Emma Farrell Make-Up Artist

Seriously!! Wish that somebody could give me some tickets to Electric Picnic!! I will do your make-up for free

Some of my favourite bands will be there!

Royskopp:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0M-l6EkjJg]

Flaming Lips:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOpYh30ZN5w&feature=related]

Haha! Love the costumes in that video.Especially the froggy thing..?! It would be so cool to have my own bubble that I could walk all over people in! Just as well the wind didn’t pick up and blow him away…wouldn’t have been able to finish the song, now that would be a tragedy. The hand puppet is the cherry on the already wonderfully weird ice cream sunday. Man I wanna see this LIVE! It has it all!

Anyway…I am gonna stop talking about this now, it’s making me sad.

Or perhaps that is what credit cards are for. Watch this space.

Laters xx

Ok, so I managed to restrain myself a teensy bit, surprise surprise!

I went to the MAC Pro Store in London, which is located in the heart of West Soho. My visit happily co-incided with the Gay Pride Festival, so there was a fantastic buzz about the place. I really enjoyed the vibrant energy and taking a peek at the wild drag make-up. I managed to “drag” hehe myself away from the parade to pop into the store and buy a few bits and pieces.

I got me some pigments of course…soo hard to resist!

I bought Fuchsia, Neo-Orange and Gold. I am looking forward to using these bad boys! Have a photoshoot coming up which I think will be a good time to experiment, will post the photos later so keep your eyes peeled.

I also got a fantastic glitter pigment called Crystallized Lime, think this will be really cool with the Neo Orange pigment to create a neon raver look!

Of course I needed a medium for the pigments so I got the eyeliner mixing medium, because it is safe to use in the eye area and it has a nice thick consistancy, which I plan to use for some intense colour.

I was also loving their lipmixes, so picked up three of them, Burgandy, which I thought would be great to darken any of the lipcolours I already have. Crimson, because it is such a fantastic femme fatale red and Gold to go with the gold pigment I got…I feel a gold themed look coming up

And of course it wouldn’t be a MAC visit without getting some of the old faithful, face and body foundation. This is one of my favourite MAC products, I go through tons of this stuff. I tend to only use a bit of this in the summer as I like my skin to glow. Also alot of the models I work with have impeccable skin so I only have to use this with a teeny bit of concealer.

Ok it wouldn’t be a a MAC visit without getting a few brushes….hehe well you know what they say, a bad workman likes to blame his tools so I just make sure to arm myself with only the best. I picked up the 188 brush, which is very similar to the 187, but smaller.

This is great for the application of foundation, because its quite small it gives you more control and lets you get right into the inner eye etc, but with it’s duo fibre you are able to get that airbrushed effect and build layer upon layer if needed.

I also bought the 214 brush, this is a nifty little thing for applying eyeshadow without getting any fallout.

I love using it for intense colour and bulding darker shadows. Because of the short hairs you can use it for very controlled application which make it brilliant for applying shadow to the lashline and smudging for that sexy smokey look.

The 217 brush is another tool I added to my make-up belt, it is brilliant for applying creamy colour base and applying concealer under the eyes.

I use it to apply the Hush base that I bought in London and my old favourite Bobby Brown Concealer “Creamy Concealer Kit in Ivory”

I also bought the 219 Brush For precision shading on lid, this is absolutely awesome for any blending that you need to do. I can’t reiterate enough how important good brushes are. When I first started out as a make-up artist I bought cheap brushes from eBay…they did the trick at the time, but all I can say is that I have really stepped my game up in the last few years because I have invested in good tools which certainly make the job easier.

I also bought some other bits and bobs, but there is no point going into everything. Thank goodness for my MAC Pro card is all I can say, because it all ended up coming to about £300 but with my discount it only cost me £200. Still a lot of money, but  a bargain in comparison. Was around €250 with all the conversions.

Alexis is a fantastic model who I worked with in Melbourne Australia. We wanted to use the city as a backdrop to the shoot and I think it worked really well. This is a gorgeous beauty shot.

