Beauty, Photos

MAKE UP FOR EVER PRO Seminar with Dany Sanz

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Last week when I had planned to go to an event at MAKE UP FOR EVER in Toronto, the night before called for a severe snow storm with piles of snow to be hit. It stressed me out wondering how I’d get into the city. Take an insanely early train? Take the greyhound bus? Dude. I had plans. Mother Nature better get her act in gear. I felt like I couldn’t have picked a worse day for my day off.MAKE UP FOR EVER PRO seminar with Dany Sanz

By morning the so-called snow storm was insignificant and I was on my merry way.  As soon as my bus left at 5:55am, I had a bit of a panicky moment. My bus wasn’t supposed to leave until 6:10! Whewf, we’re not going in the opposite direction, as luck would have it — I ended up catching the earlier Greyhound.

I ate an expensive breakfast at Royal York in Toronto while I waited for some time to pass before I found my way to the seminar. Hot chocolate and yogurt parfait, oops there goes $10!

The event was at Twist Gallery in downtown Toronto, and it was decorated beautifully with monster sized MAKE UP FOR EVER posters.MAKE UP FOR EVER posters

I made it there a half hour before it started, plenty of time to get situated and find a seat.
Twist Gallery Toronto

Then I looked around a bit before the seminar started. MAKE UP FOR EVER goodies

For pros. For you. For ever.for pros for you for ever

MAKE UP FOR EVER make up set up for Dany to use on her models. MAKE-UP-FOR-EVER-setup

Beautiful portrait of Dany. Dany-Sanz-portrait

Then it was show time. Dany Sanz came on stage. Dany-Sanz

She spoke beautifully about her products, did a demonstration on the new items of what’s coming out for Summer 2013.Dany-Sanz-2

New brushes? Yes please. Also, a pro finish multi-use powder foundation, which I’m sure some make up lovers would be eager to try out. You can use it wet or dry, and it won’t create this evil film on the powder if you use it with a wet sponge/brush.

Some of the new upcoming launches from MAKE UP FOR EVER are:

Pro Finish Multi-Use Powder Foundation (available Summer 2013)

  • Good for oily skin as it’s matte
  • Good for dry skin since it’s not drying
  • Can use with water, but not MAKE UP FOR EVER Mist & Fix
  • Use with a sponge or brush
  • Use concealer before OR after. The powder is mixed with the oil and water, so it’s up to you. It’s a “freedom product” as Dany said, because of the formulation

Chromatic Mix (13ml bottle)
This is a make up liquid pigment  which you can use this to create your own personal, precise foundation colors. Before the color wasn’t as realistic, sometimes chalky, sometimes too grey/yellow. Now you need pure pigmentation for it to look real.

Dany says that on camera ethnic skin was difficult to achieve natural look. The Chromatic Mix comes in a water based as well as an oil based mix.Just one drop of this magical pigment allows you to create custom colors. You can use it with foundations, concealers, or with the use of an airbrush.

Available colors:

  • White — to lighten your foundation
  • Blue
  • Yellow — make it closer to your skin tone. “Most important color”. A lot of people would use this one.
  • Red
  • Black — Takes the luminosity of beige. It’s more natural, not too radiant.
  • Brown

This type of pigment wouldn’t be beneficial to me since I’m not a make up artist or do make up on other people, ever. So this type of product would cater more to the PROs, hence the pro seminar.

We had a quick ten minute break, where we had little brown bags filled up with all sorts of goodies. Delicious stuff too. Oh hey, can you spot Lindsey? :)treat bags

Towards the end of the seminar Dany held, she was given a belated birthday present from the Canadian Make Up For Ever team, and we even sang Happy Birthday to her. Can you believe she’s 66? She looks absolutely incredible for her age. I love her bright fun hair style. Dany-Sanz-Birthday-Gift

Omg was Dany looking at my camera?Dany-Sanz-looking-at-my-cam

I also got my photo taken with her. Think I was a little excited to meet her? Also, excuse my melon-head. Dany-Sanz-and-I

MAKE UP FOR EVER is one of my favorite make up brands. It’s a professional cosmetics brand founded in 1984 by artist Dany Sanz. Dany was originally a painter in Paris in the 80’s who worked in theatre productions. She wanted to create a make up that would work both on stage for fashion and show-business, and also in your daily life.  To say that this woman knows her stuff, is an understatement. It was a pleasure being in the same room as her, let alone have my photo taken with her. Incredible opportunity that I’ll never forget.

Did you know that she did the make up for the movie Avatar?
  

Quoted from the YouTube video:

 Thanks to MAKE UP FOR EVER, the fantastic world of AVATAR came to life for one night at the Champs Elysées Virgin Megastore, France. The talented Dany SANZ and her team body painted two models in front of a crowd of journalists and people especially gathered for the event. The evening of the 20 April 2010 was magical and… will be remembered as the time when MAKE UP FOR EVER brought James CAMERON’s movie characters to reality.

I felt so lucky to be able to take the day off to attend this event, thanks to Lindsey from MAKE UP FOR EVER. Thank you so so much for inviting me.

Find MAKE UP FOR EVER on Facebook, and Twitter.

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Daily, Fashion, How I Style, Photos, Reviews

A new addition to my watch collection

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I feel so lucky to be able to have a blog where I can review products and brands I’m passionate and enthusiastic about. I mean, if you’re not convinced by a product or item’s value, your post won’t portray it either.

