I recently went makeup shopping with friend and colleague, Kallah Maguire – stylist and owner of The Emerald Scarab – and she echoed a complaint I hear fairly often from women; How do I stay looking great when I have an event to attend? Like many busy professionals, Kallah regularly attends events where she not only wants to look great for herself, but where she’s frequently photographed. Why is it that when we attend these events we look so different from when we see photos of celebs at events? Well, most women do their makeup as they normally do when in fact, they should approach these functions as photographic events. When we professional makeup artists do celebrities for Events, please believe, we pull out every makeup trick in the book.

1 ) Don’t Over Do It – Resist the temptation to apply “more”. It’ll cake up, crease up, oil up and generally be difficult to maintain. Also, while you want to look good when the camera flashes, you also want to look good to the person you’re talking to standing in front of you. Hyper makeup looks crazy in real life. Use as much as you need, but not a drop more. Continue reading →

Technorati Tags: aubrey organics, bobbi brown, dermalogica, embryolisse, make up for ever, model in a bottle, smashbox, urban decay, victoria vogue

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Iman Cosmetics Blushes in Peace and Allure

I did a job recently where I had to do makeup on an African American female model who was about Phylicia Rashād’s (mom Huxtable from ‘The Cosby Show’) complexion. Both Phylicia and this model are a rich brown color, but still more fair than myself. To my dismay, I did NOT have a blush that really, really worked on her. Well, I had one, but it’s shimmery and I needed matte/satin products for this shoot (pharmaceutical ad). When searching for colors for darker skin tones either for yourself or for your kit, the issue isn’t needing a darker color necessarily (although that’s obviously sometimes the case), the issue is needing higher pigmentation. You’re dealing with skin that already has it’s own measure of pigmentation so in order for color to show it needs to have a measure of potency. This led me to search for blushes for darker complexions, and let me tell you – it was a search. I thought I’d find some info online since there are always so many “Best Of” lists – nope. Searched some magazines – nope. I had to pull out the Do It Yourself kit and actually get in the car and hit the pavement to find the best blushes for darker toned beauties. Here’s what I found; Continue reading →

Technorati Tags: 3CC, blush, bobbi brown, il makiage, Iman, korres, lancome, Mac, makeup, nars, nyx, three custom color, women of color

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As a makeup enthusiast and product junkie I love knowing what’s new in makeup-landia; what the trends are, what the hot new brands are, etc. As a makeup artist, however, I have to temper my enthusiasm with what works. Sometimes all you have 10-15 minutes to do the job and it needs to look like you spent an hour. This is where your Stand By products come in. No time for experimentation; I need to reach in, grab a product, and know exactly what it’s going to do. If you’re an aspiring artist, take note as many of these products are unilaterally loved by makeup artists all over. Makeup aficionados take note as many of these products are what artists are actually using, even when they say they’re using something else.

Here then are my Top Ten products: Continue reading →

Technorati Tags: benefit, bobbi brown, burts bees, cinema secrets, cosmetics, graftobian, Iman, kryolan, make up for ever, malin and goetz, nars, sephora, shu uemura, skindinavia, smashbox, stila, target, three custom colors

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