Alexis was fantastic to work with and she really was a trooper! We were asking her to do the impossible, to look gorgeous while staring directly at the sun. People always look nice with the sun shining on them, but unfortunately it isn’t so nice for the eyes.

She is from Edmonton in Canada and does mainly promotional/commercial work. If you would like to get in contact with her for a booking go to:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52343819991&ref=ts

Me likey alot!

Sick of carrying a ton of slap around with you, just to maintain the perfect look? Always manage to drop and smash an AWOL  eyeshadow, that jumps kamikaze style out of your bulging handbag? Want to try and reduce the space when travelling but can’t give up your make-up?

Well Bobbi Brown have the answer. They have come up with a nifty idea of making your own personalised palette where you can keep all your beauty must haves in one personalised compact. I always keep an eye out for palettes and have been known to buy a few in my time, but I always end up with shades that I don’t use and this can be a waste too. However with Bobby Brown you choose what goes into it. It’s really slim and you can fit nearly everything you need into it, eyeshadow, blusher, lip gloss and even foundation! There is a melted down version of their foundation sticks. This is a great portable make-up kit.

So I decided to get my own make-up palette and bring you through the steps.  This one would be ideal for a bride on her wedding day, or for a natural beauty look. I did notice that the colour swatches aren’t an exact representation of the actual colour, so just be careful! I have used alot of these shades before so I know what they are actually like.
1.) Choose which Palette you would like:

2.) Then it is on to selecting the eyeshadows. I have kept them very neutral and matt. The reason that we use matt eyeshadows for bridal make-up is because it looks beautifully natural. I have chosen “Bone” this is a great base eyeshadow  and for placing under the eyebrow. I find that this is one of the eyeshadows in my kit that I can never get enough of.

3.) The second eyeshadow to be popped in is Hot Stone. This is a warm brown that I like to place on the lid for a lovely natural, but pretty eye.

4.) The third is Espresso. This is a great defining colour and adds a bit of drama to a look. I use this in the socket and ensure that it is nice and smokey. I also like to use it as an eyeliner for both the top and bottom of the eye. It makes for a nice soft alternative to say a liquid or gel liner.

5.) Just went for a really soft gorgeous blusher called Tawny that gives you a lovely flush of colour. This will suit most undertones.

6.) Lipgloss in Cherry Pink, a  vibrant pink that makes your lips look irresistibly kissable. Gorgeous worn lightly during the day or pile it on for a more intense colour at night.

7.) Lipgloss in Pink Cloud, this is a gorgeous marshmallowy sweet lipgloss, beautiful worn for a day look.

Et Voila! Beautiful Make-Up nicely compacted for your handbag, I am an instant fan and I think you will be too. My only little gripe is that I think you should get a huge discount for buying it all together…it gets a little expensive. Thats all I got this time, but I think the next time I will investigate the foundation and also the quad lipgloss set…four miniature pink glosses that only take up one space in the palette, but thats another days work (and paycheck)!

Laters xx

I have decided to go on a little shopping trip to London…for of course…MAKE-UP! Armed with my M.A.C Pro Card I am going to stock up on cosmetics for my kit.

With this in mind I had to try and resist the lure of the Duty Free Cosmetics in the Airport. They make it sooo hard. Wrapping everything up in handy miniatures and travel compacts.

I particularly liked this try me kit from Smashbox. It includes some of my favourite products from Smashbox. The Photo Finish Primer, is brilliant for making your skin silky smooth and ready for your foundation. It also includes loads of their cream liners, which I like to use as a liner of course, but if I am going for a really dramatic look, I use it as an eyeshadow. Other products included in the kit are: photo op under eye brightener, brow tech, double-ended eyeliner&brow brush, lip enhancing gloss and an instructional DVD.

Anyway I managed to avoid the temptation and save the spondulas for London Baby! So we will wait and see what bounty I come back with teheehee!

