The following is a story about the power of connections cloaked in a modeling project I was involved in last week.

My dear, lovely, beautiful friend, Annie Einan is an amazing force of a woman. Not only does she have this presence that makes you want to be around her, she shares her most authentic self with you. She is a mom, a wife and a storyteller for Fluence Creative—an agency she and her husband launched as a joint venture (psst…you should totally check them out if you’re interested in crazy good branding and design work).

And now, she adds to her list of roles: your new connection to safe beauty…

When she and I got together last month for coffee she introduced me to a new venture that is transforming the way she is thinking about what we put on our skin and hair.

That’s right: cosmetics.

Here’s the deal, the junk we put on our skin concocted for use on our skin like face creams, eye serums, blush, shadows, lipstick, shampoo, conditioner, eyeliners and base—isn’t necessarily very good. Unless you’re hyper vigilant about what is happening in the bottles that line your cosmetics drawer, you should probably check out these stats:

• There are over 10,500 ingredients used in the cosmetics industry, but an estimated 90% of those have never been assessed for safety by any publicly accountable body. (Um, hi.)
• The US has not passed a federal law governing the cosmetics industry since 1938. The EU has banned close to 1,400 ingredients from cosmetics, yet the US has banned or restricted only 11. (Yet the US has banned or restricted only 11?!?)

Wait. What!? I know, it creeps me out, too. Doesn’t the US love us? Hello, I pay taxes. Since 1938 the cosmetic industry hasn’t had any kind of federal law governing it? So, um, any new line of cosmetics can put almost any crap in my lipstick and get away with it? Sigh.

But back to Annie:

She is working for a company that is blasting all the nasty stuff the US allows into our cosmetics (you know like those cancer-causing poisons somehow the FDA approves humans to soak into our faces). Annie is a consultant for Beautycounter. The story behind Beautycounter is epic. You might want to read the whole story here, but the short version is this: a woman learns about the horrors of the cosmetic industry in the US and decides to create safe cosmetics—like the ones Europeans would approve.

And who doesn’t want to be a little more European? Am I right?

So Annie held an event to introduce women to safe cosmetics that are actually also beautiful. For models, makeup needs to hold up for hours without sagging, leaking, crusting, flaking or smearing (or making you look like a haunted house) all while under lights or in unusual conditions (like when I was modeling for a shoot that had me in a sauna tent for 3 hours). Beautycounter products truly deliver. They hold up and they are very high quality which impressed me the most.

I had fun learning from makeup artist Robb Grier while he demonstrated the ease of this makeup (but wait, check out his floral pants first. I have style envy…):

Now, here is the application part. I love having someone else do my makeup especially because I am remedial at all things makeup:

Hey, there we were! Robb works in wardrobe at ShopNBC recently renamed Evine Live. Connecting with him was so great because he let me know models on the show do get paid (news to me!). I look forward to getting fitted by Robb in the future! Connection!

And here’s the deal with me: I never wear makeup unless I’m going to a casting call or I’m asked to arrive at a shoot “camera ready.” Otherwise I’m just a mascara and lip balm chick. I truly cannot stand makeup on my face for a long time (probably because most of the makeup I have had applied to my face is really full of icky junk). Coming home from shoots has me making a beeline for the shower because I cannot wait to wash off the layers of, well, toxins, I guess.

Annie knew this so she had Robb do my makeup in a lighter more natural way. I have to say this: I was truly impressed. And I’m a super huge snob of the au natural variety. I don’t even own eye shadow or blush. I don’t own a tube of lipstick (but that is about to change, thanks to Beautycounter). I do own lip-gloss, however (I can get wild sometimes).

The makeup felt good going on and it held up. I hardly noticed I was wearing it. Annie consulted with guests about their cosmetic needs and desires and the entire night was filled with such a positive, beautiful energy. Look how fun!

I connected with the woman above in stripes, Alyssa. She is a voice over talent. Her insight into that industry really got me excited about VO talent work in the future. So I’m putting together a VO reel and she offered to help if I had any questions. I’ve already reached out to my agent to get started on that track. Connection!

And the woman above inspecting her friend’s newly applied serum? Marin is my new style consultant. She is seriously always looking very fine, this girl. She shows up with a denim crop top, leggings, mustard heels and bright red lipstick. I dig it and now we have some shopping to do. She will teach me everything she knows. I truly loathe shopping unless it is for gifts for other people. I’d rather eat my own hands than “go shopping” for sport. But Marin has an eye I’d like to see in some retail action, so we’re making a style date. Connection!

Here is what I was wearing on my face that night:

Skin Tint: honey

Concealer: medium 2

Eye Shadow: shell/malt

Eyeliner: violet

Lip Sheer: Rose

Blush: used the lip sheer as blush!

Lustro Oil #3

Vibrant Eye Perfector

Uplifting Day Cream

Annie organized three models to have their makeup applied during the event along with before and after pics. I didn’t get my before pics taken, but all images were projected on a huge wall so we could get a good idea of how beautiful Beautycounter really is. There’s my big head in the background:

Photos were shot by the talented Bjorn Meisner (ps, he offered to shoot my whole family for the new direction he’s taking his photography business so we’ve already been to back to his studio for an epic photo session…um, can I just say, Connection!).

Annie’s Beautycounter event reconnected me with the spunk and wit of these beauties (Molly in black…another Beautycounter babe and Nell, a foxy fellow writer…in fact Nell and I have already shared some writing insights and are planning a trade secret coffee date soon). Connection!

Here’s the thing…after FIVE hours, I got home and I didn’t race off to shower off my makeup. In fact I forgot it was there. And it held up, as evidenced in the below ridiculous selfie:

Here’s the moral story of this post: make connections with people at gatherings…you never know what immense trees might grow from a tiny seed of interest and authenticity.

Annie is this excellent connector and now she has her finger on the pulse of an excellent line of products. But don’t take my word for it…

Other publications touting the goodness of Beautycounter:

I’m not a Beautycounter consultant and I’m not getting paid with money or product to write this post. I just really believe in safe products. Connect with Annie today to get started using safe, beautiful cosmetics…the ones you deserve for your beautiful self.

THEN, go make some connections that might transform your life.