Hi guys! I know alot of you are concerned about eyeshadow fall out, being very careful to pat on your shadow to avoid it falling onto your freshly foundationed cheeks and all. I have seen some of you put a bunch of loose powder on your cheeks so that it sweeps away easily. Well, that is one way, but there is a much easier way.
For eons, we have all been taught to do our faces first, foundation, concealer, etc. And then do our eyes. Well, I do my eyes first, if the fall out happens, it happens, no biggie. I finish my eyes, all but underneath, where I also put shadow and liner. Once my eyes are done, I take a bit of makeup remover and wipe off all of the fall out, now I do my foundation and concealers. Once that is done, I do the undereye lining, and it all comes together great!
As for mascara, I think most everyone does their top lashes first, then the bottem ones, but with the tops wet (unless you let them dry first), at times you get little black dots all over your upper lid and your fresh eyeshadow, and now you have to correct it....I do my bottom lashes first, then the top, it completely eliminates that problem!! I remember having a makeover done at the Bobbi Brown counter, and the artist doing my mascara, telling me to tilt my head a certain way, so that those horrible dots wouldnt go onto my lids. I told her that I normally do my bottom lashes first, she had never heard of doing that!! But she thought.........Hey, what an awesome idea, and now she does her clients this way too.
Anyway, just a couple little tips I thought you would all like.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Hi guys! I wanted to reveiw the 120 eyeshadow palette, the Costal Scents 88 shimmer palette, and of course throw in another look too. I bought these palettes because of a couple of tutorials I saw, and thank you SOO much for the info!! Costal Scents I got from Costal Scents (naturally), but the 120 palette, which I must say that I love more and use much more, I got from Ebay! Type in 120 palette and it will come up. From Hong Kong it only took less than a week to arrive here in California! Yeaa.
If you are just starting out, and have few colours, and want more shadows? Try these, they are very pigmented, last all day and are inexpensive! You seriously can't lose, and you will have just about every colour there is! From matte to shimmer to pearl, gorgeous!
Some favorite Looks
Here are some eye looks I've done, only a few here. Many I got from tutorials on YouTube (thank you ladies for those wonderful tuts!!). No matter what was used in the actual videos, I used Ben Nye.
Samhain (Halloween) Look
This look, created for Halloween, was taken straight out of the Ben Nye cataog with only a few minor changes! Ben Nye Gold glitter laquer was used here.
Glitters, Wheels, Pigments
Last but certainly not least, are some other products I love by Ben Nye, I have 2 of the Sparklers (Gold and Emerald Green), no other glitter sparkles like these!! 3 Lumiere Pigments, one is a Pigment with glitter, just LOOK at the size of these jars of pigment!!! And for $10 each, that is incredible! And then I have the Fireworks Wheel, and the Lumiere Colour Wheel, both I use as base shadows. However, these can also be used to draw designs on your face.
Some of the most awesome products, are Ben Nye's blushers and cream rouges! Pictured here, is my 6 colour cream rouge wheel, and 3 individual powder blushes. I have more powder blushes in my ES95 12 colour pressed palette.
Also pictured is one of their contour wheels, for contouring under the cheekbones, sides of your nose, under your chin, etc. You can get more than 300 uses from each individual color. The cream rouge wheel is so pigmented, that just a tap of your finger on a colour, is nearly enough to do both cheeks! Here my rouge wheel looks new, yet I have been using it for more than 6 months now!! I wonder if I will ever hit the bottom of any colour?
When doing my cheeks, I normally use one of the countour colours first, or take a brush and swipe it accross all 4, and then I will use either a powder blush, or cream rouge, and then my "Pretty Pink" highlighting powder gives my face a finished glowing look.
