Nordstrom Spring 2010 Beauty Trends Show: Downtown Seattle

So I rolled out of bed at the ungodly hour of 7 a.m. on a Saturday (March 6th) and stumbled blearily out the door to meet up with Louise for the Nordstrom Spring Beauty Trends event at the downtown Nordstrom here in Seattle. I arrived at the door of the Nordstrom coffee shop, haggard and in desperate need of caffeine while Louise looked like she'd just stepped off the clean, pressed and stylin' train.

Of course.

We gulped down some lattes and headed into the Nordstrom store, where we were ushered like cattle to the elevators to take us to the fifth floor where the first part of the event was taking place. Guys, if you've never woken up early on a Saturday to sit in a room filled with hundreds of women eagerly awaiting the cosmetics sales pitch of the season, it's an experience that I can promise you you'll never forget (whether you want to or not).

Are we there yet?

There were hundreds of white chairs lined up around a brightly lit runway, plus a DJ stationed at a sound booth for the necessary mood enhancements.

Hey Mr. DJ, rock it 'til the groove's done

The event started off with vocal calisthenics as the emcee prepped the ladies for a morning of hootin' and hollerin' (dear lord, I needed far more than one latte to prepare me for that!) and then the sales reps hit the runway, plugging new Spring products and colors and sending models trotting up and down the floor to show off their wares.

The new Chanel temporary tattoos

Spring florals under hot white lights

Or, in the case of Clarins self-tanning products, tossing shirtless young men down the runway, much to the clapping, cheering delight of the 98.5% female audience.

Clarins "delectable" self-tanning mousse - Mr. "delicious" sauntered past earlier

Surprisingly, the male Guerlain rep decided he wanted in on the hunky-male action and came out shirtless to talk about Guerlain products -- which was a little jarring. Yes, he had a physique that looked tailor-made for a sunny California beach, but while it makes a certain logical sense to hire shirtless men to model a self-tanning cream for Clarins, it's another thing altogether when an official representative for an almost two centuries old French beauty & fragrance company strips off his clothes at a product demo event to "spice up" a talk about mascara. It had the unfortunate effect of making his invitation to come see him downstairs at the Guerlain booth sound like a sleazy come-on (and the very visible tramp-stamp didn't help matters any -- oh Guerlain, how you've come down in the world!).

Louise said she wasn't going anywhere near the Guerlain booth when I asked her, and mentioned that she'd had a much higher opinion of Guerlain going into the event than when she exited. Ouch.

Mr. "delectable" says one for you, and one for you, and one for you

But enough about PR misfires, there were prizes!

She's a winner

And more models with more products.

She's so gonna video-blog this

And after the reps wrapped up their sales pitches, the crowd made a stampede for the elevators (we tried to find stairs, but the Nordstrom staff insisted there weren't any, which was annoying -- of course there are stairs, it's the law) and poured out into the first floor for a frenzied period of product browsing and makeovers.

Hooray for us!

Louise scheduled a makeover with the Trish McEvoy counter, so I spent a good chunk of time taking photos of the process. I haven't finished sorting through all the makeover pics yet, but I do have one of the finished result -- Louise looked terrific: fresh, natural and very Spring Has Sprung again.

I eat beauty events for breakfast

We both plunked down a chunk of change picking up everything the cosmetics expert used to make Louise look so lovely. She kept asking the girl, "Should I get this eye primer or that eye brightener, this facial concealer or that facial moisturizer, because I can't justify getting it all!" -- so I told the sales clerk to just ring up an extra bag of everything that Louise *didn't* buy so that I could give it to her to complete the look. Problem solved.

She said she kept the makeup on and wore it out to a restaurant date that evening, where even she was stunned by how smoothly the concealers performed and how flattering the spring colors looked in the dim, romantic ambience. She laughed as she described how her husband scrambled to open the car door for her as they left the restaurant to head home.

Ah, success is a makeover from Trish McEvoy. Click the following link to see a more complete set of photos from the event: Nordstrom Spring 2010 Beauty Trends event: Seattle