SCOUTED: My Top 3 Mary Kay Picks + An Afternoon with MK!

Hey gorgeouses :P Last July 20, I was invited by the friendliest Mary Kay Beauty Consultant, Ms. Melissa Rae, for an afternoon of pampering using MK products. I was blog hopping one night and happened to comment on a post that detailed the blogger's MK experience. I'd link it but I don't seem to remember which blog I read it off from o_o

Anyway, I expressed something to the effect of being jealous of her MK afternoon, especially since I had zero experience with MK. Just a few nights after, the BBT Facebook page was contacted by Melissa. She offered me the same deal, and I learned afterwards that it's standard MO for beauty consultants to invite new clients to try the products first.

Mary Kay is by no means a newbie. It's not something you'd expect to see in a Scouted post but I am completely unexposed and unaware of what they are all about. After the pampering sesh, I mussay, my top 3 picks are:

Mary Kay Timewise Microdermabrasion Step 1

Mary Kay has a super duper complete skincare line. I was recommended the Botanical Effects - Dry Skin line but ultimately fell in love with this Timewise Microdermabrasion cream. My bumpy, fugly nose went suuuuper duper smooth in just a snap! Definitely a must especially for those with flaking skin or pore issues.

Mary Kay Satin Hands Satin Smoothie Hand Scrub

This smelled faaaaantastic! Love the scent of peaches, and I like how much grit was in it. The particles didn't easily fall off nor dissolve as I was scrubbing it on my hands- that's my biggest problem with scrubs.

And did I say that it smelled fabulous? My hands smelled fabulous until well into the night, if I might add :P

Mary Kay Eyeliner

For starters, the green (Rich Jade) is so vibrant! 

Skin Swatch: Mary Kay Eyeliners in Rich Jade and Dark Denim

And I'm a sucker for anything cute. Check out the built-in sharpener. I've never known auto eye pencils to have sharpeners, as the basic premise of auto pencils is to do away with them. Still, it's uber cute and making me sooo rabid over it.

Sharpener and Eyeliner

Read on for the complete Mary Kay experience :)

I got there a little early for my 3pm appointment, so I had time to look around :)

Their office facade is very spacious and neat. 

Mary Kay office in Timog, Quezon City

They have this interesting modular display of Mary Kay products up front. All I've ever heard of them are cosmetics, so it was refreshing to know that they carry a full range of skincare, fragrances and complete color cosmetics.

Mary Kay products on display

And now for the best part: the salon. They have a salon in their office! When I get my own house, it's gonna have a salon, too.

Mary Kay In-Office Salon

This is where the magic happens. Mary Kay's try before you buy philosophy means that the Beauty Consultants have no problem letting you try out their products.

You sit down for a while and talk about your skin problems. I was game for the Timewise line since I'm more into anti-aging products than just hydration products, but ultimately the Botanical Effects line was deemed more suited for my skin.

Here's everything I tried out:

My Mary Kay Pre-Makeup Essentials

1. Satin Hands Satin Smoothie Hand Scrub - My #2 pick that I mentioned above :)
2. Botanical Effects 3-in-1 Cleanse Formula 2 (for normal skin) - The 3-in-1 aspect sort of makes toner unnecessary. I'm a little insecure with never using toner but I had no dry flakes and my skin felt very balanced after the treatment. There's still more testing needed :)
3. Timewise Microdermabrasion Step 1: Refine - My #1 pick out of all the MK products I tried :)
4. Botanical Effects Mask - It's a wash off mask that dries up after ten minutes. It felt itchy when it started to dry up but I definitely felt refreshed after. It's just a pain to wash the gooey mess off!
5. Botanical Effects Hydrate - I can never tell how good moisturizer is based on one use. I'm not sure if the cleanser left some residual toning action but my skin felt nice after this treatment, even when I washed everything off at day's end.
6. Timewise Targeted-Action Eye Revitalizer - This is supposed to have an immediate effect on puffiness but I couldn't really tell because my bags are dark but not really that puffy.

Tellie and Melissa: Gettin' my Mask Face on

That's me with the super cute and multi-tasking Melissa! She has a day job as a nurse and she blogs on top of being a Mary Kay beauty consultant :) I really enjoyed my session because she clearly knows what she's talking about. She's into beauty as well, and that's something I appreciate.

I guess I came to this session feeling a little scared. I figured that Mary Kay was something of an MLM (multi-level marketing) operation, and so I was apprehensive of being over-sold on. I hate sales talk soooo much. I didn't want to experience that pushy environment where the talk begins to overcompensate for the walk. I'm glad that she just let me experience the products and let me make up my own mind about them.

She gave advice and pointed out a lot of stuff, but I got none of that annoying, pushy BUY NOW attitude from her.

My Mary Kay Makeover :)

Here's my After look. The brows are a little too fine for what I normally wear (I asked them to do my makeup, mwehehe) but I loved the Luminous Wear Liquid Foundation and the Translucent Loose Powder :) The foundation gave me instant glow and the loose powder toned it down where I didn't want shine.

Huh. Never knew about the wonders that luminous foundation could do for dry skin..

RECAP:

Overall, I'm a little underwhelmed by the color cosmetics and severely disappointed with the concealer options. I think you can see how dark my eye bags still are, despite everything we put on it :( The lipstick, blush, mascara and eye shadow are okay. They weren't bad but they're not something I would go out of my way to try.

Conversely, I was surprised and beyond with the spa, skin care and face/base products. They are totally worth spending for! The top 3 I mentioned, plus the foundation and loose powder round up my top 5 :)

I'm thinking of buying the foundation and the mircodermabrasion cream. What are your Mary Kay favorites?

The Mary Kay office is located at:
Unit M-14 A, Mezannine Floor
Shoppes @ Victoria, Victoria Towers
Timog cor. Panay Ave., Quezon City

You can visit their site at marykay.com.ph

Ask for Melissa! I swear she's the nicest, plus she knows her stuff :)
Check her Facebook page, or

contact her at 09266187726.