Ransacked by Rouge New York

I try to live by the advice I dole out to clients and frequently purge things — clothes, shoes, paper, doodads and whatnots. Keeps clutter at bay and me happy. Makeup is the only thing that’s impervious to these purges. What thwarts me is incompetence, “Maybe I could wear that bright blue eye shadow if I knew how to apply it,” but also guilt over buying blue eye shadow and never using it and then worry that I might desperately miss the blue shadow if I toss it. So when new, uber-hip make-up salon, Rouge New York, came up with The Ransack service — you bring your make-up bag to them, they tell you what to toss, what to keep, what to add and how to accomplish a look with the remainder — I was sold.

The DetritusIf you have not yet heard of Rouge New York, it is a makeup salon that breathes effortless glamour (full disclosure, my sister-in-law started it with her good friend, Stephanie March). They do makeup the way Hollywood stars are used to getting it done — not your average, lame bridesmaid in a wedding kind of makeup application where you spend 30 minutes afterward redoing it or removing it all. No, they do makeup that has a 40 year old mother of two young boys turning heads in a restaurant kind of way and no, not because I looked like a drag queen. They can do a barely there makeup application, the You Only Better (what I got when I turned those heads) to the Full Polish, a red carpet makeup application. They really listen to what you want. No agendas.

The KeepersMy Ransack was with Phoebe who is amazingly talented and helpful. I brought every piece of makeup I owned and we talked about every piece of it. I dumped two thirds of it and added only four things, a certain eye shadow brush, powder, an eye shadow pallet and bronzer. The latter was to replace one I’d broken two years ago but was too lazy and cheap to replace until I was publicly shamed at Rouge. Although I should add Phoebe didn’t shame me, I did. Two years!?! Anyway, there was no pressure to buy any of it. Phoebe told me what shades to do, in what order, how to apply and why. Even more helpful than her teaching me how to do my look was the diagram she made me so I could I could practice the new look when I got home.

The biggest compliment I got was last Friday night at dinner with a friend of mine who frequents Rouge  as well. She asked if I’d had my makeup done at Rouge NY. I hadn’t. I’d done it myself with Phoebe’s guidance and no blue eye shadow in sight.