Monday, August 25, 2008

Mineral Makeup, Part 3

Alas, my long overdue part three of my experiences with Mineral makeup.

After getting a chance to play with them at a private event at the Bare Escentuals boutique I decided to give mineral makeup a try on my own face. I bought the "dark" kit which includes two shades of the mineral powder foundation, a mineral veil, "warmth" and "clear radiance" the highlight & shadow products.

Yes, I'm a makeup artist, but in my everyday life, I don't wear much makeup, unless I'm up for a makeup job, or going someplace special. At most, I'll wear mascara, eyeliner and lipstick or gloss and that's it. I certainly don't wear foundation every day, but I wanted to take the new makeup for a real life test drive so I wore it for a few consecutive days.

The first time I tried it, I used the light to medium coverage brush. It took longer than I thought. By the time I "swirled, tapped and buffed" the fourth step, the clear radiance onto my face, I knew that I wasn't going to do this every day, even if I was the type who wore foundation every day. Despite the lengthy application process, the final product looked nice. I thought the makeup gave natural but even coverage and my face looked nice, but not overly made up.

A I suspected, I got tired of the four step process, not to mention mascara, blush and lip stuff I needed to compliment the look since you can't really wear just foundation without doing a full face of makeup. Also, I noticed that my face started itching. It didn't turn in to a full blown reaction, and I'm not sure if it was the powder itself, the summer heat (so not fun to wear a full face of makeup in the heat of the NYC subway system) or the semi harshness of the brushes you have to use to apply the product.

So my final verdict is mineral makeup is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Sharon Gault Workshop

Last month I attended a workshop through my Makeup Artists Meetup Group hosted by the awesome Makeup Forever NYC store and presented by the awe inspiring Sharon Gault.

Before I even get into the details of the workshop, I'm taking a moment to freak out about how amazing the Makeup Forever store is. I absolutely loved being there surrounded by all the beautiful colors, the open space. They have such great products, it was difficult not to lose my mind and shop my ass off.

As soon as I walked in, Sharon came right up to me and introduced herself. Moments later, she was asking me to be her model for one of the three demos she planned on doing; apparently her model wasn't going to show. I happily accepted, I mean, come on! to have Sharon Gault do my makeup! Dude!

On top of that, there was a camera crew there! Sharon is shopping a potential reality show and they were filming the workshop...and OMG I got to be in it since I was one of the models. Lord knows it it will ever appear on a TV set near you, but it was still exciting to be involved!

Sharon's first demo was a look she created doing the makeup for Keri Hilson's video "energy". The look was pretty natural, but the concept of the video was a sort of "Million Dollar Baby" look so the skin needed to glow. The most important thing I learned was that every part of the body shown on camera is the MUA's responsibility. During her demo, Sharon like audience particicaption, so one of my collegues got up and helped put MUFE face & body foundation on the model's legs.

I was next! This fun demo came from the Solange video for "I Decided". We now interrupt this regularly schedlule blog post to gush about how freakin' inspiring Solange's look is. She is really working hard to stand out from the other female solo artists out now and I have to say, it's turned my opinion of her as an artist completely around. Whoever was involved in creating her look and sound needs recognition ASAP!

And now back to our regularly scheduled blog: This look was all about the lashes, and I'm sure you're familiar with MUFE's amazing selection of eyelashes! I had about 8 lashes on my face. She even had one of the participants come up and do a little something something to one of my eyes and it looked fierce!

The cherry on my sundae was the fact that I got to keep ALL the lashes they used on me! Yippie!


After several shopping breaks (more on that later) we were given a third demo. Sharon did the makeup for the poster for the upcoming film Red Sonja staring Rose McGowan (I know, right!!!). this was super drama, and gorgeous! Keeping the whole face simple, she used black eyeshadow in the crease and winged it out. It looked awesome!


Okay, now the shopping breakdown. All of us were able to enroll in the MUFE discount program (yeah, baby!) and we took full advantage of the discount! I got a few shades of their HD foundation, which has quickly become my most favorite foundation ever. I've only used it a few times on a few test shoots, but it just goes on so nicely and looks so damn good, I don't think I'll be buying much else in terms of foundations for a while. I also picked up the HD powder which is so fantastic all my other supposedly translucent powders are collecting dust in my kit.

Above all else, above the demos and the makeup and the lashes, it was just inspiring to be around her and to hear her encouraging words to all of us. The timing of this workshop couldn't have been more perfect for me. Just weeks ago I left the corporate world to pursue makeup full time, and when I'm down, doubtful or just plain scared, I remember workshops like Sharon's and am filled with hope, confidence and that fire in my belly to continue to persist and I know I'll make it! It was an amazing opportunity to share with her and with all the participants and my colleagues and friends.





(MUFE makeup images courtesy of Make up forever)

Sunday, August 10, 2008

I know I know

it's been way too long since I've updated this blog. I have so many experiences to share with you, but before I get into all that here's a brief update on me:

My full time job finally set me free last month and I've taken the plunge into being a full time freelance makeup artist! So far it's been great! My first week out the gate, I got a call to assist on a foreign film. This was my first experience doing makeup for a film and while the schedule was killer, it was lots of fun. I can't wait to do it again.!

I've also been working with the amazing Anne DeMarco and she's asked me to be on her team for fashion week! It's only for one day, and it's not even paid, but I'm overcome with excitement!

I still have so much work to do on my portfolio. More connections to make, so much more work to be done, and I'll be updating you every step of the way now that I have the time to update this baby!