Ben Nye liners, mascara, etc
Just like all of the other products reviewed on my blog, Ben Nye liner pencils, liquid liners and cake liners are no exception, they are great! My favorite would be the cake liners! The 2 pictured that look like eyeshadow, these are dry liners which you add a bit of liqui-set to, then use with a liner brush, the color is intense and very awesome!! And best of all, the liqui-set waterproofs it as well.The pencil liners I use mainly for my waterline, and my tear ducts, or to line beneath shadow underneath to make it stick better.
The liquid eyeliner is precise and very easy to use, as well as waterproof, as is their mascara. I think you will love all of these products.
Concealers
This is a bit about Ben Nye's concealers, and a bit of comparison between other concealers on the market.
Not only do they make a complete line of concealing products, but their concealers can even completely cover a tattoo!! Shown here, is a 6 colour concealer wheel I have, and the cream concealer palette of 12 concealers!! With the palette alone, why would you need anything else?
Inside the palette, there are a variety of concealers, including the tattoo covers, highlights, fair and medium coverette, mellow yellow and mellow orange. No matter what you are battling, reddness, bluish tones, greenish, etc., there is a perfect match! And like all of their products, they are made to use alone, or to mix for the perfect match.
Now for the whole price comparison thing...I hate to name names, but I do anyway...Makeup Forever came out with an awesome 6 colour concealer palette for $36.00, I thought WOW what a great deal! It covered a variety of imperfections, undereye circles, puffiness, etc. But when I got to Sephora, I found they had about 4-6 of these palettes! All different ones, some for lighter skin, some for darker skin. Okay, so even if I bought all the ones for fair skin, Im spending $36 times 3 right? And why? Because one palette has the red coverup, the other has the blue coverup, and the other is for yellow tones!! WTF?
I ended up purchasing one prior to discovering the Ben Nye. My Ben Nye 12 color concealer palette has a bit of every single concealer inside! A concealer to cover ANY shade you want to cover, as well as a highlight,etc. And......for only $36, with 200-400 uses PER colour! So here I am getting them all for the same price I would spend on ONE! This price even beats the drug store brands,which are at least $8 per color!!
Ben Nye Lip Products!
Ben Nye carrieds a very nice range of lipsticks, glosses, and glazes. One unique lipstick/gloss they have, are stackable lipsticks!! I absolutely love these! The cost is around $3-$4 each, and small as they are, you WILL get no less than 200 uses from each color!! I have 12 gorgeous shades, some are lipsticks, some glosses or glazes. A glaze is a cross between a gloss and a lipstick, you can use it alone or over another color. As all Ben Nye products, their lipsticks and glosses can be mixed to create new shades too. In my stack I have lipsticks on top and glosses on the bottem, the very 2 bottem ones are lip glazes (Gold Glaze and Pewter Glaze).
They also have a full range of lipsticks (the regular tube style) too, and color available in a lip tube, is available for the lip palette (shown). You can buy these empty and create your own, or they have 2 prefilled ones, a palette with nudes/browns, and one with pinks/reds. I have the pinks/reds palette. In that palette, I fell so in love with "Pink Tart" that I ordered the tube one as well!!
As for the stackable lipsticks, I was told by one merchant that these were "Lip Liners", well, yes you do take a brush and line your lips with them, and then fill them in (Duhh). But they are great, I have used my natural brown one so much, but have barely made a dent in it. I would say that the stackable lip containers hold twice or three times as much as the tube!
Foundations & Powders
I have 3 types of Ben Nye foundation: Cream, Matte and Magicolour. They are pretty much self explanatory, cream foundation gives you a dewy look, matte is also a cream, but gives you a matte finish, the Magicolour is a pancake makeup (I hate that they call it that).
Actually, I think the very second someone hears the term "Pancake" makeup, they immediately assume it is a thick makeup that could be scraped off with a knife (LOL), we have all seen horrible makeup jobs like that I can imagine. But, this is no such thing my friends! Magi-Colour is the best foundation I have found!! I do love the cream and the creamy matte foundations too, but this one is just awesome! It is water activated, just take a hydra-sponge, get it wet and wring it out, then swipe it accross the product, apply to your face, throat, or anywhere on your body actually. The coverage is awesome, and will cover EVERY imperfection, but without "caking", in fact this product is so awesome, it gives the "peaches & cream" effect! Magi-Colour or "Colour Cake" foundations do not need to be powdered, but you can if you wish. Like all Ben Nye's foundations, it comes in a very wide range of shades that will never be discontinued!
