Our experience with Sabs

Lifestyle Wedding, Fashion & Beauty
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Just a warning for all brides-to-be, who are considering Sabs.

So my BIL’s wedding was in Karachi so I went to Pakistan for 2 weeks. My SIL had made reservations for us at Sabs for two of our events in December (a week ago), 6 party makeup on shaadi and 6 party makeups plus 1 bridal on Valima. Man, it was a HUGE mistake.

Let me review the makeup first, its too OTT… looks good in pictures but you end up looking like bhootnis live in person :frowning: On shaadi, we made the mistake of not saying anything (6 girls), got our makeup done by Sonia and we all looked awful. My husband actually laughed at me when I got home and told me to wash it off, but thankfully it got better after a couple of hours and at least I was looking okay. The younger girls (my nands and devrani, etc.) still looked like painted dolls (looked older also), with pink apples (literally) for cheeks. On Valima, we made a big hungama over the makeup and got it all toned down (Thank God) and got it done by Irene so we ended up looking nice. Their eye makeup is perfect but they go too over with the powder and blusher… Don’t know why.

Secondly, forget the makeup… that place is like an assembly line. Saba Ansari has lost her mind, she takes tons of brides, makes them all wait in line… writing their names down in a register and she only does a bit of the eyes, the rest is done by the other artists… WTH. First, the bride goes to some person, puts her name down for Saba, then gets her hair done by some assistant, then waits in line, get the nails done, back to line, another assistant does the base, wait in line again, now Saba does some basic eyes (spend 10 mins on the bride), then the bride is sent to a senior MUA who completes the eyes and applies the rest of the makeup, then back to waiting in line, then an assistant does tikka and dupatta setting… seemed like a factory assembly line to me :mad:

We paid her 18k for bridal makeup by HER and all that she did was some basic eyes in 10 mins, which were then completed by Irene… CRAZY. I saw one bride literally begging Saba to do something for her… She said you take the money I booked you for, please hand me over to some other senior MUA, as she had to be there quickly for the nikkah (it was already 7:00 p.m.) and she was like 6th on the list, while they had given her appointment for 6:00 p.m.. Saba was so abrupt with her and said you have to wait, there are brides here who have been waiting here since 3:00. WTH… why do you take so many brides? I myself counted at least 20 brides there on one day. And when you ask them why are you spending less time on the bride, they say we’re experts… we know what to do quickly. OKAYYYY, so we pay you 18k to spend 15 minutes on eye makeup? I thought it was all about added perks, like giving the bride special treatment alongwith the makeup, I can go to any MUA and get the same eye makeup, everyone is an expert these days.

I thought this bridal thing was all about the bride, making her relax and making her feel special, Saba was acting like such a B****. NEVER EVER will I go back to Sabs again. I’ve had my makeup done and gone with brides at Depilex, Allenora (Karachi, Annie wala), Rubina’s, Sharmin, Shaheen’s, etc. and NEVER EVER have I seen such non-professionalism.

For your own peace of mind, stay away from SABs. If you’ve already booked with her, go at least 3 hours in advance and get your makeup done as early as possible to avoid getting late. I would recommend going around 1:30 a.m., its not that crowded then.

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Re: Our experience with Sabs

Wowwwwwwwwwww.. totally :eek: at the whole assembly line scenario.

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Re: Our experience with Sabs

^ oh my goodness.. i wud feel terible.. if i were there.. i wud end up cussin everyone dere out.. n next day in da news it wud read.. " bridzella actacks owner" lol

Nicknames for the one you love?
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Re: Our experience with Sabs

^:omg:

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Re: Our experience with Sabs

yeh ive read the assembly line complain somewhere else on this forum as well..
they charge so much! the least they can do is treat the bride well!

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Re: Our experience with Sabs

the same thing happens at Allenora(Lahore) too..all these big/popular parlorz,do the same..they treat brides so bad..and long linezz at every step..

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Woah and i thought depliex looked like an assembly line! and there were only like 8 or 9 brides when i went there.
I'm sorry about your experience!

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i would be so uncomfortable in such a place, let alone getting my makeup done...
wow!

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wow! and i was loking for a MUA in lahore who would be LIKE Sabs and does make up like her! duuuuuuuuuuuuude! mein khud he na ker loun apna make up!

i need to so be in charge from minute 1!!!!

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:omg:

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you see this is why MUA's like them get away with doing all that b/c people like you don't speak up at all!!!

seriously, you guys need to speak up loud and clear to the MUA/ or whoever is in charge if you are not satisfied with their service. if you were not happy with your make-up, you should have told them there and then to sort it out!

also people should stop paying for their bridal-makeup **before **it is done! i know parlours insists on payment before hand but you guys should refuse!

a few years back I was in nikkar, pindi with my cousin who was getting married. i had her money while she got ready etc. i refused to pay them beforehand even though they continuously insisted. a deposit was given and i said that was enough and rest would be given afterwards.

exact same thing happened to her and she looked simply terrible afterwards! her base was shockingly ghost-like and grey. her eyelashes were 5inches long and the make-up was horribly thick. rest of make-up was rushed and her hair ended up looking so flat and oily by all the hairspray! The stylists were so blunt and discourteous. My cousin was petrified to speak up! Goodness knows why b/c she is so confident otherwise but those MUA’s really are so intimidating and bad-mannered! I knew by looking at my cousin that she was so upset!

oh man i completely lost it with nikkar’s unprofessional attitude! i really made a scene until they helped washed my cousins face and hair…and re-did all her make-up. stoopid cousin stayed quiet and thanked me quietly after! i wish she had spoken up! and I did not pay!! the make-up was still not worth a rupee!

