I came home with more products than I'd originally anticipated buying - but I do know how to use every single product that I purchased (I made sure of that), and I don't have buyer's remorse over anything. I kind of think I -=may=- circle back for a few more items during the week, but I'm very happy with what I bought. But more importantly, I'm very happy with what I learned. To me, that's the Big Score: I learned things. (The brand rep who did my makeover said that she was really happy to get a chance to teach something, because her initial training as a brand rep had an educational focus - that is, she was trained to teach people how to use the products and why to use them, not just sell them on the latest and greatest. The knowledge that I got is my favorite takeaway from this event.

Photos that show how the product actually performs...! See how I create my swatches

Getting to the mall was a little problematic because of local road construction, but eventually I got parked. Then…I had to find an actual mall entrance that was open. (The event started at 9am, and most mall stores don't open until 11am. A few - a very few - may have opened at 10am.) I finally found one, headed inside, and was one of the first people into the Sephora store. At first I was caught a little off-guard: they had JUST finished setting up, and there was a group of ladies sitting in a group outside the store, but they hadn't entered yet. I only went in because I saw another person walk in and thought to myself: “Well, okay! Let's get started!” Being one of the first people to enter the store meant that I saw all those folks there in their black-with-red-accents Sephora SA gear…and it was a wee bit intimidating. Then the group of 5-6 ladies saw me walk in, and they came in themselves, so…instantly less intimidating. I browsed for just a little bit, then a woman asked me if I was looking for something specific. I mentioned that I wanted a good lip primer, and suggestions on a gentle lip exfoliant (I'd previously used Fresh lip sugar scrubs, and those were…just a little harsh.) She showed me Bite's lip primer/liner stick and their exfoliant scrub, and demo'ed each for me. The exfoliant has rounded-edge particles rather than the sharper crystalline particles in Fresh products, so I'll give this a try for a few weeks and see how it goes. I'm going to do some research on the lip primer, though, because I want something that's going to hold my lipsticks better and help them last longer - and if something can be used as a lip liner as well, I don't know how this can also be a primer. (I literally don't know. But…research will take care of that. Maybe this can function like Urban Decay's clear lip liner: it keeps color from bleeding, rather than actually line-and-define?)

So there's the first two things in my basket.

Then I said that I wanted to get advice on my brows. The woman lead me over to the Anastasia rep, who taught me how to find my brow arch (make a line from the tip of your nose, through the middle of your pupil, then on up through your brow. And bingo, there's where the highest point of your brow arch should be!) Then she filled in my brows. It was an unintentional comedy of errors: there were already no makeover chairs available, and no spare chairs, so she did my brows while we were both standing. And she was about a foot shorter than me. A few times I tried bending my knees so that she'd a) be able to see better, and b) wouldn't have to reach; but my knees are not the happiest of campers, and I could only manage to do this for a few minutes at a time. The first pass gave me brows that were too thick for my preferences, so she wiped those brows off and went down to the Slim template and filled in with the skinny pencil and the powder. These were stronger than I was used to, but they didn't look too big for my face. (It could be a preference/“used-to” thing. But while I don't want pencil-thin brows…I do want them a little closer to natural-for-me, which is “thin but not too sparse”.) The color that works best for me, with my hair and eye coloring, is Taupe (or Ash Brown, as it used to be called.) I got the stencil kit, some tinted brow gel, and the skinny brow pencil. I may keep using my Stila Smudge Crayon in Smoke for super-quick days, but now I have the stencil, I can figure out which are the stray hairs that I need to pluck. (I am not a brow waxer because…well, honestly, I can't be bothered to spend that much money on something that I can do at home. Once I know what to pluck and what to leave alone, I'm good.)

So there go items three (brow stencil kit) four (tinted brow gel) and five (skinny brow pencil) into the basket.

