Sister Dates

Happily holiday weekend folks. In the US of A it's President's Day today.  In Canada it's Family Day - our newest statutory holiday.  Either way, I hope you're enjoying a little extra fun this weekend.

My little sister and I had a sister date on Saturday.  Ten hours in Toronto with my little sis always means a lot of coffee, a lot of yummy food, a lot of fun stores and a LOT of walking.  This time though, he entire day revolved around my Christmas present: a 3-hour makeup class at the Asha School of Makeup.

After brunch and lunch, my sister and I showed up at the address listed on the Groupon.  She had been told to call a phone number once we got there.  It felt a little sketchy as we stood on the steps of a Queen Street building but, after several minutes, a beautifully made-up woman came down to let us in.  Apparently make-up schools are high security areas.  Must be all those brushes...

We were not sure what to expect.  I pictured a classroom setting with lots of lights and mirrors where we would all get to practice on ourselves.  Geneviève just hoped we could sit at the back so she wouldn't be singled out to answer questions.

Neither of us expected to be taken into a tiny room with a desk littered with makeup supplies and five stools in a circle for the students to sit on.  We were given a piece of paper and a pen to take notes and a magazine to provide something to write on.  Within a few minutes we were a room full of strangers sitting in a circle, all without makeup and too embarrassed to say what they did and did not know.

Awkward...

The instructor asked one lady to be her model for the five-minute 'going out to the grocery store' look.  It took about twenty minutes to do because she was explaining so much but I couldn't believe how much a little blush and sheer eye shadow could transform a person.  We sat there in awe.

The next look was the 'evening' look which was all about eye shadows.  I was selected as the model for that one because I apparently have a lot of room around my eyes which really shows off the colours.  So I perched on the stool and tried not to let my eyes water too much as I was 'painted'.  Metallic browns and golds were applied and blended and, within a few minutes, I was ready for the red carpet...

..well, except for my purple vest, jeans and runners.

It did look pretty cool.  We tried to take a picture but it just didn't do it justice.  Apparently it's all about the subtleties - which are lovely in person but don't show up well on camera.

A third girl was the model for some pretty impressive eye liner tricks.

Once the demonstrations were over, the room of five quiet girls bombarded the instructor with questions.  About brushes and textures and tricks.  It was crazy.  I feel like I've been given the secret password into a brave new world.

Once we were done, we headed back out to Queen Street.  We walked to the Eaton Centre to the new Sephora store (I experienced my first Sephora in New York - omigod!).  Then we went to M.A.C. where apparently their newest colours are crazy because all the sales ladies were sporting kermit green eye shadow.  We finished at Shoppers where we asked a few questions of the very helpful drag queen working the makeup counter.

So, despite our fears of turning out looking like this:

...we came out looking pretty much like ourselves - with a little bit of je ne sais quoi.