Okay, so November 14th arrived and the first ever Vanity Bash squealed rubber on its way to Louise's doorstep. She baked up a storm, I swooped together a bag of the choicest cosmetics I could find, she cooked for an army of hungry fashion hounds, I thoughtfully included boxes of 75% pure cocoa squares on the menu, she supplied the cozy house and lively guest list, I supplied the wine, cheese and pâté.
All in all, I think we made a pretty great team. But enough patting ourselves on the back, I'm sure you just want to know how it went! Well, here's what greeted guests as they walked through the door:
The sales assistant at the Nordstrom Chanel was so intrigued with the idea of my throwing a cosmetics party for 13 of Louise's closest friends that she tossed in a host of little gift bags as party favors for the group along with sample tubes of Sublimage and Precision eye cream -- of course, it didn't hurt that I dropped a chunk of change at the Chanel counter on the Noir Obscur collection lipsticks, nail polishes and eye shadow palettes, plus mascaras and eye pencils in various colors (marine, viole, jade) and a couple of Aqualumiere glosses in bubble plum.
In summary: when you're generous with a sales assistant, a sales assistant is often generous with you.
It took a few hours to get the table set up and spread with the cosmetics buffet (Louise spent more than a few hours cooking!), but once it was all open and presented, the guests literally cooed and aaaahed when they walked through the door, circling the table like wide-eyed kids in a bright, shiny candy store -- "Is this really all for us?" they seemed to be thinking, and "How come no one's ever invited us to a party like this before?!":
Since it was the very first Vanity Bash, I focused on introducing some select items from a variety of brands: Armani, Bobbi Brown, Chanel, Edward Bess, Guerlain, Kevyn Aucoin, Michael Marcus, Smashbox, Trish McEvoy, Vincent Longo and 29 Cosmetics, as well as introducing the group to niche perfumery with an Ormonde Jayne sampler box, a couple of 1/4 ounce spray vials from Dawn Spencer Hurwitz and a number of bottles of fragrance from my own personal collection (Serge Lutens Chergui, Parfumerie Generale L'Ombre Fauve, Profumum Vanitas, Etro Messe de Minuit, Regina Harris Frankincense Myrrh Rose Maroc oil and Parfum d'Empire Wazamba).
Should we do a party like this again, I would narrow down the brand names while offering a wider selection of what those brands have to offer -- but making available all those little nibbles from various brands did manage to give the women a feel for color, quality and wearability from a number of different brands, while also allowing for comparison sampling.
Opinions:
The Edward Bess brand was a hit for its classic, work-friendly colors and smooth formulations -- the Bess mascara outperformed the Chanel mascara hands down; the women went nuts for the bright, vibrant shades of the Michael Marcus nail polishes; the sapphire blue Armani eye shadow elicited squeals and purrs; and one party goer walked around the room holding the Kevyn Aucoin lip gloss pot in her hand, asking everyone, "This is fantastic! Where do I buy this, does anyone know?!"
But I think the biggest hits of the night were from the Bobbi Brown and Chanel camps.
Since metallics are very "in" (and will remain so) due to influences from India and the Middle East, I picked up a few items from the Bobbi Brown Chrome collection: lipsticks in chrome and plum pearl (plus another lipstick in their new Blackberry hue), a metallic silver powder eye shadow, a glittering platinum cream eye shadow, a pure white powder eye shadow and a trio of berry-licious lip glosses housed in a holiday pack.
The chrome lipstick was the biggest surprise of the evening. It looked cold and almost forbidding on the table, but one of the more adventurous of the party goers reached for it right off the bat, smoothed some on and everyone around her started commenting with excitement over the sheer, sleek and utterly modern look it imparted. The metallic silver eye shadow was also a big "Yes!" with the group -- adding a look of high holiday-party going glam when smudged around the corners of the eyes.
The Chanel Noir Obscur collection caused a few ripples of alarm on first viewing, but once the women began smoothing on the lipsticks and smudging on the eye shadows, the alarm turned to fascination at how rich and exotic a look the palette offered up.
The lipsticks, while very dark themselves, deepened any gloss that was applied, resulting in dark blackberry, burnt strawberry and plum-noir lip shades (the Bubble Plum gloss looked especially great with the Noir Obscur lip colors), while the eye shadows absorbed all the light that hit around the eye area, leaving the actual eye to shine and bounce with any reflected light from the room. It was a great effect, and I heard from Louise that several of the women were so happy with its Just-Add-Me! instant drama that they went out the next day and picked up some of the Chanel Noir Obscur items at Nordstrom to wear during the upcoming holiday party marathon soon to start at a social circle near you.
The Le Blanc de Chanel Sheer Illuninating Base was pretty much a revelation for almost the entire group. There hadn't been a lot of consideration about brightening the complexion as preparation for a more dramatic color palette, but once they started experimenting with the Illuminator, they were sold. It went on smooth, silky, evened out the skin tone and sublty brightened their complexions. It was the perfect companion for the metallic and jewel-toned hues spread across the table.
But even though the items and brands mentioned above caused the most excitement, everything on the table was eagerly sampled, and to mostly enthusiastic reactions. I brought in some Trish McEvoy lip primers which go on neutral but create a very smooth surface area for applying lipstick or gloss -- it complemented any glosses that were applied over it, especially the Kevyn Aucoin sparkling blue gloss (which turned out be a shimmering frosty lacquer with lots of cool gleam). A definite hit.
The violet, marine blue and jade Chanel eye pencils were considered a welcome relief from the usual straight up black and brown; the Guerlain eye shadow primer was a novelty ("Put on a primer before the eye shadow? Isn't that just a lot of bother?") yet earned praise for the smooth canvas it creates out of the eyelid and upper eye area; the Michael Marcus face primer was just as much a marvel as the Chanel Illuminator, but for its smooth, even flesh-toned results rather than any brightening or lightening effects; and the 29 Cosmetics and Kevyn Aucoin lip pencils were unanimously loved and adored.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a single photo of the women actually trying on the cosmetics as, once the party got started, I barely had a chance to even stop and breathe -- it was a constant flurry of motion, happy chatter, wine, questions, opinions, cheese and crackers, criticisms and praise. And then Louise brought down her shoes and bags for inspection and that was the beginning of the overloaded, hyper-fashion, hepped-up on style peak and crash.
I've never been in a room filled with so many happy, excited party goers, with Louise even remarking the next day that the positive energy filling the room had such a presence it was almost palpable. We're talking about doing this again for Spring, but there are several tweaks to be made -- maybe narrow down the brand selection and focus on particular items, say, all lipsticks and glosses, or all nail polishes, or all primers and brighteners, rather than spread out such a scattershot offering.
Not to say the scattershot offering wasn't appreciated anyway.
I sent out a feedback form to all the participants and hope to hear back as to what they liked best about everything they sampled, and what changes I could make that might help turn this one-time event into a regular, seasonal party.
I'll report back when I've gathered the information so that I can give you the opinions on the products in the samplers' own words.
A link to more photos of the table from the party: Vanity Bash photos
***Note: I didn't see a whole lot of interest in the fragrance piece of the pie, so I'll probably eliminate a fragrance section in future parties, but offer fragrance samples in party favor bags for people to take home with them. What I learned is that a table of colorful cosmetics easily trumps fragrance for the majority of women.
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