I went to Pakistan in December, and was really excited to take the make-up classes I’d had my mother sign me up for 3 months in advance. Unfortunately, my experience was not very good at all, and I think it’ll be useful to post a review.
Firstly, the class size was of 29 students, which considering the size of the studio was too much. The number of students also made it impossible for Anam to actually look at anyone’s face and give make-up advice accordingly (even though this is what I’d been told would happen). If anyone did dare to ask for advice according to their own features, they were given an eye-roll (courtesy Anam) and told to “use (their) common sense”.
Which brings me to her attitude. I’d checked to make sure that the course was suitable for beginners, through previous students and Anam’s studio itself. I’d been assured that it was perfect for people who had no idea about what to do with make-up. The reality was that every time I asked a basic question, I was given a rude, short and unhelpful answer. Since I can be quite stubborn, I’d keep asking, which only led to more rudeness but eventually a passable answer. This was not what I paid for.
Speaking of payment. The course costs Rs. 20,000. I’m a student, and it was hard for me to convince myself to spend that amount, but I thought Anam’s “professionalism” would be worth it. Instead, her complete lack of punctuality really made me regret the amount I spent. The classes were supposed to start at 6 pm sharp and end at 8 pm. They always started 35 minutes late and one day, even an hour. Even then Anam would be in a hurry to get out of there. She would give us her demonstration in 30 to 45 minutes and instead of sticking around to see the results of our practice would promptly disappear. All of us students were left to analyze each other’s make-up and dole out advice. Definitely not worth 20,000.
Even though the course was advertised as being 5 days long (this duration was posted of FB, written on my receipt, told personally to me multiple times), on the 3rd day we were suddenly told that it was 6 days long. This would not have been a problem, except for the fact that because I was in Karachi for such a short time period, I had travel plans for the 6th day and ended up having to reschedule my “test” which was inconvenient. The test was really the cherry on top. After 5 other girls and I had spent an hour applying our make-up, Anam’s hairstylist walked in with a camera and informed us that Anam was not available to check our make-up. She wanted us to get our pictures taken so that Anam could give us feedback, but in the meantime, here was a stack of signed certificates that we could write our names on and take. All this after I had called beforehand to ensure that the test time suited Anam! Of course, I never received any calls about feedback either, so I now have a certificate saying I’ve received 12 hours of make-up training (inaccurate) from Anam Falak (who never bother to double-check that I can apply make-up to her standards, if she even has any).
I was really disappointed by the whole experience. I feel as though I’ve been tricked for my money, and it’s really unfortunate, because I had very high hopes from Anam after reading/hearing amazing reviews. I don’t know if she’s just over the whole classes thing, but it’s sad that she’s not delivering on her high promises.