Although it feels like a lifetime since I last wore a full face of make up, over the past 12 months I have purchased significantly more make up than I would do in a normal 12 month period. Having put a lot of research and effort into learning how to do my own wedding make up, all during a time when the majority of the high street was closed, it seems as good a time as any to reflect on the process of buying make up in an 'online only' way.
If you didn’t already know, doing make up for a wedding or event is entirely different to doing everyday make up and I’d heard it was incredibly difficult to get right. Knowing it had to stay put all day long and I’d be looking at the photos for the rest of my life was also incredibly daunting, but I didn’t have another choice so found a way to make it work and bought more make up than ever before. For what it’s worth, I think I did a decent job all things considered!
So what did I find out?
Own brand D2C websites are great when you know what brand you want, but aren't always the best place to finalise a purchase I started off my search with one specific brand, based on recommendations from people I know. I browsed the different range, found recommendations of what shades and what products went well together before deciding on the best products for my skin tone. The challenge was that I wanted impartial reviews, so I had to look elsewhere and leave the site. After browsing countless blogs and watching plenty of YouTube videos, I did a price and offer comparison and found the best 'outlet' to buy from at the best time (thankfully I wasn't in a rush). Although I didn't buy from the D2C website,I still found it to be a great source of information and great place to start after a recommendation, but on it's own, I needed more.
Detailed, independent product reviews and tutorials are a must have After this initial experience, I realised just how critical detailed product reviews really are; they're essential if you're making an important purchase. One product in particular stood as for me as a reminder of this, which was the Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream. Everything I had read online said the CT magic cream was amazing and a staple for your make up bag, it had 4-5 star ratings across the board. However, from a YouTube video I learned it contained SPF and there gave very high flashback in photos, this meant it was simply a 'no go' for wedding make up. Sometimes it's all in the details!
Product comparisons can help you understand your needs and find the products that fit them Knowing that the Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream wasn't an option and I still needed a great alternative, I made it my mission to find the best base for my foundation that didn't contain SPF. By going through product comparison videos that features the CT Magic Cream, I found Bobbi Brown’s Vitamin Enriched Face Base (the phrases "this isn't as good as 'x' " or, "if you've tried 'y' then..." also appeared in some reviews).
There's no easy way to find the right shade when shopping online Once I found the base I wanted, I searched online for foundation finder tools… there aren’t many and they typically require you to know your colouring (how am I supposed to know if my skintone is neutral, warm or cool?!). In the end, I found a forum conversation where someone was using my current foundation shade and wanted to know the equivalent shade in my chosen foundation. It was complete luck that someone else had asked the same question and got an answer and I therefore knew which shade was most likely to be a match for me too. Without that forum I would have been at a loss without a store trip, or.....
Samples are brilliant There's simply no denying how important finding the right colouring is for your products, so when I got sent a free lipstick sample and it looked great, I was hooked. There was no way I would have committed to that spend for a 'high risk' product that may not be in my colour. What do I mean by 'high risk'? It would be impossible to return and with so many lipstick colours available it would have been impossible to know where to start. Free samples are also just exciting, a nice little bonus!
Sometimes it’s best to just speak to an expert I wasn’t quite so lucky online with my blusher choice. Despite trying a virtual try-on tool and seeing the shade used multiple times by a makeup artist on Instagram with similar colouring to me, when I tried it at home it just didn’t suit me. Thankfully a trip to a beauty counter (well timed between closures!) meant a skilled beauty advisor could advise of an alternative colour that would suit me better by just looking at me… sometimes you just can’t beat years of experience.
The whole experience made me carefully consider the role of digital in the purchase experience. Without online content I simply wouldn't have found the products I ended up buying.
There's no denying that digital content in all forms is incredibly helpful when making any purchase decision. In fact, it’s even more important for big purchases and when you can’t get into a store to browse or speak to an expert. A year or so I stumbled upon an article from 2017, which included a fairly shocking statistic: while shopping in store, 77% of people used their phones, rather than speak to a store colleague for advice or recommendations*. It made me think, digital content is critical no matter what channel you shop in.
So why is digital content so critical? My guess is that there are quite a few reasons. We all want a confidence in impartiality of product reviews and comparisons, we also want the ability to price check across stores (physical and digital) to find the a place we trust at the right price, but also the range of products available today can be incredibly overwhelming nd it can be hard to know where to start. It's impossible for a single person to be an expert in everything. If someone else has done the majority of the hard work to find ‘the best’ product…surely I should take that point of view into consideration for important purchases?
So will our need for online content change when the shops re-open, when a professional can give you advice in real-life and when you can try on products there and then before you make the purchase? In my view, absolutely not. However, digital content alone just isn't enough. There is still a huge role to play for stores and the experts working there, to help navigate a wide catalogue of products and give confidence in a purchase decision, plus not everyone will be as dedicated as I was to find exactly the right brands, products and shades and take a punt on a product they've not seen in real life! If you can find someone who's got the skills to take a look at you and your colouring, ask a few questions and turn that into a brilliant product recommendation that you can try there and then.... surely that's a winner and a LOT easier than hours of research that may, or may not, give you the right product at the end of it?! If it wasn't my wedding, I'm not sure I would have invested my time and money so eagerly.
In summary, I think there's a long way to go before I could truly enjoy and trust buying things in a 'digital only' world, but in times where it's the only option, there are ways to make it work.
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