If you are unhappy with a make up product you bought(especially high end) please contact the company !!!

[cannotfuckingbelievethis]

And you'll most likely get a refund ! This has happened to me twice in the last 6 months, once with Estee Lauder and the other time with MAC (also owned by Lauder). I'm totally sick and fed up of buying expensive cosmetics that don't bloody do what they say on the packaging or what the MUA told me they would do, so thought I would start to complain. And it's paid off, both times I have received a cheque in the post ! And in both cases I no longer had my receipt. So if you're not happy, say so people ! .

Just felt the need to share this after getting huffy with a MUA on the Illamasqua counter today, she colour matched me for a foundation and said "I really think you should go for the Skin Base foundation, looks lovely on you". I asked if she had a sample I could try for a few days and she said the company didn't give samples out because of "professional sample collectors that go round all the counters". "In that case" I said, " I won't be buying the foundation"

I hate when companies are stingy with samples.

Oooh don't start me! I'm in the midst of a big Illamasqua war atm! I was wrongly sold skin base by a temp over Christmas & I have had nothing but hassle since, and it's STILL ongoing

I've had in the past been colour matched incorrectly by Benefit & Estee Lauder and have had either a refund or swap with no problems. The ongoing debacle that is with illamasqua has totally put me on any future purchases.

I won't be holding out for a resolution very soon :-(

Sorry you have also had the "pleasure" of dealing with them.

That's shocking sofa. At the very least I would have expected them to offer an exchange. It's crazy that so many counters expect you to fork out the best part of £30 for something that you haven't tried on your face for even a day at least or seen in normal daylight. It's bloody impossible to tell if it's the correct foundation shade when you're in a department store with the artificial lighting. Your story has put me completely off Illamasqua...

Me too ^. I dont bother with companies that dont have good returns policies.

Estee Lauder were fab at giving me samples to take home when i was looking for a foundation.

Had a great experience of a very generous lady on the Guerlain counter in HoF - got a ton of samples might be because we gushed about Shalimar and over vintage Guerlain perfumes together. Guerlain counters are less common than say, Estee Lauder so I don't know if this is the case with Guerlain generally.

Very good timing on this thread topic. I was just about to start a thread about choosing the right foundation.
I'm sitting here, after deciding yesterday to try to sort out my cosmetics, surrounded by 11 different bases, none of which are right for me.
I have fair, difficult to match skin. I find that a lot of bases can look good for an hour or so on me but then they turn orange. Or they just slide off my face.
So fed up of spending money on products that turn out to be useless.
Most department stores in the US have a very reasonable returns policy, no idea why it's not the same here.

I took back a YSL foundation , colour was ok but I didn't like the finish..looked cakey. No problems getting refund, I did have receipt tho.
I wonder about MUA eyesight though

think of the profits these guys make and they resent a tiny sample

This is really good to know. I often find a foundation I like - loved Giorgio Armani eg but after a few uses they bring me out in spots on my chin. I also have lots of Nars skin products used a couple of times and they do the same.

I did buy quite a lot of Clarins skin care products a while ago as advised by one of their ladies on the counter and I again got the spots on chin - it's almost like an irritation. I went back to John Lewis with them to ask if they were too heavy for my skin and I was really surprised to be offered a full refund. I thought this was more John Lewis than Clarins but I will definitely at least try to return products in the future if I react badly to them. Thanks for this :)

gin - I get the make up applied then piss off to do other shopping

then you can catch a glimpse of yourself in mirrors and see how much your mother you look