Shirley Pinkson Did My Makeup

My skin was first prepped courtesy of SkinOwl, a brand I know Katie (The Green Product Junkie) loves. While this was my first SkinOwl experience, I was tempted by their seasonal candles last year which are coming back this fall (black currant! Come to me!).

Heather recommended the Argan Infusion Lavender face oil for my oily/combo skin. The benefits, she told me, include controlling/preventing breakouts as well as fading scars. The oil felt really nice as she massaged a couple drops into my skin and neck (shockingly over the sunscreen–once I put on sunscreen, I can’t add anymore skincare on top without feeling like my pores are getting clogged–but she said it was fine. And then she massaged my face more; so I didn’t mind too much). I’m not the biggest fan of lavender, even though I know it has great healing and anti-inflammatory properties, so I appreciated the scent not being so overwhelmingly lavender-y.

The cooling eye gel/cream, eye+, is soooo cooling–and it’s specially formulated to be that way. While Heather gently dabbed it around my eyes, the founder Annie, watching, literally said she could see my eye tightening and sinking in (rad!).

Heather then gave a ballin’ hand/arm massage with the body oil while Shirley was busy giving another makeover, and I literally felt my brain knots become undone (I then asked if they have a spa because she’s awesome and I would totally go–answer: no, but they do this sort of thing at the different events they go to). While the body oil contains the legendarily stinky neem oil, it actually smells quite pleasant, and my arms felt so relaxed and moisturized. She said this even keeps her hands moisturized throughout hand washes during the day.

Before applying makeup, Shirley first gently removed my eyeliner with a tissue + SkinOwl facial oil (both her and Annie’s idea to use the oil since there was no official makeup remover nearby–geniuses).

For my oily/combo skin, Shirley recommended the Altruist mineral foundation for all-over coverage and the Narcissist foundation/concealer stick for concealing. For me, she said, “Use oils in your skincare, but not in your makeup.” I love cream formulas–I love the feel of them, I love they way they melt into my skin, but it’s like she read my skin soul–my skin just doesn’t jive with them the same way it does with mineral formulas (tear. I’m totally still eventually trying Gressa Skin’s new serum foundations).

I had ordered samples of the mineral foundation from W3ll People and Integrity Botanicals before and had matched my skin as a 15, so when she picked 15 for me as well, I gave myself an A+ for guessing what Shirley guessed and Shirley an A+ for guessing what I guessed.

Since there was a lot of mineral foundation already built-up in the pot, she dipped a corner of her kabuki into the powder, swirled the brush in the lid, tapped the excess off, and then used confident downward strokes all over my face to even my complexion (literally what the instructions say for the foundation and literally what she did. A+++++). Totally zen’ed out, I mustered a “This brush is so soft.”

I gave myself and Shirley another A+ as she picked out Narcissist 3 for concealing, which I own. She scraped a little off the stick onto a little artist palette and applied it using a small concealer-ish brush, first concentrating on the inner corners of my eyes and edges of my undereyes, then spreading it over the rosey area between my eyebrows. She also applied some to my eyelids, noting that Narcissist is essential as an eye primer.

(Interesting to note that she did this after the mineral foundation–I had always felt like cream had to go under mineral or at least I had to melt minerals with a facial mist before layering a cream on top. Natural rebel!)

“I can tell you’re an eyes person. I’m going to use our bronzer, in fact, I’m even going to use it as your blush.”
“Oh good, I don’t know how to bronze myself.” (Thinking: Why does it look so much easier on YouTube and on Lilly from Genuine Glow?)
“Hold your kabuki like a taco and sweep it over the cheeks, then over the temples to the cheeks like a ‘C’.” (Kabuki taco!! Never forgetting this)

Her reasoning was that you don’t want to deposit all of the color in the front, rather you want to first apply it by your ears, and then blend it towards the front. With what she had left on the kabuki, she dashed a bit down my nose and my chin. She then took a smaller brush and blended a little bronzer on my eyelids for a simple eye look, multi-tasking ftw.

(Note: while the Hedonist Bronzer used to have multiple shades, the new Bio Bronzer seems to come in one shade, which may be good or bad news depending on your skin tone.)

“I probably don’t need to tell you how to do your eyeliner.”
*hearts in eyes. “But but. I would of course love to hear how you do it.”
“I do it pretty much like how you do it. You do a good job!” *now there are rainbows shooting from my closed eyes

Shirley first wiggled the Hypnotist Eyeliner in between my eyelashes, keeping it much closer to my eyelashes than I usually do (because of my monolid, I usually go all out). She then carefully winged the liner out, following the curve of the bottom outline of my eye (this I do).

Another departure from my daily eye, Shirley then layered their navy eyeshadow (I’m guessing Elitist Mineral Shadow in Midnight Twinkle?) over the liner to give a slight color pop, and I assume, to also set the liner. While I had my eyes closed in bliss, my mom and the people standing around me gave the thumbs-up on this.

“Have you used our mascara?”
“Yes!” (also own this)
“It’s life-changing! Apply this by wiggling and twirling the mascara through your lashes.”

(The final look. I was probably listening in awe to Shirley.)

She finished with just a tiny dab of a Universalist on the apples of my cheeks, and a mix of a Nudist with their recently released Bio Extreme Lipgloss (sadly don’t remember/didn’t have time to ask which shades). The formula of the lipgloss is pretty thick, but very moisturizing.

It was such a pleasure to have my makeup done by Shirley. I’m a total noob at getting my makeup done by other people, and Shirley made it fun (telling me to look at this one hand or down at my knee while applying this or that–things you don’t hear when models get their makeup done on Youtube. It was like a game to me!) and informational. Since I wear a pretty similar look day-to-day, I love seeing how other people would paint my face, and I loved the very natural look Shirley conjured up for me.

If you’re ever in Santa Monica, I definitely recommend checking out the wall of W3ll People at Beauty Cirque as well as their other #greenbeauty offerings including One Love Organics and Sheswai. If you’re not in Santa Monica, Beauty Cirque is also online.

Disclaimer: No compensation was involved. Affilate links are included. I’ve tried to remember Heather’s, Annie’s, and Shirley’s words as closest as I can but am human, so some quotes may be slightly paraphrased. All other thoughts and opinions are mine. My lovely mum helped take pictures on my iPhone. The only pictures I edited (and only for brightness) were the ones of skin prep because they were too dark. All other photos have only been cropped.

Tweet