The Makeup Show NYC 2013 - Recap and Pictures

Aaaaaand we're back.

The Makeup Show was INSANE. And really, really fun. I'm so glad I was able to make it down this year. The seminars were wonderful - Dick Page was the single most inspiring speaker, so much so that I completely forgot to take any pictures or video!!!

The vendor list was incredible as well, with a good balance of big name or high-end brands (Nars, MAC, Ellis Faas), pro artist brands (Graftobian, Cinema Secrets, Mehron, Temptu) and start-ups or those new to the North American market (Layla, MAKE Color). The line-ups were particularly long for OCC, MUFE (which went around the room!) and Inglot, but well worth it for the discounts if you weren't already signed up.

The crowd was interesting. A lot of variety despite it being pro-restricted. You could easily spot the "celebrity" MUAs like Kevin James Bennett, Jon Hennessey and James Vincent, and then the industry workers (I overheard two ladies discussing their work on The Americans) mixing in with the small-scale freelancers and Sephora girls (like me), as well as a lot of students.

I will definitely be going back next year, and if you have a professional interest in makeup, I would highly encourage you to check out the closest show to you next time around. :)

This was the entrance to the show on the first day. It takes place at the Metropolitan Pavillion, which is a lovely and spacious building right near Union Square.

I really enjoyed seeing the random Canadian flag displayed proudly at the Face Atelier booth!

These were some of the vendors on the main floor. I have the say the Nars folks represented their brand most consistently, with their crisp white shirts and pristine makeup. I was really excited to see Ellis Faas there as well, since I had had such mixed experiences with their line and really wanted to give them another chance - and the discount made it easier. :P

Side note - get your shopping done on the first day if you are looking to stock up on certain things. By noon on the second day, a lot of the brands were sold out of the hotter items. (The first thing I snagged was the Nars Pierre Hardy Boys Don't Cry Blush. It was gone by the next morning.)

If you're looking to try things on, don't forget to bring a small mirror. Not all the brands are going to be as ready as the Bite Beauty booth guy was. (PS - Canada represent!)

Then there were the free seminars and demos. This was Keri Blair, one of the top trainers for MAC, teaching Era Reinterpreted, doing a modern take on a 1920s look. She focused on creating a diffused smoky, lamplit eye, perfect but minimal skin, and a vampy rosebud lip. She used a mix of Cyber, Blue Lipmix and Teal Reflects to create the lip, and I wish I had a closer picture to convey its pure awesomeness.

This was James Vincent, a veteran of the industry and the Director of Artistry and Education for The Powder Group and The Makeup Show. He introduced the Keynote speakers (and did the wonderful interview with Dick Page).

This was Brigitte Reiss-Andersen, another 30-year veteran of the industry, who has worked in Fashion, Editorial and as a celebrity makeup artist. Incredible body of work, and she demonstrated her tremendous speed and skill by doing three looks on one model in 15 minutes - 1) clean editorial 2) natural and 3) glamour. If you're inclined to watch, I posted the video I took here. 

There were also some fun body-painting demos throughout, particularly at the Kett, Mehron, Graftobian and MUFE booths.

You may recognize the artist in the picture above as Athena Z, from the second season of Face Off. :)

And, of course, there was the shopping....

I restrained myself to the items that I would normally have a harder time getting, especially at the pro discount price. And, of course, I HAD to get my first Hakuhodo brushes. They are, indeed, made of kittens and love.

So yes. That was my weekend, more or less. (Plus visiting with family and friends.) Imma go pass out now.

Ellis Faas Skin Veil Foundation

This post took a long time to write, for two reasons. One, it's a direct follow-up to one of the bigger disappointments I've had since I started blogging, and two, it's about a product I received as a sample  from the brand. I wanted to be really fair and balanced in this review - I thought both you, my readers, and the brand deserved no less.

With that bit of transparency out of the way, allow me to dive right into my thoughts on the Skin Veil Foundation from Ellis Faas.