This is why I reach out to my favourite companies more than I let them come to me. Don’t be passive. If  you want to work on something, ask to work on it.  The worst someone can say is no. Also, stay positive. Sometimes all you need to get your foot in the door is a good attitude.

I know I’ve stated before that you should let companies find you and have a ton of patience. Well, sometimes you do have to work for it, as it won’t always fall into your lap at the perfect time. For instance, I’m still in awe that I get to work with Fossil Canada, and since that took a lot of persistence, I did get my foot in the door and established a wonderful relationship (both professional and personal) with the women there. Everything takes time and effort. It’s all a process on how well you connect and interact with various people.

I didn’t realize I was such a huge fan of watches until I started noticing the growing collection on my dresser. This watch I received from The Watch Co, is no different. In fact, in 2012 Fossil purchased Skagen and some of its partners. Let’s sing it: “It’s a small world, after all.“Guess I have a love for all things Fossil related. Fossil watches still ranks #1 to me though :)

Skagen-watch-box-002

A new addition to my watch collection. The Skagen ceramic. skagen-ceramic-watch-in-box

I research my watches to an abnormal amount of time before deciding on a final product.  I saw the ceramic Skagen watches for the first time on a popular blog a number of years ago, and it just always stuck out to me. At the time being a newly hired designer at a job, it was out of my price range at $225. However now that I think of it, it’s quite an affordable watch

When I contacted The Watch Co for my second review I knew exactly what to pick out. Initially I went for the same style Skagen watch but in black. Unfortunately it was out of stock. Even after receiving the crisp white watch, I contemplated just buying the black one until my Boyfriend (and I quote) “You have a nice white one now.  No need to get carried away.  :)”. True enough. Having two white watches (Fossil Stella, and Skagen ceramic) and then two more black one’s (I have a Fossil Stella in black) would be getting a little carried away. You can see my watch collection here.

Skagen-watch-boxThe box that the Skagen watch came in was well designed and packaged. As a Graphic Designer, I can appreciate the thought process that comes into creating a showcase to present the product. The watch itself was settled into a plush leather pillow which was perfectly secure in the box.

Skagen-007I love larger watch faces on my small wrists. The ceramic band makes wearing it carefree and luxurious, and it won’t break the bank like some of the more expensive versions (Michele, Rado, or Armani to name a few).

The Skagen, I want to say is a more sophisticated version of the Fossil Stella I own. While the Fossil watch is fun and playful, the Skagen has an up scale design with a low profile, as it doesn’t lift off the wrist very high. I didn’t notice that it was on and I kept having to check my wrist to see if it was still there. I ended up having 6 links removed from the watch in order to have the perfect fit on my toddler sized wrist. Skagen-Instagram4

Ceramic material is used in all sorts of ways, these days. That’s not to say that your ceramic watch is going to be completely durable. Some of the materials used in ceramic watches are brittle. You can certainly wear it on a daily basis, but you need to exercise caution. The watch can shatter or crack if hit against a hard surface. The links are replaceable, so it’s not the end of the world if one gets damaged.

This is the first ceramic watch I’ve owned. Now, there’s pro’s and con’s to owning ceramic watches which I didn’t realize until the woman at the watch repair shop removing the links, mentioned to me.

  1. Do not put your watch on your wrist with tiled floors below you. If you’re clumsy like me, and drop the watch it will shatter.
  2. Ceramic is highly scratch resistant. Great if you plan on wearing it on a daily basis.
  3. Ceramic is incredibly shiny and very durable. Yes, ceramic jewellery is very long lasting.
  4. Although ceramic is strong and scratch-resistant, it can chip. So store it on its own in your jewellery box or watch box.

Do you wear a watch on a daily basis? I don’t always, but most days I do.

What is your favourite accessory? Mine are watches and bracelets!

Have you seen my how to style/care for watches post?

Or how about my watch collection.

I did receive this watch in exchange for posting a review of The Watch Co. on my website. While the product was free of charge, the opinions, as always are 100% my own.

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CrossFit, Daily, Photos, Workout Schedule

The TWO YEAR MARK at CrossFit!

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I haven’t been going to CrossFit on a regular basis lately. Once a week is all I’ve mustered up in February. Perhaps it was the February Blues, or whatever excuse I may come up with — it was just a break and I didn’t mind it. As long as I keep going back, right?

My first receipt from CrossFit: February 24, 2011. Meaning…I passed the TWO YEAR MARK at CrossFit on February 24. I’m pretty proud of that!CrossFit-Anniversary

Last week I headed in on Thursday and did this WOD:

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year 1, week 52, day one

 CrossFit WODFor the low bar back squats I worked my way up to 85lbs and found it easier than doing regular back squats with that accumulated weight. Nicely done.

The WOD was 6 rounds of:

  • 1 minute on: 4 power cleans (I used 85lbs)
  • 1 minute on: max rep burpees.

Thankfully I completed the 4 power cleans each time. Though by the end of it, it was getting difficult. Get that butt back in time for the drop down to catch the weight! Oof. As for the burpee’s I was proud of my number on that too:

Round 1: 14 burpees
Round 2: 11 burpees
Round 3: 11 burpees
Round 4: 10 burpees
Round 5: 9 burpees
Round 6: 10 burpees

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[older crossfit journal entries]

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