I have "Barely Beige" and "Chinese" colors, sometimes I mix the two during the summer when my skin is a bit darker, I don't go into the sun, but its a natural thing. Right now, I use Barely Beige only. I have even done my entire face/eyelids and even lips with it (for the Geisha Halloween look, etc). Magi-Colour foundation is recommended for people who will be under hot theatrical lights, or for those of us who prespire alot, especially in the heat of the summer!! Like the powders, which I will also cover, Ben Nye's Colourcake foundation has a built in anti-perspirant in it. If you want to waterproof your makeup, just use 3 parts liqui-set and 1 part Final Seal (3 spays/1 spray), and then apply to your skin.
The Cream makeup, as I said leaves a dewy finish, very pretty and you can build coverage, this makeup needs to be powdered to set.
The matte foundation is also a cream makeup with a matte finish, you can also build coverage, and this one also must be powdered to set.
Both the cream and the matte cream makeup come in a huge variety of colour as well.
And do not let the container sizes fool you! I have had mine and used it for more than 6 months now, and have not even hit any part of the bottom tin yet!! (All pictures in these blogs are of my personal collection, not taken from a website). And the best news is, all of their foundations are way under $10.00!! In fact, it is my opinion that you can spend $40.00 and up for products like Color FX, or you can spend $7.00 on Ben Nye, the Ben Nye container is half the size, but has over 200 uses!! The Color FX is twice the size and has 30....go figure!
Powders! Ben Nye makes the most wonderful loose powders, OMG, once you use them you will never EVER return!! They come in convenient shaker bottles, or plastic jars, certain colors, such as neutral set, or translucent fair also come in larger jars. The powders, as I said are loose powders, and all have a built in anti-perspirant. I use neutral set as a blotting powder for those extra hot days! It looks like a white powder, but it is colorless. Also, they have a superwhite powder that gives that opac look to your skin. And then there are the visage powders that feel silky. I use Translucent Fair, or Banana Visage powder. When I want to bronze my skin, I use the same in "Chestnut" As a highlight powder (finishing/beauty), I use "Pretty Pink"
At the top, I have pictures of my foundations, the larger one is the colourcake foundation.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Base Colours
For me, these are base colours, but this was/is not their actual purpose. As I mentioned, Ben Nye is theatrical makeup, and these products which I use as base colours underneath my eyeshadow to make it "pop" can and are used by makeup artists for full body painting (the Aqua Colours) and exact detailing on the face and around the eyes (the Cream Colours).
With Aqua Colours, just a half of a drop of water is enough to make a creamy liquid texture to pat onto your lids, too much water and you will literally have a mess! Apply them with a hydra sponge and you can use them as body paints! The Ben Nye catalog shows several pictures where Aqua Colour is used for the whole body, with only shoes and cuffs that are real they can be used with an airbrush gun for full body painting, or mixed with a brush for full face painting. But, as I said I use them as base colours on my lids, or...if ou are really good at getting the application exact, you can wear them alone!
