Hollywood Makover by Arbonne!

Hey Beauties!

We had a fabulous gathering at my house this weekend! Rhonda (my Arbonne manager) brought her stash of Arbonne makeup and an eye opening video to guide us through a "Hollywood Makeover." I am an Arbonne consultant, but had never tried any of the makeup, SO...I had a couple of Arbonne loving friends over and voila, we all became movie stars...or at least we looked like them! Sorry, no pics...my friends are camera-shy!

The video had some interesting techniques that I hadn't heard of so I'll do a run down of the steps we went through to become movie stars:

The first step was Virtual Illusion Makeup Primer. The makeup artist in the video said we should always use a sponge to apply primer. Looks like I've been doing it all wrong by using my fingers...oh well! This primer has a blend of vitamins and anti-aging ingredients to help tone, smooth and minimize the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and enlarged pores. It has a nice silky texture that goes on smoothly...one of my favorite primers!

The next step was concealer because we were trying out the mineral powder foundation. The three of us palefaces used the About Face Cream Concealer in Fair. This concealer has anti aging ingredients to help minimize fine lines-bonus!! The makeup artist in the video had us first put the concealer under our eyes from the inner corner out only as far as the iris of the eye to avoid emphasizing fine lines. Ok, my fine lines START in the corner of my eye and my circles are legendary...but I followed directions. Then the concealer was applied in the center of the forehead, tops of cheekbones, bridge of nose, chin and just above the jawline. Seemed like a lot of concealer to me, but again, I followed directions. I liked the creaminess of this concealer, but I think the color was a bit pink for me.

Then we got to the foundation itself. I'm a fan of mineral powder foundations in general, so I was thrilled to try the About Face Mineral Powder Foundation SPF 15 (sunscreen, yay!) in 3N. The application was the same as any other mineral powder: swirl the brush in the powder, tap off excess, swirl on face. The powder is silky and has decent coverage, but it also includes the ingredient bismuth oxychloride, which some people are sensitive to. If you like Bare Minerals, you'll love Arbonne.

After the foundation, we used a product I love in a surprising new way. We used the Awaken and the Unwind Rejuvenating Body Mists from the Aromassentials line...my personal fav...spritzed our foundation just once, lightly with our favorite fragrance, to set our foundation. I've used Evian before, but not anything like this. These body mists have the Essential Oil Blends unique to each fragrance. The makeup artist cautioned against using the toners from the skin care lines because those would dissolve the foundation instead of just setting it. The jury is still out for me on using this technique.

The next step was a laugh riot for a while! We used the BefoRE Sun No Sun Intended Bronzing Powder and a fan brush to do contouring in the hollows of our cheeks, temples and under the jawline. The video instructed us to use the fan brush sideways to apply the bronzer. The funny part was when I drew what looked like stripes of warpaint on my pale cheeks and my friends' eyebrows went up and we all just howled. Rest assured, I'm a blending freak, so it did not end up so war paint-ish.

We also used the FC5 Mattifying Powder to reemphasize the highlighting. The bronzer is really blendable, but it has a little shimmer, so I'll stick with my matte bronzer or darker pressed powder. The mattifying powder is very fine, oil absorbing and is tinted a very pale green, intended to reduce any redness. My skin has never been oily, so I will probably pass on this one, but if you are oily, this stuff is great!

We recovered from our laughing fit and attacked our eyebrows...ok, maybe attacked is a little strong, but just wait. The first part was to fill in the brows with a pencil. I started with the Virtual Illusion Eye Definer in Hepburn, dark brown, because my hair and brows are dark brown, but it was way too warm of a brown so I went with Monroe, blonde instead. The directions were to color in the brows from the outside in, kind of like petting a cat backwards. After using this soft automatic pencil, I had some crazy wild brows!

Then we used the About Face Brow Wax in Blonde with a brow brush, to basically glue them down the other direction. I usually use brow powder, so I was feeling like my brows were glued to my face. The Arbonne Eye Definer pencils are very soft and blendable and have great color payoff....I just won't be using them for my brows. There was just too much product for me. I'm still considering the Brow Wax...maybe for those wild brow days?

