The Beauty Social Recap: The Speakers

As part of the event, there were lots of speakers throughout the day and I thought I'd give a bit of a recap of everyone there.

The first panel was "Brand Stories: How Your Favorite Beauty Brands Got Big". It featured the founders of Cover FX, LORAC, theBalm, and Byron, which is a hair care brand.

I really liked this segment. I especially loved hearing Marissa from theBalm talk about how she started looking up books on how to make makeup and how she bought the website name for $200 and things like that. She really started her brand from nothing and made it become what it is now. I've only recently been interested in theBalm Cosmetics so it was amazing to actually be in the same room as the founder.

Jenny Frankel from Cover FX and Carol Shaw from LORAC both talked about how it can be so important to have good skin. Both of them worked towards developing foundations that helped to hide skin imperfections and build up people's confidence in themselves. As someone who suffered/suffers from not so perfect skin, it was good to hear how they both worked towards creating foundations to help peoples' skin.

I just loved being able to hear how they developed their brand out of nothing and to see how successful it is now. Utterly inspiring.

Next up was "From Makeup Counter to Makeup Mogul: Jerrod Blandino" This was an interview with one of the founders of Too Faced Cosmetics.

This was my favorite speakers event, hands down. This whole segment was perfect. There was a video intro before Jerrod came out and it really gave us an impression of what kind of person he was. He was the most exuberant and joyous and entertaining person ever. He was so funny and so amazing to watch, I absolutely loved him. He talked about how he had gone from working at a makeup counter to starting the brand Too Faced.

I enjoyed how he talked about trying to be a pioneer in makeup. I didn't know that it was his company that created the first glitter eyeshadows and lip plumpers. He talked about how back then they didn't have noncompete contracts (meaning the product you created was only supposed to be for one company) and after that everyone came out with glitter eyeshadows.

He also talked about how he created "Drop Dead Red" lipstick for Madonna.

At the end of it, he stressed how you could accomplish anything as long as you kept going at it and not giving up. I just loved him and I wished he talked for longer.

I didn't pay attention to the next speaker event, "Hottest New Web Services" so I can't comment on how it was.

The segment after that was "Made: Sabi's Music Videos" and it featured the singer Sabi who was recently in a Cobra Starship song.

I was having my hair braided when she started speaking so I don't remember all that was said. She was super pretty and I loved her hair, I was so jealous.

The next panel was "Expert Trendspotting Secrets Revealed". It featured several beauty and fashion stylists talking about upcoming trends.

I thought the panel was a little too fashion oriented. I guess I didn't really expect a lot of fashion from an event called The Beauty Social. I don't think fashion and beauty are necessarily on the same wavelength, although they are related.

Despite this, I did like how they emphasized that trends are just trends, and personal style can be so different from what the trends are. They really emphasized dressing for yourself and that what they view as trends may not be what they personally wear on a day to day basis and I loved that they were honest enough to say that.

The last speaker event was the "So You Want To Be a Guru" talk featuring beauty gurus and a fashion blogger.

I was actually pretty disappointed in the panel. It was supposed to last for 45 minutes but for some reason they only spoke for 15 and maybe answered two questions each? We ended at 3:20ish and I was wondering why it was so short. They didn't really talk about how to succeed or to differentiate themselves in the youtube community. I think it was a lukewarm way to end the speakers part of the Beauty Social event.

I would so love to go to another event and to see other people speak. Jerrod needs to come back, he was the best, most entertaining speaker there.

I hope you're not too tired of these recaps. I have another one coming up with pictures of everyone I met there. If you didn't already know, I attended my oath ceremony today and became an official United States Citizen!