The Makeup Bandit

*Photo Courtesy of seenindonesia.com*

So we’ve all done it.

You find a cosmetic mirror, pick it up and check to see if your lip liner has smudged. WAIT.. There’s a 5x magnifying side on this thing?? Sweet! Up to eye level the devil mirror goes & realize that you can now see the micro organisms having a party in your pores. Depressions, Dents and Divots galore..

First things first..

PUT THE MIRROR DOWN. Your first reaction is going to be to pick away at what you see on your face. This will potentially introduce more bacteria to all the blemishes and black heads, making them a bigger issue than before.

I’m here to tell you that no one looks at you from 1/2 an inch away from your face and YES YOU ARE STILL AMAZINGLY GORGEOUS.

Now that we have the situation under control, I am going to help you out a bit with two products combating large pores and the irritating muck that loves to inhabit them..

1. Skincare: I mentioned in my previous post that I use a mask called ‘Bliss Steep Clean’ I am going to give you a quick explanation on why I love this guy..

It comes in a pump form and you will notice there are two colors going on, blue & yellow. Place your pointer finger on one side and your middle finger on the other, press down equally and it will dispense both colors. Now mix these thoroughly to activate the solution (when it turns green) and smear it all over your face in an even layer. Leave on for 15 minutes (I usually get distracted and it ends up on there for around 25-30 min.. Oops!).

Do this once a week and you will be thanking me. Why you ask? Well here’s the quick ingredient break down..

-Prozymex: Exfoliating enzyme that helps texture and skin tone.
-Vitamins A, C, and E & Grapeseed Extract: Fights free-radical damage, brighten and moisturize.
-Salicylic Acid: Surface exfoliator and anti-inflammatory, also helps reduce sebum blockage.
-Zinc Gluconate: Helps regulate sebum, oil, and shine. (The culprit of your black heads)

This means..

-It doesn’t dry out your skin (I know you want to feel squeaky clean, but that only means the product has messed with your skins PH, freaking it out and now it will over produce oil to compensate.. This is NO GOOD.)

-It loosens congestion so those stubborn black heads will be removed with less strain. Please wash your hands before attacking your face, it will help against spreading all the germs.

2. Cosmetics:

- Too Faced Wrinkle Injection: Meet my magician.. I love this product for filling in large pores & light wrinkles. Reasons? Well you aren’t smearing the dimethicone (which is a silicone polymer) all over your face where you might not need it, it acts more like a spot treatment.

Warm up a pea sized amount between your fingers and then gently pat over the areas you want to fill in. DO NOT use a silicone based foundation on top of this product, they will roll over each other and you will think your face is peeling off. (At least that is what I thought when I first made this mistake.)

**Disclaimer about pores - You cannot physically shrink the actual depth/size of your pore, this is something that is genetically decided. The best way to make your pores ‘appear’ smaller is to keep them clean. Make sure to wash your face with a gentle cleanser at the end of the day, exfoliate, and smile alot.

Ok.. well that last one isn’t proven, but I believe that smiling can solve any issue, so its worth a shot right? At the very least a pearly white smile distracts people from my pores ;)

Until next time!

*TMB

Happy 2012!

So I have been getting requests to explain what skin care & foundation I use, so here’s my answer!

Meet my skin: Generally normal all over with oil through the T-Zone. OIL?!?!?! I’m not complaining. Oil keeps your skin lubricated and protected, preventing aging. Yea my pores will be the size of New York by the time I’m 65, but who really cares then?

Back to my dilemma.. I have WAY sensitive skin. I’m talking any fragrance, weird dye, or word you can’t fully pronounce in the ingredient list will make this horrible red rash appear all over, and worst of all? I am also allergic to antihistamines, the dude that calms down allergic reactions. Sucky? Yea.

SO, 3 years ago my face had an allergic reaction and hasn’t been the same since. :(

I have peeled, scrubbed, exfoliated, Glycolic’d, and salicylic’d. I have bought little machines that spin in circles to cleanse with, used Alpha and Beta Hydroxy, every fruit acid or enzyme you can think of, everything! NO DICE.

For 2012 I looked at my box o’ skin care and said SCREW THIS NOISE.. I am going to stick to Clean and Clear Cleanser for Sensitive Skin, Oil of Olay Oil Free Moisturizer with Spf 15, whatever random eye cream I find, Bliss Steep Clean once a week (to control blackheads), and…. Drum roll pleaseeeeeeeeeee: DRINKING 8 GLASSES OF WATER A DAY.

