Friday 13 February 2015

RMS beauty event at Content




 If you are a regular reader of this blog you are probably aware of my favourite little beauty boutique in the heart of London. Content Beauty and I became friends early on in my green journey and while I may not be the most loyal when it comes to products I am very loyal to my favourite retailers. Because it can take me anywhere between an hour or two to get there (and you never quiet know how long it will actually take you), I do most of my shopping with them on-line ( safer for my wallet too), however I only need an excuse of a good event to make the journey. Now, it is not a big secret that I have a little soft spot for RMS and even have a box dedicated specifically to RMS, so an event with Rose-Marie Swift in Content that was just a dream come true. When I booked a place there was a choice of two slots one at five and another at six in the evening, I chose a later one as I thought it would give me a better chance of actually getting there on time. I was counting days until the event and for a few days I was afraid I would have to give up my space, but my lucky stars aligned and I was able to make it.

I arrived almost half an hour early to the site of a full store of ladies from an earlier group and Imelda outside, signing for a delivery of radiance juices (my guess is for Rose-Marie and the staff). My little ego was boosted by the fact that Imelda recognised me straight away, she said I was welcome to sneak in at the back. I chose to stay outside at first to take a few photos but the cold quickly changed my mind. You see Rose-Marie is so enthusiastic about beauty and is just so fun to be around, that the two group thing didn't quiet work out. I think what happened before I arrived was a general presentation of products from the range on one of the girls from Content I believe ( I caught the tail end of it), and then Rose-Marie asked what questions people had and if anyone wanted to come up for product/colour suggestions (and that was about ten minutes to six). While group one was taking their turns in the make-up chair group two just sort of joined up at the back and even though a couple of people left after getting their one on one, majority stayed. As she was doing everyones makeup, Rose-Marie was discussing each issue that she noticed with regards to how to enhance someones look, if someone had a foundation colour that didn't quiet work or lipstick. This was so helpful because even though she did something different for each of us, tips on how to do bronzer and where to apply the highlighter are very useful for everyone. She also made a point about hyaluronic acid creams not really agreeing with makeup in general (she new straight away which ladies used one, amazing party trick me thinks).

                                              
                                                             Rose-Marie doing my makeup

When it was my turn I have to say I was a little awe struck. Rose-Marie was wearing an all black outfit with skinny jeans and a beanie hat, no eye makeup from what I could tell, perfect base and a bold red lip (it all very much reminded me of Audrey Hepburn in Funny face). When she asked me what colour I tend to wear most I said coral, while I do wear coral lips about 50% of the time, the thing is there is hardly any colour that I do not use in my makeup and I completely forgot to ask of a way to use the living luminizer on me (and that was something I was planning on while standing in the audience). She told me that I have really nice skin (at this point my head was like omg Rose-Marie has seen so many faces and she thinks I have nice skin), she used the new tinted un-powder in 2-3 to even out my skin tone on half of my face to show the difference to everyone, before proceeding with the other half. On the eyes she used a little seduce topped up with the same unpowder, and then she also used seduce on my eyebrows again topped with unpowder. Since I have given up trying to find a good eyebrow match (they are all either too grey or too brown), I was pleasantly surprised that seduce was a perfect match. So the top priority personal tip I got was to do my eyebrows!

                            
                                                               Me after the mini makeover

Rose-Marie's approach to makeup for normal life (i.e. not artistic photo shoots and fashion runways) is that less is more. There were no drastic makeovers with people looking like they are about to go on stage (which yes I have seen once or twice at a Mac counter). Everything was about finding key features and colours that would work best on the individual. Uncover up was applied with fingertips and blended in pretty much like a moisturiser, no light tapping, really blended into the skin, but not all over the face, just on the areas that needed the extra coverage. On the individual spots a small, fairly stiff brush was used, but again just for individual spots not the whole surrounding skin. Un-powder was pressed in a rolling motion with a cotton disk to set the uncover up when used or straight away on bare skin to even out the skin tone a little when she felt that uncover up was not needed. Lip2Cheeks or lip shines were applied to both cheeks and lips in light washes of colour (yes she applied lip shines to the cheeks and they looked amazing), and even used imagine on one of the girls as a lip colour (she had a beautiful tanned olive complexion and it looked stunning). With mascaras, Rose-Marie pointed out that the defining version is actually her preferred formula especially if you are trying to get that extra wow effect. With one of the girls she used the mascara, dotted a little inspire in the middle of the lid (also mentioning her less is more mantra and how it is not necessary to do the whole lid from corner to corner all the time), and living luminizer on the cheekbones, what can I say, amazing to watch a master at work. With living luminizer she put up two finger directly under her eye and said to use it underneath them, so directly on the cheekbones and not under the eye, mentioning if used on the under eye area it will look like you are crying, and also not to bring it too close to the nose (the two finger rule as with blush I think is a good guideline). When covering dark circles under eyes not to go  with a very light colour but actually match closer to the colour of the rest of the face. At the same time one of the girls from content was righting out cards with colours of the products that were used in the mini makeovers, I found this sweet and helpful.




