Weddingbee boards

The Vendor:Femme Artistry: Brandy Rich, make up personLocation: Colorado Springs, Colorado

The Good:I was only in town for one week in April.  There happened to be a blizzard during that week!  Ms. Rich was flexible enough to change the location of my makeup trial from downtown Denver to southeast Aurora because of the road conditions.  She showed up on time with a ton of makeup with her.

The Bad:I had forgotten my inspiration photos, but she had some with her.  I looked at her photos and picked out the brides with minimal makeup, natural looking, with a focus on the eyes.  I explained that it would be an outdoor morning wedding and that I didn't want anything to dark or heavy.I was severely disappointed with the trial.  She put a ton of bases on my skin to hold the makeup and I started to break out from all of it after only a few hours.  I don't have sensitive skin and I have never reacted so badly to makeup.  (I also don't put on five moisturizers prior to application.)  Further, the job she did looked nothing like the photos.  I had dark brown "wings" over my eyelids that made me look like a drag queen.  I tried to rub it off so it wasn't so dark, but it wouldn't come off.  She tried to lighten it by applying more makeup (a light brown).  It still didn't look great but I didn't have time to find another vendor.  I signed a contract with her for makeup for my MOH, MOB, and myself.  I paid a 50% deposit plus extra because I had to buy the lipstick she would use.  That night I was in tears because the makeup still looked awful after five hours, and my skin broke out all over.  My DH calmed me down and suggested I simply do my own makeup, that I would be happier and calmer the day of the wedding.  Genius man.  I called Brandy to tell her we would not be using her services.  She told me she would refund the deposit we made right away.

The Ugly:After a month we received an e-mail apoplogizing for still not having returned the deposit.  Life seemed to go be very quickly for us and before I knew it, it had been six months.  I e-mailed her again asking for the refund.  She replied that after looking at the contract again, the wording was "non-refundable deposit" and that she would not be returning the money.  I remember signing a contract that said "non-refundable after two weeks" and I made sure to call her within 48 hours so that we would get the deposit back.   Now I'm out the money, and she's out a referral. 

Recommendation:Ms. Rich had a lot of makeup, but didn't seem to have the experience or portfolio to back up the goods.  She didn't take direction, and has poor communication.  Instead of telling us she wouldn't be sending the check she left us in limbo wondering what happened.  I was disappointed by the makeup trial but extremely disappointed by her actions after we decided not to use her.  I wouldn't recommend her services to anyone.

Responding to someone else's post reminded me of this.

Make sure to read your contract very carefully.  Know what is refundable and what isn't (like a crappy makeup trial that left you in tears-not refundable; but a product you purchased like lipstick IS-or should be).  Know time constraints on your contracts (like you must cancel within 2 weeks or whatever).  Hold your vendors up to their own contracts.  And when you get burned, nothing hurts their business more than the NEGATIVE PRESS of an honest review.