First of all, I am delighted by the fact that this foundation comes in a regular pump-bottle rather than the clicker-pen that the rest of line is packaged in. As swanky and sexy as the pens are, and undoubtedly more convenient to tuck into a bag than a full-size bottle like this, I'm just not a fan of the clicker mechanism. (Though for what it's worth, the lovely rep from Ellis Faas told me that they are working on making sure it takes far fewer clicks to get to the goodness inside.)

The bottle format also means that you get a legitimate amount of product for something that would be used daily - 30 ml, to be exact. (The pen version is available, should you prefer that packaging, but note that the bottle is priced at 90$, and the pen - which holds 15 ml - is priced at 78$ on the Sephora site and 65$ on the Ellis Faas site. Though the price is gulp-worthy for either version, the bottle is the better value by far.)

I have absolutely no complaints about the packaging otherwise. The bottle is frosted glass, simply styled, with a very efficient pump that allows you to control how much product to dispense. For the price, I would maybe expect something with more bling, but then I don't expect my foundation to do double-duty as an accessory, so I'm satisfied with the simple, elegant, functional packaging.

Onto the stuff inside.

I choose my foundation in shade 103, which is slightly too dark and too pink-toned for me. You can see in the swatches above that when it is applied more thickly to the skin, the shade match is off. In retrospect, 102 would have been the correct choice.

That being said, I have been wearing this foundation for the last few weeks, and not a single person has bolted from me, screaming about my horrid orange-pink face. While it appears too dark when swatched heavily, this foundation blends perfectly when I apply it in a normal layer.

It feels creamy and almost thick when first pumped out, but it melts onto the skin, leaving behind a dewy glow and a light coverage. So light that I would consider it more of a tinted moisturizer than a foundation, but it is a buildable coverage. It won't cover more visible blemishes, but the light-diffusing properties seem to almost distract the eye from noticing little imperfections when viewed in person.

The skin-nourishing ingredients mean that this is a great foundation for mature and dry skin, and very forgiving towards dry patches. On my oilier t-zone it still fares fairly well, neither sliding off nor going patchy. It does, however, need some powdering for my optimum shine-to-matte ratio. I'm also not crazy about is the way the dewier finish can emphasize pores.

This foundation has elicited really positive comments from people I interact with. Invariably, I am told that I look healthy, and have I done something different.

It's also incredibly easy to apply and blend. With a Buffer Brush, I can literally slap this on in 5 seconds and be out the door. When I'm waking up at 4am, that is a life-saver, especially considering it contains sunscreen that I don't have to apply separately. Also nice is that you can actually touch it up hours later - even apply a second coat - without it looking caked on. (I did so one day, when I was appallingly lazy.)

Availability: Sephora and Ellis Faas websites. Price is 90$ CAD.

Pros: Creamy but light texture translates into fool-proof application. Light-diffusing properties blur the imperfections the light coverage does not directly address. Very kind to mature and dry skin.

Cons: The finish can make pores look more obvious. The price is hefty, to say the least.

(This item was provided free-of-charge by the brand's PR for potential review purposes.)

Ellis Faas Light Eyeshadow - E305 Holographic Bordeaux

In my recent Sephora haul video, I mentioned how excited I was that Ellis Faas was being featured at the new Montreal location. This is a brand that I've been lemming since I first saw it mentioned on youtube, either by Samantha Chapman or Lisa Eldridge, so when I saw the shiny new counter and the gleaming bullet-shaped tester tubes, I was positively giddy. I limited myself to just one item from the line - the Light Eyeshadow in E305, a beautiful teal/burgundy duochrome.

I was SO sure I would be back for more.

My first hint of trouble was the way in which the bottom portion of the twist-tube fell off as soon as I took it out of the box. Granted, this was not a functional piece, so I shrugged, figured I would crazy glue it back on, and popped open the cap. Only to see that the brush was wildy splayed, as if someone had already taken it out and mooshed it back in, willy-nilly. Except that I saw the Sephora SA take the box out fresh from the drawer, still rubber-banded together with its compatriots. This did not bode well, but I figured hey, I'll soak it in water and pinch it back into proper form. No worries.

