As a member for the Irish Film and Television Academy I was invited to Dublin’s Gibson hotel on Thursday the 29th September 2011 for ‘The Craft of Make-Up’, the Academy’s annual event hosted in association with MAC Cosmetics, featured the work of two IFTA winning Make-Up artists Jennifer Hegarty and Linda Mooney.

The event was hosted by Tv3′s Xposé presenter and Karen Koster. Jennifer and Linda share behind the scenes secrets from their award winning careers in film and television. It was a really informative event with a great insight  into the industry.

One of the things that I noted was that as make-up arists they never stop learning. Jennifer said that she started her career by going to London to do a few courses, but that she still learns all the time. She said that the industry changes so fast that you have to keep up with the times. Also it was great to note that there was no overnight success for Jennifer, it was a very slow process. It was through hard work and dedication that she has become the success that she is today. The first time that she actually felt that she had made it was when she did Peter O’Toole’s make-up. She said on meeting him that she found it quite comforting, because he was very nervous that day and it made her realise that everyone is nervous about what they are doing, so you have to keep going and keep doing it. She still enjoys the job and sometimes has to pinch herself when she is on a set in an exotic location. She has worked on films from Lassie, to Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, to Harry Potters, so I am sure she has seen a few! On creating a character, she says that it is usually a collaboration between the Make-up Artist, the Director and the Actor, although it is really about trying to convince them to do what you want . The products that she can’t live without are her grease palette and her skin illustrator and her brushes in particular the MAC foundation brush. For people starting out Jennifer would recommend taking up painting. If choosing a school, find out what the background is of the people you would be learning with.

Linda came to her career in a little bit of a different way. She was from a family that did hair and would have seen her mom make wigs for the Abbey. She is a fully trained hair dresser as well as a professional make-up artist. She found herself having to go abroad alot because the union in Ireland is quite restrictive and you can’t really do both. She is fluent in German and spent some time over there. Linda felt that she had really made it when she got to do a Deaf Leppard album cover, she had to turn the clean looking young men into 80s rock stars so lots of backcombing was required! Linda also mentioned is very aware that the women in the industry have missed out on family, that you have to try and strike the balance. She feels that she is a better mother when she is working. She was working with 21 women at the time of the talk and only 3 women out of that had a family.When asked what tools she couldn’t live with out, her immediate response was: Good brushes! When you are starting out Linda thinks you can’t beat being on set, try and get some work experienc. You will realise what it is really like and see what end you would like to go to.

They are both very warm people and it is easy to see that as well as their skill and talent that their personalities have brought them a long way too. They both touched on having the right personality for the job and being easy to work with and letting things go over your head. Also it is about knowing what battles to fight, when to take a bit more time doing a make-up and when to just let a bit of shine go…. Someone asked a question in the audience about whether they ever looked at another make-up artist’s work and said “what were they thinking” and they both agreed and said that they wouldn’t judge someone else’s work as you never know what kind of stress or what the circumstances were surrounding the job. Never a truer word was spoken! As a makeup artist if the day has run behind, you could sometimes be asked to do a make-up on set with the whole crew looking at you, when usually the make-up could take an hour to do normally!

It was a great talk and I hope that the Academy run more events like this in the future. It was great to meet fellow make-up artists and we got a free lippy to boot!

I am finally catching up with some of the posts that I have meant to do for ages. This is a music video that I did a few months ago with the fantastic band “The Ambience Affair”. This is their new single called The Fallen which is on their debut album “Burials”.

Burials was released through Bluestack Records on October 14th. You can get more information about where they are touring, where to buy their album etc here.

Credits for the video
Produced by: Soul Jacker
Featuring:  Sophie Merry
Camera Assistant: Damien Dunne
Make up: Me @ Music Video Makeup Artist
Special thanks to Lauren Murphy, Julia Davin-Power, Donnacha Coffey

A few months ago I had the pleasure of working with an up and coming star called Maverick Sabre. He is a true gent, originally from London, he moved to New Ross in Wexford and spent his formative years there. He moved back to London to pursue his music career.

We filmed most of the video in Co. Wexford, we were so lucky because we did alot of filming outside and the weather was absolutely splitting the rocks!

It was a very quick 2-day shoot, so there was alot to fit in to that short space! We travelled from Rosslare, to Wexford Town, New Ross, Greystones and the Dublin Mountains.