Can I tell you how much my skin has improved in 2 weeks? I’ve gotten 2-3 compliments a day on my complexion.. How friggin exciting!

Its all thanks to waving the white flag on the war against my skin, proper diet/water intake, and the cosmetics products I’ve listed below…

FIRST: Under eye..

Givenchy Mr Brite: only on the areas of darkness, and a bit on my upper lid.

Tarte Smooth Operator Waterproof Concealer: THIS PRODUCT HAS CHANGED MY LIFE. Please go and buy this now so it can change yours.. Its creamy, doesn’t set in wrinkles, IS WATERPROOF and doesn’t dry out under eyes. I use my fingers to apply so it warms up the concealer.

SECOND: Foundation..

MAC Face and Body: I mix C4 and N2 together to get my current color. (They are my summer and winter foundations) I buff around my face with the Sephora Pro Foundation Airbrush #55. I like both of these products because they allow for coverage where I need them, but allow my skin to show through.

(I switch back and forth from MAC to Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer Oil Free Spf 20 *ANOTHER AMAZING COMPLEXION PRODUCT*)

THIRD: Set with Powder..

My ALL time favorite is MUFE Duo Mat Powder Foundation, but I have come to love and currently use MAC Studio Fix in NC25. They are both pretty much the same, but I started doing makeup with MUFE so I gotta give them a HUGE shout out. **User note, they tend to run a bit yellow**

Also! The powders above are MAT. Meaning they do NOT contain anything luminous (good for me and my oily face) and they are also full coverage. I only recommend full coverage in powder, as most of the time you will be off by a shade or two and you are less likely to have a line with powder then with liquid.

Until Next Time!

TMB

Hello!

I’m going to start this blog entry off with a little story..

 Once upon a time when I first started going to shoots, fashion shows etc, I thought it was a grand idea to bring every piece of makeup I owned with me. [I am a person who believes ‘Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it,’ but I took it to the max.] I think I had about 50 pounds of makeup shoved into a Seya bag. It was great and all, but one day I was at a shoot and both elevators broke down as well as the freight elevator. We were on the 26th floor…

After hauling a 50 pound bag of makeup down 26 flights of stairs, I decided to learn my lesson and start being choosey with what I was taking with me. Problem is, cosmetic companies tend to create extravagant packaging for one tiny object. They also tend to make them random irregular shapes. I’m talking rhinestones, lights, plastic everywhere, dangly thinger ma bobbers..

COME ON. Give me a screw on cap and I am golden, no need to make it a game of tetris people.

1. Since most of my cosmetics were singles and I wanted them in palettes, I depotted ALL of my shadows.

**MAC Shadow palettes also fit Urban Decay and Lorac singles in them perfectly. All you need is to pop out the surrounding casing, use a lighter underneath the plastic holding the shadow for around 8 seconds and boom! It’ll pop right out and into the palette**

2. Who needs separate lipstick tubes? It takes time to open em, look at the color, close em, find the ones you need. BAH! Drives me crazy and you end up wasting precious time you could be applying. Solution? Break off and scoop out all the lipstick into a small rubber container. Put in microwave for 45 seconds - 1 minute. Pour into a pill box and BOOM! Done :)

**Make sure to properly clean between each client and throw these out every 1 and 1/2 years as most lipsticks go bad 2 years after opening.**

3. Lashes fit perfectly in pill boxes! Do it! It cut down on twenty boxes that I used to carry around.

4. Lip glosses in an art box! Art Boxes are no longer for only for children. (:

5. Remember pencil cases? So do I! I store my lip pencils in the front and mascara/eye liner in the larger pocket.

6. Too many stick/cream foundations? Japonesque sells an empty double palette. Scoop out the foundations and pack em right in there! DO NOT HEAT THEM - I did this and it melted the plastic container when I poured the hot foundation in. Whoops!! ;)

7. Do you find yourself asking - WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY POWDERS?! Solution: Depot them in the same manner as the eyeshadows, then hot glue them to a piece of thick foam board. Cut to fit whatever sized container you have. (I used an artists container that was on sale at a craft store for $2. I got pastels, oils, brushes etc AND a powder palette container.) WINNING!

