This is just a shoot a did a while back for the Autumn/Winter collection from the vintage clothing specialists Revolver Project.
About Revolver Project:
Housed above the cobbled streets of Smithfield, Ireland, Revolver Project is a contemporary company with a love of vintage fashion. We feel that the traditional vintage shopping experience is a thing of the past, and propose a modern solution. Spending hours rummaging through crowded rails in musty second-hand stores is no longer necessary. Our team of buyers and stylists work hard to hand-pick only the most stylish and highest quality garments from our selected wholesalers, allowing your shopping experience to be swift, easy, and luxurious. In line with the Revolver Project ethos of sustainability, your order will come delivered in crisp, recycled paper packaging. This is twentieth-century fashion for the twenty-first century customer.
You might remember last year I posted a behind the scenes of this Arianna Spring/Summer Shoot. Well the pictures have just been released. We were so lucky the day we were shooting this, it was an absolute stunner of a day and the sun was splitting the rocks. I guess it proves that we do get nice days in Ireland but it does feel sometimes like they are few and far between! I absolutely love the african prints with wild zebras drinking water, you only notice it if you look closely
I did a shoot the other day and it was an absolute fabulous day, so excuse the poor quality of the pictures, but my phone camera just couldn’t handle the sunshine! I will share the finished photos when they are released. Amber was the model and she is so gorgeous already, we wanted to keep the make-up really simple. As there was alot of skin on show I made sure to really hydrate the skin. I usually use Body Shop’s Strawberry Body Butter, but I recently picked up some in M&S when I was in there recently. I am a huge fan of their tights and salads, a weird combo I know! Well now I can add their body butters to that list too.
On Amber’s face I also really hydrated her skin, but this time with Clinique’s Moisture Surge for Normal/Combination Skin. I love how lightweight and readily absorbed this moisturiser is. Skin just drinks it up and it quenches any thirst meaning it is perfectly prepped for the foundation. She has such great skin with the most beautiful freckles. I lightly evened out her skin tone with MAC Face and Body which created a thin veil allowing her sunkissed skin to glow through.
For the eyes, I lightly buffed a light peach eyeshadow called Samoa Silk into the contour of the eye and slightly shimmery cream colour called Dazzlelight to soften the edges, both from MAC.
I then lined the eyes with Estee Lauder’s Double Wear stay in place eye pencil in Chocolate which was smudged out and softened. I used my much loved Eyelure 020 False Eyelashes and applied lashings of Lancôme’s Hypnôse Mascara, which is simply THE BEST mascara on the market.
I warmed up her cheeks and décolletage with the Terre Saharienne Collecter bronzer from YSL, the texture is soft and silky. It contains a polymer that works with the skin and helps maintain its moisture level. It also has this gorgeous snake skin print engraved which I nearly wanted to preserve!
To complete the look I used a little Hush Liptar from OCC Cosmetics dabbed on with my finger to keep it soft and subtle.
We had a great days shoot, we were absolutely blessed with the weather. It rained so hard all night that it actually kept me away all night. The day of the shoot wasn’t the best, but as soon as we got to the Farmleigh to shoot, the clouds parted and we were basked in sunshine! Happy days, no need for the wellies that I packed.
MAC Senior Artist Lesley Keane hosted a Bridal Beauty Workshop with Make-up Artists from all over Ireland. From feedback after past events, Lesley knew that alot of Irish Make-up Artists are nervous about darker skintones as they don’t get much practise on anything other than pale Irish skin. For this reason she had a beautiful ethnic skinned model to demonstrate one of the Bridal looks for the day. This look was called “Ore-Inspired”.
Ore-Inspired Bridal Look Products Used: Eyes: Constructivist Paint Pot as a base, Coppering eye shadow all over, contour the socket line with Corduroy eyeshadow, Honey Lust on the inner corners and under the brows. Coffee Pencil on the waterline and Blacktrack to line the top eyelid. Finish off with #36 Lashes and mascara to blend them into the lashes. Brows: Fling and Spiked brow pencils with Brow set. Face: NC45 Pro-Longwear foundation all over, Orange Studio Finish Concealer under eyes to brighten up any darkness and remove ash tones, Careblend powder in Med/Deep all over, Corduroy eyeshadow to contour the face, Mineralise Skin Finish in Peach as a blusher, Luster Drops as a highlighter Lips: Chestnut lip pencil to define shape, On Hold creamsheen lipstick and Desire lipgloss
The second look that she demonstrated was called Nouv-eau, this was a very soft pale, pink and irredentist look.
Nouv-eau Inspired Bridal Look Products Used: Eyes: Painterly Paint Pot as a base, Vanilla shadow all over, Samoa Silk all over the eyelid and underneath the bottom lashes in a circular shape, deepen the intensity with Passionate eyeshadow, Brule on the inner corners and under the brows. Reflex White Pencil on the waterline. Finish off with #33 Lashes and mascara to blend them into the lashes. Brows: Spike and Fling eyebrow pencils, set with Clear Brow Mascara Face: Pro-Longwear foundation all over, Pro-longwear Concealer under eyes, Mineralise Skin Finish in Light all over, Dainty blush Lips: Whirl lip pencil to define shape, Hug Me creamsheen lipstick and Desire lipgloss
Although this look is probably not for the typical bride, I did think that there was some elements that I would love to use. I thought the fact that all the colours on the eyes, lips and cheeks were the same tone made it more interesting and modern. It also created a very soft harmonised feel.
