Anyone work on a beauty counter?

[MooMinCow]

What's it like, do you love your job? I'm thinking of a bit of a job change (currently work in retail, but being made redundant have a beauty diploma too), love make up etc. is it very hard sell (commission, targets etc)?

I have applied (twice) to the Estée Lauder companies (who seem to have the monopoly on counters in my area) but with no success. I can't seem to find any career websites for Lancôme, Chanel, Dior, YSL etc - do I need to apply to the Boots/Dept store directly for them?

Any help advice or experience would be most appreciated!

[Deathraystare]

Not a make up sales woman (sadly) but feel I have to stick up for Benefit. Love their make up. Got chatting to one of the ladies. Very friendly (ok know it is her job to be). She had done mainly bar work so I guess went down well with customer care etc. I always find the benefit girls seem to get on well together.

[Pearlmum1]

I work on a beauty counter and it's the happiest moat friendly job you can ask for. I work very close to all the other brands and there isn't much pressure, if you love the job, apply make up very well and are good with customers then that's all you can do. There is no pushy selling on any of the counters here. There are so many perks. You get paid more than average retail work plus commission. The commission can be a lot over Christmas too. Experience is always preferred but if they like your personality then they will often take a chance but send you on training straight away (which is often amazing!). It can be quiet and boring at times and if you love your job you will want to do the targets which are mainly achievable as it's based on the previous year. It's an extremely social job and you will have lots of fun. I love in the south west so it's probably very different to London. I find you are more likely to find a job by asking yo speak to the beauty department manager, ask him/her what's available and if they will take your CV. Good luck

[GeorginaWorsley]

DD1 works for Benefit
Is young and beautiful though!
Loves the job,doesn't seem to 'push' for sales,is in Boots and enjoys their staff discounts etc too

[Fairylea]

Ahhh I must be confused. Sorry!

It's been ages since I worked in make up :)

[AmazingDisgrace]

Fairylea, Estee Lauder own Creme de la mer as well

[Fairylea]

:) you don't HAVE to wear anything from the range you work for if you don't want to... they won't come round and check when you get dressed :) .. hence me saying we all wore rimmel foundation etc!

However yes you are expected to wear certain things - with clinique and chanel they wanted you to wear foundation, concealer, powder, blusher, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, lip liner, lipstick and lip gloss. Basically they want you to sell "the look" and whatever you're wearing. People will ask what you have on so if you don't wear your brand you need to know what the equivalent would be in order to sell it.

I have no idea why some of the women look like oompa loompas. It's not essential :) .. I guess it's like anything else , some people are better at make up than others!

I hope I didn't look orange ! :)

I think there is a lot of competition between the girls... who looks the most groomed, who has the best sales, who has the best designer handbag (! Oddly enough everyone was into designer handbags as we all had to wear uniforms and they become a bit of a status symbol, people seem to use their commission to buy them.. I never did but others were really into obviously real Louis v or whatever else ... oh and chanel earrings and sunglasses!... again not my thing but seemed usual!)

[MooMinCow]

Aw Vallium I had a male MAC artist do my wedding makeup trial - I could have snogged him too, except I was obviously not his 'type' IYKWIM

[valiumredhead]

Do they HAVE to wear so much make up? I know it's a bit of a joke calling them 'orange ladies' - but why the bad foundation?

The best counter person I have ever met was a really young chap with Estee Lauder ( he wasn't orange btw!) and he totally got me into make up again after a long break. He redid my eye make up and I could have kissed him

[MooMinCow]

Interesting point about the foundation Fairylea, as I'm Asian myself and know there is a hang up about being 'fairer', but I get annoyed when I see Asian girls with lovely honey skin tones wearing Caspar like masks! I think a lot of the younger generation are happier with their colour and love brands like MAC/Bobbi Brown who do a good range for darker skin. If I were to get a job at a counter that doesn't have a broad range they wouldn't honestly expect me to wear their foundations if they didn't suit?

