We all get in makeup ruts. I constantly find myself grabbing for my "neutrals" palette when I'm in a rush for work and then throughout the day I'm saying "I need to wear more color." Luckily, one of my staff members (THANKS ELISA!) gave me a few homework assignments and made sure to assign me colors I rarely wear. 

12/6/12:
I applied Designer Purple Pearl Glide liner all over the lid as a base - The Pearlglide liners are AMAZING! They are super bright and glittery, and what girl (or queen) doesn't like glitter? You can wear them as an eyeliner, or in my case they make a great base color.
Next, I loaded up a 239 brush with Young Punk mineralize eyeshadow and pressed it into the liner. This shade is equally glittery! The photo just doesn't do it justice! *Note to self: buy a real camera.*
I blended out the crease with Kid eyeshadow, a neutral flesh toned brown. Doing that blended out the purple so you couldn't see any harsh lines. 
My highlight, as always, was Gesso under the brow. And on the inner corners I used Vanilla Pigment.
I finished with Boot Black Liquid Liner and lots of Zoom Lash Mascara!

12/7/12:
I started off by applying Undercurrant Pearl Glide Eyeliner all over my lid and blending out the edges, fading the color upwards past my crease. I've decided I need these in EVERY color!
After that I took Spruce, a crushed metal from our Guilty Passions: Brilliantly Cool holiday kit, and applied it on the inner and outer corners of my eye with a 219 brush.
Using a 239 brush I pressed Old Gold pigment onto the Pearlglide liner on the center of my lid.
To blend out all of the edges I used a 224 brush and applied Kid to the crease.
My brow highlight was Vanilla, and I finished it off with Blacktrack Fluidline and my usual #3 lashes.

Don't be afraid to try new things! Breaking makeup habits and forcing yourself to try new products is the first step towards becoming a successful artist! 

I've been on a bit of a hiatus lately, but as of tonight I'm back in action! As most of you know, I recently transferred to another MAC that is a bit closer to my house...Can't beat a five minute commute! Between transferring to a new store, and the chaos of every day life, my blog fell to the bottom of my to do list. Womp. Womp...
So, to get back in the swing of things, here are a few photos from shoots, weddings, and of course HALLOWEEN!

     Halloween was great! It is, understandably, my favorite holiday of the year! Although, I'm sure most makeup artists would agree with me on that one. Since Halloween fell on a Wednesday this year I was fortunate enough to have Halloween appointments almost every day of the week leading up to the 31st.

     Matt, my boyfriend, went as Jack the Ripper (seen above). Since his identity is unknown I decided to make him look aged, tired, and "corpse-like." We used a light foundation all over, and I contoured him heavily with cream and powder products. The new MAC sculpting creams worked great for this project! I was able to contour his face as well as create lines and wrinkles. To set the contours and to give his eyes a tired look I used grey and mauve toned eyeshadows. Quarry and Haux by MAC were ideal shades for the look we were going for! For the veins under his eyes I used a cream blush from MAC called "tea petal."

   Eli was SUPPOSED to be a vampire! He showed up at my house with a last minute change of plans: Zombie makeup. Luckily, he's my friend....and I had a latex piece of "rotten flesh" lying around. Using spirit gum I attached the piece to his cheek and blended out the edges by building up a few layers of liquid latex.  I also put a very thin layer of liquid latex across his forehead, this later served as peeling flesh. Once that was completely dry I applied a light colored full coverage foundation over his face, ears, chest, and hair. Then I darkened they eyelid and area under the eye to give the illusion of a deep-set, hollow eye. I added a few veins using a blue paint pot, and finally set everything with a loose powder.
   To "zombiefy" his skin I tugged and pulled at the liquid latex on his forehead to create "holes" and "peeling flesh." Using MAC contour creme and fake blood I colored the wounds accordingly.

     Earlier in the week I decided to play around with some makeup during a fit of boredom. I took inspiration from my Halloween costume last year, as well as several other doll makeup images found on Pintrest and Google.  The first thing I did was conceal my eyebrows using a glue stick and concealer.  There are a ton of tutorials on Youtube that give step by step instructions on how to do that! For my skin I mixed Vanilla pigment with a light full coverage foundation, this gave the skin a plastic shiny look. I set the foundation with translucent powder and sprayed Fix + to maintain a dewy finish. After the skin was done I drew on an exaggerated cartoon like eyebrow using Blacktrack Fluidline. I used matte purple shades on the eyes and made sure to apply the makeup in a very round shape to make the eyes look big and doll-like. I Finished the eyes with eyeliner, black on top and white kohl on bottom, and false lashes. I applied the lower set of lashes below my natural lashline to enlarge my eyes.
     I applied a bubblegum pink blush on the apples of my cheeks in a circular shape and added some freckles with my Fluidline. Still using the Fluidline, I drew a glasgow grin and a cupie style lip.

What did you dress up as for Halloween?

Holy guacamole! Found this little gem today online after a customer told me about it...

