UPDATED- My Ipsy + Benefit LashBash in Photos

Hello my beautiful friends!

WARNING: VERY photo-heavy post!

Our Lash Bash Crew.  And Clifford, for some reason.

I finally have squeezed out the time to post the pictures from my Lash Bash, sponsored by Ipsy and Benefit Cosmetics.



We had SUCH a great time, and I can't wait to share it with you all! 

I hate these things (mayo!!!), but these disappeared very quickly, I can assure you :)

My husband and I spent a good bit of time working on the menu- we wanted cute food items, that fit our theme well.  The star of the show was his Little Smoky Lipsticks, but somehow no photo was ever taken of them. If I can get him to make them again, I will totally do a tutorial because they were SO cute! Even though we had a kitchen fire (yes you read that right) the morning of the Lash Bash, that didn't stop us from having a fantastic time!

The Little Smokies Lipsticks are in the background here!  How cute??!!

We made a spa-face cheese ball, that I found via Google.  Here's the original blog post, by Hungry Happenings, if you want to make one for your very own!

Benefit Martini glass with Wink Lemonade

Adding the sugar rim to the glasses :)

I loved the Benefit martini glass that was on one of the party planning pages, it just had the Benefit girl's head, with a "B" inside.  I took this inspiration and made our guests their own Benefit martini glass- the front has the Benefit logo, the backs say #benebabe, and the bottom has the guest's names, so that there was no confusion. 

Here's TweenAngel with her Wink Lemonade.  The quilt behind her is her Girl Scout Bronze Award (hers and a friend's), made for the family of a Scout that has passed on.

Here's one of TweenAngel's friends, and of my Scouts. She had SO much fun :)

My girlfriend Cher, snuggling with my doggy. I made the throw that is falling down behind her.

The always gorgeous LisaMisha, and her beautiful daughter. Wink lemonade went over very well :)

We filled these with "Wink Lemonade", and made the rims pretty (and sweet) using lime juice and pink sugar crystals.  HERE is my tutorial for how I made these SUPER easy lovelies.

My Benefit pink cupcakes, with thought bubble flags :)

I also made cupcakes for the Bash, as I am sure was expected by my guests.  The cakes themselves were chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, and I used silver liners to kind of blend with our theme.  The icing is buttercream, and you can find the recipe I use HERE (my go-to basic buttercream) ; I just added pink icing tint to get them to this beautiful color.  The thought bubble picks were made by printing out images provided by the Lash Bash, and then colored with a magenta colored pencil.  Then I folded them over a toothpick (pictures on both side), and used a glue stick to hold it all together.  The guests were thrilled to see just what phrase their cake was thinking!

I had a pretty bowl, decorated with pink hearts, for our White Elephant gifts.  We also used it for the makeup guessing game :)

We had a BLAST playing games- we did a White Elephant gift exchange, played "Two Fakes and A Real" "What cosmetic am I", and a REALvolution Purse Search.  The younger guests were MAD that they didn't bring a purse to the party!  

A sampling of prizes for the game winners.  I spy Benefit, Ulta, and Freeman Beauty...

I had collected some cute prizes to give out, all unused items from my stash, and some Benefit items I had picked up recently at Ulta, and the winners LOVED choosing something fun!

Playing What Cosmetic Am I- sticky notes on the forehead identified what cosmetic a person was, and they had 20 yes or no questions to guess.

Playing Two Fakes and a Real

Some very cute little ones stealing the show :)

REALvolution Purse Search  One of these ladies found a screwdriver and a fork...sadly not on the list.

The White Elephant gift exchange was a hit!

Cher is very happy with what she received.  Heather is waiting for someone to switch out with her.

Opening a present...

Kim does not look happy with losing her gift at the exchange.

You can see on the young ones, that they have definitely sampled the BeneTint!

Heather REALLY wants the purple eye shadow.  Go Ravens, and all that.

A trade is being negotiated.

We created a photo booth-style wall, for our guests.  