Leslie in action.
This is the set up for the demo. I like the fact that Leslie has decanted her paint pots and concealers etc into Muji Containers, I have done this with my lipsticks and I have to say it saves so much space! Also Leslie made a good point that her kit is a lot lighter since she did this, afterall those glass containers for the paint pots are actually quite heavy.
I think it is a great idea to attach the product information stickers on the back like this. I didn’t do this and it can be difficult to figure out which colours are which months down the line.
A sneak peak at the Pro-Longwear Concealer Palettes that are coming out soon. I think these would be a great kit staple as they have a great range of colours and the formula is supposed to be even better than before. I am looking forward to getting them!
There has been a lot of publicity about the chemicals in our make-up for the last couple of years. It really is an interesting topic as there doesn’t seem to be a lot of information out there. The FDA updated an old study into the quantity of lead found in lipsticks and published it recently. They took four hundred lipsticks found in retail stores and chemists and listed them in order of how much lead they contained.
I was really surprised to see that in the original survey circa 2007 The Body Shop was right up there at number 4! Their Lipstick: Lip Colour – 22 Garnet had 1.79ppm of lead in it. I always associate the Body Shop with being cleaner/greener than the other brands, for instance their slogan is “Natural, inspired by nature, ethically produced beauty products”. Anyway in the most recent survey they were no where to be seen so perhaps they got their act together. However, in the latest study in at no. 17 was Burts Bees, another one of those companies that I thought was good for me. Their Toffee Lip Shimmer contains 2.81ppm of lead!
I know I shouldn’t pick on the natural companies, it is just I expected this kind of thing from everyone else, but not them. You might be thinking to yourself, big deal, that is not a lot of lead. This is true, but the fact remains that Lead is a Neurotoxin: A poison that acts on the nervous system, damaging growth and brain development. I really just don’t think I want that anywhere near me, in ANY quantity.
I was stunned to see that since the original survey the quantity of lead had actually increased in lipsticks! Below is the top ten culprits, the list is just far too long to publish, but if you want to check it out for yourself there’s a link at the bottom.
The FDA weren’t too concerned over the quantities of lead, stating that that as the product is intended for topical use with limited absorption, the small quantities that would be ingested would be negligible. Now the interesting thing is that the levels of lead found actually exceed the recommended limits for lead in sweets. Now I don’t think that they realise just how much lipstick I eat! I know that as a makeup artist I should know better, but I’m insatiable. The minute I put anything on my lips I lick them, I just can’t help myself! Hence why I can’t stand Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream for my lips, because it tastes so bad! (Great for dry elbows though, can’t reach them with my tongue haha.)
It just makes you think what else am I consuming on a regular bases? They are all small quantities, but do they eventually start to add up? I personally think they do. I really would love to be using natural and organic make-up more often, but I just find that they don’t give the same results as standard cosmetics. I think the natural and organic ranges are fantastic for skin care and even foundation, I will be doing a review shortly on some of the great mineral ranges out there. However, when it comes to eye shadows, liners, primers and mascaras, you just can’t beat the ‘ol chemical ridden cosmetics. You need the silicone, bismuth oxychloride and talc for easier blending and longer lasting make-up…well at least until they develop some new advanced natural formulas.
I hope to learn more about this topic in the future and will keep you posted on anything that I find. Here is an interesting video of how makeup got this way.
*EDIT
Thanks to Dolly Rouge another great beauty blog for sharing Colin’s Beauty Pages, below is a really informative video about Lead in Lipsticks and how much lipstick you would need to ingest to do any harm:
While I was at the Makeup Show Europe I attended Loni Baur’s make-up demonstration. It was a fun and energy filled performance of make-up to music. She used a toothbrush to flick on the colour which had a gorgeous airbrushed effect. Unfortunately I was too far away to take a video, but I managed to take a few photographs so you can recreate the look yourself.
Loni is a very successful German makeup artist who has worked all over the world in fashion shows and events. She has opened her own school in Hamburg called the Colour and Creme Academy. This is a picture of her work from her website, she is absolutely amazing!
Well it has been a while since my last post, so I guess apologies are in order…but! I have and excuse. I managed to fit in a little holiday My good friend and fellow makeup artist decided to marry the man that she loves and thus I ended up spending a week in Portugal.
It was a great excuse to get away and I was delighted to have a jam-packed eventful as well as relaxed holiday.
I went Dolphin watching and managed to see about 30 dolphins which was sooo cool.
Also we were really lucky to see a turtle, I seem to have a strange connection to turtles…I did my college thesis on them, then when I went Scuba diving for the first time I saw one (which apparently is really unusual), then my first Christmas with Ronan aka my gorgeous boyfriend he gave me a turtle ring and then our first proper holiday together we see a turle…what are the chances?
So again, apologies about the hiatus, but there are loads of posts coming soon
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.
