I love makeup. LOVE makeup. LOVE MAKEUP. I love all the little containers and bottles, and especially love kits of eye and lip colour. I'm pretty good at not buying stuff every time I see it but yesterday, people, I went a bit crazy.
Last week, Fox and I had an appointment at Myer's Estée Lauder counter for what we thought was a make up/facial/consultation kinda thing which was great, because we've both been on a very unsatisfying journey looking for good foundation. Unfortunately that's not what we got - we ended up with an extensive, multi-creaming facial session which neither of us were expecting but left me unsatisfied (pauses to ponder where this sentence is going) in the foundation department.
Yesterday I went back to the Estée Lauder counter and found a nice-enough foundation - which is good, but not the point of this story. While I was sitting on the chair with my hung-over 'Lauder Lady matching the foundation to my skin-tone, I looked in horror at my untended eyebrows reflected in the mirror.
Now, I can bare a lot (and do) about the shortcomings of my face (and body and hair and style etc) but fucked if I will put up with my eyebrows being out of control. I can barely contain myself when another persons eyebrows are all willy-nilly but I won't tolerate my own being unkempt.
This, however, is getting more difficult for me as my ability to see is making it hard for me to notice those stray furries above my eyes and eliminate them. I have often wished that some brow-creature could visit me during the night and tend to the stragglies so I never have to bother with the tweezing. Until science perfects nanotechnologies and programs the little beasties to do important things like cultivating my brow forest, I'm on my own. (PS: science has come up with a drug to make your lashes thicker, so maybe those brow technologies aren't too far off afterall)
Or so I thought.
Benefit's Brow Bar at Myer, Melbourne is open for drop-ins - no appointment necessary - and it was there I marched myself to get my brows sorted out.
I have always worried about waxing around the eye area, so had never done/had it done before, but thought I would give it a go. The wax is only 'just' warm enough to melt. It's applied with a small stick and shaped under the brow. Then a small piece of clean cotton cloth is smoothed over the wax, to then be ripped off quickly - pulling those hairs with it. It doesn't hurt any more than tweezing does, and it's over much faster as well as being a much better 'finish' as it took those very pale hairs I never see. I don't have particularly sensitive skin, so the waxing ended up working fine for me - they do offer tweezing for those not into wax or with skin that breaks-out after waxing.
After they cleaned up and shaped my brows, they moved me to the fun part of the counter - all the eye makeup - specifically, the fun brow stuff. WHO KNEW? not me, that's for sure. The wonderful woman there (I didn't ask her name but she's the gorgeous girl in the photo at the top of this post) showed me different ways of applying pencil, shadow and wax in different ways for different looks.
I have very small, hooded eyes plus I wear glasses - so I don't bother with much in the way of eye makeup - but she showed me ways to apply the makeup to open my eyes up more, and have them appear to be larger than they are. She explained everything, had me practice so I'd know how to do it at home.
She didn't rush me, or hard-sell me - I had an absolute ball.
When we'd finished, I asked her if I could take her photo for this blog post and she kindly agreed. While I was taking the photo with my iphone she asked if I would mind trying a lipstick. The one I was wearing was one from the Estée Lauder counter the hung-over woman had suggested I try. The Benefit's girl said that while what I was wearing was "a bit of fun" she thought a more sophisticated colour was in order. She had me apply a lipstick she thought would suit me. It looked really good - it was a warm, neutral colour that I've found so hard to find. Always too gold or too brown or too pink but this one was just right.
What a great sales woman! and proof, yet again - the sales experience is even more important than the product. That's why I switched from Estée Lauder to Origins all those years ago - and why now, I will be trying Benefits first and foremost in the future.
Check out the Benefits Cosmetics page - and check out their store finder for some fun near you.
taking your own photo isn't as easy as it looks