Maritime Shopaholic: make-up play date

I was excited for this for the last few weeks! Thursday evening I joined a few lovely ladies for a make-up workshop at Perfumes Plus in Brunswick Square. Make-up artist Laura spent an entire hour with myself, Barb, Tara, and Kelly...showing us tips and how-to's for all our make-up inquiries!

Kelly was elected the model and our Vanna White equivalent for the hour.

See how we even had our own little stations set up for us!

We each had a set of brushes, other make-up applicators, and a mirror.

Laura would explain a technqiue to us, demonstrate on Kelly, and then give us a bit of the Chanel product to try out and apply ourselves. My questions generally revolved around makeup trends for summer, finding a good way to cover up those dreaded undereye circles, as well as making my eyes appear larger (yes, I was seeking illusions!).

Barb with make-up brush in hand!

(And I finally found out what those fan brushes are for!)

Laura gives Tara's long, beautiful lashes a curl.

To book an hour Chanel make-up workshop as we did, it costs $55 for the session. You can have up to 4 people and the that cost is divided among the group members- and I have to say, well worth it! She'll customize the session to go whatever you would like! If each person makes a purchase, then cost of the workshop is waived. We had a lot of fun and the hour flew by!

What I fell in love with and purchased was the Chanel eye concealer:

And I have to say, it was worth all those pretty pennies. I first used the brand new bottle last night when touching up my makeup before heading uptown to Churchstreet for Alex's birthday dinner and I don't think I've ever had something so simple due the trick quite as well!

I also had my eye on the Chanel nail polish in Nouvelle Vague.

To my sadness, they didn't have any left. But Laura did try her best the next day to see if she could order in some for me, but unfortunately its no longer in production. (Thanks for trying though Laura!) So ladies, don't be surprised if you find me in your shop painting my nails with your tester. Haha, I'm kidding, but that I will definitely be booking a manicure with this colour in mind!

A product that I'm likely to go back for:

I loved this Chanel lip gloss (it actually isn't this intensely bold when applied).

So a few things I learned from this workshop:

I think I had previously been using more concealer than necessary.
Using a concealer directly under the lower lash line, especially on the inside of the eye and directly by the nose- really makes a difference.
I never knew what to do with very light or neutral eye shadows- very effective as a highlighter around the eyes!
I discovered the secret of that fan brush.
Eyeliner on the outside of of the lower lids helps make the eyes appear larger.
That I should start wearing lip gloss as a feature of my make-up (I never wear any).

As bloggers, naturally Barb and I showed up with cameras in hand. True to my natural clumsiness...mine hit the floor mid-session and the lens is stuck and can no longer focus properly (I'm not sure I can even count how many times I've previously lost a camera this way). Sadly it's a gonner and I had to replace it today (going without for more than 24 hours is not an option). Thankfully I did score a sufficient amount of shots for this post!

Check out Barb's blog on her post of our Chanel workshop experience and her search for the perfect red lipstick!

Chanel displays in Perfumes Plus