Tell Friend Her Makeup Looks Bad?

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Okay, I didn't know whether to put this in the advice or makeup section, so I'll try here first (since it does deal with makeup).

Here's the deal....I have a friend that wears foundation that makes her face look orange and really unnatural. I am by no means a makeup expert, but I know it does not look flattering on her. Let it be known that she is a very fair-skinned African-American, and it can already be difficult for woman of color to find matching colors. But she also has acne issues and tends to "cake" her foundation on because of it. She is my friend and I want her to look her best, but is it even my place to bring this to her attention? And if so, what can I say???

BTW, she's a self-proclaimed "MAC-snob"
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so I will probably have a hard time convincing her that any of their products are anything less than gold (even if the shades don't match
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)...

 
Nothing wrong with MAC snobs Im one lol.. but why dont u go together and try on a bunch of dif foundations and hopefully she will find one less orangy

 
Originally Posted by Ricci /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nothing wrong with MAC snobs Im one lol.. but why dont u go together and try on a bunch of dif foundations and hopefully she will find one less orangy ITA Also, she would rather hear this from you nicely, than to walk around with an orange hue to her face. I know I would. I would be a little embarrassed, but would want to fix it.
 
It depends. If she really likes the way she looks and is proud of it (since you said she refers to herself as a "MAC Snob"), she might get pretty upset if you criticized her makeup. If she likes the way she looks, it would be best to just bite your tongue.

But if she is discouraged by her acne and how her foundation doesn't seem to match, there's no harm in letting her know that you're willing to go with her to check out different foundations to get a match.
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Sheesh, hard one for sure. I shy SOOOO away from saying things to people that I think will hurt/offend/bother them, BUT...when you CARE and are GOOD friends with someone, you sometimes feel you SHOULD say things at times. I usually go with what seems to burn in my HEART to do and pray for grace and wisdom! Hoping it works out WELL!!

 
yeah that's a hard one. i had a friend who wore her foundation way too orange and dark, and she didn't blend it in all the way one day, so halfway down her cheek there was a line between the dark and light. she's very fair-skinned, too. she sat in front of me in class, and so when we got a break, i pulled her over to the side and said "i don't mean to sound rude or anything, but you might want to go to the bathroom. your foundation isn't blended all the way". she was glad i told her and she went to the bathroom and blended it a little more. she was like "yeah i need to get a new one.. this one's my 'summer' foundation and it's too dark for me now". just try to be as nice as possible.

 
I wouldn't say anything straight out, but I'd maybe ask her to go with you to look at foundations. Then you could say 'nah, this is too orange for me, don't you hate when people wear orange foundation?' and ask the rep to choose a colour for both of you (and tell her it's 'for fun!')

 
Yeah, say it in a nice way, but don't beat around the bush.

Good luck, this is such a tricky situation.

 
i suppose the easiest way is to convince your friend on how fun it would be to get a makeover done at a MAC store. then let the MUA pick out some other colors for you guys. that way, she can be clued in very tactfully. that's how i'd do it. YMMV.

 
^agreed...get your colors done together, that way if she's not legally blind she'll see how much better it looks. Or if she is blind, you can always be like "omg that looks incredible on you! you have to get THAT color of foundation!!"

so you're not dissing her, you're giving her a compliment. Instead of feeling stupid and misguided, she'll feel like now she can be even prettier than before.

 
Originally Posted by pinksugar /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wouldn't say anything straight out, but I'd maybe ask her to go with you to look at foundations. Then you could say 'nah, this is too orange for me, don't you hate when people wear orange foundation?' and ask the rep to choose a colour for both of you (and tell her it's 'for fun!') Yeah! I think that's the best way to go as well... sometimes I'll be looking at my friend's face and go something like, "you have dry skin, huh?" and they'll same something to answer that and I'll be like - "well, they have this certain product at this place. we should go check it out?". I haven't had friends who wears mismatched foundation - I'll most likely be that friend, haha. But slowly going like, "hey, try this foundation in this shade... I heard it was hella good for your type of skin blah blah". Could work?
 
I know someone that is doing the same thing. It's a relative. Sadly, I don't see her often. I don't know what brand she is wearing, but it looks like an orange oil slick. Since she is a teen, I was going to bring her to M.A.C. and get her m/up done. No, I wasn't going to give her a choice. I was going to tell her it was a gift from me and I would be extremely upset forever if she turned it down.
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Thanks everyone for the advice. Some of the suggestions reminded me that there are some pieces to the situation that I failed to mention....

The last time I went with her to get foundation she DID get color-matched by a MAC MA! The MA was new to the store, but went out of her way to let us know that she had been independently doing makeup for x amount of years, etc, etc. She put at least 4 different shades on my friend because of oxidation issues. Finally, the MA suggested a shade, I said the other looked better, and of course the friend went with the MAC lady (not to mention that friend is so psychologically caught up in that darn numbering system, but thats another story...)

StereoXGirl, you made a very good point...friend thinks she and her makeup look great, so I know she'll have a fit if I even touched the issue. But maybe now that summer is coming up, I could probably convince her to join me to get matched for a summer shade. Hopefully that same MA won't be there!

 
OK so my I experienced something similar with one of my friends except her issue was frost lipstick...in like a mauve frost with brown lipliner if you can imagine that! (no offense to anyone that likes the way it might look, but for my friend it was alllllllllllll wrong!)

So my other friend and I were getting ready one night in college to go out and we told her she should try skipping the liner and using just a nice sheer gloss. Then we told her how good she looked and after we convinced her how much better she looked, she wanted to know why we didnt tell her sooner!

So you never know.....might actually work out!

 
I will be so happy if some one tells me I am wearing wrong foundation, I always ask my mum and friends for their opinion about my make up and clothes, and I expect honest opinoin not just oh yea u look nice. I never get offended if they r not approve of it.

 
You're stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don't think I'd know what to do either. Good luck!

 
I know how hard this must be for u, but I think u should let her know what u think, it's all about the way u say it, don't hurt her! just tell her what u think, I'm pretty sure she'll appreciate it.

Depending on the way she reacts, the next thing u should do 2gether is go shop for a proper foundation. In places like Walgreen's for example they have beauty advisors that I'm pretty sure will be glad to help her choose the right foundation.
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I hope my reply was helpful!

 
I would honestly be happy if a friend told me that I was wearing the wrong foundation colour. But I also understand that it is difficult to bring it up sometimes. And some people don't want to hear it.

From your comment about valuing the MAs opinion over yours, I would probably let this one go.

 
Originally Posted by andrrea /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would honestly be happy if a friend told me that I was wearing the wrong foundation colour. U go girl! me too!
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