So now I carry around a tackle box & a cross body (for airbrush) and thats all! Broken elevators? Walking up hill both ways in 6 ft of snow? I’m ready for it!!

Until next time!

TMB

*Photo Courtesy of indigosociety.com*

Technology has proven to be quite an innovative and exciting thing, furthering our lives in ways we’d never imagined it could. One area in particular is the addition of High Definition Cameras. I’m pretty positive you have heard about it. If not? You should come out from that rock you’ve been under.

Something pretty awesome about this technology is that it allows you to see things up to 6 times closer than the human eye can. HOW FUN!!

As a makeup artist, this forces you to think about those bags, blemishes, boils and bruises in a whole different light. Your work is now underneath a microscope and blown up 500 times to be put on a screen. Still fun? Uhhhh…

Not to worry!! There are a few things I’ve learned (from scrutinizing my own work as well as helpful classes etc) to make this application seem a lot less intimidating.

Look at the final product you are looking to achieve and break the features on the face down from there.

*MOISTURIZE. I cannot stress enough the importance of moisturizing before performing an HD application. Any flakes/dry patches will suck up any of the moisture in the foundation if you don’t. Then what happens you ask? Your clients’ face will look like sand paper.

I like to use a primer that has Hyaluronic Acid in it, to moisturize and prime at the same time. This still allows me to perform efficiently & in a timely matter, but combat dry skin. (Favs? : All skin types - Lorac Aqua Prime Older Skin - Korres Quercetin and Oak Anti-aging primer)

*Foundation: Less is more! The normal response to being able to see every flaw would be to cover that shit up. I’m talking PACK IT ON. Please refrain from doing so. I’ve found from past experience, it will only amplify the cracks and crevasse’s the human face naturally has. We are (in most cases) looking to enhance, not to distract. Your viewer will be able to pick out every bump (and will most likely be searching for it), so it is a good general rule to follow.

*You see darkness/pigmentation issues? Color correct and conceal ONLY those areas. Otherwise keep your foundation light. If not using an airbrush machine, the ‘Egg’ sponge wet and rolled gently over the makeup will act the same.

*STOP IT WITH THE DEWY - You want to make sure the face is mat, if you put a ‘dewy’ complexion product on them, who ever is watching through the camera will think you’ve sprayed them with PAM. If you want to add highlights, do so with the proper highlighter after you have mattified the entire face.

(Behind the scenes secret - A lot of the ‘J. Lo’ Glow you see in photos is added in post, not from the Makeup Artist.)

One issue I would like to address & will come back to in another post is the importance of airbrush when working in HD. Speaking as an artist who uses both brushes & machines: YES airbrush puts air between each molecule of pigment, allowing the spray to come out evenly BUT you can achieve the same look with brushes & regular foundation. Some of the greatest artists in the business still go old school when applying makeup.

OH GOSH! No machines? Well, Francois Nars is helping lead the cosmetic industry using only his fingers, so you will be just fine if you can’t run out and grab an airbrush system right this moment. ;)

Stay patient & take a step back to view the whole picture and you will be just fine.

TMB

                                

*photo courtesy of 123rf.com*

Why so serious? Oh ya.. Its because you were born with dark circles under your eyes & you have bought every concealer, cream, or serum on Earth to get rid of them. What?!? They didn’t work? Bullocks..

(And NO I am not talking to you, the one who has a terrible sleep schedule, party’s like a rockstar, and doesn’t drink water.

Yours is simple - You have made your skin the Mojave Desert by not drinking the h2O it needs to remove toxins, depriving it of time to rejuvenate during sleep, and making it listen to that horrible *OONS OONS* music at ‘da club.’

Calm it down a bit and you’ll see a difference my friend.)

I’m talking to the poor people who look like they haven’t slept in 6 years from the moment they came out of the womb. My advice is for the extreme cases.

Congestion/Allergies: The skin under your eyes is significantly thinner then that which surrounds the rest of your face. There are veins beneath the skin to remove blood from the area, but if you have any nasal congestion this can dilate and thicken the veins causing darkness.

Pigmentation irregularities are another cause of darkness, which is worsened by sun exposure (wear an EYE CREAM WITH SPF & some hot sunglasses)

Lastly is Hereditary Darkness, this just means it is in your DNA. Unfortunately, changing this is as easy as changing your height.