The Photo Wall before it was decorated  by the guests.

The younger crowd had a blast playing with it, and the props I made, but I didn't get any pictures.  I was busy doing makeovers!  The older crowd would have posed there too,  but we just ran out of time.  

...And after :)

At the close of the bash, I asked the guests to write their honest thoughts of Benefit Cosmetics on the wall. I think it turned out really well!  HERE is how I made this gorgeous and simple backdrop.

The gift bags, my cosmetic case, and the case with game prizes.

The girls received their gorgeous gift bags.  The tissue paper came from Dollar Tree, if you can believe it, and I added a couple cute items to the bags; eye gels and a cupcake bath fizz.

My DIY banner

My Ipsy mailer banner was a huge hit- learn how to make one for yourself HERE!

Each guest tried out They're Real! Mascara, and were excited to try the Benetint and Sugarbomb lip gloss. 

Here's a BUNCH of #Realsies shots:

Candy

Heather: left is They're Real; right is au naturale

Lisa

Lori Jo

Heather, with They're Real on both eyes now

Cher

Mackenzie

Three guests received makeovers, using Benefit makeup, and they LOVED their looks!

The makeup that received the most rave reviews was, surprisingly, the Gimme Brow brow gel (we used disposable mascara wands to apply) and the Hervana blush (not surprisingly- this stuff is seriously gorgeous!); in addition to, of course, They're Real Mascara.

I posted a LOT of pictures on my Instagram- if you want to follow me there, my screen name is @OnlyAverageMom.  The highlight of my night was when Benefit and Ipsy commented on my pictures, and Ipsy even chose to follow me on the 'gram!  

We had a seriously fantastic time, and didn't spend a TON of money to do it.  I honestly can't think of a better way to spend the evening with my friends.  Thank you so much to everyone who was able to attend!

One last thing- I promised you all a coupon code, when I posted my Lash Bash unboxing HERE- If you purchase a FULL SIZE They're Real Mascara from Benefit Cosmetics, you will receive a mini Stay Don't Stray (eyelid primer) and a mini Creaseless Cream Eye Shadow.  To get these goodies, use coupon code LASHBASH, and this is valid until 10/5/13.

And if you don't already subscribe to Ipsy, one of the sponsors of the Lash Bash, won't you consider it?  For $10 a month (plus tax in NY, NC and CA, plus $4.95 shipping in Canada only), you receive 4-5 full size or deluxe sample items plus a cute cosmetics bag in the mail, monthly, and you can cancel at any time (no commitment!).  I've found lots of new faves because of Ipsy, and it's because of my subscription to Ipsy that I even KNEW about the Lash Bashes, let alone won one!  If you want to give Ipsy a try, won't you use my referral link?  I get points towards a reward, and you get good karma.  We can all use good karma.

I think that just about sums up my Lash Bash experience.  Now all that is left to do is sit back and wait until they announce the winners of the final contest: one winner wins a weekend for two in San Fran (please please please please please pick me!!!!!!), others win a year's supply of They're Real, still others win a $100 gift card for Benefit Cosmetics, and others a prize pack.  I would love any of these prizes, so send some winning vibes my way, if you can!

Lash Bash Crew :)

Tell me- did you attend a Lash Bash?  If another one is in your area, would you go???  Do you think I have a chance of winning a Grand Prize??

Until next time, my lovelies, stay beautiful!

UPDATE: 8:53 pm est, 9/26/13
OMG you guys, I WON a prize for my Lash Bash!  I haven't heard from Ipsy what my prize is yet, but I am so FREAKING excited, I can't even begin to say!  Thanks to you all, and to my girlies who attended for helping make this happen for me!!!  As soon as I know more, I will absolutely let you all know!!

 

Disclaimer: The referral link in this post is one where I would receive credit for a referral, and be compensated with free product for referring 2 people. Here is a link that just goes to Ipsy, without my referral code. Other links in this post go to other posts on this blog, or to the original source's blog or website; and are not referral or compensated links.  I strive for honesty :)