So I naively thought that Hong Kong was a culture shock, boy I wasn’t ready for the crazy quirky land that is Vietnam!! The minute a stepped foot outside the airport in Hanoi, I was mobbed by blood thirsty taxi/mini-bus/bus drivers vying for my business. Eventually after much to-ing and fro-ing and procrastination I got a mini-bus to Hanoi for a pre-arranged fare of $2.

The trip was like something out of the wacky races…beeping, weaving, breaking, speeding through all the traffic, past rice paddies and a huge truck crash(which was a little disconcerting seeing as I didn’t have much faith in our own driver).

Eventually arrived in Hanoi in one piece. I wanted to be dropped off at the Old Quarter near the lake, they off course dropped me way out, conveniently outside a hotel which I am assuming is their friends hotel. Then there was some arguing about the fare, they tried to charge me 300,000 dong which is around $18. Luckily I was a bit weary when I got into the bus so I took all my money and hid it in other compartments and just put $2 into my wallet, so when he demanded more

Temple of Literature The scholars of Hanoi used to come here.

money, I just told him that was all that I had and that was what we had agreed. After much arguing and smiling on my side, he eventually walked off in a huff with me calling after him that I hope he had a nice day…

I tried to get my bearings so went to a nearby green area to gather my thoughts and figure out where they had dropped me. As I was walking I had people shouting at me trying to get me to buy their postcards, fruit, get a lift, you name it they were selling it. Eventually I bought some post cards from a woman just so that she could give me some directions, not particularly enamoured with the Vietnamese culture so far! Turns out I was so far away from where I wanted to be that I wasn’t even on my lonely planet map. I had to walk for about a mile or two in the scorching heat with a 16kg backpack crossing roads with millions of Mopeds following no traffic laws heading straight for me, hoping and praying they would stop. Makes things more interesting, taking your life into your hands everytime you

Motorbike! You ain’t nothing in Vietnam without a Moped/Motorbike/Scooter.

cross the road. I eventually found a hostel run by two Ozzie guys called Hanoi Backpackers and booked myself in for the night for a sweet rate of $7.50 a night.

After the experience of the day I decided to just relax in the safety and comfort of the hostel…would leave venturing out into Hanoi for another day.

Made some friends in the hostel and for the next couple of days spent my time seeing the sights that Hanoi has to offer, including mouth watering fruit shakes, bowls of poh (noodle soup), honey sambos and an apple-like fruit/veg that I never got the name of. Also went along to watch some of the friends that I had made eat snake…it was an awesome experience. You go in and they pick out a live snake, they remove the still beating heart and offer it as a shot for the more brave of us…in our case it was an Ozzie called Brad. Then the others that were partaking got to have a shot of the snake’s blood followed by the bile….yummy!!! We were brought around the back to a hidden gem of a place, it was a beautiful dining area

Basket Case These poor ladies walk around all day with really heavy baskets, how do they do it! Some of their legs bend out of shape from years of carrying heavy loads.

made of bamboo, hovering over an inlet of water, this was a nice natural surprise as we were in the middle of the urban jungle. I have to say the spread that the guys received was well worth the $15 they paid for the snake. There was about five different courses all served in unique ways: Deep Fried Minced Snake, Steamed Snake, Snake Skin, Sauteed Snake and Snake Bones with Vegetables, nothing goes to waste.

I really began to embrace the craziness of the city and love the vibrancy that it brings. One of the highlights of the trips was sitting at the lake chatting to three Vietnamese girls to help improve their English and giving them a bit of a history lesson on Ireland in the process, was really good to get an insiders view of Hanoi and the culture. Hanoi got off to a bad start with me, but given a little time and culture re-adjusting I really enjoyed my time here.

Finally arrived in Hong Kong today, feels like I have been waiting an eternity for this trip. It is like nothing I have seen before, a melting pot of cultures, walking around I was on sensory overload! Seems like old and new are haphazardly crammed into any available space. There are trendy bars beside tenement housing, old fashioned nail bars over classy restaurants.

