In the latest batch of server stories, a woman decided to conduct an experiment at risk of her tips. The theory? Finding out whether skipping her makeup would actually affect how much gratuity customers give.
Unfortunately, the night didn’t end with extra bills, but with her staring out the car window like she was in a mid-2000s breakup music video. The conclusion was bleak but crystal clear: wear the makeup, because apparently, strangers can’t enjoy their mozzarella sticks unless your eyeliner is sharp enough to slice them.
Shayla’s Experiment
In a nine-second clip that has already gained over 5 million views, Shayla (@shaypeezi) shares a harsh truth with the world. She begins the clip by posing in front of the camera in her work uniform and showing her bare face with a smile.
The text overlay reads: “No makeup today, let’s see how much I make.” The next cut comically pans to her leaning her head against the car window and looking desolate. This time, the text reads: “Cut at 8, left with $150, wear the makeup.” The shortest tale ever shared. Her caption simply states: “I wanna throw up.”
Is There Really a Correlation Between Makeup and Tipping?
Of course, Shayla’s own experiment provided quite important information, but is this a well-known phenomenon? Turns out, Business Insider already covered this topic back in 2023. A former server shares her story in an essay detailing how her tips increased once she started wearing red lipstick.
She shares, “I’d make significantly more on the nights I wore red lipstick and a cute ponytail with my hair pulled back and curled. It was an immediate difference. The male clientele were so much nicer to me when I was put together like that, though it didn’t really make a difference with customers who were women.” The Mary Sue also covered a likewise story back in July 2025. Similar to how the former server in the Business Insider article mentioned, this server’s boss told her to wear makeup if she wanted any tips at all.
Even more interestingly, ResearchGate published a paper dealing with this exact phenomenon way back in 2010. The abstract states, “An experiment was carried out in a restaurant in order to verify if waitresses’ makeup is associated with an increase in patrons’ tipping behavior. Female waitresses with and without makeup were instructed to act in the same way than usual with their patrons. Results showed that the makeup condition was associated with a significant increase in tipping behavior of the male customers.” Talk about proof.
@shaypeezi I wanna throw up #fyp #servertok #servertiktok #server #finedining ♬ nhạc nền – Ali.music ?
Is this the first time she had tried this experiment?
In a direct message to the Mary Sue, Shayla confirmed that this was the first time she had conducted an experiment like this. Though she didn’t initially set out to prove anything, she started tracking her tips as an idea for TikTok videos.
“But once I saw a difference, I got curious,” she said. “On a normal shift, I usually make anywhere from $250–$700, and when I’m wearing makeup it’s almost always over $300.”
As for the strong reaction in her comments section, Shayla said that “reading the comments made me realize something: I don’t think people fully understand how much they subconsciously factor appearance into everyday interactions.”
She continued, “A lot of people insist they only tip based on service, but I don’t think we always see the little biases we carry – that’s kind of the philosophical part of this. Sometimes the things we swear we don’t do are exactly the things our brains do quietly in the background.”
Shayla added that it’s interesting to watch a simple TikTok “turn into a bigger conversation about beauty standards, emotional labor, and how people treat service workers.”
She concludes, “If anything, it made me more aware of the small ways people respond differently before I even say a word.”
What do Shayla’s Viewers Think?
Almost 800 comments and one thought is specifically reiterated: this is odd. The top comment with almost 100k likes reads, “People are so weird. I don’t tip my server based off of their looks. I tip based off of their service.”
Another viewer states, “If I did not wear makeup at work,my clients would think I was tired and unwell.”
More servers rally in the comment section to share their own experiments. One shares, “I was screaming noooo! Serving a long time and I’ve tried it many times. Full makeup a wedding ring give you wings.”
Another says, “As a bartender, I’ve done this ‘social experiment’ numerous times. It doesn’t matter how good your service is or isn’t, the bias always stands & I always make more with make up on. I’m tired.”
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