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Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

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When I was 20 years old and studying abroad for a school semester in Paris, I wandered into Sephora during one of my many jaunts down the Champs-Élysées. I had been in a Sephora before, but never one so large in such a glamorous location. I felt that I should commemorate the occasion, so I spent the next hour searching for the perfect "grown up" beauty product, one that didn't have a charm hanging off of it or smell like a lab's interpretation of cherries.

 

I finally decided on Hanae Mori Butterfly, a sweet but warm fragrance that was the perfect balance of whimsy and luxury. To this day the scent reminds me of that moment in my youth when I was experienced enough to understand what made a quality beauty product and to be able to choose one for myself. 

 

It was fitting that my "beauty wings" moment came with a perfume aptly named "Butterfly". For this week's Beauty Challenge, I want to know: What product was your entree into the "real" beauty world, or the product that gave you your "beauty wings"?

 

Show and Tell!

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

My golden moment would have to be when I discovered the difference that using quality brushes can make. I went for years and years using sponge applicators and my fingers, and I thought I was just the hottest potato. I look back at those pictures and cringe now. When I first got "real" brushes and learned about blending, and which brushes do what, I felt like a lightbulb went off over my head, and I fell madly in love. Now I have a ridiculous brush collection and am always on the hunt for more perfect ones!

Anonymous Insider

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

I got into makeup when i watched alot of tutorials on YouTube, i found it really interesting how you could highlight, and apply shades to get a more define look, and oh the lashes could become so full!

I was very into it, and i started using mascara and of curse, a wrong shaded foundation, i had no idea what my undertone was, so i just took whatever would fit, this was a warm skintone apparently... - I'm a cold/neutral skintone..

Anyways, i got inlove with brushes and mascaras, but i had no idea how to apply it!

I just put it on, didn't care if there was a line or not.

Now I've learned teqniques, what you should use, how to use it, and how ti find what fits you!

Now, i'm the most experienced in my class around makeup, and i can sit back and enjoy the show of people doing the same mistakes as i was.

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

I bought a mac foundation, that was when I started my love of makeup, sadly I was 30yrs old by then.  So many years wasted.

Anonymous Insider

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

I started getting into makeup when I found Cara Brooks blog (maskcara.com) through Pinterest almost two years ago. Her blog has been sooo helpful. After learning about highlighting and contouring through her blog, I bought a Sephora Sculpting disk, which I probably wasn't good at using. When I got my real help at MAC, I bought some products that were good for me, and learned how to apply certain things the right way. I had always thought red tones were bad for eye shadow bc of something I read in a girl magazine when I was like 14. But since I have green eyes, cranberry and purple tones look great on my eyes. I have since mastered a cranberry smokey eye, and its amazing! Lauren Curtis on youtube has a great tutorial for this look, and many other looks as well. I think a good makeup look really comes down to "how" you apply it, not just the fact that you applied it or what product you even use. When I was younger I use to put on what I think was going to make me look amazing but I would end up looking like an oopma loopma mess mainly because I didn't know how to apply makeup correctly. Unfortunately, most girls form their makeup habits in high school, by copying what others do, and most of the time no one knows what theyre doing.  

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

I started doing children's theater at age 6. So I was exposed to all sorts of fun theatrical cosmetic products (Ben Nye, Kryolan). Since we had a full face of it for each performance, no matter what the character, I became well acquainted with how little details can open up your features. With each different play, they would do a tutorial for the newbies about how to match your skin tone to the correct base, how to contour to exaggerate features, how to line your eyes with a liner brush and liner cake, and how to get it all off with the cold cream at the end of the day. Man I wish makeup wipes existed then!

So the affinity (okay, okay... addiction) started at age 6 and it is all my parents fault for enrolling me in theater.   :  )

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

These are so fun to read! Everyone has a really neat and different story to tell. Love this thread!!!!!

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

I got my wings pretty recently around 1&1/2 yr ago starting with clinique's skin care product....before that I was a loyal customer of olay.so clinique opened the doors of high end skin care products for me though currently I'm using none of their product. For make up I was limited to tinted moisturizer, lipgloss & mascara,,,,, now I have every thing fom primers till bronzers and illuminators no need to mention all from Sephora, but I'm still trying to perfect my application of make up by practicing in my free time.

