The Makeover

Last week I received a call from a company stating that I was picked from a lucky draw and was entitled to one free makeover session, which at the end of the session I would be given 2 free photographs of my makeover. Sounded too good to be true, but nevertheless I decided to go and take a look, and see what they are up to.

My appointment with the agency was at 8pm, at their studio in Raffles Place. They were rather secretive, and I only know their address and company name via SMS just 2 days before the appointment. I instantly knew this was part of their marketing strategy, a technique commonly used in network marketing companies to "lure" customers. And I was right. The moment I reached the studio, I saw the reception hall filled with people, mostly seated around coffee tables each having 3 chairs and a Mac monitor. Typical network marketing companies' setting! Anyway, although my appointment was scheduled at eight, I was only attended at about 9.15pm. The guy who attended to me introduced himself as the "image consultant" of the company. I had my doubts on him, as his turn-out and behaviour told me elsewise, but I decided to keep quiet. He explained that the makeover session would consist of 2 parts: 1 casual session and 1 formal session. Casual session would be carried out in my attire at that time, and the formal session would include a change of attire into one of their apparels from their wardrobe.

After the briefing, I was led to the makeup room for makeup. I was suprised that the makeup was done with less than 10 strokes of the brush, and completed with a smear (yes, you did not read wrongly, and neither did I type wrongly) of lip gloss over my lips with a cotton bud. I really wonder if these so-called makeup artistes really know how to do makeup, for I had been through 2 makeover sessions before, and I know one needs at least 5 minutes to do the makeup. What's more, the lip gloss was so badly applied that I can feel one big chunk of the lip gloss still stuck to one side of my lips. After the makeup was done, I was ready for the first round of photoshoot. Were they out of their mind? I had been running around the entire day and had been touching my hair for uncountable times that it was already in a mess, and you called that "ready"? I remained quiet, since it was free-of-charge anyway! It wouldn't get me anywhere if I were to argue with them.

The first round of photoshoot was alright, as I am already quite used to posing in front of the camera. However, I did not have confidence in the photographer. Some of the poses he asked me to pose were really awkward. Like for example he asked me to sit on the arm-rest of the sofa, and put my legs on the back-rest. That's a real weird pose! I wondered if he would be asking me to do a leg split on the top of the couch with my front foot touching the ceiling! And one thing I noticed was that he snapped his photographs rather quickly. So far I've never came across photographers who actually took pictures at such speed, and I really wondered if he was just taking random trial-and-error shots.

After the first round, I was led back to the makeup room to choose clothes for my second round. My image consultant chose some floral long sleeve shirt and asked me which one I prefer. With one look I knew the shirts were too big for me, at least a "L", but he did not realised it, and I had to remind him that I can only fit a "S" size. How on earth can an image consultant failed to realise such details? But anyway he explained later that most of their shirts were "L" or larger, so I had no choice but to pick one of them. I was later given a bit of touch-up to my makeup (again with a few strokes of the brush again), and this time round, I finally got my hair made.

I was once again led to the photoshoot studio, but this time round, I was introduced to another photographer. This photographer seemed more professional, as he was more graphic in the poses he wanted me to put on for the camera, and I felt that the poses he requested from me were less awkward than the earlier one. Still, the speed of his shots were fast too.

After the photoshoot was completed, I was led back to the reception hall to view my photographs. As expected, those taken during the first part were simply horrible, mainly due to my messy hairstyle. Some of the poses were problematic too, resulting in me looking more like an Allegria performer or Dunhuang dancer than a makeover pose. Those taken in the second round were much better, and there were a few which I think were quite well-taken. However, as these pictures were raw and unedited, my image consultant proceed to select one of the pictures to do a on-the-spot touch-up. I was impressed by how fast he navigates through functions and shortcuts within Photoshop, but that was it. In terms of skills, I think I could be better than him, although I admit I'm still nowhere near a professional DI artiste. There were instances whereby he tried to touch-up some areas in vain, because he had selected the wrong image layer, and I had to remind him that. Speaking of this, Art was invited by this company before months back for a similar makeover session, and she actually taught her image consultant on how to do some effects!

After "impressing" me with the final finished masterpiece, my image consultant then started to feed me with the "essence" of this makeover session, by telling me the benefits of being their members by signing on a makeover package. I had already anticipated that, but I just pretend I knew nothing and listened. He was rather smart as to not talking about prices (other than the market value of the freebies thrown in with the offer). I pretended to enquire about the price involved in signing up the package, and my image consultant introduced me to another colleague of his, whom he said was in charged of the sales and marketing.

His colleague was a very cheerful person, a bit too cheerful in my opinion! On my way up to their studio when I first arrived, he was the first person I met at the stairways, and he greeted me very politely and warmly. And earlier on while browsing through my photographs, he had actually popped by and commented how great the photographs were taken. I admit I felt flattered, but not naive to not see that these are all business tactics. Anyway, he gave me a quotation of over $2000 for one photo album with all the freebies and benefits as previously mentioned by my image consultant. $2000! What a hefty amount for such "quality" work! I had expected the price to be real expensive, but this amount was really unexpected. Since I had no intention to sign up any package from the start, I simply declined the offer by saying that I did not have that much money, and I did not have any credit cards or savings, and neither was I able to pay in installments. The mega-watt smile of the other guy instantly disappeared, as he stood up and left to prepare the paperworks for me to collect my free photographs. What a change in character! I was then asked to select any of the 2 unedited photographs that I like, and my image consultant then burned them into a CD-rom for me.

I left the company at around 11pm, feeling relieved that I could walk away without paying a single cent. (I'm actually bad at rejecting offers, especially if being pushed by a few persons simultaneously) I had done some touch-up of the photographs on my own and had sent them to print. Hopefully my touch-ups were alright, as I can't visualise from my aging LCD monitor which is forever darker than anyone else' monitor!