[Fairylea]

I don't think chanel is anymore hard sell than clinique ... maybe I said that wrong :)

I just found the whole thing more intense... you were tested regularly on products (someone would actually come round and test you on counter) and you had to know the company phrases for products off by heart word for word. I found it all a bit tedious. I enjoyed clinique more. I just fancied chanel as I liked their skincare more :)

The one thing that I always struggled with though was obviously we were taught to match foundation exactly to skin tone butso many women don't want this
... lots want a tan look, lots of Asian women want to be whiter than white (!) And they want you to agree with them that it's the right foundation when it actually isn't! Really difficult :)

And some nice stories too.... I helped a woman who had a terrible scar from domestic violence and hadn't worn make up as she didn't want to look in the mirrorbut wanted to conceal it. So I sat her down and did it for her and then showed her. She came in a month later tosAy thank you as she had felt so much better about herself she had been able to look in the mirror again :)

And then there's the men shopping for their women .... "bottle of channel number 5 please love.... HOW MUCH ??!!!!"

[emsyj]

Ooooh I'm loving all this inside info!

I am not put off by the standing up (have worked in retail before). I am surprised at what you say about Chanel though Fairylea, I buy Chanel quite often and have never felt they were trying to 'sell' to me... Although I possibly don't need encouragement to buy 3 things at a time .

Agree that Benefit is crapola.

[Fairylea]

With clinique we would regularly sell up to 2-4k of product each per day (in London).

With chanel I was often lucky to sell 3 things! It's one of the reasons I hated it.

[Fairylea]

As far as I know every counter works on commission. But you get a good ish wage too. I was on £7.50 an hour with chanel in 2005 plus commission. With clinique the hourly rate was less but we sold more so lots of commission. I was on about £17-20k as an area teen consultant. (I drove business development for clinique teen business) plus commission.

There isn't much more to tell! I will have atthink and see what I can remember ! :)

[MooMinCow]

Well, I'm used to standing for 4 hour stretches, but not in heels (that only happens when I'm drunk), so would need to get used to that, but no problems on the lid wiping as am slightly OCD about things like that anyhow. Would you say the majority of counters work on a commission basis then Fairylea?

[Pinot]

Beneshit

Tell us more goss, Fairylea!

[Fairylea]

Quite possible, yes.

There is a lot of overlapping between the brands.

Estee own mac, Bobbi brown, origins, aveda, estee obviously, clinique, and a few others, I can't remember them all.

Lancome own creme de la Mer, loreal and a few others.

Chanel and bourjois are linked. Their eyeshadows are virtually identical. When I worked on chanel we would often wear them as they were dirt cheap and if a customer asked we sold them the chanel equivalent.

Benefit is the black sheep really. It's very trendy but no one rated it much and even the benefit consultants brought stuff from us at clinique.

Clarins I don't know much about at all!

[JumpHerWho]

The Boots scanner thing is apparently licensed exclusively to Boots for a year then will be used at beauty counters. That's what it said in their blurb anyway - I thought it was shit and doubt it'll be used beyond boots unless the technology improves. Anyway perhaps YSL will be first in line, using No7 as a testing ground?

[Fairylea]

Maybe it was just in the stores I worked but everyone loved rimmel stay matte and the pressed powder. Even over ordering with our discounts. Double wear was also popular.

To be honest as we were all friends we used to order things through each other's allowances ... naughty but oh well.

Yep no 7 definitely related to ysl or vice versa. My ex was a manager for boots so I saw and heard about it from all angles.

[JumpHerWho]

I find it really interesting about YSL making No7 concealer. I bet the relationship runs deeper, they probably make all their products, at least the make-up. Also Loreal making Lancôme.

I thought beauty counter ladies all wore EL Double Wear? Never heard Rimmel's foundation being much rated.

[Fairylea]

Yes the heels is true to a point.. they do like a "court shoe". And absolutely no sitting down. If you aren't serving a customer you're expected to be cleaning round the lids of pots or wiping everything like you have ocd :)

[Fairylea]

A mobile is a consultant who covers for sickness and holidays. All companies have them - estee lauder call them "bureau".

You go to whatever store they need you in. Its like being agency staff.

[Eliza22]

When you go on the Clarins site, they advertise vacancies in FULL TIME NATIONAL MOBILE. What is this? The brief job description doesn't really say. It sounds like you're "on the road" rather than in a store/chemist/salon setting.

Anyone know?

[MooMinCow]

Thanks all. Would say I'm fairly outgoing and chatty, and do genuinely like talking and helping customers out.

Will go and stalk some people at the counters and pick their brains then