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!