Last Saturday was pretty exciting.

Warning: photo heavy. But hey, if you're a makeup geek, it's nothing! :P

When Ms. Nikki of AskMeWhats posted a beauty workshop last Tuesday, I was all in. I've been reading her blog since 2011 and she's one of the local beauty bloggers you should absolutely follow. To be included in the workshop, you just have to leave a comment on why you want to celebrate with her and Benefit and she'll choose ten readers to join her. So I commented, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best. Three days and endless refreshes later, the winners were announced. Annnd....here we are. ;) (You can check the post here if you want. Feel free to look at my entry haha.)

The event started at 3 pm but I came in earlier to register. I browsed around the shop while waiting. The Benefit branch in SM Megamall is a new one so I was pretty darn excited to look around. The shop is so freaking cute and girly and fun!

Before we started the workshop, we had some snacks and drinks first. Gotta load up before the sesh starts! The snack spread has some yummy spreads, popcorn in cups, tea sandwiches, and iced tea. Yum!

Oh, and I met new friends!

With ate Zsa! Met her while we were sitting and then we just chattered away. Kulit niya haha

 Ahhh, met CJ of From Manila with Love! Discovered her blog a day before the event and instantly became a fan. Drop by her blog if you can.

After we've all seated down, the workshop finally began.

Benefit's Brand General Manager, Ms. Donna Shaw, opened the main event. 

It's Ms. AskMeWhats herself!

The workshop consisted of a makeup demo (duh) on how to apply makeup properly and how to transform your day look to a night look. Before the makeup part, it was all about skincare. 

Skincare is pretty important, I've learned, because the more you invest time on actually taking care of your face, aka the canvas, the less paint you'll need to have a flawless finish and the less problems you'll have to deal with. BRB, loading up on skincare asap! She also taught us how to deal with undereye problems. Dark circles? Use something like the It's Potent! Eye Cream. Bags? Puff Off! is the answer. Remember to let the product sit for a while so that it will be absorbed by the skin. Oh, and press and dab the cream. The pressure will help drain the water inside and in turn puffiness will be reduced. It will also help your concealer to not crease!

Before proceeding, use a facial mist to rehydrate the skin. It'll not only freshen you up, it will also help your skin easier to work with. Benefit's Ultra Radiance Facial Re-Hydrating Mist is awesome because it instantly enhances our skin's radiance, making it brighter and fresher!

In terms of moisturizing, use it most on areas you need the most and less on areas the need the least. It's best to use one that already has SPF as it's easier and more convenient that way. Ms. N used the Triple Performing Facial Emulsion which is perfect for daytime use because it's sheer, lightweight, oil-free. SPF 15 included. 

Quick tip from Ms. N: Do a patch test if trying a new skincare product. Test it on your jawline/hairline area and leave it on for several minutes. If you don't experience any redness or itchiness, go for it!

Concealing

Never go for yellow-based concealers; use salmon ones instead! Orange cancels out blue and purple tones on the skin so it's better hiding those nasty circles. Using a brush, dab the concealer with short downwards motion on the undereyes quite thickly. Then, blend out the edges, either with a brush or with a sponge. The Erase Paste was used in this area and I gotta say, I'm impressed! The product has excellent pigmentation so anything you want to hide will be hidden.

Face Time

 For daytime, it's better to use a light base. Big Easy is a good product to work with as it's lightweight and natural-looking.

Quick tip: Combine your primer and your base! Doing so will not only kill two birds with one stone, it will also make your base thinner and guarantees you won't end up with a cement-looking face.

Hold up, forget the powder...for now,. Let the base sink it for a little while and work on your brows and eye makeup first.

Brow Game

Benefit has four different brow products that cater to everyone's preferences and needs. There's Instant Brow Pencil, to be used light-handedly; Speed Brow for those with thick, full brows who need less filling in but needs a little tidying up; Brow Zings, a powder-wax duo that's honestly my most fave Benefit brow product; and Gimme Brow, a little brow push-up bra in a bottle for those who have sparse brows. Ms. N used a little bit of Speed Brow at first, followed by Brow Zings.

