Friends with Benefits

Best Friend n. Someone who willingly puts their face and hair in the hands of a trainee make-up artist and hair stylist of only three weeks and is happy to sit through hours of prodding, powdering and preening.

Last weekend, my best friend, Ally, kindly volunteered to be my first client outside make-up school and let me loose on her face and hair. Little did she know what she’d let herself in for.  I came prepared with a suitcase (yes, suitcase) full of make-up and styling equipment, as well as a beauty box full of eyeshadows, lipsticks and other bits and bobs. 

The first task was to blow-dry Ally’s hair.  I never realised the skill involved in doing a professional blow-dry until we were taught last week.  For a start, hair should be about 80% dry before you blow-dry it. Then you have to hold the hairdryer in your right hand and the barrel brush in the left, continually twisting the brush and moving the blow-dryer as you dry the hair. Then you have to ‘catch’ the section of hair with the hairdryer and pick it up again with the brush and use a spare finger on your right hand to section out the hair so that you do not have to put your tools down. It’s a bit like patting your head and rubbing your belly at first!

I had an idea of the looks I wanted to create on Ally.  The first one was to be quite a natural look, using shades of cream and brown to accentuate her green eyes and a rosy pink lip. As inspiration, I used the image of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in the Burberry Body campaign.  I love the caramel colours used around her eyes which really compliment her colouring and match her hair colour.  However, Ally’s hair colour is a lot darker than Rosie’s so I used a slightly darker shade around the eyes.  The second look I wanted to create on Ally was a pale face with contoured cheeks, nude lips, dark eye make-up and gold leaf on the eyebrows. I have been dying to put gold leaf on someone for ages.  I love the flaky effect you can create with it.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite sure how to get the gold leaf to stick to Ally’s eyebrows without blocking the eyebrows (covering them with soft wax) first and I didn’t want to scare her by pulling out my blunt knife and wax, so I chose to coat the eyebrows in Vaseline and glitter lip fix and then stick little bits of gold leaf onto them. It worked quite well for a first attempt, but I think lip-gloss may be a better option for the future as it is a little bit stickier.

It was really great to transform Ally’s face and take her from a very simple day look to a more conceptual, edgy look.  See the transformation for yourself...

The 'before' photo

The daytime look

The Gold Leaf look

Popping my Fashion Week cherry

Just a quickie from me tonight....

I have always wanted to go to London Fashion Week, ALWAYS! When I was dabbling in modelling I wanted to strut down the catwalk and when I was working in events I wanted to organise the whole thing. I am pleased to announce that yesterday I finally got there, courtesy of an old work colleague, who will now forever be on my mental list of favourite people.

Walking into Somerset House was like walking into a whole new world.  A man wearing what only can be described as a pink plastic tent hurried passed me as a woman wearing the most beautiful metallic gold Christian Louboutin shoes tottered precariously over the cobblestones in the courtyard.  Exhibitors eyed me up and down as they tried to work out who I was wearing (French Connection, Topshop, Kurt Geiger and H&M in case anyone is interested) and if I could afford any of their wares (the answer is sadly, no)! MAC had a great little booth and bloggers bar, offering make-up touch ups and great little notebooks with face charts that trainee make-up artists like myself can 'colour in' with the products used on a particular model.

I went to see Todd Lynn's catwalk show.  His exquisitely tailored collection were comprised of flowing silks and linen in silver, grey, blue and black. Jackets and trousers were cut open to reveal flashes of flesh. One stand out piece was a top which looked to made entirely out of pins.  The make-up took a back seat to the clothing: fresh faces, nude lips, heavily contoured cheeks and a strong sweep of blue eyeshadow across the eyelid.

All in all my LFW experience was a great one. Hopefully by the time the A/W 2012 shows come around in February, I'll be working backstage.  That would be a dream come true!

London Fashion Week, baby!

LFW attracts the stylish and the bizarre!

The Todd Lynn show

Play Time!

This week, we have been getting more artistic at make-up school and working on more avant-garde and conceptual looks for photography and catwalk.  Having seen photos from haute couture fashion weeks with models sporting very imaginative, cutting-edge looks, I was keen to see if I could master the art myself.  However, I was never particularly good at art in school: I was always a bit too ‘safe’ and light-handed with my 2B pencil and this style of make-up definitely calls for you to 'play' with make-up, push the boundaries and design works of art.

