MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas everyone.

If you look closer you will see 6 gorgeous painted girls hiding in this wreath! This was a joint effort between myself and some of the girls at Reid Kerr college! Enjoy... Im even hiding in here somewhere!

Bagpipes, Castles and Nakedness in Bonny Scotland!

Well for the past few weeks we have been shooting the calendar and what an amazing few weeks it has been. I really hope it all comes together perfectly in the end!

I can barely narrow this amazing, crazy, funny, stressful experience into one blog but I will try, and I’m going to start with the wonderful models. What an amazing group of ladies we have had for the shoots! I completely take my hat off to each end every one of them, I don’t think I would be as brave as they have been. On a whole they have all been almost naked... outside...some only wearing a thong and of course the body paint in November and December in Scotland of all places!

Some of our highlights are running into a fully kilted Scotsman playing the bagpipes whilst we were shooting at the Wallace Monument in Stirling, being asked to leave Stirling Castle as they didn’t want to be associated with that type of thing, avoiding a parking ticket in Dundee as our model was naked, shooting in the rain whilst the body paint was running and Hannah (the amazing founder of this calendar) got in the sea!!!

Here are a few sneak peaks for you all! Shhhh don’t tell anyone its all top secret!

And So The Madness Begins!

Okay readers I have agreed to something crazy! I have agreed, or rather volunteered to be the body painter for a fundraiser calendar!  It did not sound so crazy until I realised that it has to be in print for Christmas and Christmas is only 34 days away! And then I found out that there are 11 models, one for each month and all 11 for December! Ohhh my that’s 22 body paints!

This morning I had a complete freak out, thinking ‘ I can’t possibly paint all of these woman, I’m not even good at it Arghhhh stress’. After that small malfunction I took a deep breath and started planning!

The calendar is being produced by a model called Hannah Windmill, she is fundraising to go to the Bahamas with Green Force to do marine research! It’s all volunteer funded so she needs to raise a fair amount in order to get there.

The plan is to body paint then photograph a model at different famous Scottish landmarks. The body painting will either be related to the place or to a specific theme for that month, e.g. Easter, Halloween and Valentines day! I still feel quite nervous, but i know its going to be amazing! I just need to plan and practice some more.

Shooting starts on Wednesday with an Easter theme at St Andrews Golf Course and a sea theme at The Discovery Ship Dundee! I’m so excited. Watch this space guys!

Fireworks, Flowers And A TripTo The Theatre

Oh my goodness, yesterday was just as busy as Monday, but completely different! That’s what I love about being a make-up artist, every day is different and every make-up application is different.

I know that some people think make-up artists are vain and uneducated and spend all day plastered in make-up and making girls and women look pretty, but this is so far from the truth! I’m far from undereducated and I do so much more than just make people look pretty. I make people look beautiful, radiant and young. I also make people look disgusting, dead and old! I cover such a wide range of make-up that I never get bored and I never apply the same look twice. I have to say my two favourite aspects of make-up artistry are body painting and theatrical make up, and yesterday I had the opportunity to do both. 

I have been planning a few body paintings for a while now and luckily two amazing models and an amazing photographer have helped me reach my little dream. I won’t bore you with the details of The painting, I just hope the pictures can speak for themselves.

After the shoot I hurried home for a quick bite to eat then headed off to The Gardyne Theatre with Fiona (FJ MUA) to apply make-up to the principle characters for the Thomson-Leng Youth Music Theatre’s production of Little Shop Of Horrors. All I can say is I was blown away. After applying the make-up Fiona and I stayed to watch the first half of the show and it was amazing. The cast put 100% into the performance and it was spectacular. We were both so impressed by the high standard of singing and I can’t wait to work with this theatre group all week!

Zombies, zombies, zombies!

Well for the past month I have been corresponding with a photographer called Jason about a zombie photo shoot he has been planning as one of the main projects for his photography degree. My friend Fiona (of FJ MUA) was to do the make-up and I was to do the special effects. Well, as I said this has been going on for a month and I have been on the edge of my seat waiting for the shoot to come, and on Monday it finally came!

I travelled through to Aberdeen in the morning and started to work my gruesome magic! Jason wanted the models to look fashionable but dead so I decided to apply special effects to mostly the body so as not to take away or ruin Fiona’s amazing make-up! 

