My First Time at MAC

Is it just me or does the eyeshadow remind you of Mulan?

Being a novice makeup user, I've always been intimidated with makeup stores.  Sephora is okay because generally they are so busy that a salesperson never really bothers you.  But MAC, for me, is the scariest of the scariest.  Their look is deliberately bold and the associates generally have tattoos or piercings or both.  I feel like I utterly do not belong there.

My mom and I went to the mall because she had run out of primer.  I followed her into the dreaded MAC and just stood there gazing at all the colors but never daring to touch or express interest in any products, lest an associate pounce on me and start suggesting this or that.  Some guy tried to sell my mom other stuff when she only wanted primer.  She let herself be made over by his expert hand.  Boom.  Cheekbones.

She went to the register to pay, but my mother, bless her heart, had 13 empty containers to give to them*.  The man told her that she could choose two free products from among the eyeshadows, lipsticks, or lipglosses.  My mom turned to me and said, "Pick what you want."  I have been wanting to try lavender eyeshadow since forever and I was ecstatic that I could finally get my hands on one for free.  Being a newbie, I asked whether he could show me how to apply purple eyeshadow without looking like I had a bruised eye.

I had a subtle, ethereal look in mind, but before I knew it I had a smoked out very purple look going on.  When I saw the completed look in the mirror, I felt like I had theater makeup on**.  Kenny, I'd found out his name at this point, went on to help other customers while I tried to decide between which shades of purple I wanted.  I definitely knew I didn't want the darker shade.  While deliberating, I thought, "Why limit myself?  I should get another fun color instead of having 2 of the same shade!"  I decided upon a pale seafoam green because it was a fun atypical color***.  But then of course, I didn't know how to use this shade either.

Rather than erase my completed look, I sat in the chair and found Kenny adding Aqua onto my lids and blending, blending, blending.  I can't remember whether he used another shade as well.  Above is my finished look.  I knew that practically, I had no such occasion nor was I bold enough to wear this look just cuz****.  Seeing that I couldn't decide on shades, Kenny then suggested that I could make my own palette and it would be cheaper because the pans were only $10 a piece, as opposed to $16 for the individually packaged ones.  That way mom and I could choose 2 lipsticks instead (which I will talk about in a later post).

So Kenny and I went back to the eyeshadow stand to review our options.  With this revelation, I was entranced.  Totally hypnotized.  Every shade Kenny chose and swatched on my hand looked so gorgeous.  How in the world was I supposed to pick just 4?  At some point, I told him to stop tempting me because the more options he presented, the more I wanted everything.

Roughly 2 hours and $100 later, my mom and I walked out of MAC.  And suddenly, I understood the appeal of MAC.  I was the gullible customer who bought way more things than I intended to, but ultimately I didn't feel taken advantage of.  I came out grinning like an idiot and so excited to go home and try all the colors out.  I definitely think Kenny is a slick salesman but I also consider him to be a makeup artist.  I wish he was my gay BFF.  Someone who would be as excited about makeup as I was and spend too much money on makeup with.  Who could make me look better than what I could do on my own.  Someone who wouldn't advise me to tone it down and just be fierce with.

*  If you didn't know, MAC has a program in which you can bring in 6 empty MAC containers and they offer you a free product.
**  Don't get me wrong.  It was pretty but a lot darker than I ever do my makeup.  At various stages of being helped by Kenny, I tried to tone down the look when he stepped away to help customers.  Every time he came back, he powdered me up again so I finally embraced it.
***  I don't know why, but this year I am so excited for spring.  I want to incorporate more color into my makeup because gold all day, errday is getting tired.
****  I walked around the rest of the day all MACed out.  I was stared at.  Often.  Which always makes me uncomfortable.  One salesgirl at Forever21 told me she liked my makeup, saying that it reminded her of butterflies.

Are you a fan of MAC?  Do you wear non-neutral eyeshadow shades?  Do you use their Prep + Prime 24-Hour Extend Eye Base?  Have you ever been made over in one of the stores?  And if you finished reading this post to the end, God bless you.