topic Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition. in Exclusive Events

CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

Buootiful — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 05:41:47 GMT

"And You get a gift card, and You get a gift card, and You get a gift card!!!"
*So many photos! Will upload the swag in a bit
The event wasn't about that at all but it certainly felt like an Oprah moment all day! It was such a blast hanging with Katie, Carol and the BIC Babes. The grand store opening event was amazing! Thank you for letting me be one of the lucky chosen ones to attend this event @KatieBT @CarolBT @TeamBIC

There is something thrilling about having a Sephora store all to yourself. What a fabulous, spacious store with vaulted ceilings. Plenty of room to walk around. I love how thoughtful they planned the layout that they put the makeup station in the front and the skincare section in the back. For those that might be self conscious when taking off their makeup. Oh, and the windows that let in natural light. Perfect for swatching marathons! It has a lot more room to move than the old location.

As Zombie and I were oohing and ahhing at the store (we went to the Tarte section,) Carol handed out the 1st round of gift cards. It was a kick seeing my BIC name on the To label card.

We had a Contouring Masterclass with Jeffrey the LionHeart English and the lovely Myiesha - Sephora's Beauty Directors. What a treat to be taught by him in person instead of a video. Jeffrey introduced us to Marcus the senior makeup artist instructor at the Grove Which, I loved his makeup/attitude so much, I would take a class here. Even if it would be a trip to get here. Maybe when i have a friends outing I can come down early for a class.
This soooo needs a Caption!

I love Jeffrey's Fashion analogy in making contouring make sense. What I learned is if you don't have a good base, your look isn't complete. Contouring is basically like the underwear for the face. Well, I guess I like to be naked most of the time, lol! Unless I want that cut chin.... Anywhoo, he says it is the main reason why when we take pictures there is flashback or colors are muted.

Katie was our contouring model and he quickly started putting on bronzer in dark streaks across her face. We were all scared for her but he explained its good to put it on before foundation to take those non flashback pics. That is why he recommends cream based products that are pigmented and you can set with powder or eyeshadow for lasting efects. Now that the base has been covered, the key to rounding out the look is to accessorize. Whether you want your eyes or lips to stand out, you will need that cream to enhance the vibrancy of that color. This will help in taking fabulous pictures!

Tip: Use a Pro BB for contouring and a regular BB for blendingMarcusPMG swatch with Milk Makeup pigmentFinished look
Ever since this class I am always on the look out for neutral cream eyeshadows and blushes. Those office lighting pics are horrible sometimes and I hope this works to improve it. In fact, I have already bought two, a Bite multistick and Ilia multi haze cheek and lip.

After the all too brief class, we headed upstairs to celebrate Sephora's new partnership with Orange Twist! What a great way to be able to get a facial or peel or body coolsculpting. Then, after feeling your best with their skincare treatments, you can go to Sephora and feel even better with some makeup! The place is upstairs so you have to take this black ops elevator. It's just a black hallway, but those were the vibes. When you get to the 2nd floor, the atmosphere had changed. The whole place smelled like the most perfect sent of citrus. Very relaxing! I liked where you get the facials, the whole wall is a window looking down on Sephora. Neat if you get the window seat and can people watch as you get a facial. Nicole the director gave us a tour of the place and showed us the instruments for cool sculpting and the light therapy room. Sounds interesting to freeze fat. They had big and small attachments for your butt, stomach and chin. I might want to try it to trim down some chin fat 🙂 . After the tour, they handed us some swag for customers that were signing up for their $3500 light treatments. It was a nice surprise and included ~$200 off service coupon! Later, I was under the impression that you could get a small vial of it when you spent $75. The cashier didnt know anything bout it so I went upstairs and talked to Nicole. I guess it was for the facial but I couldnt get since i had just done an AHA mask. As a consult, Nicole told me to make an angry face. I thought I was doing one but her and all the girls were like, "are you even making an angry face?" , you have no lines! LOL, I still kinda want to try it even if it is a little scary. . I have heard if you start early it wont look like a plastic surgey gone wrong when you get the treatments and look more natural.
Yes, we are loving the tour!I wanted to grab these like I was in a hotelNicole

The store was about to open so Carol and Katie led us to the Sephora Holiday pop up. The setup was really cute with a lounger to sit and film a quick holiday message. Of course it took at least 5 tries to get a decent video. One day I will get better at this. Once you did a video, you could email or text it and the SA's gave us a card to take back to store and spin to get a Sephora gift card!.

EleElleg doing a spot on impression of the BIC girl

We went back to the store to spin the wheel. I put very little effort to spin to get a $20 gift card but the arrow flipped 2 spaces and got a $15 GC instead. With a little shopping before lunch, I had to beeline to Pat Mcgrath. It was beautiful seeing all that PMG but the section was kinda small. I think it needs extra displays to showcase the palettes and more room to swatch 😀. Carol tracked us down again and handed out more gift cards and Orange Twist certificates! Then the store manager surprised even Carol and Katie and gave us another gift bag! And validation for parking-THAT IS A HUGE DEAL! They did not have to provide that but they did. Anyway, looks like it was a Fenty gwp for the grand opening. I was sooo excited and think it was one of the best Brand gwp's I have seen at a store.

Jeffrey and the gang

Yeah, this is inside Sephora

Soon, it was time to go to lunch. Our destination was Catch LA. What an amazing, instagram worthy restaurant with fantastic food! Once again, I must go back to another BIC picked restaurant. The view from the rooftop was unbelievable. Been to LA but never a rooftop restaurant! While we were eating and taking pics Carol handed out another bag! She said we had to guess what theme the gifts were. When we saw Pat McGrath!!!!! and Charlotte Tilbury, we knew it was Communiy chosen top pics! It was so thoughful of them to plan this event and spoil us. What a perfect day to spend time with Friends/acquaintances all the while sharing our love for beauty! I never imagined I would be making such friends through this community and Sephora. I truly feel super blessed. Thank you again Teambic for all the work you do!

