Paul & Joe Holiday Event from Guest Writer Lakshmi

Guest Writer Lakshmi brings us a detailed account of her recent makeover at Bergdorf Goodman with the Paul & Joe team for their holiday event along with lovely photos of her amazing haul (credit to go to her friend Dhruv for taking these photos)! It looks like the Mesmerize Holiday Palette is a big hit this season – want to know how to use this and what products to coordinate with it? Read on for her experience . . .

Intrigued by rave articles on Paul & Joe, I decided to go in for a makeover at Bergdorf Goodman and had Caroline do my make-up which was just wonderful, the whole experience was totally fun! Here’s what she used on me:

Skin Prep
Caroline started by cleansing my face with the Cleansing Milk N, followed by the Refreshing Toner. Since my skin is very dry at the moment she followed it up with a richer toner that you just press into the skin instead of applying with a cotton pad. All these skin products have an orange blossom fragrance that is very soothing. She then applied some moisture cream, which was a little too heavy, so she blotted away the excess moisturizer and followed with an application of their Protective Foundation Primer.

Foundation
After the skin-prep, Caroline then proceeded with an application of the Protective Fluid Foundation. I am Indian with deeper skintones (MAC NC43) and unfortunately they did not have a perfect match for concealer so she opted for a Shu Uemura concealer from the neighboring counter as an alternative! She set my foundation with some loose face powder.

Eyes
* Step 1) Eyes were first prepped with a layer of their eye primer
* Step 2) She then applied the lightest shade (lilac) from the Mesmerize palette all over the lid
* Step 3) The medium shade from the same palette was blended in the crease to warm up my eyes, because the lilac was a little too cool toned for my skin
* Step 4) The next thing she did which was my favorite part of the entire makeover – she took the darkest shade in the palette (the black sparkly one) and lined my eyes extending it into the outer V, while smudging this to make it look diffused and soft.
* Step 5) She then deepened this eyeliner effect with Pearl Powder in 001 (smokey black shimmer) and lined my eyes with a black pencil liner.
* Step 6) Finishing touches – just to give some sparkle she used the Pearl Powder 03 on the center of my lid, applied and blended lightly with a finger.

While seemingly complicated, this combination of products gave my eyes a soft smokey look with a wonderful gradient effect from the darkest black color at the lashline slowly blending upward and outward. She then applied their mascara in black, the brush is quite thick and the formula seems glossy and volumizing, so can’t wait to try that. Since she applied it with a disposable wand, I have yet to see the effect of application with the brush.

Cheeks
I had already seen so many things I wanted to buy and we couldn’t really decide on a face color that was suitable, so she just applied the darker shade of their bronzer as a blush. I think that this shade is very comparable to MAC’s Refined Golden bronzer.

Lips
She applied a lipliner (don’t remember the number but it was a brick colored one) filled in lips with a brick reddish-brown lipstick (not limited edition packaging), followed by Lip Lacquer #10. We also tried Lip Lacquer #07 which complimented the rest of the look perfectly too!

What I ended up going home with:

• Pearl Powders in 001, 002 and 03
• Lash Mascara in 01 (black)
• Lip Lacquers in 07 and 10 – they are unlike anything I’ve tried and have an amazing finish…
• Nail Enamel in 06

The gift with purchase was a beautiful Paul & Joe notebook in purple to match their holiday collection packaging!