We started by taking the 20’s inspired look (see previous post) and (under the instruction of our tutor) layering make-up over this to achieve a more artistic look:

Then, today, as I was the only student in class, my tutor and I had an opportunity to take the conceptual look a bit further.  I don’t know if any of you managed to grab a copy of this week’s Stylist Magazine on your way into work this morning, but in the beauty section there was an article and six page editorial demonstrating the work of an amazing make-up artist, Alex Box. Box is a truly inspirational make-up artist and her work beautifully traverses the boundaries between make-up and art. She is the Creative Director of Illamasqua, which is fast becoming my favourite make-up brand.

Using the ‘Cubism’ inspired look as inspiration, my tutor demonstrated the techniques for creating angular shapes on one half of my face and I did my best to complete the other half. 

Photo of the image in Stylist Magazine that inspired today's look!

Isn't make-up amazing?  Feel free to comment on this or any of my other posts.





Week One

It is the end of my first week at make-up school and so far the verdict is two massive, highly enthusiastic thumbs up!  I absolutely love it!  I haven’t felt so much in my element in a long time.  All my worries (see last post) were completely unfounded. 

There were only two of us in the class this week: myself and another girl, which meant that we had a lot of time to learn and practise our skills on each other, with the constant attention of our tutor.  It has also meant that, in one week, more make-up has been applied, removed and applied again to my face than ever before and that my semi-permanent lashes that I had professionally applied as a pre-birthday treat have taken a battering from all the mascara that has been coated onto them.  But I am not complaining – I have learnt so much in the last week and I am already feeling confident about the feasibility of making this my career.  So much so that when watching the demonstrations at some of the make-up counters in Selfridges last night at Fashion’s Night Out last night, I was thinking “A smoky eye...I can do that, no problem!”.

I am in absolute awe of our tutor, Branka Vorkapic.  For her young age she has achieved so much and worked in many different areas of the industry including fashion/editorial, TV and body painting.  She is a very personable tutor and keen to share her knowledge and tricks of the trade.

So...the moment you’ve all been waiting for!  Here are some photos of the make-up I’ve done this week:



A daytime look with smoky eye





A dramatic yellow and purple eye with glitter





60's inspired look





20's inspired look















Back-to-School Dilemmas

It is the night before my first day at make-up school and I am feeling nervous and excited in equal measure.  Actually, scratch that - nervous is definitely the predominant emotion.  The main worries that are swilling around my head like dirty dishwater are (in no particular order):

-          Have I made the right choice?  Can I really start again?

-          Have I picked the right course for me?

-          What shall I wear?

-          Will the other students like me?

-          Will the tutors like me?

-          Will I be the oldest one there?

-          What if I’m not actually very good at doing other people’s make-up?

Like all good school girls, I am packing my bag the night before.  So far, I have packed all the necessities such as a notebook, make-up wipes (as we will probably be working on each other and I don’t want to leave class looking like a clown at the end of the day), hand sanitizer and MAC Brush Cleaner.  We will be given a starter kit, including a set of brushes, but I’m not sure what else comes in the kit and I don’t want to turn up empty-handed and look like a make-up novice!  I am not very good at packing light and I find myself in a bit of a Goldilocks-esque dilemma: which of my three make-up bags shall I take?

• Case no. 1:  The same size as a carry-on suitcase and made of heavy duty steel and aluminium, it can just about fit all of the make-up and brushes I own, minus the stuff I use on a regular basis.  Whist it would be comforting to have all my stuff with me, I have a feeling it won’t be required on the first day and will make me look like a bit of a ‘try-hard’, which I don’t believe is considered to be a positive attribute in a school-like situation!
• Case no. 2: A sexy, black beauty case by Beauty Boxes, given to me by my lovely friends for my birthday.  It can carry all the kit you would need if you know what style of make-up you would be doing and who you were working on.  But I have no idea what will be happening tomorrow and want to be prepared.
• Case no 3: Not actually a case but my make-up bag with all the make-up I use on a daily basis, plus a few more items just in case I feel like mixing it up. The trouble with only taking this bag is that the shades of eyeshadow, foundation and lip colours that I use on my own face won’t necessarily suit anyone else in the class. Also, shouldn’t I keep the make-up I use on myself separate from that which I use on other people?



Which one is 'just right'?

The truth is that I know I don’t really need to take anything with me: they will have plenty of cosmetics there- it’s a make-up school for heaven’s sake!  But the perfectionist in me just wants to make a great first impression and show everyone that I’m serious about making this my career...And of course, be the best in class!

Another exciting occasion happening this week is Fashion’s Night Out on Thursday.  A night of after-hours shopping, fashion shows, pop-up restaurants and of course, make-up demos!  I’m hoping to head down to MAC on Oxford Street and the make-up counters at Selfridges, where I am sure they’ll be lots to see and purchase.  Could get messy - wish me luck!