A Little Less Conversation...

I've realised that my last couple of posts have been a little word-heavy: I've been writing and describing lots of things to you and have neglected to show you a lot of the work that I have been doing over the last couple of months.  So in this post, I am simply going to show you photos from some of my latest photo shoots.

The first set of photos were taken by the lovely Karen Helle. The model is Samantha Hicks and the Stylist is Mariana Lourenco. Hair and make-up is, of course, by me. This photoshoot took place in a theatre and I think you'll agree that the photos evoke a sense of old Hollywood glamour with a modern, sexy edge:

The second set of photos are from a photoshoot which was organised as part of an Advanced Make-up course I did at The Session School, London.  If you are interested in becoming a Make-up Artist I thoroughly recommend you check out The Session School. The photography is by Tim Wheeler, who was absolutely amazing to work with.  The model's name was Erin, the hair is by the lovely Jo Baber. Make-up by me.  I had to create two different looks on Erin; the first one being a natural/neutral look.  For the second look, my inspiration was winter frost but I wanted to do an 'ugly-pretty' look rather than a fantasy look with glitter.  I wanted to take all the warm colours out of her skin and make her look pale and hollow. I decided to add a little bead ornament to hang off her cheek like diamante tears, to add some more drama to the make-up.

A mixed bunch

I cannot believe it is half way through December and I haven’t written a post for this month!  Time has really got away from me this month and I’ve been quite busy.  Among other things, I’ve had two photoshoots, a trip to The Clothes Show Live in Birmingham (which was amazing, by the way), another fashion show and an audition for Benefit Cosmetics, which I passed, so I may be a ‘Benebabe’ on a shop floor near you (final interview pending)!

I wanted to share with you some photos from a recent shoot I did at Clerkenwell House in London.  It was a crazy shoot with a whole group of photographers, about ten amateur commercial models and three make-up artists.  We had use of the entire three floors of the club and the models had shoots with many of the photographers throughout the day.  It was a really good way to work with lots of photographers and get lots of images for my portfolio.  It also tested my speed at applying make-up or adapting a look as we only had about 20 minutes to work on each model.

I haven't received all the images from the photographers yet but here are a few of my favourite images from that day:

Photographer: Konrad Dziedzic
Model: Kelly-Marie
MUA: Donna Harris

Photographer: Ian Clark
Model: Kelly-Marie
MUA: Donna Harris

Photographer: Ian Clark
Model: Shefta
MUA: Donna Harris

Photographer: Dominique Moreau
Model: Shefta
MUA: Donna Harris



Photographer: Craig Chmiel
Model: R'Nay
MU/H: Donna Harris



Photographer: Nain Dziyauddin
Model: R'Nay
MU/H: Donna Harris

Photographer: Nain Dziyauddin
Model: Royal
MUA: Donna Harris

Photographer: Dominique Moreau
Model: Kelly-Marie
MUA: Donna Harris



I would love to hear which images were your favourite as I am currently trying to decide which ones to use on my business cards and in my portfolio.  You can message me through this blog or through my facebook and Twitter pages.  Also let me know what you'd like me to include in this blog in the new year. Perhaps you want to hear less about me and more about different products on the market. Or perhaps you want more  make-up tips. Just let me know.

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.

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.

Testing my Skills

I am very happy because my blog has had over 500 page views.  I know that’s not a lot in the great scheme of the world wide web but considering ‘The Make-up Darling’ has only been up and running for just short of two months and is only publicised through my Facebook page, I think it’s pretty impressive! When I get to 1000 page views I will run a competition for one lucky reader to win some make-up goodies or perhaps a make-over, so keep reading and encourage your friends to read it too!

For the last couple of weeks, I have been working on getting my make-up kit together and building my portfolio by doing test shoots with photographers.  These shoots are unpaid, but are great for newbie make-up artists to gain experience and confidence on shoots and, of course, to get those all-important photos.  In the final week of my course, we had a photoshoot day too, where I brought in a model (my cousin’s beautiful 17 year old nice, Shamika) and created four different looks on her.  I’ve held back on showing you these photos as, much to my frustration, I have not received all of the photos from the school.  But, I couldn’t wait any longer so here they are:

The first look I created on Shamika was inspired by an old beauty shot of my idol, Tyra Banks.  It’s just a simple base with rounded black, smoky eyes and a neutral lip:





For the second look, I added in hair extensions and winged out the eye make-up for extra drama. I added two shades of purple to the eye and darkened the eyebrows.   I contoured the face and added a bit more blusher for a stronger look:

For the third look, I wanted to create a bronzed goddess look.  Starting with a clean face, I applied foundation and then contoured the face using a dark brown powder and a liquid highlighter in a gold shade.  I darkened and lengthened the eyebrows using a dark brown matt eyeshadow, and then applied a mixture of bronze and gold eyeshadows to the eyelids, followed by a thick sweep of black cake eyeliner.  To the lips I applied a gold lipstick and then stuck on tiny pieces of gold leaf.  For the hair, I added brown and blonde extensions, and twisted, dreadlock-like extensions to the hairline, twisted them around themselves and pinned in place.  Unfortunately, most of the photos of this look are missing- I only have this one of the work in progress:

For the final look, I wanted something completely different.  I wanted to play with bright colours and create a fantasy look.  Firstly, I added colour to the hair by fish-plaiting small pieces of coloured extensions.  I twisted some of the plaits around themselves again and pinned them up.  I added bright blue shades to the eyelids, a bit of glitter and some false lashes. Under the eye, I applied a bit of green eyeshadow.   I coloured the eyebrows bright pink using face paints and applied a bright pink lipstick to the model’s lips, followed by a clear gloss.  To finish the look off, I added some paper butterflies to the hair and stuck one on the models face using eyelash glue.  I also added a diamante beauty-spot.

I had a lot of fun creating these looks.  I think the last one is my favourite, just because it is so creative and colourful, although the bronzed look comes a close second (and once I get the photos of the finished look I’ll post them for all to see).  Please let me know what you think and which look is your favourite.   I also want to say a special thank you to my model, Shamika, for being so fantastic and patient on the day of the shoot.