Bringing Sexy Back

It seems my Make-over Sundays are taking off!  This Sunday I had the pleasure of practising my hair and make-up skills on another of my best friends, Elorena. 

Elorena has great skin and amazing cheekbones. She usually keeps her make-up to a minimum, so what I wanted to do with her was bring out her inner, sexy vixen!  It was also a great opportunity for me to try out my new favourite toys: my Dinair Airbrush and Babyliss Thermo Ceramic Rollers.  I love airbrush make-up. In just a few minutes you can get a flawless, undetectable coverage that lasts for ages.  The airbrush foundation is water and rub resistant and you only need a few drops to cover your whole face.  You can have as much or as little coverage as you want and can build coverage to cover blemishes or even tattoos!

I started by setting Elorena’s hair using the heated rollers.  Elorena’s hair is cut into a bob, but I wanted to give her hair a little more volume.  Heated rollers are great for this.  They are a little old-school, and some may prefer to use tongs, straighteners or wands to curl the hair, but I think they are really handy because I can just put them in and leave them while I do the make-up.

The 'before' photo with the heated rollers in

Once the rollers were in, I airbrushed Elorena’s face and then set about giving her a dramatic, winged out smoky eye.  I used black as the base colour but then added some gold to soften it a little bit. Her eyebrows were accentuated and lengthened slightly with a matt brown eyeshadow.  Then I highlighted her cheekbones, bridge of her nose and Cupid’s bow with Bobbi Brown’s Shimmer Brick (one of my favourite products ever) and a cranberry coloured blusher to further contour and accentuate her cheekbones.  I used a pinky-brown colour on her lips to finish off the look.  To complete the hair, I removed the rollers and combed out the curls with a wide-toothed comb.  Then I applied some serum to my hands and ran my fingers through her hair to smooth down any flyaway hairs and add shine.  Finally, I pinned back a section on each side.



After



For the second look I wanted to make the make-up even more dramatic.  I added shades of purple and silver to Elorena’s eyes, added a little more blusher to the cheeks and a darker shade to the lips.  For the hair, I pulled it back into a pony tail and then added a clip-in hair piece.  I think Elorena looks great with long hair! What do you think?

The second look

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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