New Fun

Kelly representing her Florida Gators on gameday!

Trying a new technique--leopard spots on Tiff.

Hi friends! I've been busy doing my own makeup and getting caught up with holiday party planning and other things (like my day job). I have been doing some demos and lessons, on friends who want to try a new look, learn technique or have an event. It's a good thing I do my own makeup every day, because I think it's important to practice each day to stay fresh and inspired. I've posted some pictures of a few things I've done lately.


Kelly had been wanting to try something totally wild and different for a while. She's a University of Florida alum and bleeds orange and blue for her Gators. We decided to do an orange and blue eye for a gameday event she had last weekend. I took a creamsicle-orange shimmery pigment and washed it up to her brow (nice highlight!) and packed a hot metallic orange onto her lid, blending it into the crease. I took some orange-y bronze glitter and tapped it into the crease and used it to line her bottom lashes. I finished the look with electric blue liner all around the eye. She texted me from the bar to tell me a friend had said something along the lines of "WTF!" she was so surprised by Kelly's daring look.

I was asked to do a couple of theme looks for a photo shoot for a hairstyle book a few weekends ago. The stylist I was working with wanted a peacock colored eye and a snow leopard look. I had a great time creating interpretations of these concepts in advance of the shoot. I am terrible at drawing, and was a little intimidated by the leopard idea. I went to work with a q-tip (minus the cotton tip), black, silver and white eye shadows. I'm incredibly proud of how the spots turned out, especially with an improvised technique! I packed on a ton of silver shadow onto Tiff's lids, followed by a bright matte white as liner. I took the stick from the q-tip, tapped the end into the black shadow and drew circle after circle. I finished each "spot" with a dot of white shadow.

The best husband ever, Ryan, suggested I try out the peacock look on him when I was frustrated by the demo I had done on myself. We joke that if I make it big as an artist, he will quit lawyering to be my creative director. Although he has never done makeup himself, he has great vision and has helped me create looks and tweak them at times. He encouraged me to go big and bold with the colors, taking them all the way out to his temples like a mask. It's a shame the colors didn't photograph as vibrantly as they appeared. I used a matte deep purple at the center of the lid and made concentric circles of different colors outward. Next came peacock blue, muted gold and shimmery green--all the colors of a peacock feather!

Portfolio Shoot II

Erika. Photo by Jenn Tran.

Jame. Photo by Jenn Tran.

Lindsey. Photo by Jenn Tran.

Caitlin. Photo by Jenn Tran.

Paula. Photo by Jenn Tran.

Yesterday Jenn and I did a five hour session with a new group of women. Like the last session, it was a lot of fun with lively conversation. Most of the women weren't previously acquainted, but within minutes it felt like a girls' day with a bunch of friends. I spent about 30-45 minutes with each woman, working from notes I had taken in the days leading up to the shoot. I had done a lot of google image searches prior to look at celebs and period makeup, while jotting notes on which colors to use. When I finished a face, I turned her over to Jenn who was working in various places around my apartment. A favorite spot ended up being the wall of New Yorker covers in my front hallway. We had a run of ages between 23 and 34 (not that you could ever tell who's what age) and all women have remarkably lovely skin; it didn't take much to polish up their complexions. In some instances I used minimal color to simply highlight bone structure, focusing mainly on lips and skin. In others, I chose to dramatize the face in a way the owner wasn't accustomed to. A few ladies in this shoot rarely wear makeup, and I especially enjoyed their surprise and delight at seeing themselves in a new way. Capturing these looks for my portfolio would not have been possible without Jenn's incredible eye and use of light and surroundings. I am incredibly grateful to her for collaborating with me, and donating her talent to my fledgling business. My latest dream is for the two of us to be asked to make a book that features my makeup and her portraiture. Hey, it could happen!

Art Is A Lie That Makes Us Realize The Truth

The title is a quote by Pablo Picasso. I went down to the Seattle Art Museum with my dad today to look at the exhibit of his work. I noticed that high on the plain white walls above the work were quotes on art by the man himself. As I wandered through the galleries with my dad I thought about how incredible it is to be able to capture and display work that spans a person's career so that the progression and evolution of style can be traced. Picasso had a lot to say that he expressed through his striking paintings, drawings and sculpture. As I examined his faces I started to think about makeup (as I invariably do when looking at a face) and how it's like drawing and painting.