The cream colours are a little more sensitive, you only need a little, using too much WILL cause them to crease, as they are cream based! Some do hold better than others such as the colour "Sunburn Stipple" which is a coral orange, basically the color of a sunburn! But again, use too much and they will crease. Cream colours are best used under the matte shades, I have found that they do not crease, and they stay all day when used with the pressed eyeshadow (matte). The most important thing to remember, is that the cream colours need to be powdered (the matte shadow), but if used alone anywhere on your face or body, use a translucent fair powder to set, or translucent clear (powders will be reviewed too)
Ben Nye Eyeshadow
My first review is on Ben Nye eyeshadows, as I said all are extremely pigmented, and all will give you anywhere from 200-400 uses. There are 3 types of dry shadow: Pressed Eyeshadow, which are matte colours; Lumiere Eyeshadow, which has a shimmer; and Pearl Sheen Eyeshadow, which go on very velvety and smooth, used mainly for dramatic crease contours. I love all their shadows, and they are very easy to blend also, where most matte eyeshadows are much harder to blend, Ben Nye's are much easier. The finer the pigment is milled, the more uses you get, and the easier to blend too. I have the 12 colour Lumiere palette, the ES91 palette which are 8 pressed shadows, and the ES95 palette, also pressed shadows along with some powder blushes. The palettes are also available empty to fill with your own selections, and although the Lumiere shadows are a bit different in shape, you can order them in the wider form to fit the ES palettes too, so you could have a 12 colour palette containing both matte, Lumiere and blushers. I do not believe the pearl sheen shadows are available as refils, only singles. And though they are smaller, you need much less of them, so you still get just as many applications.
Above are pictures of the Lumiere 12 colour palette, in the tin case, the ES91 and ES95 palettes featuring pressed shadows and blushes, and some single pearl sheen shadows.
Confessions of a makeup junkie!
For my first blog, I should naturally tell you a bit about me...I am a diehard makeup junkie! Sephora watch OUT!! And I used to spend hundreds of dollars there, and at MAC! I still love to shop at both stores, believe me! I have so many limited editions by DIOR, Juicy Couture, Urban Decay, MAC, you name it, I have most of it! Ive been collecting makeup (hardcore) for about 8 years now. And would you believe I used to only wear foundation, mascara and blush? Yep that is correct. Not that I looked spectacular or anything, I was just lazy for the most part, but mainly the problem I had was with eyeshadow staying put!
One day, I was with my daughter at Macy's, she was looking for a outfit and I was just browsing the makeup counters, not looking at anything in particular, and then I saw this really pretty shadow duo by Sheishedo, the woman offerred to apply it for me, so heck why not. It looked really pretty on me, and seemed to really transform my eyes into eyes that "Popped". Long story short, I ended up buying it, wearing it to work the next day, and received no less than 50 compliments, geez I must really have looked like crap before? Naaa, now I just looked as if I had a job interview someplace at lunchtime, so they were all suspicious! ha ha.
Well, like any woman, especially a LEO woman, the compliments got the best of me, so back I went and bought 2 other shadow duos, and the compliments were just rolling in. Soon enough I began really noticing the other gals at work who wore eye makeup and we became friends (sure over makeup, but seriously though). My soon to be good friend, and still is, Lilly asked me if I had ever tried MAC makeup, well I had heard about it, but never seen it nor tried it. So, that afternoon we took a trip to Nordstrom and I went crazy! Lilly had such gorgeous eyes, and her brand was MAC, so I definately wanted some. I ended up spending about $200 that day, mostly on eyeshadows and liners. Soon enough, I was visiting the MAC counter every payday, but I still had the same issues I had with any shadow I had ever used, which only up until 2002 had consisted of drugstore brands like Maybelline, Covergirl and the like. Even though I was now spending money on high quality makeup, it still seemed to fade by the end of the day, so I was constantly touching it up every few hours, and at times it creased still. So I complained about this to the MAC artist, and she recommended I try "Paints", and so I bought some of the Bare Canvas, and voila! I never ever had a problem with creasing or fading again! And no touch ups, so I no longer had to carry my shadow with me now.
