Autumn Leaves and Bare Trees

By far, my favourite seasons are autumn and spring.  I love the colours that these seasons bring, both in nature and in fashion, and prefer the often crisp but bright and temperate days during the Spring and Autumn months to the harshness of temperature that comes with summer and winter.  For me,  autumn has always been about newness, whether it be a new age (my birthday is in September) or  moving into a new school year with a new bag and pencil case (as was always the case when I was little- I was stationery obsessed!).  I also like that if you use the Americanism for autumn  (fall) then you have two seasons  named after actions and these actions kind of sum up the seasons as a whole.

Anyway, I digress...this is a make-up blog not a high school English essay!  What I’m getting at is that I really like autumn with all its rich colours and I had been thinking about doing some make-up based on the changing colours of leaves .  My opportunity came when Karen Helle, who I had previously worked with on a stylist’s fashion shoot last month, asked me to do make-up and hair for her autumn themed shoot in the park.  I had recently bought some new eyeshadows and lipsticks in suitably autumnal shades and was dying to try them out.

My first model, Byony, was pale-skinned with blue eyes and dark hair with red streaks running through it.  On her face, I used Illamasqua’s Skin Base foundation in shade 6, which I absolutely love because it provides a good coverage without looking heavy and photographs very well.  On Bryony’s eyes, I used shades of orange, amber and brown to accentuate her blue eyes.  I lined her eyes with a black pencil (rather than a liquid liner) and smudged it into the top and bottom lash lines for a softer finish, before applying mascara.  I contoured Bryony’s cheeks with a matt brown pressed powder and then highlighted her cheekbones with a liquid highlighter. I added a soft pink blusher and some bronzer to warm up Bryony’s cheeks.  Finally, I applied a nude colour to the lips.





Model: Byrony
Photography: Karen Helle
MU/H: Donna Harris a.k.a. The Make-up Darling

My second model, Tara, had Asian skin, dark eyes and dark hair.  I used Smashbox Studio Skin 15 Hour Wear Foundation (shade 3.2) which I got a small sample of to try it out.  I really liked this foundation – it went on really quickly and smoothly, photographed well and looked like the model was wearing no foundation at all.  Tara had absolutely flawless skin anyway, so the last thing I wanted to do was stick a heavy foundation on her, so this one worked perfectly.  I wanted to do both dark eyes and dark lips on Tara. I applied a black eyeshadow primer to Tara’s eyelid followed by a mixture of black and plum eyeshadows, which I also used to line the bottom lash line. I then added  purple and gold eyeshadow to the middle of the eyelid to add more dimension to the eyes. I lined the eyes with a black eyeshadow to increase the smokiness and then added lots of mascara.  I heavily contoured Tara’s face with a matt brown pressed powder and added a liquid highlighter to the top of her cheekbones, down her nose and on her cupid’s bow.  Finally, I added a deep purple lipstick, which I made by mixing two shades of NYX lipstick (Pandora and Almost Black) together, and  then lined the lips with black eyeliner for more definition  before smudging the liner into the lipstick.

Model: Tara
Photography: Karen Helle
MU/H: Donna Harris a.k.a. The Make-up Darling

For both models, I wanted to keep the hair simple and quite ‘undone’, so I lightly backcombed their hair to add volume and sprayed in some hairspray at the roots.

I am really happy with the outcome and these photos will definitely go in my professional portfolio.  Neither Bryony or Tara have done any professional modelling before but I think they could both have a career in the industry if they chose to.  I am in awe of Karen’s ability to capture the beauty of nature in these photos, like the different colours in the bark of the tree behind Bryony’s head.

As always, thank you for reading this post and I would love to have your comments.  You can also follow me on Twitter @donnaharris_mua or ‘Like’ my Facebook page.

All That Glitters...

Hello all!  I’m sorry that I haven’t posted anything for a while.  It has been a crazy couple of weeks for me.  There is so much I want to share with you so expect more than one post this week.  You can also now follow me on Twitter (@donnaharris_mua) and of course there’s The Make-up Darling Facebook page (link at the bottom of the page), where I post extra photos of my work and chat about products that I like.

This post is a cautionary tale.  I recently received an email, forwarded from a very reputable source, asking for trainee make-up artists to assist a make-up team backstage at a big fashion show in an exclusive London nightclub.  The position was unpaid but as catwalk make-up is an area that I am very interested in getting into and as the email stated that we would be assisting “top industry professionals”, I jumped at the chance as I thought it would be a great way to gain experience and network with top make-up artists that may like my work and want to use me again in the future. 

So in an effort to impress and appear professional to these top make-up artists I made enquiries into what was the go-to foundation of choice of make-up artists when doing a fashion show: something that was certain to photograph on a models skin when all the flashes from photographers’ cameras go off.  I went out and spent money I don’t really have on three different shades of the recommended foundation (MAC Face and Body) to make sure my kit was full.  I also bought a new outfit as I was told by the organiser that they’d be a videographer and photographer doing backstage interviews and taking photos.  Well, a girl’s got to look her best, hasn’t she...especially when it could be her big break!