I thought about the title quote and how it could apply to all art forms, specifically makeup. It's a bold assertion and I wanted to understand what the man meant and whether it was a toss-off provocation or relevant. I've decided that in terms of makeup, this idea is applicable and actually fits nicely with my recent discovery of minimalism. It's like this: a woman has her makeup done to the max--full coverage foundation, powder and concealer. If it's done well she looks polished and pretty. It's an art form. But then you look at her in different lights and you start to see that she doesn't need that much coverage, that her natural skin is quite lovely without all the product. The art is a lie that tells her she needs to have perfectly matte, monochromatic skin. The truth is, you realize she can probably get away with a touch of concealer and a better moisturizer. It might be a stretch, but it was a fun mental exercise!

A small oil painting in greens, reds and yellows caught my eye at the very beginning of the exhibit. It was of one of Picasso's close friends, lying in a tomb with a single candle burning. You can see the gunshot wound to his head, and the description mentioned that Picasso's friend had committed suicide over heartbreak, which inspired the painting and plunged Picasso into his blue period. It was a very emotionally intense piece and my dad lightened the mood by saying, well, I bet you could conceal that wound with makeup no problem! We had just been talking about the possibilities of my makeup career and he mentioned working on cadavers for open-casket funerals. My dad's joke got us past the macabre and started me thinking about how the artist captures a face.

Picasso painted many pictures of women in both the abstract style he's famous for and realistically. His work is direct and interpretive. I looked at many of the pieces from the perspective of a makeup artist and was very impressed at the way he defined a woman's heavily-lidded eyes, or brightly highlighted a cheekbone and forehead. An advanced technique in makeup artistry is contouring--where you use different tones to shade and highlight areas of the face. Looking at Picasso's drawing studies especially inspired me to explore contouring more on my models. It's a different way of working on the face--a way of bringing out bone structure more than any color ever could. In order to master this technique I think you have to see the face the way a visual artist would, by examining the form in front of you, seeing the shadows, the light and the interplay of features.

Lash-tastic!

Recently people have been asking me how to use mascara to its maximum potential. People have been asking about which brands are best, to curl or not to curl, are lash extensions necessary, what about prescription Latisse? If you've been following along, you might have anticipated that to all of these questions I answer "the key is good technique". Personally, I don't believe in using harsh chemicals around the eyes (the safety info on Latisse says it can permanently change your eye color). I wouldn't want to make any permanent or semi-permanent changes to my lashes, it's too limiting. Penelope Cruz (above) is celebrated for her lashes. They are pretty much perfect--thick, dark, long. I do think she is wearing falsies in this picture, however. Let's discuss how you can max out your lashes, no matter your hair texture, length or fullness.

My lashes, in their natural state, are fine, sparse and stick straight out, which means you can't see them. I've been exploring mascara techniques of late, which all started when I left my eyelash curler at a friend's house. I panicked and thought I'd better go pick it up before I had a major beauty emergency on my hands. I had been using a curler since high school and not a day went by that I didn't squeeze my lashes between it. My old routine was curl at the roots, curl at mid-lash and apply many, many fast coats of mascara to each eye. Once I was without the curler, I needed to improvise. I started at the root of my lashes and slowly moved the mascara brush up to the tips while gently wiggling it back and forth. The technique is to pull the lashes up from the root using the brush. I use a stroke that pulls the lashes closer to the inner corner of my eye, so when I reach the tips, the brush is hovering above the bridge of my nose. The secret is to do this slowly, because that deposits a nice coat of color on the lashes while curling them.

The other day at work I saw a visitor applying her mascara in the bathroom. I couldn't help but watch as she pumped the brush up and down in the mascara barrel (don't do this, it pushes air into the product and dries it out; swirl the wand instead). She then touched the wand to her lashes while blinking rapidly. The effect was minimal--it was as though she hadn't used any product at all, and not in a good way. When our eyes met in the mirror I said to her, "try using a slow, back and forth motion." She did and it made a nice difference. Dislclaimer: I swear I'm not the kind of artist who stalks people in public restrooms just waiting to pounce with helpful (if unsolicited) tips.

Lashes are like the icing on the cake--they bring the whole look together. If you can nail a good technique, you might find yourself walking out of the house feeling polished without any eyeshadow--that's how well great lashes define your face.

Trend Watch: Minimalism

It seems like for years now we've been obsessed with flawless skin, heavily and darkly defined eyes, rounded-out cheeks and thickly glossed lips (something I will personally never stop doing!). Think the Kardashian sisters, the Olsen twins, Nicole Richie, Beyonce, Kristen Stewart and the kiddos on The Hills. It's almost like celebs can't leave the house without thick, dark liner and gobs of mascara. It's a great look...but it has lost some of its drama through its ubiquity. I mean, if you're doing a dramatic eye to grab groceries...how can you top that when you go out? And if your skin is always looking airbrushed within an inch of its life (though it does photograph beautifully) where are you in there? It's a high-maintenance look that can tend toward the grotesque if not done skillfully (see: Marilyn Manson...oh wait, that's the whole point). I've noticed recently however that we seem to be trending towards a fresher, cleaner, more neutral, natural face. I can barely contain my excitement.