There were three models all requiring different special effects, and after these were applied we all walked around some woods, graveyards and tunnels for three hours to capture all of our work. Even though it was freezing and wet and muddy it was all worth it in the end.

Sassy Saturday

Oh my goodness what a busy day I have had today, but I have loved every minute of it. I just love the fast pace of the make-up industry and I love being on the go. I also love making people look and feel as beautiful as they truly are. I believe make-up should be used to enhance your natural beauty and not cover up who you are!

My first stop today was a make-up trial for a mother of the bride. This wonderful woman knows who she is and is proud of her natural beauty! She rarely wears make-up so I had to ensure she looked as natural as possible, while enhancing all of her best features. It has been a while since I have applied this type of make-up as over the past year I have been more focused on body painting, special effects and fashion make-up, however it was good to go back to where I started. I stuck to natural shades to match her outfit on the day and after playing around with different looks and colours I have a very happy and a very beautiful client.

Next I stopped home to wash, sterilise and dry my make-up brushes to ensure they were clean for my next client. This is highly important as not only can dirty brushes ruin a great make-up, they can pass bacteria and infectious skin disorders between clients! I use baby shampoo to clean my brushes and then an alcohol spray to sterilise them, and yes I’ll admit I even condition them once a month to keep them super soft for all of my models and clients faces.

After that I headed into town to Memento Studio for a double boudoir shoot with photographer Kirsty Legg. Kirsty is an amazing photographer and has the ability to make any model or client feel at ease, even if they are only in their underwear! 

The two clients were friends and were hoping to bring confidence to each other for their individual shoots. They were both slightly nervous for the shoot, however very excited to create a gift for their partner with beautiful images they can keep forever.

The first lady had dark hair with purple through her fringe (bangs) so I set her hair in heated rollers to give volume, then added some loose curls throughout. I applied purple smokey eyes and a natural bronzed look to the skin with a violet lipstick. I was slightly nervous with this look as the client  wasn’t sure of her expectations, however when she looked in the mirror at the finished result she absolutely loved it! 

The second lady had gorgeous pink hair with black underneath. She was inspired by the 1950’s pin-up look therefore I attached hair extensions to lengthen her hair then put it all in heated rollers to give big loose curls. I then styled a victory roll at each side of her face and one in her fringe. For the make-up I went with a classic smokey eyes, red lipstick, porcelain skin with rosy cheeks and a beauty spot. She absolutely adored the look as did I.

I finished with two very happy and very beautiful clients, and I can tell you I cannot wait to see the photographs! 

After that I had to make a mad dash to get to the theatre on time to see my little cousin Caitlin (or to me Princess) perform in a dance show. She was amazing, and yes I did cry when she was on stage. She is 12 now but looks far too much older, and is unbelievable beautiful! I am so proud of her as she was fantastic and was in the front row for each dance she was in. She even had to do a cartwheel landing in the splits for one dance!

Well it’s now very late and I’m very tired so I will post this tomorrow. I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings!

An Introduction to My Beautiful Life

The beauty that is my life... I know this may sound cliché, but over the past few years I have come to realise that this is true. For the past four Summers I have worked at Camp Huntington Special Needs Camp (or  to me – Neverland, more on this thought soon to come ) in High Falls, New York. Here I have met some of the most amazing and beautiful people in the entire world and I truly believe it has somehow changed me for the better.  I have made the best friends I could ever ask for and met people who I will love forever.

I have also spent the past 5 years in college gaining two Higher National Diplomas, one in Beauty Therapy and one in Make-up Artistry. Although these 5 years have been tedious and difficult at times, I have loved every minute of it. In particular I loved my final year of make-up artistry, as I moved away from home to spend a year at Reid Kerr College. During this year I met Nikki, the most amazing, talented and considerate Make-up lecturer in the world. She taught me everything I know about make-up and body painting and by the end of the year I was attending classes 5 times a week instead of the required 3. Here I also won the award for the best graded unit of the year for my full body painting entitled ‘The Doll That Time Forgot’.

I feel that all of these things have enriched my life and helped me grow into the person I am today. And here I am now, I’ve been home from America for around 6 weeks and I’ve graduated from college. I need to start living my dream and working towards becoming an amazing make-up artist.

Luckily I have managed to meet and secure photo shoots with some amazing photographers. This blog is about all that exists in my beautiful life and all of the amazing photo shoots I am working on.