Chanel recently opened a new boutique here in Las Vegas inside the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace. It’s the first of it’s kind in the U.S. and they were kind enough to invite me to the grand opening, which was held this past Saturday. This Chanel boutique carries Chanel cosmetics, fragrance, skincare, and sunglasses. The boutique also carries various products exclusive to the boutique; like Les Exclusifs fragrances (pictured above)— fifteen scents inspired by the life of Gabrielle Chanel:

I’ve been using Chanel cosmetics for a decade now and even though I would say I am very familiar with the products, these scents were a new discovery to me. This is a really cool aspect of the new boutique, it allows long time aficionados of the brand to discover and experience something new. When I arrived at the event, I was promptly greeted and paired with a team member to assist me. We decided to do my makeup from beginning to end so that I could experience the new skin care products as well as some new cosmetics. The wonderfully talented Kate Lee came over at the begging of my session to see what we were going to play with. Kate holds the title of CHANEL Celebrity Make-Up Artist and has an impressive list of clients including Keira Knightley and Anne Hathaway. We went over the products we had decided to use and asked her which foundation would be best to use to be photo ready. She recommended the PERFECTION LUMIERE Velvet foundation because of it’s smooth, matte finish and said it looks great on camera.

In all of my excitement I forgot to take a picture of the freshly applied look, but this is it after a few hours after leaving the Chanel boutique. I’m wearing the ILLUSION D’OMBRE Long Wear Luminous Eyeshadow in “Mirage” on my eyelids. I fell in love with these eyeshadows, they are creamy and wonderfully pigmented. They go on a bit light but you can build to a darker shade. Kate applied the same eyeshadow in “Fantasme” to the inner corner of my eyes for a bit of pop. Lastly, she applied the ROUGE COCO Hydrating Crème Lip Color in “Jean“, which I must say, is very hydrating. It’s a lipstick but it feels almost like a lipgloss when applied.

After finishing my makeup, I asked Kate which foundation she would recommend for everyday wear. I wanted something lightweight with light coverage since I typically just wear a tinted moisturizer. She said the VITALUMIÈRE AQUA foundation is one of her favorites because it gives the skin a refreshed look and has SPF in it, she also recommended applying it with a beauty blender for flawless looking complexion. It was a really fun event and I have to say, Kate is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, she is such a pro and her skin is flawless! I’m so glad I had the opportunity to meet her.

I walked out with some new goodies, super excited to come back and buy everything else I tried. However, I recently learned that Chanel tests on animals, and that’s when my heart broke. As of late, I’ve been looking for cruelty-free cosmetics and skin care products. While I still have a lot to learn and a far way to go to completely change the products I use, I’ve started transitioning to cruelty-free EVERYTHING. From cosmetics, to skincare, shampoo, conditioner, and any other personal care products I’ve recently purchased, have been, and will continue to be cruelty-free. I was devastated to learn that the majority of well-known cosmetic brands are not cruelty-free. I’ve been using many of them for so long and never really gave much thought to it.

Given my new stance on Chanel beauty products, I still wanted to share this experience because it was such a unique one. Not may people get the chance to ask Kate Lee for makeup advice and tips so I just wanted to share that. I’ll be sharing more on cruelty-free cosmetics in the future. And the second Chanel cosmetics become cruelty-free, I’ll be the first one running in to buy one of everything. But for now, I have to say so long to my decade-long Chanel purchases.