My Shu Uemura Master Class Adventure!

Last month I was lucky enough to attend a Shu Uemura Masterclass at the Bloor St. Holt Renfrew in Toronto. It was a great combination of learning and play- incredibly fun and informative! This post turned out to be quite picture and text-heavy, so I'll get right to it!


The first portion of the masterclass had us in a private "classroom" where we got to experience some of the products and see a demonstration by a national Shu Uemura artist. Here are some of the goodies that were featured in the middle of our table. I wanted to play with them all!

I was like a kid in a candy store!

And speaking of candy, there was an amazing selection of treats to nibble on during the demonstration. All the savoury options had meat in them, so I stuck with the desserts ;) They were to die for!


And a few other pictures of the various product set-ups around the room:

There was a quick video introducing us "students" to the brand, and then they turned the room over to Patricia Lee, one of Shu Uemura's national makeup artists.

Patricia demonstrated the use of both skin care and makeup products on a lovely model, giving us helpful tips and tricks along the way. This model is actually featured on the Shu Uemura website (she's in the top photo here); Patricia did her makeup for that shoot as well!


For our workshop, Partricia showed us how the skin care (including the ever-famous Cleansing Oils) can give a healthy glow to the skin and stressed the importance of proper application (e.g., using a sponge to apply the UV Underbase Mousse primer evenly and a brush to give the Face Architect Foundation a flawless finish). Here are a couple pictures of Patricia working her magic:

Following the makeup demonstration portion of the event, we were led downstairs to the Shu counter to play. We were each assigned to a makeup artist who customized a skin care routine and makeup look for us, according to our skin types and makeup tastes. I got to work with the lovely Megan, a makeup artist and sales associate at the Shu Uemura counter at Holts. She was the one who signed me up for this event in the first place (plus she's a sweetheart), so I was happy to have her make me over!


Here are some pictures of the counter. So many fabulous colours!

When I sat down in Megan's chair, I already had on base makeup and brows. I kept it simple so that she could work with a (nearly) bare canvas. Here's a picture of me beforehand:

Megan started with  my eyes, opting for a palette of blues. I don't often use navy on my eyes, but she was inspired so I let her do her thing! I wish I had taken note of the exact products she used on me; since I didn't I can offer a complete list, but I can do my best to describe them and offer pictures.


Here are some of the eyeshadows she used on me. Shu offers several blue-toned shadows, including ME Soft Blue 655, IR Medium Blue 675, ME Medium Blue 686, and P Dark Blue 696. Yes, all the shades are numbered rather than named, which makes them a bit harder to remember, but here is some photo evidence at least:

To complete my eye look, Megan also tightlined my eyes (i.e., applied liner right at the base of my lashes, on top and bottom) using Painting Liner, a cream liner, in Black. She also applied a couple coats of their new mascara, Ultimate Natural Mascara, in Black. She further defined my brows using Hard Formula pencil in Seal Brown (this stuff seriously rocks!) and highlighted my cheek bones using one of their new glitter eye shadows in G Gold. Megan also applied the glittery gold shadow as a highlight under my eye and on my brown bones. She applied a mid-tone, matte peachy pink blush to the apples of my cheeks (she didn't tell me the number, but it was likely Glow On Blush in M Soft Coral 345), and finished with a sheer pinky coral gloss. I can't find a gloss on their website that looks similar, but it was definitely a part of their Gloss Unlimited line. 



And here are some shots of the final look! Yes, I was that crazy person taking photos of myself on Bloor Street (a crowded downtown Toronto street) at rush hour. Oh well, natural sunlight showed the look of well! I hate that my skin was so broken out at the time, but hopefully you can look around it and just admire the pretty makeup :)

And, of course, I didn't leave the event empty-handed. I purchased three items, and received another full-sized product as a gift! Here's a picture of my haul:

Sadie was very excited about it! :)

Specifically, I purchased Blush Brush #20 (which Megan used on me- it was excellent!):

UV Under Base Mousse, a super lightweight primer with SPF 30 (in beautiful limited edition packaging):

Skin Purifier- High Performance Balancing Cleaning Oil Advanced Formula, likewise in beautiful limited edition packaging:

And I received a full-sized face cream as a free gift! Specifically, I scored a pot of Red:Juvenus Vitalizing Retexturizing Cream, which is aimed at nourishing and smoothing skin dealing with the first signs of ageing. It contains pomegranate, lycopene, and other skin-loving ingredients. My skin has been adoring it so far as a night cream!

I'm  not going to review each of these products now (this post is way too long already!), but I'll say that I've been totally impressed with the performance of each of the items so far. Totally worth the money!


I was recently reminded that Shu Uemura is owned by L'Oreal (and thus offers less-than-stellar animal testing policies), so I will do my best to limit my Shu purchases in the future. But for now I will enjoy the treats that I came home with and, more importantly, revel in all of the new skills, tricks, and tips that I picked up during the workshop!


Thanks so much for reading! xoxo