So, from early 2002 until about 2004, I was a hardcore MAC girl, then I began noticing other brands and discovered Sephora, and OMG!! I do believe it began with Tarte makeup, I was at Nordstrom, my usual hangout because I was ALWAYS a hardcore handbag junkie, its just that now I was a makeup junkie as well. I ended up in the middle of a Tarte event, it was their cute packaging (purple) that attracted me, and so I signed up for their next event, which was free of course, unlike MAC where a seat at the event costs $100 and then they apply it to your purchase, or return it when you show up. I ended up meeting Kerry, an Exectutive Makeup Artist from Tarte, she did my makeup and we chatted for a long time that day, we became fast friends too, by then I had already tried and liked the brand, and had built up quite a repor on the Tarte website, chatting with other users, makeup artists etc. In fact, getting to know their artists online was great, because they were able to get me discontinued/limited edition shadow palettes which I thought was extremely awesome!
Tarte was still semi new at the time, had only been around for about a year, and I remember their website had a "Coming Soon" makeup parties, and that if you were interested in having one, to email them. But this was to be way way in the future, if at all. So, when I met Kerry, I mentioned it to her, and she recognized my name from the website, as she is one of the artists that responds to questions, so she knew my name (Special-K) very well. I told her it would be awesome to host a party for Tarte, well at Kerry's level being one of their Exectutive VPs, she made a phone call and actually got the ball rolling, and I ended up being the very first person to host a home party for Tarte! I was so excited, but also really terrified too! I worked out in Rancho Cucamonga, and all of my makeup buddies lived out there, and I lived in Anaheim...would they show?? Tarte took care of EVERYTHING for me, they took my guest list, sent out the invitations, they provided the food for the party and 2 makeup artists, one being Kerry herself!
To my extreme surprise, 15 people showed up!!! I only needed 5 for a party, and I had given out only 9 names, well...most of them brought a friend with them!! It was so awesome! Everyone got a free facial and makeover, they brought out previews of the new holiday makeup that was to be in stores December 1st, however those at my party were able to order these items then and there and receive them by October 15th, prior to anyone else in the WORLD! (seriously) it was the very first Tarte home party, so we got very one of a kind perks!! Well, I had no intention of having myself made over, I was hosting the party but didnt intend to have myself done (ha ha), well, guess what? Kerry put me in the chair and both artists worked on me and transformed me into someone ready for the runway!!! It was just unbelievable! And of course, they taught me, and all of my friends exactly how to apply the products themselves too. Each person ordered over $100 worth of makeup, which wasnt even necessary either, the party was really to introduce more people to the brand, it isnt like Mary Kay where they push you to sell, or to buy, they just wanted to get more people to know about it.
That day, I think Tarte generated over $2000 worth of sales just from me and my pals, LOL!! At the end of the party, Kerry had a special gift for me, already fixed up in 2 huge baskets, and I had no idea they were going to do this either! These 2 baskets were stuffed FULL of Tarte products, even brand new ones that wouldn't be hitting the shelves until 6 months later, OMG, there must have been over $300 worth of great full sized products in there! And my order was free too, and I naturally ordered every single one of the new holiday items! My friends and I were now all hardcore Tarte gals for sure!!!
Soon enough, I had all of Tarte's products, from regular items to limited editions, and Kerry and I still keep in touch. By this time, it was 2006 and I had a super best friend at Saks cosmetic company store (Shawna), Kerry from Tarte, and I was now regularly shopping at Sephora too. By now, I had also ventured into Benefit, Too-Faced, Urban Decay, DIOR, and several great brands, in fact I couldnt even go INTO Sephora without spending at least $100 or more, but now it was becoming a problem, because I still had my really horrible purse fetish too, and that in itself was expensive, especially when you are buying Juicy Couture and Marc Jacobs. By late 2006, which is around the same time as the Tarte party, I had met Jay my now husband, he loved the way I wore my makeup and always paid attention to what I was wearing and complimenting me on it. We ended up moving in together almost 2 months after we met, we just couldnt get enough of each other. Yet...I still had no idea just how much this man really knew about makeup!