I am staying in a really trendy part of town where all the “Filths (failed in London Try Hong Kong)” live. To get there you have to travel up the escalator….not a bad way to get up the hill! Daily traffic exceeds 55,000 people, its a brilliant way of moving lots of people fast!

Did some touristy stuff like get the Star Ferry to Kowloon and walk Hong Kong’s equivalent of the Hollywood Boulevard, go up to the peak of Hong Kong on the Peak Tram, Kowloon Park and Ocean Park.

One of the nights I went to a Szechuan Chinese restaurant, this is definitely one of the best things that I did in Hong Kong, it has completely revolutionized my opinion of Chinese food, gone is the bland MSG infused crap we get at

home and in with a tasty, well seasoned, flavour full delight. Szechuan cuisine often contains food preserved through pickling, salting, drying and smoking, and is generally spicy. Most dishes include the Sichuan peppercorn a numbing fruity spice. There are three varying degrees of spicyness, generally you start with the coolest finishing with the hottest dish. We had broccoli, sweet potato, aubergines, vegetarian dumplings and my favourite, a mixed veg with shredded crackers lettuce wrap, yummy! My friend Fabian who I was sharing the meal with got the restaurant’s special, which was obviously VERY spicy as he was absolutely sweating buckets! It was a wonderful experience, really authentic Chinese and something that I more than likely wouldn’t have had unless I was staying with someone from Hong Kong.

After the wonderful meal I finished the perfect day with a visit to the “Take Out Comedy Club” which was absolutely brilliant. One of the couchsurfing community performs there every Saturday. There was about ten different acts with really different styles of comedy, some I thoroughly enjoyed. It was all based around experiences with Hong Kong and after being there for a couple of days I really felt like I could relate

to it! Just there are so many funny idiosyncrasies that occur when east meets west in such a obscure and mental way… Went for some drinks afterwards with some of the performers so it was good fun.

Also went to Ocean Park, this is a theme park that is favoured by the Hong Kongers, wheareas Disneyland has been somewhat shunned. It was a great idea to go on a Monday as we(myself and a girl called Edel from Cork I met randomly at the peak tram) didn’t have to queue for any of the rides. Some of them were just pure adrenaline rushes, never been on the one that drops you from a crazy height at break neck speeds before….I nearly shat myself!!!

Luckily I was able to get my Vietnam Visa in one day, so would be leaving Hong Kong as planned. Left the next morning at 9am.

I am just recently back from a tour around part of the world. I kept a blog on www.travelblog.org which I thought I might share here, so I shall copy the excerpts over. I really wanted to write a book about my experience especially the make-up side of things and call it “Making-up my way around the world”..but somehow with all the exploration and excitement I forgot about it! Hopefully one day I will get around to it as I haven’t quite finished travelling yet. Perhaps someone out there would like to sponsor me?? I could even do a documentary style TV series spin off if you like

This is a girl that I met up in a mountainous region in Sapa, Vietnam. She was suffering from Alopecia and her eyebrows had all but disappeared. She decided to pencil them in so she wouldn’t look different to the other girls in her village. I thought she was gorgeous, but she said she hated her freckles and she wanted light skin like mine. She had gotten the sun damage from picking rice in the fields. I always find it fascinating that Caucasians spend their time trying to be darker with fake tan, bronzers etc and Asian people try and make themselves lighter with brightening creams! I guess its a case of you want what you can’t have. Oh and while in Chang Mai, Thailand I even saw nipple pinkening cream! Bizarro!

Pencilling in Eyebrows in Sapa

While in Australia, I had the opportunity to meet an Aboriginal Elder. I bit of a sign of the times, he had a nice round belly and was playing his didgeridoo to dance music rigged up to car batteries. I guess you have to make a living somehow! Love the body painting though.
Anyway that was a far as I got on the book, pretty pathetic really I know, but I promise there will be more in the future. In the meantime I am going to put up the other blogs from my travels.

Enjoy xx