I did Tara O’Farrell and Georgia Salpa’s makeup for the Creatures of the Night Photocall for Miller.

It was a sultry scary look that compromised of a black smokey eye, blood red lips,  paired with freaky yellow contacts and vampire fangs.

We had hoped that it would hit one or two newspapers, but we lucked out as it made it into the Sun, Metro, Mirror and Star. We even got a front cover!

To create the look I used:

Graftobian HD Airbrush Foundation in Dessert Sand
Contoured with a darker shade airbrush colour
MAC Skin Finish Powder in Dark for additional contouring
MAC Blacktrack Gel Liner
Nars Night Breed Eyeshadow
Rimmel Black Eyeliner on the lips
Lancome L’Absolu Rouge Lipstick in Red
Lancome Hypnose Mascara in Black

Photographer: Conor Healy @ CH Photography
Models: Tara O’Farrell & Georgia Salpa @ AR Model Agency
Hair and Makeup: Me @ PR Hair and Makeup

I was delighted to attend The Make-up Show Europe which took place in Berlin. I had such a blast! It was really inspirational to meet my make-up heroes! I thought I would do a few posts about the event as there was so much to see and do!

I managed to attend two workshops, 7 talks, show my book to 5 people and buy ALOT of make-up!

This video is of one of the talks that was given by one of my favourite brands, Make-up Forever. It was hosted by Jacques Waneph one of the founders of make-up forever. He told us all about the company while the demo was going on. He talked about brand’s humble beginnings when they had to live on sandwiches and sell their car to get enough money to make eyeshadows and how they initially got Kryolan to manufacture their foundations.

He also discussed how the brand has grown over the years, the new product innovations and a very exciting brush range that will soon launch…watch this space! What I found fascinating were all the anecdotes of how they developed products, learning from Make-up Artists along the way.

There was also some beautiful bodypainting taking place all through the weekend at the Make-up Forever counter.

This was a television show I did this summer. It is a Mind the Gap Production called The Only Viking in the Village. I had the opportunity to work with Neil Delamere again. We worked together on the Panel, but unfortunately that has been cancelled, so it was great to team up again on another show. This was a load of fun because I got the opportunity to do some interesting make-up, including rotting teeth and blood!

Of course I used alot of special effects products from Kryolan and Ben Nye to achieve this. As well as my airbrush for the Medieval Maid. Watch out for the show coming up on RTE soon.

Producers: Mind the Gap Films
Talent Pictured: Bernadette McGloughlin @ Assets, Ciarán, Philip
Make-up: Emma Farrell @ Television Makeup Artist
Make-up Assistant: Caoimhe Arrigan from Graceful Faces 

Mine artists Barry Roe, Donna Lyons, Ronan Carroll, Gary Deegan and Amy McDonald pictured with model Georgia Salpa at the launch of Rowntrees new Sour Pastilles Happy Chewsday campaign. Picture Jason Clarke Photography.

This was some facepainting that I did a couple of months ago for the Fruit Pastilles Sours launch, back when it was actually sunny! Used Kryolan Aquacolors and some MAC Glitter Pigments.

Model: Jude Nabney @ First Options
Clothing Label: Aria @ Aria Clothing
Photographer: Breffni @ Breffni Ryan Photography
Stylist: Sara O’Connor @ Sara Mia Styling
Hair: Michelle O’Halloran @ Hairaware
Make-up: Me @ Emma Farrell Makeup

Model: Isabelle @ First Options
Clothing Label: Arianna @ Aria Clothing
Photographer: Emily @ Emily Quinn Photography
Stylist: Sara @ Sara O’Connor Styling
Hair: Michelle @ Hairaware
Make-up: Me @ Emma Farrell Makeup

Image courtesy of Cormack O'Kelly@Striking Images http://www.strikingimages.ie/

Image courtesy of Cormack O'Kelly@Striking Images http://www.strikingimages.ie/

Image courtesy of Cormack O'Kelly@Striking Images http://www.strikingimages.ie/

This is a wedding that I did during the summer, Carme wanted a very classic natural look, with the main focus being on the eyes.

Bride: Carme Diaz
Photographer: Cormack O’Kelly @ Dublin Wedding Photography
Make-Up: Emma Farrell @ Bridal Makeup
Venue: Clontarf Castle