January 25, 2010

Urban Decay's Shoppers Drug Mart launch is a huge success!

I made my way to Whitby on Saturday to attend the Shoppers Drug Mart Urban Decay launch that I told you about here.  I made my friend Ro go with me because she lives in Whitby and is not at all familiar with Urban Decay.  I know that I love Urban Decay but it is not your mainstream kind of line and  I was interested to see what her reaction would be as a non-makupista.  What I didn't realize was that Ro had only bad experiences with makeovers so Urban Decay really had their work cut out for them!

When we arrived at the Shoppers we found out a snafu had occurred and the appointments that I thought I had made with Eric Jimenez (the UD artist and crazy person in the picture above) had not actually been booked with him.  Not to worry, we were turned over to Kent, the Beauty Boutique Manager's capable hands!


Now I love a makeover.  I always find it interesting to see how the makeup artist views you and on the basis of what they see, what they will do to you.  When they ask me what I want I always give them free reign with the caveat of no bronzer please!  Once Kent told me that he wouldn't dream of putting bronzer on a "porcelain princess" like me...well he had me at princess!

Kent decided that Urban Decay did not have a foundation to suit my skin and that all it really needed was some powder and a touch of concealer.  I thought it was kind of him not to mention the giant pimple that had decided to make an appearance right in the middle of my cheek that morning.  He used the new Razor Sharp Finishing Powder and the 24/7 Concealer pencil - and this is why I love makeovers, they use products on you that you never previously paid any attention to or even knew existed.  I had never tried the concealer pencil before, which is a shame, it's amazing!  He totally went to town on my eyes, 3 shades of shadow from the original shadow line in Vapor (silver), Speed (light blue) and Twice Baked (dark brown), Binge (navy) Ink for Eyes liner on top, followed by Heavy Metal Glitter Liner in Metalhead (dark purple).  He used some of the powder as a bottom liner and then lined the waterline with a white liner to hide the redness.  He finished off with some Big Fatty mascara.  But the best eye item was the very first one - the new Eden Primer Potion!  I was told that Eden was a Sephora exclusive so I wasn't expecting to see it there, but there it was and it is FABULOUS!  Same great primer potion but it has a yellow tone to it and it does an amazing job of priming and covering up the redness of my eyelid area in one full swoop!  I am already noticing how much better and truer the colour of my eyeshadows are now!  If you buy only one thing from UD's new collection, make it Eden!  He finished me up with a bit of Score (peach) Afterglow blush, a nude liner and James (pink) Pocket Rocket and I was done - on to his next victim, I mean Ro.

Ro also gave him license to do what he wanted and this is where Kent really impressed me.  He decided that Urban Decay did not have a foundation that would suit Ro so he went and picked out a Lancome foundation.  I have been to a lot of brand makeovers where they would try and make a brand foundation work even when they didn't have a suitable one rather then skipping the foundation or going to another line so I thought this was great!  The colour he picked was spot on perfect so just by applying the foundation Ro had flawless looking skin.  He then used the Razor Sharp Finishing Powder and 24/7 Concealer pencil on her.  I'm afraid I lost track of what happened with the makeover after that because Eric finished his makeovers and was gracious enough to spend a few minutes chatting with me before he left.  I did see Ro's final result of course and she looked stunning!  The products he used on her:  SWF (pink), Strip (blue) and khaki shadows,Stash (dark golden green) 24/7 liner, Quickie (pink) Afterglow blush, Midnight Cowboy (beige) lipstick and when he could see that she wasn't happy with a nude lip he slapped some Jesse (berry) Pocket Rocket on top to put her more in her comfort zone - he really is great!  Judging from the amount of things Ro bought, we have made an Urban Decay convert out of her!

As for my chat with Eric - well he is a close talker, a toucher and man, is he enthusiastic about Urban Decay!  I tried hard to take notes but eventually gave up, he talks way to fast to keep up!  The gist of our conversation is that he is super proud to be with Urban Decay.  He especially loves that it is a cruelty free line that is 66% Vegan and that UD chooses to use non-synthetic ingredients whenever they are available.  Of course I asked for some quick beauty tips for our beloved readers and he had two great ones:  Primer is key!  Be it face, eye, eyelash or lip.  Primer readies you for the colour and makes it last ages longer.  The face primers also have skin benefits to them and he recommended using a bit of the Brightening Complexion Primer Potion at night as a serum to help fade dark spots and brighten your complexion.  His other tip was to pick your best asset, and really play it up!  If you have any burning questions for Eric let me know, he was kind enough to offer to answer questions by e-mail for me!  He will also be back in May for a mother/daughter makeover at the Whitby Shoppers (at which time he has also promised me a one-on-one).  You may not think of UD being a line your mom can wear but they actually do have matte colours as well as lots of neutrals for the less adventurous moms so think about it for a Mother's Day outing with your mom!

Many thanks to Eric, Kristen and the rest of the team from Urban Decay for bringing themselves and their fabulous line to Shoppers Drug Mart, I'm sure Whitby is still reeling!  And extra special thanks to Kent for the amazing makeovers and bitchy girl talk! (And yes, I did buy the Alice in Wonderland palette, it is even prettier in person)!

- Lisamarie

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for updating about this! It sounds like it was fun and it must have been nice getting makeovers and learning about products you wouldn't have necessarily tried before. I'm excited to see the new UD products when they come out elsewhere, especially Eden UDPP and Binge 24/7.

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  2. It was SO much fun! You will love Eden. I tested Binge on my hand and it is really pretty!

    Best, Lisamarie

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  3. WOW i wish i was able to go to this event. Thanks for the updates

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