Next we moved on to color, my favorite part! First was the About Face Blusher in Savvy, a warm rusty color. The trick now was to put the blush just on the apples of our cheeks so that we didn't mess up all the highlighting and contouring we had already done (concealer, bronzer, etc). No sweat: using a fluffy blush brush, smile, put blush on the fleshy part. I actually ordered this blush in Flirt because the colors are so silky and blendable. It is also SO close to NARS Orgasm, I just had to try it.

The eye look we did is called the Audrey Eye and the products actually come in a set. Virtual Illusion Liquid Eyeliner (black) on just the top lid was first. Applying liquid liner takes practice. The other girls were chicken, so I did it just to show it could be done. The video instructed to start in the corner of the eye and make one stroke to the outside of the eye. WELL, my eyes are aging and one smooth line was not to be had by these instructions. FYI, on crepey eyes, you have to do small strokes, close to the lash line and then smooth out the line with a finger or other clean up tool. This was where I had to deviate from the directions. (who me?) I really liked this liquid liner! It has a nice skinny, but not too soft brush and it stays on really well. It might even give my gel liners a run for their money.

Then we put a base of About Face Eye Shadow in Linen, third one down in the picture, from lashline to crease with a medium shadow brush. Next was a matte brown shade, Smudge, top color in the picture, in the crease with a crease brush. The next step was interesting. We used Petal, pale pink, bottom color, with our medium shadow brush, over the crease color and up towards the brow. I get that it blends that

crease color out a bit, but when I want to blend out a crease color, I usually use something closer to the crease color, not pink on brown. But it looked nice. The last was Tulle, a light shimmery ivory, second one down, that we put on the lid again. I also snuck some up on my brow bone...shhh...don't tell on me! The shadows were very silky, blendable, with great color payoff. I ordered three colors: Inkling (seriously dark navy bluematte), Flannel (the perfect medium gray shimmer), and Demure (pale taupe matte). Eclipse Eye Definer Pencil went on OVER the liquid liner, then ANOTHER coat of liquid liner. Seems like a lot of liner steps to me. Finally, Virtual Illusion Dual Volume Mascara, Black. Thank goodness!!

Time for lips. The makeup artist in the video said we should always use at least 2 colors of lip liner and lipstick and always use a lip brush to apply. It was then that I realized that us mere mortals couldn't compete with movie stars because we slicked on one measly color, no liner, at the stoplight on the way to work! I used the Virtual Illusion Lip Definer in Sienna from the outside corner to about a third of the way across on both top and bottom. Then the color Nice for the rest. About Face Lipstick in Bravo went over the Sienna lip liner and Hula lipstick over the Nice liner...do we see a trend here? And if that wasn't enough, we dotted concealer in the middle of our bottom lip and feathered it into the lipstick. I've used a frosty lipstick, shimmery eye shadow and shimmery gloss for this effect, but never concealer. I'm going to store that for future reference. We topped all that off with About Face Prep & Plump gloss in Delicious. The lipsticks are uber creamy and very pigmented, while the gloss had a generous amount of color also. My lips felt pampered!

Recap of products used:

Virtual Illusion Makeup Primer, $32.50

About Face Cream Concealer, $20

About Face Mineral Powder Foundation SPF 15, $34

Rejuvenating Body Mist, $16

BefoRE Sun No Sun Intended Bronzing Powder, $28

FC5 Mattifying Powder, $25

Virtual Illusion Eye Definer, $16

About Face Brow Wax, $18

About Face Blusher, $14

Virtual Illusion Liquid Eyeliner, $18.50

About Face Eye Shadow, $12

Virtual Illusion Dual Volume Mascara, $28.50

Virtual Illusion Lip Definer, $16

About Face Lipstick, $16.50

About Face Prep & Plump, $28

We had a great time being silly and trying new techniques and new products, but if I had to do all this stuff everyday, I'd never get out the door. I've since incorporated some of the contouring tips, but I still use just one color of lipstick...yes, applied at the stoplight on the way to work!

Next week, Smashbox! I can't wait!

Until then, Stay Beautiful!

Suz

P.S. Arbonne products are loaded with skin loving botanicals and are formulated in Swizerland, but manufactured in the USA. If you are interested in purchasing Arbonne products, let me know and I can help you with that. All products can be viewed at www.arbonne.com.