Swag pics and Randomness!

I had to take a pic of a CLEAN bag for posterity 🙂Jeffrey gave us all vintage Avon earings from the 80's. ❤️ How sweet of him when he is already giving us his time.Fenty Diamond Bomb, eyeliner and MattemoiselleFenty DiamondPS: @ElleElleG and I decided to go back and do another video. She came up with the staging of it and I came up with the phrase seconds before filming. It was fun! The SA laughed and said awww that was the best one so far! Earlier, the candy floss was not setup yet so we got some sweet treats too!

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

PenelopeBT — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 20:51:39 GMT

Wow, what an amazing event! Thank you for sharing your experience with so much detail and photos. As I was going through your post, I felt like I was there with you. It's so amazing that you got to partake in a contouring class with Jeffrey and Myiesha. Also, that lobster mac and cheese looks amazing. I love, love mac and cheese (it's my favorite comfort food). <333

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

CarolBT — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 21:10:21 GMT

I'm cracking up at your post title, @Buootiful!! What a super fun day and I'm so so glad you took great notes during Jeffrey's class. Your video with @ElleElleG is fantastic!

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

KatieBT — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 21:45:12 GMT

Awwww I miss this day @Buootiful **sheds one tear which quickly turns to ugly crying**

I agree - Orange Twits is such a game-changer and I would definitely be at the grove every weekend if I lived in the area. You could make a day of it by getting a facial, a makeover, seeing a movie, grabbing lunch AND topping it off with a visit to the farmer's market 🙂

Also @CarolBT and I just had to LOL at you comment "we were all scared for her" - your faces scared me when I had no idea what @JeffreyBD was going 😄 Of course it blended like a dream.

I had so much fun with you @ElleElleG @meganlisa @ZombieMetroAnt and of course @CarolBT ! Take me back to Catch - I need that pistachio cheesecake and those trendy vibes back in my life 😄

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

greeneyedgirl107 — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 23:11:54 GMT

@Buootiful So happy that you had such an amazing experience! Excellent reporting!!

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

ZakiyaBT — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 23:19:54 GMT

This looks so fun! @Buooiful I love The Grove at Christmastime it's so pretty and they have fake snow at night.This was a very grand, grand opening!

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

GG84 — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 23:27:52 GMT

@Buootiful

This looks like the most fun ever!!! Completely jealous of all the fun events in California that Sephora has!! Your recap was amazing!!
Can we clone @KatieBT and bring her to Canada for a week?!?

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

Buootiful — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:11:00 GMT

Thank you so much, the event was everything @PenelopeBT Oh my, that Lobster Mac was divine!!! I am not a foodie but it tasted like sophisticated gourmet Italian and comfort food all rolled into one. I also liked the fact that it wasnt just 5 pieces of lobster like Panda Express does with their shrimp, lol! Every bite had lobster in it. Yum!

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

CookieGirl1 — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:13:34 GMT

Wow, @Buootiful, you did an amazing job of documenting everything! It looks like you had a lot of fun and I'm so happy for you that you were chosen to attend :). Thanks for all of the great pics and for giving the rest of us the play-by-play.

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

Buootiful — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:15:45 GMT

I thought you might like it 🙂 ! @CarolBT I wish I could have been my own coach and told myself to, "PROJECT YOUR VOICE!"

My voice sounded louder to my ears when I was saying it, I swear 🙂

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

curlychiquita — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:47:07 GMT

@Buootiful, this is amazing! Not just that you got to attend but also that you gave us such a fabulous description and so many pictures! I really feel like I can imagine it. I'm so happy you got to go and had a wonderful time.

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

Buootiful — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:54:04 GMT

Awwww, Katie, virtual hug!!!! 🙂

OMG, yes a big ol' day of it!!. Farmers Market?? Don't you mean all you can eat and go broke Buffet? 😉 @KatieBT

Oh man, @JeffreyBD likes to shock us in a nice way, lol 🙂

See you all soon, thank you ALL for your hard work. It was such fun hanging out with everyone. Here's to seeing more BIC members in LA! 🙂

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

naturalooks15 — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 03:06:49 GMT

That room and that facial chair !!!! Wow !! major FOMO here.

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

SportyGirly125 — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 09:14:32 GMT

@Buootiful love your jacket. This event looked like so much fun. Thank you for sharing what a wonderful time you had.

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

eshoe — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 10:40:12 GMT

@Buootiful this looks like such an amazing event-everyone looks like they are having the best time! Love how you shared some of the tips you learned as well, especially about the cream foundation/flashback. Thank you for sharing!

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

Buootiful — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 18:34:29 GMT

Thank you ! @eshoe . It will certainly help me be more liberal with the Smashbox contour stick I have 🙂

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

Buootiful — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 18:57:26 GMT

Awww, thank you!!! @SportyGirly125 . It was a fun event, of course with CA weather, I was only able to wear that jacket for an hr, lol! 🙂

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

Buootiful — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 19:13:48 GMT

Oh my gosh, thank you so much! @curlychiquita I was ecstatic I got to go. At times, the grammar is iffy but you just gave me confidence to continue in the 1st person narrative. I'm glad you got immersed in it with the pictures 🙂

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

Buootiful — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 19:40:47 GMT

Thank you so much!!! @CookieGirl1 Is there such as a thing as too many pics, lol?

Re: CarolBT 's Favorite Things: The Grove, L.A. Grand Opening edition.

Buootiful — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 22:41:08 GMT

Thank you!! @GG84 I hope you guys get more events next year! I'm sure @KatieBT wouldn't mind taking a trip 😉