Makeup sponsor prepares to help contestants look their best

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press 

Contestants competing in the Five Hills Scholarship Pageant on Saturday will need to be focused on a lot of things, but their makeup won’t be one of them with the help of sponsor Becci Hooten. 
Hooten, whose son Reicher was Junior Mister Rabbit Fest in 2015, is a SeneGence Cosmetics distributor and has been a pageant sponsor since 2016. She will be doing contestants’ makeup the day of the pageant using SeneGence products. 
SeneGence launched in 1999 with the product it’s most known for today, the long-lasting liquid lipstick called LipSense. LipSense is waterproof, smudge proof, lead-free, gluten-free, wax-free, vegan, cruelty-free, kosher and made in the USA.  Today, SeneGence also has anti-aging skincare, haircare and cosmetics.
The cosmetics available through SeneGence include foundation, bronzer, blush, concealer, tinted moisturizer, powder, highlighter, eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara, eyebrow product and more. 
Hooten became a SeneGence distributor after stumbling upon LipSense and seeing how long-lasting the lip colors were. Her daughter Addison was in dance and Hooten taught dance at GymKix when they first used LipSense on the young dancers and saw how it did not smudge or smear. 
“It literally stayed on all day on our little girls,” Hooten said. “It didn’t get on their face or their costumes or have to reapply between performances, and so it was natural the next year when it was time for the pageant, I wanted to be a part of it and share this long-lasting lip color and cosmetics with the rest of the pageant family.”
Although Hooten has been connected to the pageant as a sponsor before, this year marks the first year where she will be doing contestants’ makeup on pageant day. 
“In the past few years, I have been a sponsor and we’ve done a color matching workshop a few days before the pageant and I work with the contestants to pick the proper colors for their makeup and their lip color depending on their dress and their skin tone, eye color, preferences,” Hooten said. 
This year’s beauty workshop was held on Thursday evening and featured a color matching workshop as well as a jewelry vendor and an ItWorks vendor to help contestants look their best. 
There are 130 contestants competing on Saturday and Hooten will be doing the makeup for 70 of them. Some contestants have expressed concern about their makeup lasting into the evening after Hooten works her magic that afternoon. 
Young Miss Five Hills Allyssa Kimball, who uses SeneGence products at home, said that there is nothing to worry about. 
“Even the girls that get their makeup done early in the morning and their pageant’s late at night, it’s still going to be good at that time,” Kimball said. 
Hooten will be doing contestants’ makeup until 3 p.m. on Saturday, with the help of some friends, including fellow SeneGence distributor Ryan Melton. 
Hooten said she will have a table at the pageant with everything in case contestants decide they need a touchup or more lip gloss, but Hooten is confident that the makeup will be perfect and last all day. 
“I can go swimming and get out of the pool and my makeup will still be there,” Hooten said. “It’s pretty much all waterproof and stays all day so I think they’ll be happy.”
Kimball shared about her favorite products from SeneGence. 
“I love the foundation because a lot of liquid foundations would come off during the day, but I get home at night with my foundation still on,” Kimball said. “Also, the lipstick, because I used to be a dancer and it will stay on the whole time, for hours, even when you eat.”
According to volunteer pageant director, Wendy Sledd, this exemplifies why the sponsorships are so important. 
“Our goal is to have our sponsors want to come back because they did well with what they invested in the pageant,” Sledd said.