Meeting Promise Tamang Phan - YouTube Makeup Guru

I had the privilege of meeting Promise Tamang Phan (YouTube: dope2111) yesterday in bareMinerals at Westfield San Francisco, CA. I'm super happy that I got to meet her and I hope that I'll meet her again in the future!

So, I left home at 2:30 PM to travel and to have extra time in case there was heavy traffic. The drive was actually not that bad, considering that I was driving through San Francisco. I arrived at the mall at 4 PM. The line to meet her was short and I was lucky to be number seven in line.

Promise wasn't going to show up until 6 PM and I was bored waiting for two hours. My friends whom I've invited to come declined because they had to work and so I was just left to my thoughts, cell phone, and Nikon camera. I followed a couple of the ladies who decided to take a seat. One shouldn't wear heels to a meet and greet but... I wanted to look cute.

There was a videographer who captured footage of us waiting in line. I might be on her future YouTube video which is really exciting.

I'm surprised that this picture (that was taken against a mirror in the store) actually turned out well!

The first 50 fans that were in line got to have a free eyeshadow duo. It was bareMinerals READY Eyeshadow 2.0 in "The Promise." I love it!!!

6 PM rolled by and Promise was fashionably late. She walked into the store in her pretty little red dress. She was so cute smiling and greeting everybody as she made her way to the front of the line. When it was my turn, I handed my phone and Nikon to a couple of nice ladies who took my pictures with Promise. I approached Promise with a hug and exclaiming "you're so beautiful!" I was really shy! She said that it was exciting to see everybody with pretty makeup on. We posed for pictures and she asked me if I was from San Francisco. I told her that I'm from Sacramento which is two hours away. I think that she was a little surprised by that. I appreciated that she tried to take the time to kind of get to know her fans even though we were all being rushed. She asked me for my name and we hugged really quickly until I was ushered away. I walked away obviously happy that I met her.

The line outside of the store was pretty long. I'm glad that I arrived early. That pretty much concludes my little adventure. I wanted to stay in SF but I parked in the garage and it would be expensive to stay around and play with my camera. Before I left, I posted the picture of me and Promise on Instagram and tagged her.

So here is a picture of The Promise

Here are the swatches:

The left one is called Aspire which is a shimmery peach-toned highlight.

The right one is called Vow which is a matte taupe.

The package included instructions for a day and night eye.

This morning, after working out, I checked my phone and found that a friend of mine tagged me in Instagram. It turned out I made it into Promise's Instagram post!!! I walked out of the gym smiling. Seeing that post hella made my day and I couldn't shake off how freaking happy I was!!!

Promise, if you're reading this, thank you for giving us all the opportunity to meet you, and for stealing my picture to put it in your instagram!!!! You're such a talented makeup artist, and I enjoy watching your transformations. Love you girl!!!

<3 jdmlovesmakekup

My "Get started with em" Package

A while ago, I've ordered a "Get Started with em" package from em cosmetics by Michelle Phan. I've seen her products online and I wanted to collect everything (because I'm a makeup junkie like that) but, I already have quite a collection and I probably have dupes of her products. I would love to splurge on her line but I've decided to take up her promotional offer instead to try out her stuff.

If I recall correctly, the promotional offer allowed us to choose the eyeliner and lipstick color.

She's put a lot of thought into the packaging. Here's how the sample palette looks like:

This sample is from the warm fuzzies look of the love life palette.

There are three eyeshadow samples and a lip gloss pan. In the order shown, their names are: puppies & kittens (brown), spring time (purple), teal rain (teal) and misty mauve (light mauve lip gloss).

These were swatched without any base or primer. The eyeshadows were pretty pigmented and they shone in a pretty way in the light. The lip gloss is pretty opaque and slightly sticky.

I chose the eyeliner/waterliner in black knight because I always need to stock up on black eyeliner.

The eyeliner applies very smoothly. I've tried it on my waterline but the black color wasn't as intense. I didn't layer the liner on as much though. It glides beautifully on my upper lash line! It doesn't tug at all and the softness of the application makes the liner very easy to control. I really like it.

I got the lipstick in daredevil because I love dark and bold lip shades.

I would describe it as a dark magenta/almost violet color. It's very emollient. I've swatched it without any base/primer and when I went to wash it off, it really stuck onto my skin. I had to scrub for a little while to get it off. It has good staying power. Although, I've tried eating food with the lipstick on and it came off as expected. So, I would say that it lasts but, if you eat, it may come off. The lipstick is very luxurious and I really like it.

 In the picture above, I've used the eyeshadow puppies and kittens, the eyeliner, and obviously the lipstick. In general, I'm happy with what I got. I think that em is indeed a luxury brand. I wish that the products weren't so expensive. Like Poke Mon, I gotta catch em all - have them all rather because, I love makeup!

Thanks for reading!

<3 jdmlovesmakeup

YSL - Sephora's 500 Point Reward

This is just a quick show & tell blog about my YSL 500 point reward from Sephora.

It came with a pouch with cosmetics and a box with a bracelet.

As you can see, the pouch came with eye makeup remover, eyeliner and mascara. I haven't tried any of them out because I kind of want to save them for a special occasion.

The bracelet's cute. One of the charms looks like a liquor flask. The other charm is probably a perfume bottle. I think that the plating is going to wear off and so I will wear this bracelet on a special occasion as well.

Thanks for reading!

<3 jdmlovesmakeup

Meeting Makekup Geek

I had the privilege to meet Marlena aka Makeup Geek at Bloomingdales in San Fransisco. She was at the door greeting everybody that came in. She's stunning in person! She was kind enough to give me a hug and she thanked me for coming. She's so sweet!

Her meet and greet was sectioned off into time blocks so that we (her fans) had more time to spend with her. This was very considerate of her because some of us had to take a long drive to see her. We spent about an hour in the room and we talked about her plans for her line, and we had a Q&A session. It's funny, I was sitting there thinking "she laughs like herself!" She gave off a very genuine vibe.

Then.. we got to take pictures! When it was my turn, she told that she liked my lipstick and that it goes with my skin tone. :D

Upon leaving, we were given a little goodie bag with samples. I was pretty excited because I've never gotten to try her products.

I got a pigment and a pressed eyeshadow pan.

The pigment was in Kryptonite (an olive green color).

The eyeshadow pan was in Country Girl (a reddish-brown color).

These shades were swatched without a base/primer.

These colors are great for fall!

I had a great experience meeting my first makeup guru. I'm definitely going to make it out to her next event!

Hmm... what other Makeup Geek products should I try? :)

Thanks for reading!

<3 jdmlovesmakeup