Its been a whirlwind of Motives these past two days! My Level I training on Sunday for skincare and cosmetics certification was packed with thirteen students in my training room at home. Again I had students come down from Connetticut. There were people calling me just prior to the weekend literally begging to come. I felt bad turning some away and squeezed in three more people then I had planned. I had to scramble to create enough handouts and a decent seating arrangement.

I'm so glad that I ordered a set of black padded folding chairs along with 3 tables from one of our partner stores, Office Depot, earlier in the week. I was debating on just using my 8' banquet tables or getting the smaller 4' tables that are more like desks for two people. I found a coupon for $30 off at Coupon Mountain and went through our webportal to find that they were the only company with black chairs & 4' tables in stock plus free delivery. It was a no-brainer!

The class asked a lot of questions and I hope they understood, which I'll send a follow up email about, that there are many variables when recommending skincare. It truly depends on the clients needs and budget. After the basic recommendations for either Skintelligence or Timeless Rx then its troubleshooting with targeted products for specific concerns. I asked how many were up to attending the next Level II, which I didn't want to do until after Convention in August, and they ALL rose their hands asking for a July date. hehe Guess I need a hotel room for that one......definitely need extra working room for application and technique lessons. Need to think of a date first. I submitted for an extra Level I already so June 29th is going to be a third training  this quarter for that.

NOW, on to THE MAKEUP SHOW......it was so much fun!! I'm glad that Tina insisted that I participate. The only trouble I had was parking, the lot across from the venue was full so I had to head further West to 10th and hike it back to 7th. Man those blocks are long, my heart was pounding as I got closer & more nervous too. The strong winds didn't help the hair any.

There were four Motives Trainers per shift and we had promo fliers to handout with our Show Special for $60. Clients got a Custom Blend Foundation, Custom Mineral Powder and skincare analysis with a total makeup application. I got jittery after a cup of coffee and gave a client to someone else, my hands were shakey and I had to chill out a bit. Should've made a Mochatonix before the drive in to NYC. 

Ya know, I think the other well-meaning trainer ratted me out to my mentor, I can't tell because the others spoke Chinese most of the time and my mentor got me to promise by phone to do the next consult which didn't happen until after lunch. Seems that the other girls were more ambitious and scooped up consults while I focused more on prospective makeup artists for the business & got biz cards or gave out mine. (edited)

I found that the pros are not going to get a makeover and all that......they are there to stock up and find new stuff that they can use in their services. It was a Beauty Industry show so I approached it more as a business to business event. I was matching product, Motives, to a profession, Makeup Artists. Many inquired about our 30 pan filled Eye Palette and wanted one then and there, or one of the other 5 pan palettes like Dream. Many MUA's also wanted the Custom Concealer Palette with 5 colors. So a few were disappointed that we had NO stock & a retail price, not a show price to tell them. I think this is very important to have in the future, at least the smaller palettes and at a price 10% above distributor cost or so. I must make some notes to share with my mentor and the trainer that will coordinate it with me next year.

So I did end up doing one Custom Mineral for a newbie MUA and a total consult for an MUA's mom, she was so sweet and patiently waited for her turn. She was excited to get a makeover and a joy to chat with while I worked on her. I should've taken her photo when I was done because the Custom Blend was perfect and the makeup came out really nice. I even used the new Spring eye color Seabreeze on the lid with Brown Mist in the crease with Seafoam high on the brow. Her lips were lined with the new Anti-aging liner Oasis and filled with Pink Icing lipstickwhich was topped with Tinted Plumper in Hope. All of the consultants commented on the results, she left a happy customer. hehe

I just realized that I didn't take in any classes or demos, waaah. I did walk around but didn't buy anything even though I wanted more mini-kabukis from Crown Brush but they were swamped. There were several Fantasy Makeup Demos going on and I have a blue fairy on my cell that hopefully will show up well here. I'll add that later. My person that I did the consult on said that Motives was the only booth doing makeovers on whoever wanted one, the other companies only used their models or just applied one item for demonstrative purposes. Its a good thing we're big on disposables and being sanitary. Good training will let us keep doing consults on the public.

With so much going on I really didn't take as many photos as I had hoped so here's what I've got:

Our Motives booth with a laptop of Before & Afters


The Custom Blend display case


A makeover in progress


One of my favorite MUA's Eve Pearl (I missed Linda Mason)


Glammed up at Rouge's booth



News article by New York Magazine:
http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2008/05/we_brave_the_makeup_show_so_yo.html

Woman Share Her View on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wxv-AkQy7c & Blog: http://www.scandalousbeautyonline.com/