Frequently Asked Questions

What makes Paint and Powder Cosmetics stand apart from other online makeup stores, and why should I buy from you?

We understand shoppers have a wide variety of choices from the hundreds of makeup sites on the web. We simply strive to offer the best possible shopping experience to our customers with a wide variety of products, including hard-to-get items. We offer educational tips and materials to enhance their knowledge in the decision making process.

Our customers love the fact that they can often consolidate their buying choices from our location because of our boutique approach in selecting and offering the popular product lines we carry. They don't have to invest in multiple purchase locations with added shipping costs when it is available in one-stop shopping.

We are well known by our outstanding customer service with personal attention available to our customers by phone or email during business hours should they have a question or need concerning our products. We have super-fast shipping on all orders, with free standard shipping on orders of $50 or more, with the exeception of a few oversized or heavy weight items we carry. Those products have actual shipping charges added to them.

Do you offer a professional makeup artist discount?

We believe that all of our customers deserve to have the lowest possible pricing available to them. Our products are not marked up in pricing the way other popular brands are and sold through other retail outlets. In many cases our prices are less than other competitor's prices, and definitely less than what our manufacturer's retail their products for on their own websites.

In place of a professional discount program, and to keep our prices lower without the administrative costs, we offer free standard shipping on orders of $50.00 or more within the USA, The cost of shipping nowdays is a much larger savings than product discount programs. Unlike other online cosmetic companies, we do not charge any additional or hidden handling, packing, or fuel surcharge fees when preparing your order for shipping. This further adds to your overall savings.

Many online makeup stores come across as impersonal and impatient in their customer service policy statements. They are only interested in the sale and not really wanting to deal at all with the customer, especially by phone. How are you different from these kinds of stores?

We are customers on the buying end too, because we deal with vendors and their different personalities all the time. Therefore, we truly understand how sacred good customer service is and contact availability before, during, and after the sale. We've found that all of our customers have two things in common: they have product needs and need product assistance no matter how tiny or big the sale may be. They can always count on us to provide exceptional service to meet their needs regardless of the sale.

The product lines we offer are personally used, or tested and approved by our resident Emmy Award winning artist, and her panel of award winning makeup artists. She has as strong background in cosmetic chemistry along with decades of professional makeup experience in film and television production. Therefore, we are able to educate our buyers with the exact information they need from us in order for them to insure the best possible application.

We have a loyal customer following because of our stellar quality customer service backed with our guarantees. Most online stores will never spend the extra money for high value business certifications like you will find with us. We care enough to provide this extra bit of customer comfort and care, and have an impeccable record with the Better Business Bureau. You will always have immediate access by telephone or email directly to our professional product specialist and resident artist, as we are never too busy to stop and help our wonderful customers!

Where are you located?

We are located in Chantilly, Virginia, about 25 miles due west of Washington, DC. Our store operations physical address is 4116 Walney Road, Suite B, Chantilly, VA, 20151. Our store is conveniently co-located with Sweet B Studios, which offers a large classroom/ photo studio type space for rental by the hour or the day. They also have a state of the art makeup studio for professional makeup artists to rent for servicing their clients. For more information about renting these facilities go to their website at www.sweetbstudios.com. All workshops sponsored by Paint and Powder Cosmetics and other leading industry professionals will also be held at this location.

Can I pick up my order from your store?

We are not a store front with walk-in and purchase capability, however we certainly want to accommodate our local and visiting customers with a pick-up option for their online purchase should they need this extra service. You can make an appointment with us to pick up your order once you have first made your purchase online. We do not have our products labeled or displayed with pricing at our location or the capability to do transactions there, so we do not allow any purchases to be made on site. You must purchase your products first online before making an appointment with us to pick them up.

Please understand that all orders with a purchasing address in the State of Virginia will be charged sales tax. There are no exceptions to this state law, so please do not ask us to refund that amount. If your order was charged a shipping fee, then that will be refunded back to you once you have picked up your order, and it will be done through our online processing within two (2) business days. We do not charge any additional handling fees or extra service fees for you to come pick up your pre-purchased order, we are happy to help you receive your products!

Can I come to your store location and test makeup before I purchase it?

We are sorry but we do not have testers of our products available for public sampling. We do have a test sample service online that allows you to purchase a test sample or trial size of many of our skin care and makeup products. This allows you to "try before you buy" in the comfort of your own home. Simply click on the "Test Samples" link on the upper left hand menu for a selection of products that offer sample purchases.

We do have a special local service with every purchase of $150 or more of makeup products. You can book a complimentary 20 minute makeup instruction/application session with our resident professional makeup artist in our state of the art makeup studio. You must make a prior appointment to set up your complimentary session, and this offer is only available for those who are personally able to come to our physical location in Chantilly, VA.

Who are some of the celebrities that buy from your store?

We have a number of well known celebrities that are regular customers. We adhere to our policy of respecting their privacy and will not reveal any names and actual purchases. We supply products to a number of television shows, movies, and live venues. We do have many products throughout the store that have also been featured in popular beauty magazines and we indicate these instances in our product descriptions.

My military installation requires me to have Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) on file for all the makeup products we use in casualty simulation. Can you provide these sheets on the special makeup effects materials I buy from you that we use for this purpose?

All cosmetic companies are required by federal law to disclose their ingredients, in descending order of the percentage of ingredient, on the package label for public consumer use. A material safety data sheet (MSDS) is different, in that it reflects the hazards of working with the material in an occupational fashion. It provides the non-consumer industrial user with detailed information on how to manage, store, and access emergency information on a particular product that may prove hazardous. For more complete information on how to research and acquire and MSDS for a wide variety of product ingredients click here.

We try to keep on file as many MSDS sheets as possible for the products we sell for that require MSDS for industrial use. In many cases we try to locate them within the product description so they can be downloaded directly by our customers. If you have a particular need for and MSDS that you don't see posted on a product, please contact us and we will do our best to get you the information.