Lancome Facial and Makeover Session (June 8, 2014)

Since I became a makeup artist, I miss the feeling of being the one who’ll just sit down and have everything done on me. I mean like now, everytime I do makeup on someone or myself, I’m the one who thinks of what I have to do next, what product I have to use, what time frame I have to finish the job, and so on. And when doing work on others, I stand up for hours and get to sit down for less than 15 minutes for the day.

That’s why I loved the R&R session I had at Lancome’s booth in Rustan’s Shangi-La last Sunday. I went in for their Genifique facial as well as a makeover.

I was actually just going for the facial until I saw this contraption. Apparently, there are keys that you can grab, and each key leads to opening one of three doors. In each door, there are samples and a coupon for something.

The key I took led to door number 1…

And yaaay I got a 2 minute youthful eyes makeover coupon as well as samples!

When we got there, the lady in charge of the facials (Ahmie) was still on break which is why I browsed their makeup selection first. I love their eyeshadows so much because the texture is like Urban Decay eyeshadow turned Japanese. I also love how they have taken the MLBB trend very seriously and have come up with MLBB shades for every possible skintone.

Most of what they’ll be using on me today are from the Genifique line and the Visionnaire skincare line.

Ahmie had already come back from her break at this time, but she had to handle a business call which is why I went on to browse the makeup from where I was seated. They had several blushes, Hypnose Star Eyes palettes, and a lot of other foundations and lippies altogether.

And I took a photo of this because this reminded me a lot of Sigma’s brush, I can’t remember the sigma number right now but it’s the large shader brush.

These were the preliminary items that Ahmie had set up. At this point though she was still busy picking up other products from the store.

She put in the Blanc Expert facial foam just to show me what kind of lineup of skincare I should have. Their Blanc Expert line has salicylic acid which is why she was recommending it for use on my whiteheads and blackheads.

I was telling her how happy I was that the Galateis Douceur got all my makeup off until she clarified that they have another product called Bi-facil that is really an oil based makeup remover for the eye area.

And here is their Galateis Douceur in more zoom. This is their product geared for removing face makeup and goes hand in hand with Bi-facil for ultimate makeup removal. I love the scent of this product!

For me, she used Eau Micellaire Douceur, and Ahmie broke the bad news to me that this was already discontinued! I was so heartbroken because I thought that I’ve finally found a high end version of Bioderma only to find out it was already phased out! This bottle was the last bottle in the whole store and they just use it for clients coming over for facials and makeovers.

The next step was to apply Genifique. They’re now in newer bottles which is why the moment you start to unscrew the lid, the top pops up and the moment you lift the dropper, it’s already filled with the right amount of product for one dosage.

This is Ahmie massaging in the Genifique serum.

And her point of advice is to never forget the neck in massaging the product in.

The next thing she put in was Visionnaire’s advanced skin corrector for my blackheads and whiteheads.

And then she followed up with Genifieque Yeux Light-Pearl eye illuminating youth activator. This is an amusing product as it comes with a massage pearl inside and is meant for massaging product onto the eye area.

This is the pearl massager in action. It feels really nice on the skin because it’s really smooth and all. Don’t be scared because the pearl can be washed and cleaned so your germs will not be bathing in the bottle forever.

The next product was eye cream from their Visionnaire line.

It comes with a plastic tip that has a little hole where the product comes out. The applicator is textured so you can kind of get a massage with this product, too.

The last step in the skincare routine was to apply Lancome’s UV expert BB cream. I just love that they’re now in skintone colors because I have the old formula in white and I look like a geisha after using it! Nonetheless this has a really good formula as it can make my freckles disappear.

I know the skincare part was kinda intimidating because of all the products mentioned, but just keep in mind that it’s just a principle of cleanse-serum-cream. Bi-facil, Eau Micellaire, Blanc expert foam and Galateis Douceur are for cleansing. She used Genifique as the serum and Visionnaire’s polishing cream for cream. For eyes, she used Genifique Yeux for serum and the Visionnaire eye cream as cream.

And now it’s time for the makeover. Since I had to keep my eyes closed for the most of it, I have fewer photos from this part. This is foundation being applied, though.

Their tehnique here is to apply foundation very very thinly then put about 5 layers of powder in different intervals. I think they mainly do this because a lot of clients do not like foundation. More traditional people in the Philippines have this notion that foundation is only for very special occasions and that wearing foundation for everyday is too much or too oily, which is why it’s either no foundation or just a very very small amount. You can see more women with powder pacts in their bags than foundation, and so I think staff are just going with the flow.

This is the eyeshadow palette that Ahmie used on me. She used the bottom one in the middle and the one on the right for the eyelid, and the topmost one in the middle as eyeliner. She doused a brush with their Eau Micellaire and applied the brown liner color in a wet manner onto my eyes. She also used the color on the left, but only very little of it to contour the nose.

The leftmost brush was the one she used for eyeliner. The two other brushes were used interchangeably for the eyelid.

For my lashes she used Hypnose Star Waterproof mascara. This is not as waterproof as my Heroine Make mascara, but for those who want something sturdy for everyday use, I think this is suitable as it’s not very difficult to remove.

These are the two blushes she mixed on my cheeks. In general Lancome is not into my kind of ‘say hi to my blush’ cheeks and is really into subtle cheeks which is why you will barely see anything on me. Put another way, they use blush just for a secret glow and not for obviously rosier cheeks.