CoverLook Studios

2 months ago, I got a call.

Ms Vanessa claims that she is from Coverlook Studios.
Apparently, I had won a free makeover and a photo shoot for myself and one or two friends at their premises from some competition I entered. I vaguely remembered entering something like that through Glamour magazine but hey, a free makeup session and photo shoot?! Bring it on!


But then came the catch - I had to pay a refundable deposit of 30pounds per person to guarantee myself a spot in their appointment book. For that I get:
- a full make over by their professional make up artist
- hair styling by their professional hairdressers
- 30 frames of shooting per person
- an A4 photo of our choice to take home
- 4 VIP tickets into one of the top clubs in London

All for FREE!

WOW.

A quick phone call to Liwan settled the whole thing and I booked us in for the 27th of December 2008 at 4pm.

I know. At this point, you are probably thinking - Wah, stupid!!! Kena con!! Pay 60 bucks to unknown people!!

Which on hindsight, I have to agree that I was - VERY STUPID.

But. Anyway.




Fast forward to the 27th, Liwan and I made our way to CoverLook Studios that was situated near Oxford St in London.
To my immense relief, the place actually existed.


Upon entering, we were met with a room full of girls waiting for their turn and what was supposed to be an appointment at 4pm, turned out to be an appointment at 5pm.
We waited for one whole hour before we were called to the chair by the make up artist. My make up artist was a freelancer (professional my @$) and she did my face in 10 minutes.
10 MINUTES!


Woman, I can do better make up than whatever it is that you did.


Where is the lipliner to lock in the lip colour? In fact, WHERE is the lipstick? Lip gloss goes ON TOP of the lipstick, thank you very much.
Where is the highlighter to enhance the 3D effect of the face? Where is the contouring of the nose and the cheeks to create an illusion of a sharper nose and higher cheekbones?
Jeez, even drawing my eyebrows in was a half done job.


Now to the hairstyling. It was done by my makeup artist too(once again, professional my @$). All she did was curl my hair in a few strokes with the straightener and spray on some hairspray. Which, I can also do myself with my 30pound Babyliss hair straighteners from Boots.

Not. Impressed.

Liwan got a bit of a better make up artist than I did but her hair was also done in almost the same way.

Great.

All in all, the whole make up - hairstyling ordeal took about 15 minutes.

We then had to wait another 2 tooting hours before we were called to the studio for our photo shots to be taken.
This, I have to give credit. It was fun posing - but that is because I'm a poser-olic and can do all sorts of nonsense with a camera in front of me. They also did deliver the 30 frames as promised and the photographer was really, really nice.


After that, we were ushered back into the waiting area and waited further 30 mins until we were finally called to view our pictures.

Through this, I truly understand that nothing in this world is free.

Not only were we quoted ridiculous prices for the pictures (75 bucks for 1), our supposedly 'free' A4 photo shoot came in the form of a passport picture size photograph. We were also only allowed to choose ONE picture as opposed to two as promised over the phone. In the end, the saleslady quoted us 4 pictures in exchange for my 60 quid deposit - which I promptly turned down.
I then enquired about the VIP tickets to the atas atas London club but was told that I had to call CoverLook to let them know when I wanted to go and they will then call the club to book us in.

-_-

Which means I still have to pay for the cover charge la!
Buang masa sial.

So, in the end, what I got out of the 5 hours I spent in CoverLook Studios was, a low quality passport size photograph in a CD, make up (which I can do much better myself) and styled hair (that surprise surprise - I can also do MYSELF) with I suppose - the opportunity to feel like a model where I am allowed to pose however I want and have my photograph taken. I reckon this is as close I will come to brushing with the modelling world, and this was the saving grace of the whole CoverLook experience. You'd be happy to know that I also got my 60pounds deposit back.

My ballerina pose

Liwan's ANTM McKey pose

Verdict:
CoverLook are not 100% scammers, just 50%.
But they did provide us a great opportunity to take pictures at their premises, so I would not bring them to court for wasting 5 hours of my precious time. Also if being a model involves waiting about for half my life - I guess I am better off as a doctor.

That is..

If I pass my finals in June.