I looked at the Sephora brand eyeliner pencils, because on the site some of those are marked as being $5 - so being phased out. It's mostly the lighter colors, and I'd picked up an additional Diamonds Are Forever (#5, silver) and Girl's Night Out (#9, gold) and, indeed, both were gone from the display. Blonde Ambition was still there and showing as part of the regular line, though. I also looked at the new matte colors on the Colorful Shadow Liner collection, but decided not to pick any more up for a bit. Then I wandered over to the Buxom area, swatched Bombay lipstick, and added Item 6 to my basket. I then spoke with a Sephora SA who was near the Tarte makeup, and mentioned that I wanted the new berry-colored color-changing lip color but couldn't remember the name. She showed me the entire Energy Noir collection, which had the lip tint I was looking for (dang, a lip tint? I honestly thought it would be a more opaque shade, like the other Energy color…but oh well.) I put that into my basket, and decided to wait on the cream blushes for right then because if I couldn't find a way to learn the best blush placement for my face, it seemed odd to get another blush product when I already had so many that I didn't always feel super-comfortable using. (I feel like blush placement is one of those things that I really only get right 15% of the time. The other times, it's close, but it's just slightly…off.) I headed up to the cash register to pay, thinking that I'd make sure to get a look at the various samples before too many more people paid, and the store ran out of one or two items. I picked up two sample-size Lovecraft lipsticks, because those are fairly good. I got the goodie bag, which had a fairly nice selection of samples (only two that interested me personally, but…still a good selection.) I got a terrifying amount of points, since I'm VIB Rouge and all points were quadrupled.

Then, as I was heading out, I noticed the coffee. Which had not yet been deployed when I first walked in. So obviously, it was then time to caffeinate. I got myself a cup, and decided - on a lark - to get a spot at the makeover counter and see if I could learn about contouring and blush placement for my face. The line was long, but an SA - the same one I'd spoken with over by the Tarte station - said that she'd go find someone. So hey, maybe I'll be able to learn a little more of what I'd hoped to, at this event!

She ended up taking me back to the Stila station, where I got a really good, educational makeover! I learned how to place and even better apply my eyeshadow to mitigate the “hooded” aspect of my hooded lids, and how to brighten the center portion of my eye to make that stand out more. This was already close to how I was applying my eyeshadow - outer crease/outer vee get a the bolder shade, inner vee maybe a pop of color but no dark colors on the center of my lid - but she emphasized brushing from lashline upward toward the brow, rather than swiping across my eyelid. That was not something that I'd known before, and it did really look good. She also showed me how to apply a super-thin liner shade for more definition without that becoming visually overwhelming. Then she showed me one of Stila's new products, a cream-to-powder highlighter-and-contouring duo.

They have them in three shades (light, medium, deep) and each palette has just two colors - maybe a bit limiting for an MUA, but for most individuals, one contouring shade and one highlighting shade is going to be all that you need. She also gave me really good information on where to apply the contour and highlighter on my face. For the folks who do a full-on “magazine-shoot/sculpted face” thing, the techniques I asked to learn may not be enough…but I wanted something low-maintenance, something quick, but something that would actually be noticeable. I got exactly what I asked for! And yes, I did buy the contouring palette that she showed me…but she also did show me how to use the products in a way that would fit with my desired look and my daily routine, so I'm very very happy. She also put a nice pop of color on my lower lashline - Deep Green smudge stick, which is something that I bought almost as soon as I noticed it in the expanded lineup That, unfortunately, ended up coming off less than two hours later when my eyes started watering and I just unthinkingly reached up and wiped it away…only remembering the green *after* I saw the streak of color on my fingertip. Drat.

She also showed me a One Step corrector/primer that is very very lightweight. I think I'll still continue to use my separate color corrector, because Stila's One Step doesn't color-correct nearly as much as I need it to; but as a facial primer/moisturizer, it works quite well. It softens milder discolorations as well as moisturizes the skin. Now I'll just need to find out if it will play nicely with my favorite BB cream as a foundation, once I loop back and pick up a bottle. There are a few things I still want to acquire, and this One Step primer is one of them. (Another is a soft brush with multilevel bristles and a nice body, for blending cream concealer. I don't know if I have one of those in my stash.) I decided against getting the neutrals eyeshadow palette, largely because a) it's pressed powder and I'm a loose-powder person; and b) I have LOTS of neutrals already. Lots. A number of neutrals. A plethora of pots. And so on. Celia also introduced me to a new gel mascara that Stila makes. It lengthens and curls, and since it's a gel formula, your lashes don't get “crunchy” as the day goes on. I would have some concerns about the lasting power of this mascara, since it isn't waterproof; but the mascara did last without transferring or smudging until I took my makeup off about 10 minutes ago/6 hours after I left the event. (Thanks so much Celia!!)

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