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

It's so random, but the "Confessions of a Concealaholic" from Benefit Cosmetics. 6 years ago I was a very basic makeup user, I had one type of product per category and I never purchased something unless i ran out of it or absolutely needed it. One day I came across a Benefit counter at Macy's and happened to see the little concealing kit from Benefit, I bought it for $36 (i think, kinda forgot lol) and started using it. I got a taste of 5 different products which caught my interest and ever since then, I have loved beauty kits, and all types of makeup products. It was so exciting to think I could change my look every day and have so many ways to do it.

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

I think my gateway product was Benefit's Watt's Up highlighter. I tried this in October when I got my birthday set from Sephora (shoutout to all the October babies!). It was the first time I branched out of my usual foundation/blush/eyeliner/mascara routine. It was the first time I realized that all these little products make a huge difference on how your face looks.

 

Since then, I've added eye cream, serum, and sunscreen to my skincare routine. And I've started using primer (face and eye), eye shadow, an eyelash curler, and wearing lipstick! I've started trimming and sculpting my eyebrows. I've also learned how to use makeup brushes (still learning - baby steps :)) and how to care for them.

 

It's only been half a year, but my beauty routine is SOOOO different compared to how it was last year. I have Sephora and Benefit to thank for that 🙂

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

My "gateway" make up was definitely mascara- I started wearing it in 7th grade, and I vividly remember spacing out fluttering my eyes in class because my mascara-ed lashes touched my top lid when I opened my eyes wide and I would imagine my lashes were like a million feet long.

 

I probably didn't earn my beauty "wings" until a few years ago when I had to start doing my own make up for auditions and go sees.  I've got the natural look down really well now!

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

Who didn't have the Dr. Pepper lipsmackers flavor?? 😉

 

But I think my first foray into makeup was the brand Prescriptives, both my mom and I used it. And then our department store at the time got a Benefit counter and I owned so much of it! I started getting into slightly more high end make up, but the only thing I have from then is a Dior quint (how I decided to get this I do not know!). I was in a "make up dark ages" during college - just using the same purple-y taupe eyeshadow and Dior blackout mascara. I never wore foundation or blush.

 

I got married a month after college and they used mineral make up on me (thank goodness because a liquid would probably melt off my oily skin). After that I got into bareMinerals - I am a BE junkie now! And that was 3 years ago and for the past year or so I've been a Sephora addict!

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

I really started being a makeup guru around 19 and fell in love with MAC I became friends with a MUA at the counter who tutored me and made me the addict I am today. 

Anonymous Insider

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

When I was 12 and my cousin, who is 2 yrs. older than I, burnt my forhead with a curling iron. We had her older boyfriend take us to a department store called " FREEDLANDERS" and went to the make up counter where the "expensive" make up was and she showed us how to cover it up and what products to use to take away the burning feeling and the redness.

That was my introduction into the world of "real" make up and beauty...lol

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

For me, it was the first Book Of Shadows from Urban Decay. That started an "oh my god I want every palette from Urban Decay obsession," which I then continued to collect and still do.

 

However, it was not until very recently that I realized how much I loved makeup and started watching videos and how to's and began considering it as an art. Which is odd since I draw quite well so you would think I would have viewed it that way a while ago.

 

Now, I cannot picture myself without it cemented into my daily routine. I call it "me" time - because whatever I learn, tricks I pick up, and beauty products I buy is completely for "me" in mind and not for what anyone else would think about it.