Eye Fun Time

Before the fun starts, don't forget to apply primer first to avoid creasing and to intensify those pretty shadows you'll be using. A little bit of Stay, Don't Stray Eyeshadow Primer don't hurt nobody, eh?

The eye kit Ms.N used was the World Famous Neutrals: Most Glamorous Nudes. On the lid, she applied the lightest shade, Call My Buff. For crease definition, a pretty medium gold/champagne shadow, Gilt-Y Pleasure, was used. For deepening the outer v and adding definition on the outer half of the lower lashline, the shimmery dark chocolate brown shadow, Kiss Me, I'm Tipsy was applied. Blend everything for a seamless look and voila! Daytime appropriate look.  

For the liner, Ms. N used what she had on hand: the They're Real! Push-Up Eyeliner in the shade Beyond Purple. To be honest, I loved that she went ahead with a colored liner because it gives life to a neutral eye, making it more fun and casual.

Don't forget the mascara! The They're Real Mascara is a best-seller for a reason. Not only does it lengthen, it also holds a curl, and creates a curl too! Perfect for girls with short lashes. (ME ME ME)

Powder Puff

Now that the eyes are done, it's time to powder. The Hello Flawless powder will help set everything on your face in place. Powder more on areas like the undereyes and t-zone.

Cheeky Talk

No contour powder? No problem. The Hello Flawless powder come in a wide range of colors. Selct one that's about 2 shades darker than your skintone and use to for contouring your cheekbones, jawline, forehead, nose bridge...basically every area you want to push in!

For blush, the most famous Benetint was used. It's quite scary in the bottle as it look really pigmented but you can tone it down by mixing it with High Beam. This concoction will look less scary and more workable! 

Quick tip: Where to apply blush? The starting point should be aligned with your iris! Then apply at an angle, never circular.

Lips Lips Lips

The same Benetint was used to create a nice natural-looking pout. It's quite drying so add lip balm before using!

Mistified

Congrats, you're done! Set everything in place with the same facial mist used earlier. It will prevent your makeup for caking up and will make sure your hard work will stay for a little while longer.

Transform to a Night Look

For the eyes, use a cream shadow to amp up the look. I didn't get the name of the cream that was used but I think it's either My Two Cents or Birthday Suit. Using the same palette for before, use the pink shade, It's Complicated, to highlight the inner corners and brow bone. Don't forget to darken the brows too! For cheeks, amp the contour a little more and bring out your powder blush. Coralista's a good shade for most skin tones. Finally, apply a more pigmented lip color. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the Hydra-Smooth Lip Color that was used was Fling Thing.

Whew! That was a lot! But I enjoyed every minute of it. Ms. N was very engaging, it was hard to get me distracted while she was teaching us haha!

I wasn't able to take a photo of the finished look but here's a photo I grabbed from the makeup model, Ms. Tasha.

After the lesson and a few Q&As, Ms. Kriska Ramos held a trivia game! The winner got to choose a prize from the giant advent calendar! :D

After the game, all hell (and cameras) got loose. Everyone was snapping away because Benefit held an Instagram contest and the winner gets to walk away with her own advent calendar box. I wonder who the winner was. Apparently, the closing time of the contest was 7 pm and by then I was already in a van on the way home.

As part of the event, we were free to get our brows done for free at Benefit's Brow Bar, as well as free mani sponsored by GirlStuff.

To top things off, we all got a Benefit Gift Bag, as well as a GirlStuff polish! I'll be unboxing that one on a separate post as this one's too long now!

Photo from: @AskMeWhats

I know I've said this a million times in person and on Instagram, but thank you so much, Ms. Nikki! Thanks for picking me as one of the winners and thank you for such a fun, beauty-filled afternoon!  Thank you to Benefit Cosmetics for holding such a wonderful event and for giving us gift bags filled with your lovely products! Thank you to GirlStuff too for giving us a cute polish. You have no idea how your polish made my nail polish-filled heart flutter. Sending love and big kisses to all!!