Beauty Is Pain… Mental Pain

(I work in the Fragrance and Cosmetics department, and one slow night I had this phone conversation.)

Customer: “Hi, I bought a lipstick earlier today and I can’t work it.”

Me: “Um, okay. What exactly do you mean?”

Customer: “I just… I can’t work it.”

Me: “All right. Well, some of them are packaged weird. What brand is it?”

Customer: “[Brand].”

Me: “Those are pretty standard. They work just like any other lipstick.”

Customer: “But how do I work it?”

Me: “Um, you just twist the top part in one direction, and the bottom part in the other direction.”

Customer: “But after I do that, how do I get it back in?”

Me: “You do the same thing, only in reverse.”

Customer: “But there’s a hole in the top. Is this the kind I can’t carry in my purse? It would get all over everything.”

Me: “Um, well, the lid is reusable. You can put it back on the lipstick after you twist it back down.”

Customer: “Oh, that part can go back on. I see! How clever.”