Last week I attended the annual New York Makeup Show. It's a big event, mostly geared towards makeup professionals, but interesting to anyone who is even remotely in the business (or has a serious beauty product habit). Picture this: A huge space in Chelsea, full of more makeup counters than your favorite department store, makeup artists demonstrating their work, lovely models and more color than you have face (or body space) to test in one day.
The highlight for me was the Skin byAlison Raffaele display. This line is highly regarded by makeup pros, but not as famous as it should be. I've been a big fan of Alison's products for several years now. Once upon a time, Sephora used to carry this line in some of their stores (back in the days before they decided to dedicate a large part of their floor space to teenage-oriented brands. Insert rant here), and that was when I fell in love with the Soft Gloss. I have a tube of either Polished or Elegant in most of my purses, and can't get enough of both the vanilla scent and the colors (they're supposedly dark, but both are very natural on my lips. They are lighter than the tube leads you to think and would look great on those whose coloring is plum-friendly).
I was happy to try the Soft Shadows. These eye shadows are a wet/dry formula in beautiful colors. The tones are subtle, almost muted, which makes all of them very wearable and always appropriate. I loved Night Sky, Amethyst and Olive Shine. They present a very sophisticated take on blue, purple and green eye shadows.
Another product worth mentioning is the Inner Glow gel blush. I'm not a stick blush girl, but if I were, this would have been my choice. Unlike the over-hyped ones from Tarte, here we have colors that can be worn by women of different complexions. Graceful (sheer plum), Sultry (sheer bronze tan) and Sexy (sheer golden tan) are colors that make sense to me. No dead looking orchid or Malibu Barbie palette. The gel is water-based and free of mineral oil. If only I wasn't so anti-gel on my cheeks.
The last product of interest I got to try is not available yet. It's a powder-to-liquid vitamin C serum. It's pretty cool: You rub the powder onto your skin, where it liquidises and is immediately absorbed. I'm not sure how concentrate it is or what else is in there, but it was definitely fun to try.
The highlight for me was the Skin byAlison Raffaele display. This line is highly regarded by makeup pros, but not as famous as it should be. I've been a big fan of Alison's products for several years now. Once upon a time, Sephora used to carry this line in some of their stores (back in the days before they decided to dedicate a large part of their floor space to teenage-oriented brands. Insert rant here), and that was when I fell in love with the Soft Gloss. I have a tube of either Polished or Elegant in most of my purses, and can't get enough of both the vanilla scent and the colors (they're supposedly dark, but both are very natural on my lips. They are lighter than the tube leads you to think and would look great on those whose coloring is plum-friendly).
I was happy to try the Soft Shadows. These eye shadows are a wet/dry formula in beautiful colors. The tones are subtle, almost muted, which makes all of them very wearable and always appropriate. I loved Night Sky, Amethyst and Olive Shine. They present a very sophisticated take on blue, purple and green eye shadows.
Another product worth mentioning is the Inner Glow gel blush. I'm not a stick blush girl, but if I were, this would have been my choice. Unlike the over-hyped ones from Tarte, here we have colors that can be worn by women of different complexions. Graceful (sheer plum), Sultry (sheer bronze tan) and Sexy (sheer golden tan) are colors that make sense to me. No dead looking orchid or Malibu Barbie palette. The gel is water-based and free of mineral oil. If only I wasn't so anti-gel on my cheeks.
The last product of interest I got to try is not available yet. It's a powder-to-liquid vitamin C serum. It's pretty cool: You rub the powder onto your skin, where it liquidises and is immediately absorbed. I'm not sure how concentrate it is or what else is in there, but it was definitely fun to try.
Makeup show in New York...sounds like a dream!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of that brand, but it sounds like they have some pretty nice stuff. I think I'll give the Inner Glow gel blush a try - I'm a sucker for that stuff!