 After three years of working at Sephora (that is 720 days of my life; if not more) I have fortunately seen almost every complaint possible walk through those doors. It was great for practice and keeping me on my toes as an artist.

Yet the first time I had come in contact with extreme darkness, I was not so excited to be forced to learn.

This lovely human being had been blessed with hereditary darkness as well as pigmentation issues, and she was NOT very happy to shake what her mother gave her. Here she found herself in my chair with puppy eyes asking for help as her last resort. I dove head first into another ‘hypothesis’ of mine, not without some hesitation on her part but she was a trooper. (**She was Caucasian, this is important to how I dealt with the application**)

COLOR CORRECTION and THEORY: No I’m not talking using Green or Yellow sticks to conceal it. Yuck. I’m talking complimentary colors. (Adjusted per skin tone).

I used a BLUE BASED semi-matte red lip pencil from NARS called Cruella . HEAR ME OUT! After letting an eye cream with SPF soak in her skin for 5-6 minutes, I took a small concealer brush and applied a LIGHT layer of the red on ONLY the areas of darkness. Then I used a finely milled setting powder (in this case it was Makeup Forever’s HD powder) to solidify the lipstick. Finally I used her matching liquid concealer to even out the color & set it again.

Why did this work? The red lipstick was the perfect color to cancel out the darkness underneath her eyes, then applying a concealer on top blended it out. Color correctors are KEY when you have any unnatural colors to conceal. Without them the darkness is going to show through your concealer since there is nothing actually ADDRESSING the issue. In turn you will use less of each product. This means less makeup pooling into the natural folds under the eye & it’s easier on the wallet. WINNING!

To this day I have not found a 2 in 1 product that works as well as this two step method. Companies make products to service a wide range of clients but all dark circles are not made equal. So instead of trying a blanket product, you are able to customize your correction. Its an extra 10 seconds, but it works wonders.

You are not light skinned? No problem! For olive/dark skin: Try a light coat of bright orange lipstick/cream color under the eyes before applying the proper concealer color.

Cheers *TMB

Photo Courtesy of parisatacertainage.com

This weeks lesson was a doozie. I had the fantastic opportunity to work with some of the most influential business men and women. As a makeup artist who is behind the scenes, this was an inspiration.

If you were sitting next to one of the creators of Google on the bus, chances are you wouldn’t have any idea who he was. Yet he has affected hundreds of millions of lives! And I was lucky enough to powder his face.. (Can you tell I am excited?!)

Back to the point - Along with business comes stress, and stress never helps anything, especially your face. Eyes to be exact. I was faced with the challenge of minimizing some of the worst under eye bags I have seen to date. Not only did I have to minimize them in person - THIS WAS FOR TELEVISION. Meaning extremely bright over head lighting (anything it shines on casts a HUGE shadow), the constant heat of the lights, and finally it was all recorded in HD.

Hi FREAK OUT, how are you today? Instead of packing up my things and walking out, I took the challenge.

First step: Preparation H. Yes yes, we all know what this is generally used for (if not Google it) but it serves another purpose! It helps retract the skin underneath the eyes AKA the huge double sack lunches on the face that I was staring at. It also adds a moisture barrier for the makeup not to sink in completely to lines and wrinkles.

Second step: CORRECTIVE MAKEUP. Emphasis on the corrective part. I put a near white foundation where the skin creased and a medium toned brown where the skin puffed out. I did this because A. The lights would cast a huge shadow and make the problem more of a big deal than it is and B. To recede the areas where the skin was bulging.

Afterwards I set with powder then applied the clients proper foundation to the rest of the face. Set with powder again, a little bronzer and blush, then Voila! Camera, HD and Heat ready.

Now though I am making it seem like I knew exactly what to do when faced with this issue, I did not. Inside I about shat myself.

I applied what I had previously learned in color theory as well as highlight and contour to the problem I was looking at.

*Disclaimer - Everyone is beautiful for their own unique reasons & I am highly appreciative of it all. With that being said, if everyone who is on Television walked on camera without any makeup on - the people watching wouldn’t be able to focus on what was being said. This style of makeup is to combat the enemy that is the LIGHTING on set - If you have bags? Rock on. You’ve lived. No reason to not holler it from your roof top.*