As if its not bad enough trying to dodge chuggers (charity muggers) desperate for you to sign up to charities on the street, I discovered a new breed of these outside a WH Smith in South East London today, this time selling beauty products (Buggers?!). The girl handed me an empty bag and started to tell me about all the things I could fill it up with, at the same time brandishing a sheet of laminated paper with pictures of celebs. The name of the make up? Victoria Jackson. When I check the website, Victoria is apparantly a make up artist who has made up ‘almost every major celebrity in Hollywood’, although interestingly only name-checks Ali Mcgraw and Lisa Hartman. Anyhoo, back to the sales girl and boy ambushing people outside WHS. I said I was interested to know more about who Victoria Jackson actually is as I’m a beauty editor. She said she could sell me £117 worth of make up for £30 and I could find out. Or I could look at the website.

It’s not exactly a class act for this ‘leading make up artist’ to be flogging cosmetics in a tiny shopping mall, where Primark is the most upmarket shop. The web blurb goes on to say, ‘TV networks and movie studios have paid her $1000 a day to make the stars look their best.’ If this is the case, I’d say it’s a very long fall down to flogging the brand on UK high streets from a fold away table. I’d also suggest that it’s impossible for the products on sale to ever have been worth £117. Avoid like the plague.

Footnote: A little research shows Victoria Jackson to be a queen of the infommercial stateside. Various rumours abound; same manufacturer as MAC etc (it isn’t – its actually made in China), but pile it high and sell it cheap is normally not associated with quality. It’s not a charity…..it’s direct marketing that uses any tactics (especially saying she was make up artist on Sex & The City) to make a sale. The sales people apparantly make only £7 on each £30 sale. Check out the fab www.beaut.ie who’ve got the whole subject covered beautifully.

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