hair

The Making of a Beauty Shoot - part two

The day had come, the studio was ready! Aside from a very stressful tube ride to the studio (northern line, I hate you), I was relaxed and ready for a fun day. I find doing hair as well as makeup quite a lot of pressure so I was thrilled to hand over the reins that day to Rachel Williamson, and I was super excited to be working on a shoot with a stylist as not many test shoots have that luxury. 

JC Candanedo working his magic with a little help from Rachel Williamson

JC Candanedo working his magic with a little help from Rachel Williamson

The team met at the studio at 10am and started setting up. The clothes Eizabeth Adena had chosen for the shoot were lovely - a perfect mix of sophisticate, rock chick and disco queen. I may or may not have rushed home to purchase a certain furry disco queen jacket at the end of the shoot. Shhhh. 

Christiana working on her first look with Anastasia

Christiana working on her first look with Anastasia

Jessica shooting her first look. For the final versions please go to my portfolio page.

Jessica shooting her first look. For the final versions please go to my portfolio page.

The first looks of the day were natural looks mainly for the models to use in their books. I love doing this type of makeup, I find my natural skin-focussed style lends itself well to this kind of shoot. My model was Jessica and I kept the look very simple, just sweeping a taupe colour through the socket, adding some mascara, grooming brows and keeping the lips pretty natural. I love the movement of her hair in the final version of these shots which can be seen on my portfolio page. I love a wind machine!

Anastasia with her natural look by Christiana

Anastasia with her natural look by Christiana

Once we had those looks nailed, we moved on to the more creative and exciting looks. Christiana shot her model Anastasia first with these incredible statement lips. Anastasia has such beautiful, full features that she pulled the look off with ease. I'm afraid some of these shots are being kept under wraps for the time being as they are part of an editorial submission, but trust me, they are amazing!

Rodarte inspired look on Jessica 

Rodarte inspired look on Jessica 

My first creative look was on the delightful Jessica Turner. I was inspired by the Rodarte AW2014 runway show so I went for a dense application or brown cream shadow over the socket teamed with a metallic lip which I mixed up using Bellapierre loose pigment.

Next up it was my turn to do a statement lip and I went for gold foil (stolen from my daughter's craft box). Truth be told, I hadn't really done too much of a practice on this look prior to the shoot, but boy I was happy with how it went on the day. A happy accident you might say. 

My final look was on Anastasia. I was inspired by a picture of Amanda Seigfried ... a purple smokey eye, a glossy lip. It took a while to get this look happening from a styling and hair point of view, but after a few clothing changes, we got some really lovely shots.

Anastasia on her final look .. before we changed some of the styling around. 

Anastasia on her final look .. before we changed some of the styling around. 

So what did we end up with? Well you will have to wait for part three of my post for the final images. Behind the scenes snap shots by me and Christiana, but professional photography by Grey Pistachio. Our location was the fabulous Flash Avenue Studios.

 

New work - Beauty Shoot

I just wanted to share some of my latest work with you. This is a test shoot I worked on last month with photographer Steve Nyman. 

I was going for a clean look on the skin with slightly edgy eye-shadow blended through the crease of the eye-socket. 

I'm really pleased with how these images turned out.

Makeup and hair by me. Photography by Steve Nyman

New work - Cuppa Magazine

I worked on a lovely photo-shoot last week for Cuppa Magazine. The magazine is best described by the Creative Director Si Pui Tuong;  "Cuppa Magazine is from one tea drinker to another. Cuppa celebrates the beauty and serenity of tea; sharing the curiosity of fashion, photography and London with other tea drinkers.” 

Here are some of my favourites shots from the day.

For the look we went with a pastel pop of lilac on the eyes and kept everything else fairly neutral. The hair was boho bed-hair with a side braid at first, then later let out in its wavy glory.

Photography: Thomas Wightwick

Creative Director: Si Pui Tuong

Stylist: Chloe Cooling

Model: Ciera Robertson

Hair and Makeup by me!