Party Perfect Makeup Masterclass at Sandersons with Armand Beasley

On Friday evening I visited the beautiful Sandersons Boutique Store in Fox Valley for the first ever time. I have no idea how I’ve never visited the store before and I was immediately excited when I saw just how beautiful the boutique is. Sandersons is a gorgeous independent department store that hosts several departments including homeware, handbags, shoes, women’s and men’s wear and best of all, a stunning Beauty Lounge. Sandersons reminds me of the kind of beautiful stores you see in New York over Christmas time – gorgeously decorated, seriously high class and uber stylish.

I was attending Armand Beasley’s Party Perfect makeup masterclass. Armand is an absolutely fabulous makeup artist who has a long list of gorgeous celebrity clients including the likes of Nicole Scherzinger, Goldie Hawn and Michelle Keegan to name just a few. He’s also been featured in magazines such as Vogue and Grazia and has worked on How to Look Good Naked, and ITV’s This Morning. He is also the Beauty Ambassador at Sandersons and curated the Beauty Lounge.  I first met Armand at the Professional Beauty Awards Final in London where he was judging my category – Make Up Specialist of the Year 2018. He told me that he came to Sandersons so I looked out for his next visit coming along and bought two tickets as soon as I heard of the announcement.

I took my Mum along with me and we were welcomed into the store by the lovely boutique staff and Armand too. We were a little early so popped over to Ponti’s Italian Kitchen across the road for a coffee after a glowing recommendation from the Sandersons team. We were definitely not disappointed and I can’t wait to go back there again!

Once we arrived back to Sandersons, we were given a glass of prosecco which was a lovely surprise and was guided over to the seating area along with the other ladies and settled down to watch Armand work.

Armand is one of those makeup artists that ignites your passion for makeup all over again. I adore makeup and can get extremely excited over the smallest thing, but hearing somebody speak so positively and passionately about not only makeup but skincare and health for beauty too (something that I’m extremely interested in!) I found those waves of giddiness sweeping over me again. Armand is a huge advocate of natural and organic beauty and explained to us that 60% of the products that we put onto our skin is absorbed into our bodies. A fascinating fact but a very frightening one too considering that many products contain ingredients that could be harmful to our bodies. He also explained about supplements that help our beauty regime which I found so interesting to listen to. I currently take extra vitamin D and a high strength multi-vitamin and it’s so true that they help not only our skin, hair and nails but our energy levels too.

Armand demonstrated products from several different brands on the lovely store manager, Lisa. He created a beautiful wearable but glam party look using metallics and a gorgeous deep lip. Lisa looked absolutely amazing after her makeover and her skin was just glowing. Armand used Inika foundation for Lisa which is a brand I’d never heard of before but just looked so stunning!

As a professional makeup artist, I feel it’s important to keep learning and growing and hearing about new products and innovations within the industry. I love hearing makeup experts share their tips and tricks and also love watching other makeup artists work. You can never have too much knowledge and constantly re-training and keeping on top of the latest news gives you the ability to make the best choices when it comes to taking care of your clients needs. Armand will be back at Sandersons on the 21st December for one-to-one sessions, I can’t wait to go back and learn some new tips and tricks!

After the demonstration we were able to browse the Beauty Lounge and purchase any products that we might like. I was so happy to learn that Sandersons is the only stockist in the region for Inglot and Makeup Atelier Paris so of course, I had to purchase two new beautiful products from Inglot! I decided to go for the Intense Sparkler which Armand used on Lisa to add a beautiful highlight to her brow bone, and a stunning AMC Pure Pigment Eye Shadow which will be gorgeous for the festive season! I was also thrilled to learn that we would each be given a goodie bag to take home which came as a huge surprise! Our goodie bags contained the Green People Fruit Scrub Exfoliator, the SKN-RG Collagen Boosting Mask, a beautiful Everything Everywhere Facial Oil from MeruMaya, Inika Truly Organic Ultimate Lip Tint in Candy (which smells like candy canes!) and the Green People Exoliating Face Scrub for men which my Dad has very gratefully received! Our goodie bags also included a Green People brochure which is packed full of brilliant information about organic beauty and skincare which is a fabulous reference for makeup artists and beauty lovers alike.

Thank you Armand and the Sandersons team, we had a lovely evening and will absolutely be back to future events!

© Rachael Divers 2017.