on and on about pink Cadillacs and heart-shaped pendants? How did I go from being a suckered-in customer to potential Mary Kay saleswoman? She was obviously operating on a lot of assumptions: wouldn't it be nice to own my own car and not have to make payments? To have a steady income? When I could finally get a word in edgewise, I explained that I already owned my own car, but more importantly, barely had time to breath, what with student-teaching, then teaching summer school, then teaching high school English full time in the fall, along with starting grad school. There was no way I could sell beauty products as well. She assured me that I could do it as a hobby (failing to comprehend that I already had plenty of other hobbies that I still had to fit into my schedule!).

It all boiled down to a roll-up compartment bag which contained a handful of the products I had tried on. I could buy it for $100 and sign up to be a saleswoman or just keep the products for my own use. I told her that I could do no such thing. She was convinced that I would be "up all night thinking about it" but the only thing I was thinking about was how much I detested the disingenuous nature of Mary Kay's sales pitch.

I think the company needs to promote honesty and upfrontness on the part of their saleswomen. Model? Customer? Seller? What did she want from me!? Yes, I should have been more shrewd, but I believe the onus is on the company and its representatives to be clear about their motives right from the start. Heck, there were even some products I liked (great tinted lip gloss), but now, on principle, I refuse to purchase from Mary Kay. I am sure they offer some great services and that there have been some wonderful success stories, but there are simply too many choices out there for me to buy from a company that has left a bad taste in my mouth.