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.