Fast forward to mid 2008 now, and by now Ive been watching YouTube video makeup tutorials, I found XSparkage and just loved her tutorials so much, I learned about shadow bases, and by now I had already switched to Urban Decay's primer potion too, but she was teaching me so much about really cool bases, like Kryolan, Mehron, etc. What a cool concept, colour bases you add water to, and they seiously make eyeshadows pop! Now as for Jay, I knew he loved to make himself up as a clown for parties and would tell me stories about the parties all the time, he spoke of the white greasepaint he used on his face. Then, one day I was watching one of Leesha's videos (XSparkage) and she was doing a bright sunset look using Ben Nye?? What sort of makeup is THIS? Well, when I saw THIS palette, I absolutely freaked! It was a rainbow of vivid colors, 12 gorgeous colours, each highly pigmented and each one providing 200-400 uses EACH? all for only around $48.00! No way!!
Hey, no second thoughts required on this one, I ordered it immediately from a website called PNTA.COM, for $48, every other site that offerred it wanted $60 for it! When I got the palette, I rushed to show it to Jay, it was/is the Grand Lumiere Palette. The minute he saw it, he said OMG it's Ben Nye! He not only knew the brand well, but explained that it was Ben Nye who made the clown white grease paint makeup he had described. Then he went on to tell me the entire back story of the brand, how pigments were made, and just generally everything I now know about makeup, including how to mix colours, and even how to create my own makeup if I want to. Why hadnt he told me all of this before? But, better late than never! And he did a few makeup looks on me too that were gorgeous! Soon enough, I had ordered every single shade of the Lumiere colours, including the 12 in the palette, there are about 12-14 more colours, and I got them all, and for only $6.99 - 7.99 each! And talk about really huge single shadows, WOW! and again, just one sweep of a makeup brush is all you need. The best news was, there ARE no limited editions with Ben Nye, they will NEVER discontinue a color! And they ALWAYS have every one of them available too. The only downfall was...where could I get it except online? Well, costume stores, that is where, the ones open all year around that is, such as Best Magic, and Costumes Galore. And again, online if they didnt have what I wanted. Now I have found an authorized Ben Nye Retailer on Ebay who gets me anything I want, and for the same low price too.
So...how could I help but to compare these to MAC? I mean...$14.00 VS $7.00? And twice as much shadow and more pigmented too? Ben Nye is theatrical makeup so it is made to last. Well, now I ONLY use Ben Nye, their foundations, lipsticks/glosses, blushes, eyeshadows. I still use my MAC shadows too, but mainly I use Ben Nye. I also have the 120 Beauty Factory palette that I like, it is reviewed here by Mischevious, and the Costal Scents 88 shimmer palette reviewed by XSparkage. Ive learned that all shadows stay put with the right base under them!! But as for uses? You get up to 400 uses with the Ben Nye, so I can not help but do the math on that one.
Well, now that you have gotten to know me a bit, at least my makeup side that is, my next many blogs will be reviews of the different products I use by Ben Nye, and also some Kryolan and Mehron palettes I use as bases.
One day, I was with my daughter at Macy's, she was looking for a outfit and I was just browsing the makeup counters, not looking at anything in particular, and then I saw this really pretty shadow duo by Sheishedo, the woman offerred to apply it for me, so heck why not. It looked really pretty on me, and seemed to really transform my eyes into eyes that "Popped". Long story short, I ended up buying it, wearing it to work the next day, and received no less than 50 compliments, geez I must really have looked like crap before? Naaa, now I just looked as if I had a job interview someplace at lunchtime, so they were all suspicious! ha ha.
