June 2015 marked the entrance of Charlotte Tilbury into Canada and there were a LOT of us that were excited. Charlotte Tilbury, touted as the world’s #1 make-up artist, is a British makeup artist that has spent 20+ years in the industry, working on notable clients like Cara Delevingne and Kate Moss. Her line of makeup was first launched in the United Kingdom in 2013, eventually made it’s way over to the US, and now finally, to Canada.
Charlotte herself was coming to Holt Renfrew on Bloor Street in Toronto to help promote the launch of her products and several of us beauty bloggers planned to attend the event. The event was open to the public and essentially a meet and greet.
At Holt Renfew, Charlotte Tilbury‘s new counter jumps out at you when you enter. It’s immediately to the right of the entrance doors and it’s breathtaking. You could easily sink a lot of time and money into this counter! Interesting to note, while the products are certainly expensive in Canadian dollars, they are actually cheaper if you buy them here, than overseas. Given the exchange right now, the Canadian prices are a far better deal. For example, the Bronze & Glow palette is $80 CAD. In the UK, it retails for £49. With the current exchange, that £49 comes out to just over $96 CAD!
I met several of my beauty blogging friends and we waited in line to meet Charlotte. Although it was busy when we got there, there weren’t a ton of people in line to meet Charlotte. However, come 6 o’clock, the line quickly started to snake around the counters. I’ve not had much experience waiting in line to meet celebrities, but this was incredibly upscale: we were given little bottles of water, samples and asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding our skin type.
With great fanfare, Charlotte Tilbury and her team walked in right on time. There was some brief dance number as all the models dressed up in her looks paraded around, and then the CEO of Holt’s shared his excitement about having both Charlotte and her products on site. It was pointed out a few times that apparently the Canadian launch has outdone any other launch they’ve had in terms of sales. You go Canada, you spend that money! (I know I sure did!)
When we go the chance to meet her, it was pretty quick and quite a blur. She commented on my makeup saying I must be wearing the Glamour Muse quad (nope, was Vintage Vamp) and then pointed out I had the wrong lip colour on for the “look”. I think I *actually* said that I couldn’t afford all her products yet! Way to go Chelle, you stick it to her. /facepalm
I made brief small talk and stood awkwardly. She recommended some products of hers for me, then we took a picture and off I went. This woman is a total pro. She’s not only stunning to look at her (that hair, I mean really… LOOK AT IT) but she can seemingly navigate any kind of awkward conversation she gets into with a fan. Impressive, to say the least.
Smile! Dude… get your hand out of my shot. 😐
So all in all, it was pretty brief, but it was fun to hang out with my blogging buddies and coo over a makeup celebrity. I do really like the products I’ve tried from Charlotte Tilbury‘s line and I will be purchasing more in the future. If you want to check out the makeup look I did with The Vintage Vamp quad and the Bronze & Glow duo, you can see that here.
As we left Hot’s, we snagged a shot in front of the adorable Tilbury Taxi. I love these ladies – be sure to check them out as a few of them have done event recaps of the event as well (left to right):
- myself
- Laura of Lipstick & Laura
- Andy of A Certain Romance
- Liz of Stay Gorgeous
- Julie of Swatch & Review (some shots in this post were from Julie’s camera!)