to visit Natchez Belk store

By

Joan Gandy

The Natchez democrat

NATCHEZ &8212; Some Natchez women who like to care for their skin will get a payback on Friday, when a national team of makeup artists from Estee Lauder will come for master classes at Belk in the Natchez Mall.

&8220;Rarely do the small stores get the national teams,&8221; said Mary Flach, manager of the Natchez Belk.

&8220;The reason is because of the success of this counter,&8221; she said, gesturing toward the cases and counters filled with Estee Lauder products.

The Natchez store regularly wins competitions with other stores in the sale of the Lauder products, Flach said.

The national team will come to demonstrate some of the latest products in a line called Perfectionist.

There is a patch, which helps correct &8220;the look of prominent eye lines in just 20 minutes.&8221; Another cosmetic, a concentrate in a pencil-like instrument, fills in and smooths deep facial lines.

The Perfectionist peel is a two-step &8220;enzyme activating treatment&8221; that gives the skin &8220;a refined, radiant look,&8221; the product literature says.

The makeup artists and instructors are &8220;supposed to be the best,&8221; said Sherry Nicholson, manager of the Natchez counter.

&8220;This is a two-hour master class that starts with cleansing, goes to repair, moisturizer, includes eye products and goes on to makeup, color and all the way to fragrance,&8221; she said.

The three classes of 10 women each will be 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., 3 to 5 p.m. and 5:30 to 7 p.m. The classes are full, but Nicholson said she is keeping a waiting list in case of cancellations.

Nicholson has worked at the Estee Lauder cosmetic counter for nine years. She worked in clothing before the move and admitted that cosmetics once intimidated her.

That prompted her to make special efforts to show clients how to be comfortable with their cosmetics, she said.

&8220;We&8217;re not here to sell you a product and send you home with something you have no knowledge of,&8221; she said. &8220;We&8217;re here to help. We&8217;re here to educate you about what you use.&8221;

Perfectionist is the newest family of products on the Estee market. When the eye patches and peel came out recently, Nicholson and the other two who work at the counter, Lecora Robinson and Lisa Ferrington, became excited about the Perfectionist peel as soon as they used it, Nicholson said.

&8220;This the latest. In the first two weeks, actually less than two weeks, we sold 64 of these sets,&8221; she said.

Ferrington nodded in agreement. &8220;Seeing is believing,&8221; she said. The three makeup artists applied the product to each other&8217;s faces that first day.

&8220;I almost fell on the ground&8221; over the results of the treatment, Ferrington said.

Nicholson said she believes the line of cosmetics she sells is popular in Natchez because of the education that goes along with the sale.

&8220;These are our friends and neighbors. We try to take care of them and learn what they want, what their goals are,&8221; she said. &8220;I&8217;ve strived to make relationships and always to stand behind what I say.&8221;

Today&8217;s woman sometimes wants the look but doesn&8217;t want to take the time to achieve it, Nicholson said.

Especially today, that is not a good approach to skin care, she said.

&8220;Skin care these days is geared to protection from the environment,&8221; she said. &8220;It&8217;s definitely not the makeup your grandmother wore. It&8217;s not just beauty. It&8217;s protection.&8221;

The Friday classes will be made more festive with decorations in the salon where the demonstrations take place, with flowers provided by The Flower Station, Nicholson said.

&8220;And we&8217;ve made gift baskets for the artists who are coming. Darby&8217;s and Old South Winery helped us with those,&8221; she said. &8220;We want to make the visiting artists feel welcomed.&8221;