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.

Must-have Make-up Brushes

Since becoming a make-up artist I have developed an unhealthy obsession, above all other things, for make-up brushes.  This should not really be surprising to those that know me well:  as a child and even as an adult I had an addiction to buying pens – I believe a pen can make or break your handwriting! A make-up brush is just a tool of a different trade and the right brush can be crucial to beautiful make-up.

Below is a photo of my make-up belt containing all the brushes I take to every job or photoshoot. It contains around 50 brushes.  I also have brush roll of 20 or so extra brushes which I take along if I am working on many models and run out of brushes because there is no time to clean the brushes in between models.

My brush belt

In this post, I am going to tell you what I think are the must-have brushes for your make-up bag and show you examples of brushes I use and love.

1.       FOUNDATION BRUSH

This is a brush made of synthetic fibres and has a flat edge. It is used to apply and blend liquid and cream foundation onto the face.  It ensures the foundation is applied evenly.  My favourite foundation brushes are the MAC Foundation Brush (190) and the Sephora Double ended Foundation and Concealer Brush, which has a concealer brush (see below) on the other end, is bright green and brightens up my brush belt!

Top: MAC foundation brush (190)
Bottom: Sephora Double-ended Concealer + Foundation Brush

2.       CONCEALER BRUSH

Made from synthetic fibres with a rounded head, it is much smaller than the foundation brush and used to apply concealer around delicate areas such as the eyes, as well as for detail work in creases, on blemishes and around the edges of the nose and lips.  I have a few concealer brushes, including a flat concealer brush from Royal & Langnickel, which I tend to use with cream concealers, and the Sigma Precision Tapered brush (P86) which I used with liquid concealers or to buff and blend the concealer in for a beautiful finish.

Top: Royal & Langnickel Concealer Brush (BE14)
Bottom: Sigma Precision Tapered Brush (P86)

3.       ANGLED BROW BRUSH

This is made of synthetic bristles that are flat with a slanted edge. This is a must have to fill in and enhance eyebrows and I also use it to create a perfect 50’s flick with gel eyeliner.

Royal & Langnickel Angled Brow Brush

4.       EYESHADOW APPLICATION AND BLENDING BRUSHES

Eyeshadow application brushes come in many different shapes and sizes.  They should be made of natural hair and are used to apply pigments and eyeshadow to the eyelid.  Blending brushes are made of real hair and have a dome- shaped head with longer bristles than other eyeshadow brushes.  It should be soft and fluffy and is used for blending eyeshadows together and softening edges. It can also be used for applying powder under the eyes to set concealer.  Both of the brushes below are from Sephora (unfortunately not available in the UK).  I love the orange, double-ended eyeshadow brush as one end can be used for application and the other for blending.

Left: Sephora Double-ended Everyday Eye Brush
Right: Sephora Blending  Brush

5.       CONTOUR BRUSH

This brush should be made of natural fibres and feel soft but firm.  It has a slightly tapered head, which enables you to apply contouring blush in the correct place by turning the brush so that the longer hairs are closer to the jawline and the shorter hairs are closer to the cheekbone.  This brush can also be used for applying bronzer, blusher or highlighter.

Left: Daniel Sandler Watercolour brush (to be used with liquid blusher)
Right: Royal & Langnickel Contour Powder Brush

I hope this gives you some idea of the tools of the make-up trade and how to use them.  It is worth spending money on good quality brushes as it will make the application of your make-up so much easier and you will get a better result. With poor quality brushes the bristles often shed heavily and feel scratch on the skin.

A New Dawn

Today marks the end of one of the toughest years I have ever had.  In January 2011, I started what I thought was my dream job as an Account Executive at an innovative integrated marketing company, only to find that the dream job was making me ill, stressed and generally miserable.  Three months later I was made redundant from that job which, in hindsight, seems like a blessing.  After six months of being in and out of work, I had lost the passion for events and marketing and lost confidence in my ability to do the job.  And that’s when I found make-up and you know the rest....

Becoming a make-up artist was honestly the best decision I made all year.  I’ve found the creativity that was missing from my life since I gave up dancing and met some lovely, talented and inspiring people.

I want to say a big thank you to my family and friends and everyone that has read this blog, liked the Facebook page or followed me on Twitter and commented on my work.  I started this blog just to document my journey in a new career, not expecting the reaction it got.  Readers from all over the world have somehow found my little blog. It’s amazing!

My main New Year’s resolution is to continue to learn and grow as a make-up artist.  I want to produce beautiful work and make every job I do better than the one before.  For this blog, I would like to keep writing about things that you want to read.  I don’t want to fill it with make-up tips and tutorials- there are already many, many blogs and vlogs on the internet:  two of my absolute favourite are the video tutorials on youtube by Pixiwoo and Gossmakeupartist.  They are absolutely amazing make-up artists and a great inspiration to me.  But I would like to do more product reviews for you.  The cosmetics market is an absolute maze – there are so many products available on the high street, online and in professional make-up stores.  I would like to be able to let you know what I think the best products are for different skin types and tones, whether it be for a night out, a photoshoot, or a catwalk show.  And, as always, I’ll keep you up-to-date with what’s going on in my life in 2012. It's going to be a great year!

But, for now, all that’s left for me to do is to wish you all a very... (Click here)

Love,

The Make-up Darling xx

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.

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.