So last night I turned up at the venue (which, incidentally was on the other side of London from where I live) all giddy with expectation and the effects of a hastily downed can of Red Bull, only to find that there were no top make-up artists to be assisted – only around seven other students or recent graduates of various London make-up schools, just like me!  Imagine my disappointment!  And what made it worse was that (maybe naively) as I thought I would be assisting a professional, I had not asked the fashion stylist/organiser who emailed me what look she was going for with the make-up because, well, why would I when I thought I would be briefed by a professional make-up artist?  So I hadn’t packed my craft box full of gold leaf, sequins, diamante, feathers etc, which turned out to be exactly the type of thing the stylist wanted!  Thankfully, I had enough black and gold eyeshadows, gold glitter and eyeliner to get by, and what I did not have was provided by another student make-up artist. 

The poor models were call complaining because they had been at the venue for hours, un-fed and un-watered, and some didn’t know how they were going to get home after the show (which was due to start at midnight).  I ended up playing counsellor and pharmacist to many of them who had headaches and came to my makeshift make-up station (in the disabled toilet!) for paracetamol and a chat. Thank God I’d packed a First Aid kit. These girls were working unpaid to with the promise of a professional photographer backstage taking shots for their portfolio – again, something that never materialised.

In the end, we managed to fulfil the stylist’s make-up brief and make the models look gorgeous.  The MAC Face and Body foundations went on beautifully on one model’s face and another model’s legs (mysteriously covered in cuts and bruises) so I am thankful that I bought them.  But last night served as a harsh reminder that not everyone out there is as genuine as me and that some people will lie to get what they want at the least expense.  It’s a lesson I learnt in my dancing and modelling days; people will always take advantage of your passion for your art and your desire to reach your goals. 

Oh, the joys of working in a creative industry....!

Make-up by me except for the gold leaf, which was added by another MUA

A day in the park

A couple of Friday night’s ago around 9pm, just when I was settling down in front of the TV with a nice glass of wine, I received an email through a website where I have posted some photos of my work.   The email was from a student by the name of Amaju Ogun, studying fashion styling at university.  She had organised a shoot for the next day as part of her university project but her make-up artist and hair stylist had dropped out at the last minute and she wondered if I would be able to step in.   Feeling sorry that the poor girl had been left in the lurch and reasoning that this would be a good opportunity for me to get some experience of working on a shoot and with different hair and skin types, I agreed to do it.

So on the Saturday morning I made my way to Gunnersbury Park in Acton, where the shoot was taking place.  I’m not really an outdoorsy/nature-loving person, but I must say this was a gorgeous location for a shoot and is also one of the only public places I’ve come across where you don’t need a licence to conduct a professional photo shoot.   There I met Amaju, a team of photographers, including the very talented Karen Helle, and the fantastic  models, Jesmond and Claire. 

Amaju’s brief was to style middle-aged women in such a way that they are portrayed as strong, empowered women.  The models’ hair was to be styled in a simple low bun, as the models were to be wearing hats for much of the shoot.  The brief for the make-up was a day look with dark lips and dark smoky eyes; think Marlene Dietrich meets Dynasty!  Now before this shoot, I had never worked on mature skin but I knew from my studies that, as a rule of thumb, cream-based foundations work best and that it’s important to use a primer to smooth the texture of the skin, an illuminator to give a more youthful appearance, and to keep eyeshadow and lipstick colours as light as possible.  However given that this last point contradicted my brief, I had to use shades of eyeshadow and lipstick that worked within the confines of the brief but still complimented the models’ overall look and showed them off at their best.

Getting ready

Model: Claire Lane
Photographer: Karen Helle

On Claire, I used browns and creams on her eyelids and blended them well so that it didn’t look too harsh on camera.  I used a brown eyeliner and brown mascara.  I used a dusky pink blusher on the cheeks to lift the complexion and mixed together two shades of lipstick to create a kind of raspberry shade.



Model: Claire Lane
Photographer: Karen Helle
Stylist: Amaju Ogun
Make-up artist/hair stylist: Donna Harris aka The Make-up Darling



Model: Claire Lane
Photographer: Karen Helle
Stylist: Amaju Ogun
Make-up artist/hair stylist: Donna Harris aka The Make-up Darling

Model: Claire Lane
Photographer: Karen Helle
Stylist: Amaju Ogun
Make-up artist/hair stylist: Donna Harris aka The Make-up Darling

On Jesmond, I used gold and terracotta tones on her eyelids and a black eyeliner and mascara to accentuate her blue eyes.  I used a bronzer to define her cheekbones and applied a bright red lipstick, which I then darkened with a bit of black eyeliner (It sounds strange but really works!).



Model: Jesmond Murray
Photographer: Karen Helle
Stylist: Amaju Ogun
Make-up artist/hair stylist: Donna Harris aka The Make-up Darling

Model: Jesmond Murray
Photographer: Karen Helle
Stylist: Amaju Ogun
Make-up artist/hair stylist: Donna Harris aka The Make-up Darling



Model: Jesmond Murray
Photographer: Karen Helle
Stylist: Amaju Ogun
Make-up artist/hair stylist: Donna Harris aka The Make-up Darling

I had a great day on this shoot and met lots of lovely talented people that I hope to work with again in the future.  It was good experience and has also made me more confident that I can handle whatever challenge is thrown at me on a shoot or with a client.  I hope to work on some more shoots soon.