My friend, Jodi wanted to refurbish her makeup wardrobe, so we trekked to Saks Fifth Avenue in Chevy Chase, MD for a personal makeup shopping extravaganza.

Our goal was to find the latest and greatest makeup for Spring, while helping Jodi to sift through what can feel like “cosmetic chaos” in the department store. I also needed to craft an everyday look for my sporty friend who was looking for a simple and natural-looking daily routine.

What we found was so much more! From Laura Mercier to Bobbi Brown to Estee Lauder to Christian Dior, we counter crawled through Spring’s hottest trends, and of course picked up some of my favorite staples for Jodi along the way.

Chapter 1: A few of my favorite things.

Let’s start with the basics. If your skin doesn’t look good, nothing will look good. In this first chapter detailing our beauty bonanza, I’ll share with you some of the basics to get your skin and eyes looking great.

1. Laura Mercier Face Polish – This bi-polar Spring or call it an endless Winter is throwing all of our faces for a loop. If you’re anything like me, your skin is as dry as the Sahara. Try this wonderful exfoliant once a week, but don’t overdo it or you may through your skin off balance.

2. Lancome R’energie Eye Cream – Use this rich eye cream day and night to prevent aging and repair wrinkles.

3. Estee Lauder Idealist – It feels like silk when you apply it, helps to even out your skin tone, and goes under your moisturizer. It also gives a nice radiance to your skin. Gabriella at the Estee Lauder counter also showed us a brand new eye product under the idealist line to help hydrate and brighten eyes, which earned quite a few winks in my beauty book.

4. Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer - For Jodi, for EVERYONE, Laura Mercier’s

tinted moisturizer is a go-to staple. It is light in application, but still does a great job of evening out your skin tone. It’s a wonderful product for women on-the-go and comes in hydrating, regular, and oil-free solutions.

5. Estee Lauder BB Cream Double Wear Concealer – A new spin on a classic fave – I’ve always used the Double Wear concealer, but now it comes in reparative BB style. This concealer is lighter and less creamy than some other brands, so it doesn’t clump in fine lines.

Well, that’s the first look into our Saks Beauty Voyage, stay tuned for the next chapter and find out why we Adore Dior for Spring!

Julie Wardley is a professional makeup artist in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. She founded Julie Page Makeup Artistry, LLC in 2007 and does makeup for weddings, special events, corporate video shoots and television productions.