Tiff, a natural beauty.

My muse, Tiffany was over this weekend and I decided to fearlessly explore minimalism on her. She was a great choice for this project because she and I always tend to do dramatic and colorful looks when we experiment. This would be uncharted territory for us. Lately Tiffany's been on a new skin care regimen that includes moisturizing liberally, microderm abrasion, upping her water intake and not tanning (yay!). Her skin was soft, healthy and ready to work with me. I started by doing her eyes up in soft pink iridescent loose powder shadow from lid to brow. Then I defined her crease with a neutral brown-toned pink matte shadow. I finished by pressing a pearly white-pink shadow onto her inner lid, and using it to line her top and bottom lash line. I took just a nip of warm-toned dark brown liner and pressed it into her lash line--I didn't want it to look lined, just wanted to define the root of her lashes.

I think she looks about 19 years old!

Typically I do the eyes first so I can clean up any fallout before I move on to foundation/concealer. Because these colors were bright and soft, I let the fallout stay because it brightened her under eye area nicely. I took concealer and mixed it with the loose shimmer shadow I used on her eyes and blended it into her under eye area, around her nose and on her chin--areas where most of us have some redness. I made sure to blend the concealer out as far as it would go--onto the apples of the cheeks, into the inner corners of the eyes. I then took a spot of liquid foundation smaller than the size of a dime and brushed it onto the rest of the face, buffing well with a soft, fluffy brush when I was done. The key is to let the skin show as much as possible. You're not trying to cover it up with a flawless mask. You want to allow the variation in our natural skin pigment to show. We all have darker skin under our eyes (duh, it's very fine skin with a lot of blood underneath), redness around our noses/mouths, brows, cheeks. We have freckles, moles, acne scars and fine lines. And we all have beautiful skin just waiting to emerge! What I tried to do here was brighten darker areas and minimize redness without turning Tiff's face into a doll-faced mask. I think the result is astonishingly beautiful.

We finished with a neutral light caramely brown lip pencil and a coat of Vaseline and a light whirl of neutral matte reddish-brown blush. When I showed Tiff how incredible she looked we all freaked out. My husband said he felt guilty even looking at her because she looked so fresh-faced and young. Compare these pictures with the others of her on here and notice the difference between these looks! It was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see more of this look.

You've Got To Have Tools

When I was a 17 year-old MAC groupie and spent most of my free time stalking the counters at Northgate and Downtown Nordstrom, I used to ask the artists for tips and tricks. At that time I was a broke high school student and would scrape together money to buy a new eyeshadow or pressed powder (because you HAD to have a perfectly matte face in the late-90's). I feel lucky in retrospect that they didn't mind me hanging around never buying anything. One time I remember a couple of artists saying they'd rather have good brushes and bad quality makeup than the other way around. I didn't understand why you would ever want to fork over $25 for an eyeshadow brush when you could get three eyeshadows for the same price. I paid $15 for a small eyeshadow brush shaped like a fan and hoped it would do everything for me. Alas, when I did my dorm room makeovers a year later I found I was quite limited. Without the right tools, you simply can't get great looks.

Those artists were right--great brushes are truly the key. Well-made brushes will last for years and give you outstanding results. When I do lessons I always assess a person's brushes first. If they need better quality brushes, or just brushes period (those sponge-tip applicators that come with shadows are just ugh) I recommend some of my favorites. The only makeup technique you really need to know how to do is blend. Good brushes will help you blend easily and quickly. I've chosen two of my favorites to show you here. Let me be clear, I'm not selling product for MAC, I just use their brushes and think they are excellent quality. The one on the left has very soft, fluffy bristles and a domed top--making it perfect for washing shadow all over the lid and defining your crease. With this brush you can do a smokey eye fairly easily. I use the very tip of it and blend in small circles from the center of the lid outward. The brush on the left has firmer bristles with a stiffer texture and round, beveled edge. It's perfect for patting color onto your brow bone or lid. I will often use it to pack shadow onto my lid and brow bone and then use the other brush to blend away any hard edges. These two brushes are necessary for anyone who wants to get more serious about makeup--beginners, too!