Face:
Prep & Prime Skin
Prolongwear Concealer & Foundation
Studio Fix Powder
Mineralize Skinfinish in Dark (contour)
Peaches Blush
Too Chic Beauty Powder (highlight)

Eyes:
Painterly Paint Pot, per usual.
Nylon (lid)
Samoa Silk (crease)
Brown Script (crease/corner)
Gesso (Highlight)
Blacktrack & Fascinating Liners
Zoom Lash
#43 lashes

Lips:
Chicory Lip Pencil
Crosswires Lipstick

Face:
Prep & Prime Skin
Studio Sculpt with #188 brush to make it more sheer
Prolongwear Concealer
Mineralize Skinfinish Natural
Nars Laguna Bronzer (contour)
Warm Soul Mineral Blush
Soft and Gentle Mineralize Skinfinish

Eyes:
Painterly Paint Pot
Crystal Avalanche (lid)
Copperplate (crease)
Print & Carbon (corner)
Gesso (highlight)
Blacktrack liner
Zoom Lash
#43 Lashes

Lips:
Honeylove Lipstick
Have to Have it Liner
Luminary Lusterglass

This poor woman braved tropical storm Debby in order to get her makeup done for a family member's wedding! Talk about devoted...

Here's what I used:
Eyes- Brun (eyebrows)
Painterly paint pot
Nylon (lid)
Weathered Prolongwear eyeshadow (crease)
Typographic (outer corner)
Blacktrack (upper and lower lashline and waterline)
Zoom waterfast lash
#36 lashes

Face:
I did a "skin cocktail" by mixing two pumps of Studio Fix Fluid with one pump of Prep and Prime Skin and a few drops of Pink Rebel Lusterdrops. (My lovely coworker Tiffany gave me the idea!)
Prolongwear Concealer (under eyes, down center of nose, forehead, around lips)
Select Sheer pressed powder

Cheeks:
Cubic blush
Give Me Sun mineral bronzer

Lips:
Blankety lipstick
Nice N' Spicy prolongwear liner
Baby Sparks dazzleglass

It may be only June, but fashion week has come and gone and that can only mean one thing: the trends for this fall are hitting the market! Come August you'll start to notice the shift in trends from spring/summer into fall/winter and I can not wait!

The color palette is inspired by cool tones, jewels, sepias, and neutrals. The textures play with metallic against mattes, and the skin is velvety. Lips are red and lashes are barely there. This upcoming season is all about picking a feature and amplifying it, then softly building the rest of your makeup around it. Whether it's a strong brow, geometric liner, or intense contour, this season will put a masculine spin on feminine beauty makeup.

Jewel tones seem to make a comeback every winter, but this season the placement is different. Try mixing up the way you apply your eyeshadow and go outside of the box with where you place color. Mix matte and metallic textures, and skip a brow highlight. Light washes of shadow are leading this season's styles vs. high impact intense color

Red lips are a classic look that you can't go wrong with. The modern spin on this season's red lip is to pair it with a truly nude eye; think "no makeup makeup!" Skip on loading up on the mascara, and if you can't live without it try only applying it to the top lashes. Apply a wine or burgundy colored stain if bright red is too intense!

Graphic eyeliner gets more geometric this season. Instead of a classic winged out liner this look is more about adding structure and architecture to the face. Not quite the classic look of winged eyeliner, this is definitely more of a statement.

Brows are fuller and darker this season. Skip the tweezers and grab some clear brow gel! A fuller brow is youthful, but still strong.

This season's contouring and highlighting has moved on from bronzed and glowy to cool and velvety. Creamier textures in cool browns are replacing warm bronzers, and highlights are less shimmery and more subtle. The look is all about playing with the natural shadows of the face to give depth and shape.

Although runway makeup is beautiful, it isn't the most wearable. Take this season's trends and customize them to fit your lifestyle! Work with products you have, perhaps applying them with a new technique or placing them differently. You'll be surprised with what you end up with! Don't be afraid to be a little messy or make a mistake. Makeup isn't supposed to be perfect and clean.

My first client today was on her way to have her engagement photos taken, and I jumped on the opportunity to take a few photos of my own! Clearly I'm not a photographer, but here are her before and after photos:

I'm a total sucker for beauty makeup, especially bridal makeup. On Janette we decided to go with light brown shades on the eyes, and keep the lashes and skin the main focus. I used #4 lashes from MAC, which are great for brides! They are natural, but still elegant and sexy.

We kept her foundation light and matte. Satin textures photograph beautifully, but for a beach shoot in Florida we needed as much shine control as possible!  I used one sheer coat of prolongwear concealer as a foundation and Prep & Prime highlighter under the eyes and on the high planes of her face. I finished off the skin with a light dusting of mineral powder.

For cheek color I used Keep It Loose causual colour from MAC. These are AMAZING cream blushes that double as a lip color. Not only are they convenient, but they are practical and simple to use. Creamy products always look nice in photos, and they give the skin a nice glow without being too shiny.

On her lips I used Modesty lipstick, Nice N' Spicy Prolongwear Lipliner, and Big Baby Plushglass.

I can't wait to see the professional photos!