When I was leaving with my cousin I saw all the other brides in the line acting like puppets, all ended up looking like rushed-clones in the end and I could see they were not happy with the service! they looked the same and they looked awful!

speak up there and then so these people don’t get away with this!

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^ amin lol

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Oh god, I have my engagement make up with sonia.. i think I'm scheduled for 6 pm. What time should I get there?

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^ Uh oh... why don't you call them and ask how many total brides they have that day (ask about total number.... Saba passes her brides to Sonia for completion of the makeup). If the number is high, go as early as possible. My devrani (the bride) went at 3 and was finally ready at 7:45 p.m. So if I were you, I would go around 2 or 3... depending on when your photoshoot is and when you ahve to arrive at the venue.... these ppl don't even check your appointment time... if they do and say something, just say accommodate me, I have to get my photoshoot done early... they only care about the money so they will probably adjust you.

And Sonia does a great job with eyes but she messes up other stuff a bit.... I'll give you some tips .... do speak up and tell her the kind of look you want. Tell her not to spread the blush all over your face, tell her to apply blush only high on cheekbones and if you don't like anything, get it changed there and then, do speak up. She also does a heavy base, if you dont have a lot of blemishes.... tell her to keep the base light. And do not let anyone else do your base (they pile it on and don't blend it in properly), say I paid for Sonia and she has to do my full makeup.

I got a light base (my makeup was finished at 3 in the afternoon) and it was still fresh at 3:00 a.m. so its good for 12 hours.

Also tell her to keep the lipstick limited to your natural lipline, she took it out of my natural lipline on the wedding and it smeared badly within 2 hours as I drink a lot of water, I had to apply powder around my lips and fix it (thank God I had the right powder shade with me).

Good luck and don't stress too much, just do a lot of hungama and shor if they mess up your makeup.... don't be a dormat. We all got good makeup done when we did shor so speaking up does work :)

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You would think with the amount they charge, they would give you the VIP treatment and pamper you! so pathetic! They are just trying to make as much money as possible and poor pakistani girls fall for this scam thinking they are getting ready from a really well-known make-up artist when in reality they are just being churned out like made-up dolls in an assembly line.

Their makeup does look OTT...whats with lining your lips above your natural lip line?? And you're right, their blush is super heavy! it's all over the face!

i am glad the makeup artists here aren't like that.

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I agree with the poster. They do take on more brides than they can handle. Not only brides but they will make an appt for anyone that comes to them without any regard for how many clients they should take in a day. They were doing the same thing to me till I started yelling at a woman that was supposed to do my hair and then Saba came and tried to calm me down. Everything went fine from there and she did do my entire makeup except the foundation. she must have spent a good one hour on me. And while I was there there was a bride before me that she was working on and she did her complete makeup as well. There would have been chaos if she had only spent 10 min to do my eyes.

If anyone has gone to a salon where they actually took you on time please tell us! I think the only one that stays true to time in khi is akif ilyas since he only takes 2-3 brides per day. I would like to know how it is at Bina Khan's, I love her makeup.

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You know, it's kind of a relief to read these stories. Not that I'm happy that people had these horrid experiences, but because I too had one these nightmarish experiences in Pindi and lost my temper...in fact, I raised my voice, something I never do. Almost 2 years later and I still felt bad about it...until today. They were rude, overbearing, and insulting. I refuse to feel bad about it anymore.

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^yeh u shouldnt feel bad about it. and a lot of people unfortunately dont raise their voice.

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I got mine done from Allenora Lahore on my Nikkah. They even had a paper with our information pinned at the back of our shoulders to our shirts. I thought that was a bit hummiliating. I felt like we are not human beings and are being treated like products with chits on them.

I hated when they did not even had mirrors in front of us. You will never come to know whats going on with your face until you get up and look at the back mirror to see yourself. It was a shock for me to see myself wearing a mask.

I admit I did less than creating a scene but Annie herself came up to me and discussed my make up with me. She also mentioned that she usually charges around $20,000 just for discussing makeup like this. I was like Hell ya!!!!

My base was so much lighter than my own complexion, my face looked a different piece from rest of my body. Even though i told them i dunt want a heavy base and want it to match somewhere my own complexion.

After having a little more work done on my face (without having a mirror in front and knowing whats going on) after talking to annie, I was still not happy. She added way too much kajal in my eyes making me look angry and lazy. I looked angry, sleepy and lazy in most of my pictures. Also she did not defined my lips at all. She actually ruined the shape of my own lips with the lipsticks.

I hate it, hate it, hate it. Dunt ever go to them.

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Wow.. and I thought Pakistani makeup artists (such renowned ones especially) would be so good and professional!