Did any of you participate in the master class we held in Laval? It was by far one of my favourite events. When I first had the idea to create an evening like this – offering a makeup class to 150-200 girls from around the province – I felt like a bit of an outsider, ha! Really, who was I to show up somewhere and give a makeup class? But obviously, I didn’t do this alone. My friend Joany is a professional makeup artist who was by my side throughout the whole process. While we had big plans for the event, we understood from the start to focus on teaching and having fun and not to put too much pressure on ourselves.

In the past, whenever I watched makeup videos, I felt pressured to reproduce exactly what I saw and inevitably told myself I would never succeed. I started this event under the premise that I wanted it to be simple and without pressure. I wanted an evening where we could learn about makeup, only without the expectation of looking like this person or that one. When I created Sans-Façon, I remember saying to myself "I just want to hide dark circles and redness, can it just be simple?" That’s what I hoped for this event too.

We had so much fun during the master class, but bringing it all together was a lot of work. We had to find the space, prepare the décor, inventory the products to bring on site, arrange transportation… Sometimes when we’re putting on an event we hire outside professionals for small jobs, but otherwise we take care of everything else ourselves. We organized a great cocktail hour with snacks to nibble on and started setting up the entire space as soon as we arrived at 1 p.m. About 7-8 of our employees travelled from Quebec City and we also brought in a handful of professional makeup artists for the evening!

The event went so well! The girls started arriving around 6 p.m. We had a spin-the-wheel set up for them to win prizes, provided cocktails and appetizers and then, around 6:45 p.m., the presentation began! I talked about all our skin and haircare products and then Joany began to apply makeup to my bare face. We had the fun idea to have her apply makeup to only one half of my face so the girls could really see the difference each product makes. She explained all the products and talked about their benefits and how to apply them. Jean-Christophe is always there to film, so throughout the presentation everyone was able to see exactly how each product performed on giant screens. It’s always really great to see him in action! The presentation ended around 8 p.m. and the girls then moved on to see the makeup artists and sales tables. The makeup artists we hired provided touch-ups and tips, like helping each girl find the perfect shade for her skin. That part they really loved! What touched me the most was reading messages from the girls the next morning – many of them wrote me to say that they still had doubts they’d be able to reproduce the things they learned once they got home, but once they tried – SURPRISE! They succeeded and were so happy to have learned some useful tricks!

Our next two master classes should take place in the fall, one in Saguenay and one on the south shore of Montreal. Would you like us to go anywhere else? Don’t hesitate to write us in the comments below.

I’m going to take a little break from my journals in July and August, but I’ll be back in force in September. We have so many great projects on the go that I’m excited to tell you about. I wish you all a great summer; enjoy it! And most importantly, please put on sunscreen haha! SPF 50, gang, for real. Personally, I always put SPF 60 on my face. Above 50, you know you’re really protected!

- Andréanne Marquis, founder of Womance & Sans-Façon Cosmétiques