BEAUTY 101

In my last post, I was sitting in the Radisson next to SeaTac airport preparing for Benefit Beauty school.

The hotel that I stayed at was also the place of training, so that morning I just had to get ready to go and then head downstairs. All I knew was that breakfast was at 9:30 and training started at 10, so I got up around 8 and took my sweet time. I didn't know if I was supposed to wear all black, if I was supposed to wear makeup and have my hair done (coworkers had told me we'd be doing each other's makeup) so I chose to wear a black polka dot dress and pink cardigan. I did some minimal makeup and curled my hair and headed downstairs with absolutely no idea what I was doing.

I'm one of those people that is always early, so I sat down in the lobby at around 9:10 and played on my phone for a little bit. Eventually, I saw some other girls who were wearing all black and also looked lost and we kind of gathered together and started awkwardly small-talking about "oh, so how long have you worked at Benefit?" etc.

At this point, we'd been up for more than an hour (some people had to drive in that morning) and we were hungry so we gravitated toward the food in a room nearby. We saw a sign on the wall and some nametags that had pictures of Benefit products on them, so we decided that's where we were supposed to be and grabbed some breakfast and some coffee.

Eventually we were led into the training room, which is where the photos above were taken. There were three tables, each with six chairs, and at each chair there was a cute little notebook, pen and some other sheets along with lots of makeup and skincare in the center of the table. After some icebreakers, we all learned about Benefit and talked about our objectives for the day and got started.

I won't go into specifics, but we did a lot of activities where we learned makeup techniques (mixology and brow mapping) and at the end of the day we got some gratis (free goodies!) I got a bag that had a lot of good stuff and the one shade of eyshadow that I don't like (blue. bleh!) but I'm still totally stoked that I got the stuff I did.

Overall, Beauty 101 was an awesome opportunity and I'm thankful that I get to have fun with work. I love that I work with other makeup geeks and a lot of the people who come in are also makeup geeks so I get to gawk out. Benefit is a great company, and I'm happy to work for it.

xo
Allie

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BENEBROWS

For a 'beauty blogger' and someone who works for a cosmetics company, I have terrible eyebrows.

Er, had.

Some of my friends and family may know that about a month ago I was hired at Benefit Cosmetics within Macy's, which I have been loving. I love that I get to gawk about makeup with other people who are just as fanatical as me, and I also get to help people buy some of their first makeup ever. It's not just young women either — I've helped some older women pick out some first-ever makeup!

Anywho, eyebrows are a crucial part of Benefit Cosmetics. Many Benefit locations have a Brow Bar, which is essentially a little place where you can get your brows (and lips and cheeks and chin) waxed. Our location happens to have one.

Back to the start of this post. For too long, my brows have been awful. I've not had them waxed in more than a year. I've tried at-home waxing but it just doesn't last as long. I kind of just gave up when it came to my brows; I wouldn't fill them in, tweeze them or anything else... I just let them grow.

See those bad boys? Ugh. I'm thankful to have blonde hair because otherwise I would have two giant caterpillars on my face, and the light hair helped soften the blow.

Benefit loves to preach about great brows and talk about how important they are to part of your makeup routine. I agree, they are, but I guess I didn't practice what I preached. Women would come ask me to help them with their brows and I felt like someone that couldn't be trusted. Yes, I'm aware that I'm totally looking into this and it's probably just me.

Since the day I started, one of my lovely coworkers — Sarah —has been dying to fix my brows. There have been a few times when we've talked about it, but I've just never really had the money until this paycheck.

Today, I finally had Sarah do my brows and oh. my. god. My face looks totally different.

Not only did I have my brows waxed and shaped, but tinted, too. Now, they're looking a little darker than they were when I left work but they'll fade soon enough.

I was facetiming my best friend, Nathan, this afternoon and one of the first things he said was "oh my god, you actually have eyebrows." Even he noticed the difference.

To fill these bad boys in, I'll probably be using what I normally use when I fill in my brows; an e.l.f. angled brush and the color Naked 2 from my Naked Basics palette. It has the perfect color for my ashy-blonde hair without making them look too unnatural.

If you have a chance, I'd recommend seeing a Benefit Brow Bar because they truly know what they're doing. They also cover up your redness before you leave so that you don't look like you just got waxed as you continue your shopping!

The lovely Sarah and myself! Thanks again, Sarah! PS you're famous on the internet now. ;)

Do you have any suggested brow products? What's your current brow routine?

xo