Well, like any woman, especially a LEO woman, the compliments got the best of me, so back I went and bought 2 other shadow duos, and the compliments were just rolling in. Soon enough I began really noticing the other gals at work who wore eye makeup and we became friends (sure over makeup, but seriously though). My soon to be good friend, and still is, Lilly asked me if I had ever tried MAC makeup, well I had heard about it, but never seen it nor tried it. So, that afternoon we took a trip to Nordstrom and I went crazy! Lilly had such gorgeous eyes, and her brand was MAC, so I definately wanted some. I ended up spending about $200 that day, mostly on eyeshadows and liners. Soon enough, I was visiting the MAC counter every payday, but I still had the same issues I had with any shadow I had ever used, which only up until 2002 had consisted of drugstore brands like Maybelline, Covergirl and the like. Even though I was now spending money on high quality makeup, it still seemed to fade by the end of the day, so I was constantly touching it up every few hours, and at times it creased still. So I complained about this to the MAC artist, and she recommended I try "Paints", and so I bought some of the Bare Canvas, and voila! I never ever had a problem with creasing or fading again! And no touch ups, so I no longer had to carry my shadow with me now.
So, from early 2002 until about 2004, I was a hardcore MAC girl, then I began noticing other brands and discovered Sephora, and OMG!! I do believe it began with Tarte makeup, I was at Nordstrom, my usual hangout because I was ALWAYS a hardcore handbag junkie, its just that now I was a makeup junkie as well. I ended up in the middle of a Tarte event, it was their cute packaging (purple) that attracted me, and so I signed up for their next event, which was free of course, unlike MAC where a seat at the event costs $100 and then they apply it to your purchase, or return it when you show up. I ended up meeting Kerry, an Exectutive Makeup Artist from Tarte, she did my makeup and we chatted for a long time that day, we became fast friends too, by then I had already tried and liked the brand, and had built up quite a repor on the Tarte website, chatting with other users, makeup artists etc. In fact, getting to know their artists online was great, because they were able to get me discontinued/limited edition shadow palettes which I thought was extremely awesome!
Tarte was still semi new at the time, had only been around for about a year, and I remember their website had a "Coming Soon" makeup parties, and that if you were interested in having one, to email them. But this was to be way way in the future, if at all. So, when I met Kerry, I mentioned it to her, and she recognized my name from the website, as she is one of the artists that responds to questions, so she knew my name (Special-K) very well. I told her it would be awesome to host a party for Tarte, well at Kerry's level being one of their Exectutive VPs, she made a phone call and actually got the ball rolling, and I ended up being the very first person to host a home party for Tarte! I was so excited, but also really terrified too! I worked out in Rancho Cucamonga, and all of my makeup buddies lived out there, and I lived in Anaheim...would they show?? Tarte took care of EVERYTHING for me, they took my guest list, sent out the invitations, they provided the food for the party and 2 makeup artists, one being Kerry herself!
To my extreme surprise, 15 people showed up!!! I only needed 5 for a party, and I had given out only 9 names, well...most of them brought a friend with them!! It was so awesome! Everyone got a free facial and makeover, they brought out previews of the new holiday makeup that was to be in stores December 1st, however those at my party were able to order these items then and there and receive them by October 15th, prior to anyone else in the WORLD! (seriously) it was the very first Tarte home party, so we got very one of a kind perks!! Well, I had no intention of having myself made over, I was hosting the party but didnt intend to have myself done (ha ha), well, guess what? Kerry put me in the chair and both artists worked on me and transformed me into someone ready for the runway!!! It was just unbelievable! And of course, they taught me, and all of my friends exactly how to apply the products themselves too. Each person ordered over $100 worth of makeup, which wasnt even necessary either, the party was really to introduce more people to the brand, it isnt like Mary Kay where they push you to sell, or to buy, they just wanted to get more people to know about it.
That day, I think Tarte generated over $2000 worth of sales just from me and my pals, LOL!! At the end of the party, Kerry had a special gift for me, already fixed up in 2 huge baskets, and I had no idea they were going to do this either! These 2 baskets were stuffed FULL of Tarte products, even brand new ones that wouldn't be hitting the shelves until 6 months later, OMG, there must have been over $300 worth of great full sized products in there! And my order was free too, and I naturally ordered every single one of the new holiday items! My friends and I were now all hardcore Tarte gals for sure!!!