As you can see from these pictures, everything looked just fine after I took care of these superficial quirks.

The little cap on the end, to the left of the ribbed portion is what fell off.

And then I tried to get some product out. I rotated the twist-bottom, about 15 clicks through. Waited patiently. Nothing. Rotated another 15. Nothing. ANOTHER 15. Zilch. Tried 20, another 20, and finally a few clicks after that I saw some promising shadowing coming through the brush base and then, finally, actual color appeared.

EIGHTY FREAKIN' CLICKS LATER.

But the product that came out was so pretty! So promising! I was still clutching to my hopes and dreams.

The red-brown base shade visible here.

And the teal duochrome showing up under a different angle of the light.

Indirect natural light, angled away from light source.

Indirect natural light.

I mean, how gorgeous is that colour??

And then I tried wearing it.

First of all, why make something that is ostensibly packaged for ease of application, and then make the built-in brush extraordinarily ill-suited to the task of applying and/or blending? It's just so oddly shaped and finished, leading to a choppy laydown (which is just what you want with a cream/liquid product) and impossible blending (it basically picks up what you laid down if you sweep it over the same place). You need to pat it on, and then spread and blend with your fingers or another brush.

This is assuming you work lightening fast. This sucker sets almost instantly, making any kind of blending very difficult. But hey, no worries, because it comes off easily with water. Yes, WATER. Not soap and water, not a micellar water. Just water. You can literally wet your finger and rub it away. Which is great if you have a weird edge you want to soften, but not so great for any situation where you might encounter moisture - like, say, rainy days, crying, or you know, your skin doing its thing.

As a test, I applied this all over my eyelid in a fairly thin layer, all the way up and into my crease (where I tried blending, to little effect). Over bare skin, this lasted maybe an hour before it started creasing and fading. After the end of my workday, all that was left was a faint line of product close to my lashline. The remainder had migrated to my crease lines, flaked off or otherwise disappeared into the ether.

To be fair, I also tested it over a primer (Too Faced). Two hours later, it started flaking off and going patchy, though it held off on obvious creasing for about 4 hours. The picture below is at the two-hour mark. I had applied it in a thin layer all over my eyelid, from inner corner to outer and up through the crease in an almond shape. No blending. There's flaking up in the crease and below my eye (more not visible under my lashes), as well as fading at the inner and outer corners and a bit over the center of my lid.

Apologies for the crappy bathroom lighting.
And lack of other makeup.

In desperation, I tried applying an even thinner layer. Like, a tiny pat that I spread delicately over my eyelid until it was barely tinted. This actually gave an interesting, ethereal sort of luminosity. It still faded and flaked, though the latter was not as noticeable.

But you guys. This is probably one of the most ill-performing products I have tried in a really long time, and certainly the most expensive one to bear that distinction.  Those people who love it and get their money's worth out of it - I envy you, and suspect sorcery of some sort. :P

For me, it's just not worth the time and effort it takes to make 50$ worth of product sort of workable under very limited circumstances. It's entirely possible the other products in the range might work better for me, but at this point I have no intention of finding out.

Availability: Sephora, and the Ellis Faas website. Price is 50$ CAD.

Cons: Erm. *points to review up above*

Pros: It's a REALLY pretty color.

(I purchased this item from Sephora.)

EDIT: I was recently contacted by a rep from Ellis Faas, who was curious to know more about my experience with this item. Apparently the packaging/clicker issues are not news to them, but the flaking and creasing I experienced was. After going through the possibilities (eye cream, primer), they are still baffled as to why it performed so poorly for me, when the feedback regarding performance has generally been positive. I possibly have freakish eyelids, crazy skin chemistry or I had a defective model. Either way, take that for what it's worth.