Party make-up at Bobbi Brown

First of all, an update on my trip to Rome. I am pleased to report I ambled round duty-free and thought to myself, I need nothing. And I bought nada. Delighted with myself I was. Rome was Rome - work, work, pasta, work.

Last night we had our annual drinks shindig at home. As has become tradition (I have done it once before but I am making it a tradition) I visited the Bobbi Brown counter at House of Fraser Richmond and had a makeover. I thoroughly recommend this if you want to look extra special for a night. It costs £30 for a full face but of course, you want to buy something and it's redeemable against purchase.

The lovely Nicola looked after me and she was fabulous. Bobbi Brown counters have the best staff and that's all there is to it. She did my eyes first and then the rest of my face. My request was a green eye. She used this baby as a base.

The Long Wear Cream Shadow stick in Goldstone. This colour is amazing (no, it's not green) and it makes your eyes sparkle effortlessly. Then she put on two different green eyeshadows and the Black Ink gel eyeliner. I never wear black eyeliner considering it too harsh for me but it wasn't yesterday and I felt quite rock and roll. She used the Ivory eyeshadow up to my brow bone.  All of this took her about 90 seconds per eye. I popped on the Smokey Eye mascara as I can't stand having mascara applied by anyone but me. Party eyes = done.

She used the foundation stick as my base but used a brush. Now, this is important. If you have the Hourglass foundation stick I mentioned, you may be struggling with application. I was finding it a little cakey despite all my best efforts. Her advice is do not, under any circumstances, apply a foundation stick to your face. That is, don't stroke it on. Get a decent foundation brush and she literally softly ran it over the stick and buffed it on. It took her about 30 seconds and I was glowing. I replicated this today with my Hourglass and can confirm it is the secret to application. You also MUST have moisturised skin and the stick must be warmed up a bit. In shops, they are always warm which is why they work best there. It is easier than a liquid foundation if you follow these steps. She also used concealer under my eyes as they always do.

She then added blusher and a setting powder. Of course she used a bronzer and as always I was all, whatever about it. I don't find bronzers a must. But I loved the setting powder.

While I like my NARS one, it's a faff as it is loose and it goes everywhere. You swish your brush over this and you're done. Easy peasy.

She used a lipliner and then a nude pink lipstick. I sailed out feeling ultra glam. 

When I rolled into bed at 2am after several glasses of champagne I realised my eye make up was basically all over my face. I put this down to the mascara which was not a tubing one. I simply cannot wear mascara that doesn't tube, it ends up travelling. However, I also think a sign of a good party is having smudged eye make-up! I reread this and it makes it sound like I went to bed with my make-up on. NEVER.  I literally never do this. I'm never too wasted to not remove my make-up!

I bought the Goldstone eye shadow, the lip liner and the finishing powder. Happy days and my delight at myself for resisting duty-free on my way to Rome is somewhat reduced but hey ho.