                                                                   Imelda and I

The whole evening was very entertaining due to the fact that Rose-Marie is super funny, even when she gave constructive criticism it was with jokes, making it impossible to take offence. If you are ever at dinner party that is not all that, you want her sitting next to you. She was so honest, with no hard sell, openly admitting that her eyeshadows are not a good choice for some one with oily lids (although mine are and I have found a way to use them). Sharing anecdotes about her world and stories of packaging woes for her line (the mascara wands will soon be upgraded). Rose-Marie is an amazing personality and I hope there will be another event like this and maybe next time I will be a little bit more of my usual self and actually ask the questions, or I will be reduced to a school girl at a One Directions concert yet again, who knows.

P.S. Now that I made you read the whole post there is actually a short Vlog about the event.

24 comments:

  1. What a nice event miss! I am really jealous!
    Great, a video, will def be watching it later today :-)x

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    1. Oh it was absolutely wonderful, honestly it felt like we all could stay there another hour or two easily! Hope you like the video :) xx

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  2. Awesome post! Thanks for the thorough recap and the video, Tammy. The living luminizer looks amazing on you because the glow is actually noticeable on video. And you cracked me up with your "rms box" haha. I also really like the picture of you and Imelda, you're both glowing :) I'm so glad you had a fab time! xx

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    1. Yay happy you liked it, couldn't let you down I know how much you wanted to be there! I don't think I could do justice to what a fabulous presence Rose-Marie had, she makes me think old Hollywood meets Woody Allen, beautiful and absolutely hilarious xx

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  3. Yaaay for the lovely post! :) Sounds like a wonderful event, I wish I could have been there! And you look lovely! :) xx

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    1. Oh thank you! It was wonderful, I wish you were there too, you would've loved it xx

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  4. I'm curious to hear more about what Rose-Marie said about the hyaluronic acid creams. I always use a serum with hyaluronic acid and follow with oil, as my clog prone skin can't handle most moisturizers.

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    1. Well she mentioned that it doesn't react well with makeup, I.e. It sort of slides of and almost dissolves with hyaluronic as a base. She was a little reluctant to be negative etc but I got the impression that she didn't think it all that natural as well.

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  5. Sounds fantastic - fab detailed recap. I was so gutted not to be able to make it. I've managed to get a small slot with her today and beyond excited x

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    1. I'm so happy you got to meet her in the end! Would love to hear what tips she gave you! Xx

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  6. I was so so sooo gutted to miss this! I work only a couple of tube stops away but had to work the late shift and couldn't make any of the slots!! You are so lucky, looks amazing. i love Content, had a big haul there a month or so back, its paradise in there isn't it?! I wish it was even bigger! Going to cheek out your dog and feel even more jealous! hehe

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    1. Every time I go to content I'm tempted to bring a sleeping bag so I can just stay there! They should do a night at the Content, like a grown up slumber party lol xx

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  7. I love that she had such a relaxed and approachable look towards makeup! Also, the fact that she gave some constructive criticism is interesting! I haven't heard of any makeup artists doing that before! Definitely checking this brand out soon!

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    1. I'be met a few makeup artists but none like her! She is just very upfront about what works and what doesn't and if she thought a lip colour did you no favours she said it even if it's one from her own line!

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  8. Gorgeous, I wish I could've gone! I'd love to meet Rose-Marie Swift. Her products are beautiful.

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    1. They really are, the reason I can't help but add to my collection lol

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  9. I love Rose-marie, she was giving makeup advice in the form of sexual jokes but in the most non-offensive way! You're so detailed in your re-cap - I remembered all the tips but was just too lazy to include them in my post... I had the same thoughts as you when RMS told me 'Oh, you have a great face!' and I was all like: omg she thinks my face is great, really? It has to be true coz RMS doesn't lie, right?! LOL

    Do you remember what she said specifically about hyaluronic creams?

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    1. Ha ha well you do have a lovely face Ru, but yeah hearing it from Rose-Marie does make for a huge ego boost! Hyaluronic acid is not a good makeup base esp not for natural makeup, and she just doesn't like it as an ingredient she didn't go into specifics. When someone asked but it is natural? She sort of hesitated and was like a yes and no type thing, she didn't want to be negative towards companies who use it etc. I did a bit of research about manufacturing of HA and I now get the hesitation, personally don't really want it on my skin either xx

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  10. Sounds amazing!!! So wish I could have attended :( But at least I get to live it through your post haha.

    Mayah x

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    1. I was so sure you were going
      To be there, kept looking for you in the crowd! Hopefully next time xx

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  11. Ahhh if I wasn't on holiday I would definitely have come to this with you! I was gutted when I got the email and it said 12th I was like nooooo, Amber, you picked the wrong week to go on holiday haha! She sounds so lovely, it looks like it was amazing :)

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    1. Yeah I was about to tweet you then I saw the date and was like oh no you are away! So didn't want to rub it in, it was fab but spending time with your boy on hols was amazing too ;) xx

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  12. So amazing that you got to meet the legend in the flesh!! Eeeeee! And you look fab, love how effortless her products are and how good they are for your skin as well. I hope to meet her someday...in the meantime I'll just live vicariously! Fab write-up and I would also be interested in hearing what she said about hyaluronic acid. Update me! Xx

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    1. Thank you Nic! It was so fab, would've been even more fun with you and we discussed HA on insta ;) xx

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