 

"I believe I can fly... " lol

 

 

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

For me it was a journey, I tried some cover girl foundation when I was like 12 but never really stuck to it or learned how to apply it properly.  I played with Almay when I was 14 ish, did the colour match foundation, powder and concealer and mascara.  I don't think I even used blush.  Then I went granola for a year or so while I was working at Lush at 16.  Then I wanted to start getting into makeup again was I was 16 going on 17. I think I started with Revlon products then, then once I found what I liked and used.  Then my aunt took me to MAC and I discovered high end makeup.  I stuck to MAC for a while, then I discovered sephora.  I think the UD Naked Palette was my first big purchase and it was my first high end palette, I fell in love with quality products.  Then I decided to go cruelty free and discovered Tarte, Too Faced, Urban Decay and Nyx and I just slowly started to build my collection.  Everything from eyeshadow palettes (a lot of eyeshadow palettes) to blushes, to foundations, to lippies of all sorts.  I have always been a lippy lover, I tend to go through phases, gloss, then lipstick, then stains, then tinted balms.  

 

I also started blogging when I was 17 and really fell in love with it.  I found that shopping for beauty products and doing research on them, as well as reviewing them and playing with products is really an anxiety reliever for me.  I am now 18, turning 19 in October and am officially obsessed.

 

Right now my current obsession is perfect brows (ABH is my favourite) and now I have dipbrow, tinted brow gel, brow wiz and a brow powder duo because I love changing my brows from day to day.  I also love playing with eyeliner and doing everything from no-makeup (brows, mascara and lippy) to full blown outrageous glamour makeup.

 

I have discovered a true passion and love for everything to do with beauty and it has helped me a lot both with my self esteem and with my anxiety.  Beauty is my passion.

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

For me, it wasn't a specific product. When I first started to get into makeup, my mom actually taught me how to do a few looks appropriate for my age (I was 14), bought my first tinted moisturizer, and how to do a simple cateye. To this day, I still love wearing a clean cateye. 

 

As for getting into higher end products, I got a part time job at 17 at a Shopper Drug Mart, and sometimes I had to cover the beauty boutique. It opened my eyes to products that were much higher end than what I was used to like Smashbox, Lise Watier, Benefit, Shiseido, etc, and I was hooked. I'd hang around the beauty counter whenever it was dead and bug the ladies for advice and tips haha.

 

While young and untrained professionally, in my friends group, I became the go-to girl for getting makeup done or advice, and I loved it. Even my mother's friends would ask me how I did my makeup and to give them pointers. Obviously I've come a LONG way since then, but it was really nice growing up, knowing I was doing alright by avoiding the black-rimmed eyes and wrong-coloured foundation.

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

Oh, I love this thread! I think I got my beauty wings when I first purchased Urban Decay's Eyeshadow Primer Potion. Before that, I had no idea I could have crease-free eyeshadow! My other introduction to high-end makeup came when I received the original Diorshow mascara as a birthday gift one year. I couldn't believe how awesome this mascara was :D. After that, trips to Sephora become a regular thing! 😉 

<3, Randee
Anonymous Insider

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

I got my first beauty wings on my first trip to a Sephora.  I got the Michael Kors Very Hollywood perfume, which my husband loves.  I remember walking around and wanting to look at everything!  I went back and picked up the Tarte Amazonian Clay Foundation, a Lipsurgence, and cream blush by Sephora.  From that moment I was in love with make-up!  After that I picked up Urban Decay's Naked palette and that's when I fell in love with UD.  Ever since I've gotten 90% of make-up from Sephora and don't regret it!

Anonymous Insider

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

I guess I can say that I've had my beauty wings since a little girl seeing my mom do her nightly skin routine and her daily natural makeup face. Then watching my sister do her full face in 5 seconds. I'm artistically challenged so I never thought I would be able to create that beauty on myself. Also, my skin was always oily, full of acne and rough. So, I am saying I learned to use my wings when I walked into a SiJCP and was told by a SA that all skin can be beautiful. She and I had a long talk about my concerns and issues. I left with so much hope and tons of products. It's great to hear people tell me that I look angelic with makeup on or that they wish they had my eyes or my lips. Now that I'm addicted to beauty I thank Sephora letting me see that everyone can find beauty when looking in the mirror...it just takes knowledge and the know-how will follow!

Anonymous Insider

Re: Weekly Beauty Challenge: When did you get your beauty wings?

I think my first "Real" beauty moment is when I got my first good paying job when I was 17 and I went to Macy's and splurged on a couple of Prescriptives items.  That was the first time I had ever bought foundation and body lotion. I don't even know if they are still around!  

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