Soon enough, I had all of Tarte's products, from regular items to limited editions, and Kerry and I still keep in touch. By this time, it was 2006 and I had a super best friend at Saks cosmetic company store (Shawna), Kerry from Tarte, and I was now regularly shopping at Sephora too. By now, I had also ventured into Benefit, Too-Faced, Urban Decay, DIOR, and several great brands, in fact I couldnt even go INTO Sephora without spending at least $100 or more, but now it was becoming a problem, because I still had my really horrible purse fetish too, and that in itself was expensive, especially when you are buying Juicy Couture and Marc Jacobs. By late 2006, which is around the same time as the Tarte party, I had met Jay my now husband, he loved the way I wore my makeup and always paid attention to what I was wearing and complimenting me on it. We ended up moving in together almost 2 months after we met, we just couldnt get enough of each other. Yet...I still had no idea just how much this man really knew about makeup!
Fast forward to mid 2008 now, and by now Ive been watching YouTube video makeup tutorials, I found XSparkage and just loved her tutorials so much, I learned about shadow bases, and by now I had already switched to Urban Decay's primer potion too, but she was teaching me so much about really cool bases, like Kryolan, Mehron, etc. What a cool concept, colour bases you add water to, and they seiously make eyeshadows pop! Now as for Jay, I knew he loved to make himself up as a clown for parties and would tell me stories about the parties all the time, he spoke of the white greasepaint he used on his face. Then, one day I was watching one of Leesha's videos (XSparkage) and she was doing a bright sunset look using Ben Nye?? What sort of makeup is THIS? Well, when I saw THIS palette, I absolutely freaked! It was a rainbow of vivid colors, 12 gorgeous colours, each highly pigmented and each one providing 200-400 uses EACH? all for only around $48.00! No way!!
Hey, no second thoughts required on this one, I ordered it immediately from a website called PNTA.COM, for $48, every other site that offerred it wanted $60 for it! When I got the palette, I rushed to show it to Jay, it was/is the Grand Lumiere Palette. The minute he saw it, he said OMG it's Ben Nye! He not only knew the brand well, but explained that it was Ben Nye who made the clown white grease paint makeup he had described. Then he went on to tell me the entire back story of the brand, how pigments were made, and just generally everything I now know about makeup, including how to mix colours, and even how to create my own makeup if I want to. Why hadnt he told me all of this before? But, better late than never! And he did a few makeup looks on me too that were gorgeous! Soon enough, I had ordered every single shade of the Lumiere colours, including the 12 in the palette, there are about 12-14 more colours, and I got them all, and for only $6.99 - 7.99 each! And talk about really huge single shadows, WOW! and again, just one sweep of a makeup brush is all you need. The best news was, there ARE no limited editions with Ben Nye, they will NEVER discontinue a color! And they ALWAYS have every one of them available too. The only downfall was...where could I get it except online? Well, costume stores, that is where, the ones open all year around that is, such as Best Magic, and Costumes Galore. And again, online if they didnt have what I wanted. Now I have found an authorized Ben Nye Retailer on Ebay who gets me anything I want, and for the same low price too.
So...how could I help but to compare these to MAC? I mean...$14.00 VS $7.00? And twice as much shadow and more pigmented too? Ben Nye is theatrical makeup so it is made to last. Well, now I ONLY use Ben Nye, their foundations, lipsticks/glosses, blushes, eyeshadows. I still use my MAC shadows too, but mainly I use Ben Nye. I also have the 120 Beauty Factory palette that I like, it is reviewed here by Mischevious, and the Costal Scents 88 shimmer palette reviewed by XSparkage. Ive learned that all shadows stay put with the right base under them!! But as for uses? You get up to 400 uses with the Ben Nye, so I can not help but do the math on that one.
Well, now that you have gotten to know me a bit, at least my makeup side that is, my next many blogs will be reviews of the different products I use by Ben Nye, and also some Kryolan and Mehron palettes I use as bases.
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