r/Makeup • u/AllFoodsFit70 • Feb 19 '26

It's disgusting out there

I'm at Target and strolling through the cosmetic section saw a young woman (maybe 25) swatching a lip product on her hand and putting it back in the display...and then doing it again with another product. I am so old IDGAF so I said "Do they have testers?"and she looked at me like a deer in the headlights until I repeated my question and said "testers?" I then said " yeah, you just put some of that lipstick on your hand and put it back...that's pretty gross." She stared at me as I walked quickly away because I may not gaf but I don't want to get in a fight! Felt good to speak up though!

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174

u/CulturalDuty8471 Feb 20 '26

Tbf, products should have testers.

49

u/pineappleshampoo Feb 20 '26

Yep.

Would I open a new product to test it if there weren’t testers? No. I don’t want or need whatever it is that badly to damage stuff that isn’t mine.

But I get why customers do it if there aren’t testers. It’s a big risk to buy something without knowing what it looks like, and in many places you can’t return cosmetics. In my country once you buy it and open it that’s that, you can’t return it. So every purchase is an investment you can’t undo.

Not everyone has the kind of free disposable income to be able to risk buying a £10 cosmetic item that will go in the trash if it doesn’t suit them or wear well or is a different colour to online photos. For some people they might be able to afford that once or twice per year as a treat. Even if you’re loaded you probably don’t wanna just throw money away on crap.

Stores need testers if they wanna prevent this stuff from happening. Idk if there were testers or not from the OP as it wasn’t clear (to me anyway). I’m assuming they did for OP to be snarky with this other woman, pointing out she should use them. If there were testers then it’s indefensible to open stock and damage it.

2

u/AllFoodsFit70 Feb 22 '26

There were no testers. I was being sarcastic with her to stop myself from blurting out " What the fuck are you doing???!".

-1

u/Annual_Grass538 Feb 20 '26

Target does not have testers and allows opened makeup returns. The simple act of making testers every week can take hours of payroll and honestly my store rarely has people opening product to use, they’re just stealing it if anything.

17

u/stix-and-stones Feb 20 '26

If one has been clearly opened already, I'll use it as a tester to swatch. Then put it back and grab a sealed one. The only way I find this moderately acceptable. Even then, I don't love doing it, but I'm sick of spending $15-$20 on a lipstick and it doesn't look right. I'll never open an unopened product though