Two Hours Of My Life....

Sunday, September 24, 2006

..that I'll never get back. Yesterday morning I went to a Mary Kay "Muffins and Makeovers" thing. Normally, I would have no desire to go to some overly made-up, Nip/Tucked, rich woman's house in McLean, but this woman was relentless. She had an event at my hotel a few months ago, and as a "thank-you"* she and another overly made-up woman** showed up at our office with gift certificates. All we had to do was fill out some info and we'd get some free goodies. Fine. So I put my work number down (I rarely give out my cell number). Big mistake. I don't have caller ID at work, and have to pretty much answer every call. She called every week. I kept putting her off, saying I would be out of town, yadda yadda yadda. She kept calling. So finally on Friday when she called I told her I just bought a new car and couldn't afford to buy anything. In her fake, chipper voice she said "oh, that's fine, just come and get a makeover. Besides you have a gift certificate." Blah blah blah. So, I gave in to shut her up. Even bigger mistake. I got my lazy ass out of bed at 8 AM Saturday morning and trekked to McLean. After seeing her house, I don't feel bad about not buying anything.

She made us watch a cheesy video, showing us what a great company it is and how much money they make. Then we had to use the cleanser. I am VERY picky about what I use (philosophy and aveda only), and now I'm broken out from this stuff. The whole time, she was saying shit like "isn't this cleanser fabulous? how does your skin feel? great, right?" I wanted to tell her that no, my skin feels like shit. But I bit my tongue. Then came makeup time. I tried some of the foundation (which sucked, by the way), and put very little eye shadow on (I prefer the natural look, rather than the Tammy Fay Baker look). She kept encouraging me to put on more. Pushy, pushy, pushy. Needless to say, I had to wash my face as soon as I left there...and luckily, I brought my own foundation (Pur Minerals), so I wouldn't have to drive home looking like Ms. Baker.

Then, of course, she tried to push me to buy the "Basic" kit (cleanser, moisturizer, and foundation)...$54. Normally I don't mind spending money on good** products, but considering I had told her that I would NOT be buying anything, I was a little pissed that she was pushing it.

Then she asked us some basic questions and showed us the diamond ring and watch she got for selling a certain amount of shit, along with....yes, her pink Cadillac. She blind-sided me, and now I'm sucked into a meeting with her Tuesday afternoon, where I know she's going to try to recruit me for the Mary Kay cult.

Why am I so spineless? Why can't I say no to people?



*Note the sarcasm
**If they really want to sell this stuff, maybe they shouldn't walk around with plaster-covered faces
***NOT Mary Kay

17 comments:

Anonymous,  9/24/2006 03:17:00 PM  

I work in sales in a hotel also... and we don't have caller id on our phones. It is the worst!

Arwen 9/24/2006 03:54:00 PM  

First time here. Great blog. Cult Mary Kay... classic.
Was the gift certificate for less than anything you could buy? That is actually a sales scheme they use.
I use Pur Minerals and Aveda too. Have you tried Lush? They have a few products that are lucious.

JordanBaker 9/24/2006 06:59:00 PM  

I got sucked into a similar "nachos and nails" event a few years back. The only thing worse than having your nails covered in some vile MK color is being forced to enjoy while they're still damp. Ugh.

Carl Spackler 9/24/2006 07:51:00 PM  

wow. good luck with that.

ps- don't start pushing that shit on my blog!

JoJo 9/24/2006 09:11:00 PM  

Wow, Ash. You are far too polite. I would've looked her straight in the eye and lied through my teeth and told her that I was allergic to anything not bought at my dermatologist. I've unfortunately been sucked into too many of the candle, handbag and jewelry parties. I've not yet bought anything at any of these do's.

Anonymous,  9/24/2006 09:57:00 PM  

Do you have to go Tuesday?

Ally 9/24/2006 10:54:00 PM  

I think it's amazing how these women don't realize how incredibly rude it is to force their friends and others to come to these solicitation events. Why don't they just ask for the amount they will make in profit and save us the hassle of attending some dumb party? One of my girlfriends actually lost a friend over something similar when she refused to attend the make-up parties. Oh well, no real loss, I gues.

KassyK 9/24/2006 10:58:00 PM  

Oh no sugar...so sorry---GET OUT OF TUESDAY. Make something up...anything!! :-)

Frankly, Scarlett 9/25/2006 11:35:00 AM  
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Frankly, Scarlett 9/25/2006 11:36:00 AM  

EEEWWWW - I'm invisioning that mom from edward scissor-hands that sells makeup and all of the Mary Kay nightmares in that neighborhood :)

Hope you get out of there with your pores in tackt!

Rachel 9/25/2006 12:47:00 PM  

I don't like MK either. What you should have said is that you were a consultant for BeautiControl (a competitor) and that you are too busy doing your spas to attend her stupid makeup party.
I do have to admit that one of my favorite perfumes is Velocity by MK. I just hit up a co-worker to order it for me.

Anonymous,  9/25/2006 03:32:00 PM  

Cancel on Tuesday.

Tell her you think you're coming down with that flesh-eating virus and ask her if any other participants have complained of similar problems.

Tell her your lawyer has heard about a lot of these cases and she really ought to seek legal counsel.

Ashburnite 9/25/2006 08:27:00 PM  

badger- indeed it is

arwen- thank-you. yeah, it was a gift certif for $15, so I got some free mascara. too bad it caused black circles under my eyes within 3 hours of putting it on. and I love Lush too! great stuff.

jb- seriously. but how did you get out of the follow-up "makeover"? I need advise!

spacks- I def will not be trying to sell that shit anywhere.

jojo- yeah, I def need to grow a spine.

Ashburnite 9/25/2006 08:35:00 PM  

sweet- I'm going to try to cancel on her tomorrow.

ally- I can def see how it would ruin a friendship. and really...how do they not realize how rude they are being?

kassy- I'm def going to try to.

irishred- ewww....now that you mention it, she was like the lady from edward scissorhands!!

rachel- ooohhh....damn, why don't i know these things ahead of time? :-)

mgc- your ass, huh? hmmmm....hehe ;-) I think I'll need to see proof of that

david- HAHA! see, that's why you're one of my favorite commenters.

Aliecat 9/27/2006 06:59:00 PM  

Ugh, I hate MK...the local cult here is PartyLite (although, the fig and lychee scent is very yummy). I have officially boycotted any of those damn things. The thing that bugs me is that they try and lure you by stating that you can sociallize and it's a "party." If you really want me to come over and hang out, just call me on the damn phone and ask me over.

Anonymous,  9/27/2006 07:43:00 PM  

You gotta wonder why a rich woman living in McLean is spending her time pushing crappy cosmetics. There's no way she could possibly make enough from MK alone to afford her lavish lifestyle. So is it just some kind of cult-like hobby for her?

You also gotta wonder what MK is doing to keep themselves in business all these years. Because I honestly can't think of even one person who actually BUYS their cosmetics.

Anonymous,  1/27/2007 09:57:00 AM  

I just wasted 3 hours of my life last week going to one of these meetings! The Director, or whatever her title was said she can now spend time at home with her kids because she makes so much money selling mary kay. In the next sentence she said she could now afford a nanny because she makes so much money.

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