The Insider Secret

Many moons ago, when I was the National Makeup Artist for Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, I did a Personal Appearance event at Neiman Marcus in Dallas. One of my customers was a real Southern Belle type, and I was explaining to her that she could apply her foundation with either her fingers, or a sponge, when she stopped me mid sentence.
“Now sugar,” she purred, “I know you are Bobbi’s right hand. Tell me – what’s the secret?”

“Um, what secret?” I replied, confused.

She lowered her chin & looked me dead-square in the eye. “Whether I’m supposed to use a sponge or my fingers!” she faux-whispered back.

“Oh! There’s no secret ma’am.” I assured her. “Either is fine!”

“Nooooooo!” she insisted. “What’s the secret! I know there is a secret! What does Bobbi use on the models?”

“Well, sometimes she uses her fingers and sometimes she uses a sponge. Whatever works best for you is fine,” I explained. 

Ms. Steel Magnolias was having absolutely none of this rational explanation nonsense, and after quite a bit of back-and-forth it eventually dawned on me that if I wanted to make my point I needed to seriously up the drama quotient on my delivery.

“Ma’am,” I said, being as serious as possible, “do you have a dog?”

“Well, yes! Yes I do!” she excitedly replied.

“Well look,” I told her (I was quite exasperated at this point), “I don’t care if you get your dog to lick your foundation and then lick your face. If that’s the application method that works best for you, then it’s ok in my book!”

That did the trick. 

#insidersecret #humor #promakeupartistsecrets #dallas