Being ignored at a beauty counter is not a small thing when the woman being ignored is the one with the money.
I have watched this happen too often: a woman over 50 approaches a counter and becomes almost transparent. The assistant’s eyes slide past her toward someone younger, shinier, easier to categorise. The assumption seems to be that mature customers want less, know less or will tolerate being treated as an afterthought.
They will not. They will walk away and spend somewhere else.
The lipstick test
Lipstick is where this becomes especially stupid. A good lipstick sale should be easy: colour, texture, comfort, finish, confidence. Instead, too many counters still behave as though a mature woman needs steering away from pleasure and toward something “safe”.
If the counter cannot manage that conversation, the customer has options. Victoria Beckham Beauty Posh Lipstick, Lisa Eldridge True Velvet Lip Colour, NARS Powermatte Lipstick and MERIT Signature Lip are all examples of the kind of lipstick shopping this piece is talking about: specific, grown-up, and not apologetic.
Respect sells
The issue is not whether every counter assistant is rude. Of course not. The issue is pattern recognition. Mature customers notice when they are offered beige before red, caution before glamour, correction before pleasure.
A woman who has bought lipstick for forty years does not need to be managed like a risk. She needs good light, a clean tester, a proper mirror and someone who understands that taste does not expire.
Ignore the older customer and she will not disappear. She will simply buy better elsewhere.
Why service matters
If we say the better lipstick was elsewhere, it helps to name the elsewhere. Specificity makes the point useful: better service and better products are both part of earning a customer’s loyalty.