I still haven't decided if I want internet infamy so I'm keeping my name a secret for the meantime. Heh.
Photo from Donna's Facebook page.
One of those batoks is mine. Guess which one.
Hooray! So I've finally pulled enough motivation to write today, 3 days after the actual workshop. Here's to hoping I've retained all the information I refused to write on paper.
Last time, we played a game of expectations vs. reality. Here's a roundup of what truly transpired in reality:
1. The turnout. There were 23 of us. 21 or 23. (They earned at least P42,000 that day! If I do decide to pursue this career seriously, I'm thinking of putting up a studio and conducting seminars like this. I realized this could be my life path, I love learning and teaching anyway. Hmmm I should write about this.)
2. The swimming passes. They were raffled off. 2 pairs. One was won by a participant. One by a member of the organizing team. How unfair is that? We paid for that chance to win, you didn't!
3. The food. My fearless forecast: Rice, fried chicken, vegetables, iced tea. What they served: Rice, barbecue, and a chicken dish with potato and hotdog. Lemonade. The barbecue was good, albeit tiny. But hey, it's free what do I expect? The merienda was a disappointment. I was expecting pasta. They served a rather dry, sad plate of pancit. Ada's Catering probably didn't realize the importance of impressing potential clients.
I apologize for the poor image quality, I was hungry when I took the photos.
4. The freebies. So. How do I express my disappointment without offending Ms. Donna in case she reads this? First of all, I came to be trained and certified, not to get the freebies, BUT I was convinced to go all the way to San Rafael, Bulacan and paid P2,000 expecting I'd get decent items. One can't help but feel duped.
What was promised:
Promises as posted on her IG.
What we actually received:
"Make up pouch"
"Set of make up brushes"
Of course these ain't real Lacoste nor MAC. I wasn't expecting that at all. The brushes, surprisingly, are soft and usable.
"Personal vanity mirror w/ bag"
Yep. These even look better in this photo. It's about the size of a notebook. Not complaining as it is FREE, but I wish they chose to describe it less vaguely. "MIRROR WITH POUCH" would have set expectations right, "PERSONAL VANITY MIRROR" denotes an air of class. I mean, they could have chosen something black at least. Or this, specifically:
Photo from here.
In fact, they could really just have chosen to get mirrors from Mary Kay. From the same link - it's a blog post about free stuff you get when you sign up for Mary Kay (awesome deal, if you ask me) - this mirror is described to be worth P180 for three pieces. That's P60 for something I won't be embarrassed to lug around and pull out from my bag!
"Mary Kay makeup product(s)"
Unfortunately for us, attendees, this is all the Mary Kay Makeup Product(s) we received. 2 pcs of liquid foundation samplers. I haven't opened them yet, they're not my shade, but by the looks of it, a sachet is good for only 1-2 uses. I was hoping we'd get samples in small tubs or tubes but alas, sachets are all we deserved apparently.
My cousin went home sad and worried. She didn't want to disappoint her husband who spent the day taking care of their kids because she said she'll go to this awesome workshop with amazing freebies. She came home empty-handed. Another attendee from my group was asked by her mom if she wanted a Mary Kay Starter Kit the day before the workshop. She declined her mom's offer because she thought she'll be getting the same stuff from the workshop anyway. Imagine for P1,500 we get P5,700+ worth of full-sized Mary Kay cleansers, moisturizers, foundation and lipstick samplers. We could have just used the money we paid for the workshop to join Mary Kay, had we known! I'm kidding of course, We learned good stuff and we are now certified, so I guess we didn't lose in the end. It's just I don't know, we can't help but feel we were promised too much and they didn't deliver.
5. The organic stuff. Here's a good bit. We received as we reasonably expected.
"Human Nature product(s)"
"Good Vibes product(s) cheek and lip balm"
It's probably an honest case of vague wording, we were hoping we'd get more products, as the words used were in plural form, but we're happy with what we received. Human Nature products are stuff I truly love and recommend to friends. The lip and cheek tint from Good Vibes is awesome on my lips, I am yet to try it on my cheek. It's organic and I'm always biased to like organic stuff heh.
6. Herbal Life products. They smell like MLM and I'm never comfortable around anything MLM-related. BUT to be fair, this time I did not feel cheated or that my time was wasted listening to recruiters and manipulative sales-talkers.
"Free Herbal Life product(s) and wellness consultation."
Here they go again with their pluralized freebies. We received just one sachet of the nutritional shake mix. That bit aside, this freebie was truly useful to us attendees. We were asked to stand on a scale which I assumed only took our weight but it showed numbers that measured other stuff like Body Fat, Muscle Mass, Hydration, Metabolism, and Visceral Fat. I'm not quite sure how that happened, the contraption probably took pulse rates, temperature, and blood pressure, too. I've been recently preoccupied with my body issues, I thought I was getting too thin and my belly getting too fat, but because of this freebie I was informed properly about my body and was told I'm perfectly fine, imaginary belly fat and all.
7, 8, 9. Are not worth discussing as this is getting too long already. They raffled off two prizes, which none of my groupmates won so I can only guess what they were. Ms. Donna has a beauty product shop so the prizes were probably from there. I was able to buy stuff from them:
BOTTOM LINE
It was a fun experience. I will write about the stuff I learned next, as there were plenty of em. Ms. Donna's an entertaining and engaging speaker. She's not boring. She's also pretty and she knows her stuff. She's good.
All in all I would rate the experience a 4 out of 5. It would have been a 5 if not for the unmet freebie expectations and if they were able to spend more time observing and giving tips to the attendees during DIY sessions - she discusses the look first and then lets the attendees try them on their own faces. Ms. Donna and her assistants could have visited each table and taught us, say, that our face shapes are such and such and that this type of eyebrow fits our specific face better, or that this or that lipstick shade does not suit us, etc. They had time to do that as they gave attendees an hour per look to do their faces, but instead they just went around observing and waiting to be asked. I guess I just wish they were more proactive in providing answers to questions that we, as beginners, do not know we were supposed to be asking. But all in all, it was fun, enlightening, and challenging. We may have gone home with just sachets and flyers from sponsors, but Ms. Donna imparted tips and techniques that provided us with a solid understanding of basic makeup artistry.
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