September 20, 2005

The Complimentary Eye Make-Over

The other day while shopping at Lane Crawford (the local department store equivalent to Barneys) I came across the beauty concierge promoting complimentary eye make-overs. And me being the make-up lover that I am, couldn't pass up a chance to get my eyes done to "perfection" by a professional for free now can I? So I immediately signed up and had a lovely 30 minutes discussing make-up, make-up and make-up.

The great thing about the beauty concierge make-over in a department store is that you are not limited to one brand with the cosmetics lady trying to sell you every product in their line (don't you just hate that?). At the beauty concierge, they actually know which brand is good for what and would recommend accordingly.
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And then, she showed me how to do this very simple eye make-up that works for almost all eye shapes. I'm sure its nothing new to a lot of you make-up professionals out there, but since I've never thought to do it myself I thought it was brilliant and bought more colors so I can do the look myself at home. Purple (and green) apparently are my color, and she basically just outlined the rim of my eyes with the darker color, covered the rest of the lid with a lighter shade and highlighted the arched area with this beige-ish color since she thought white was too dramatic for day time.
She then finished the look with Dior Snow mascara (which she claims to be better than the Lancome one) and curled with this Shu Uemura eye lash curler. I'd always known these were good products, but I seriously never knew that my eye lashes could be THAT long and curled. Now I'm a convert. Although I suspect that this may be due to her superior technique. I noticed how she inched the eye lash curler up bit by bit while curling it. And I remembered my friend (who has been experimenting with make-up for much longer) telling me how happy she was to have finally mastered this inching technique the other day. So i'm guessing this is one and the same.

Anyway, I LOVED the consultation. Afterwards, she gave me a diagram of all the stuff she used, and then took me around the various counters showing me the products in detail. It was like having my very own personal shopper, except for cosmetics! And she was sooo knowledgeable about the art of beauty too, showing me good exfoliators, eye creams and how I shouldn't drink water half a hour before bed cause it makes your eyes puffy. All great fun! All department stores should have this service. It really does help boost sales-because even if it does say its complimentary, one would at least buy something just for such excellent service!

11 Comments:

Blogger Fashionasia said...

OK so did she put the mascara on first or curl the lashes first??
I think we've talked about this before but nothing beats tips from a professional.

9/21/2005 1:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We have a store here with those wonderful people there all the time called Sephora, website sephora.com. I can go in there and spend hours. Usually my hubby pulls me out before I get too intoxicated though.

I just received my Shu Uemera eyelash curler from there the other day and love, love, LOVE it. I do use the inching technique as you call it and though more time consuming it makes the vavavoom much MUCH more.

And for fashionasia, definently curl the eyelashes first, otherwise you'll get your eyelash curler all gunky and it won't work right plus it won't curl right any way with the mascara on.

9/21/2005 1:40 PM  
Blogger Nobody said...

I had a MAC artist at Sephora on the Champs Elysées do my trial makeup for my wedding. Apart from it just being cool to get your makeup done for free on Paris' famous boulevard, she did a fantastic job and I bought EVERYTHING she suggested. But I wish I could have had a choice between all the different brands...

Needless to say, my makeup has looked much nicer since I got married!

9/21/2005 4:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would never leave home without my Estée Lauder mascara "MagnaScopic". I can recommend it to everyone!

9/21/2005 8:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fashionasia: She put the mascara on before curling it saying that its more effective that way. Although now I am confused because on the instruction box of the Shu Uemera curler it says to curl first and pinksundrop makes a good point.

Pinksundrop: LOL we all love sephora. And well done on mastering the inching technique (or whatever one calls it), I have yet to do so.

Paristexas: Your trial make up at the Champs Elysées sounds fab. Harrods girl and I did a trial make up as well before our prom, we loved it. And LOVE Mac too. The colors I showed in this post are from Mac. They have such excellent color choice.

Anonymous: Ooh the other day, Harrods girl and I tried out the Estee lauder mascara at the counter as well. It was amazingly elongating as well! Ah. . the choices a girl has to make!

9/22/2005 12:14 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hmm
the inching technique?
im confused
is that when you go from the base of the lashes up and like kinda slide the curler until everything is curled?

9/23/2005 8:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sohpia: Yup! Thats the one. I just called it "inching" coz thats what it looks lie to me. Sry for the confusion!

9/23/2005 2:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just get this straight before we get curly.
You can apply mascara before curling your lashes with a curler BUT you have to be very quick and finish the job before the mascara gets dry. Otherwise your lashes end up sticking to the plastic pillowy thing in the iron (with a painful lash epilation as result). Effect is more dramatic, but rather complicated to finish in a clean way. So keep this technique for if you're really experienced.
The standard procedure however is to curl your lashes before you use mascara. No risk at all!
My Tip: mascara your lashes and then 'set' them by holding your fingers against them (close your eyes and hold a finger against your lashes and push them up). There you go! Just wipe of excess product of your fingers.
May I also recommend Nini Ricci's Glamour Effect Mascara.

9/24/2005 12:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There's this great website called palacinka.com that has several beauty product reviews and walk throughs of makeup consultations called in the makeup chair. It has really given me makeup tips and access to several products.

10/06/2005 2:20 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks Barneys Girl! After reading your note, I went to the beauty concierge (Lane Crawford) and gave a try. The costmetic lady is very nice and professional. She used a lot MAC's products for my eyes as they have a wider range of color.

I eventually spent 2 hours there....

10/07/2005 3:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beautiful eye make up color:
The Two-color design: This is the most common, practical eye design. Approach this design by applying the lighter color to the eyelid and the deeper color from the crease up to the brow, or you can apply the deeper color to the lid and the lighter color from the crease to the brow. Generally speaking, the under-eyebrow color should be a shade or two darker than the lid color. You do not want it to be a distinctly different color, just a different shade.

4/12/2006 8:08 AM  

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