Free Personal Makeup Tutorial Videos in the Mission: It's theBalm

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There's no shortage of studios in San Francisco where professional makeup artists will make you look über-glamorous and sell you all the products you need to recreate the look at home. So you get dolled up at the store, you buy everything, and you return home… only to discover that you don't know how to use all those blushes and brushes and wands. Fear not: Marissa Shipman has a plan to rescue you from that feeling of failure. Shipman, founder of theBalm Cosmetics, wants to give you a shot at DIY-makeup-success with a brand new video tutorial feature in theBalm's brand new flagship store in the Mission.

The retail outpost at 788 Valencia is a first for this San Francisco-based company which offers paraben and cruelty-free products for skin, hair, and nails—and Shipman's business style fits in with her hip Mission neighbors.

For starters, she's grown theBalm product by product through word of mouth. (Since she doesn't advertise, theBalm is basically a hip, secret makeup club.) And instead of opening just any ol' makeup shop, Shipman is offering local clients a little something extra: A video makeup application tutorial called "Quiet on the Set."

It's a painless process: You sit in a chair in front of a super-professional lighting thingamabob and an iPad that's recording your video. The makeup artist holds each product in front of the iPad camera before she uses it, and documents all of her secret tricks on your video. You walk out with a gorgeous new look, and one day later, you receive an email telling your video is ready on theBalm's website. (Here's our video from the press preview. Don't worry. If you're camera-shy, you can make your video private.)

Best of all, it's currently free. As in, free. Except on holidays—like Valentine's Day—there is no minimum purchase required to get glam at theBalm. Then again, after playing in store for a while, we question whether anyone has the resolve to walk out without buying something. Or everything.
· theBalm Cosmetics [Official Site]
· The Simple, Genius Makeup Tool That Will Save You Money [Racked]