Latest Work

Why hello there. Hasn't it been a long time. I haven't updated my blog since last year and i'm very sorry for that. I won't bore you with the details but let's just say I am the proud new owner of a brand-spanking new laptop so now there shall be no more excuses!

I wanted to share some of my latest work. I did a really lovely test shoot about 2 weeks ago with the fabulously talented Daniel James Towle (you can see more of his work here), and the hair maestro Tim Furssedonn.

We shot in Hyde Park and were lucky enough to have one of the sunniest days I've seen so far in 2015. 

The shoot was styled by Lindsay Hillenbrand and the models are Jaffy and Leela from Body London.

The look of the day was pretty natural with a tiny hint of colour in the form of an aubergine coloured flick on the eyes. I absolutely loved working with these guys and am looking forward to future shoots which are in the pipeline. 

Sequin Brows

I love a good test shoot - especially when the photographer and model are kind enough to let me live out my fantasies ... involving sequin brows!

Photographer: JC Candanedo, Grey Pistachio

Model: Gabby from Space

Makeup: Me

Inspiration: Chanel AW 2012/13

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

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

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

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 

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. 

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.

My Little Parisienne Box

I went a little crazy with beauty boxes after arriving in the UK last year.  Beauty subscription boxes were never available in Australia before, so I made the most of being London based and signed myself up to both Glossybox and Birchbox, (I reviewed both here). After about 6 months I ended up with an overload of samples I would never use and a very well stocked travel beauty bag. I decided there were only so many sample sized products one woman could ever need and so I cancelled my subscriptions.

This year whilst browsing Instagram, a beauty box that Ruth Crilly from A Model Recommends posted caught my eye. It was gorgeous. It was Parisian. It needed to be mine. My Little Box started in France only and browsing their website (which was only in French .. a language I do not speak), was both fascinating and frustrating. Here was a company that had taken beauty boxes to the next level. The samples were from amazing brands and they also included divine little lifestyle products of their own gorgeous design.

When I heard they were expanding to deliver to the UK I couldn't sign up fast enough. Having just received my first box last week, I am thrilled. Here is what was inside:

Each box is centred around a theme, and this months theme is Paris. Once the ribbon was unwrapped the first little treat was this gorgeous notebook which included a few pages of the My Little Box's background story, beautifully illustrated of course. Oh and look at the stickers too. 

Next up was a really lovely neoprene laptop cover. Love love love this! But I wish my i-pod fitted inside as I don't own a laptop. Boo. 

And then we move on to the beauty portion of the box, which included three very good and well sized products. Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse is a product that needs no introduction, it is a cult Parisian pharmacy staple, a dry oil which you can use on the face, body or in your hair.  Laura Mercier foundation primer is always in my makeup kit, so this was another welcome inclusion. The final product was a My Little Beauty's own brand, the Stylo Lumiere which is a highlighting pen along the lines of YSL's Le Touche Eclat. I'm really pleased as I know I will get use out of all of these products.

I'm already looking forward to next month's box. You can sign up to My Little Box here if you like in the UK and would like a monthly fix to satisfy your inner Francophile.

Oh and I will leave you on this note - this sticker was on the inside of the box and it speaks to me loud and clear!

The Making of a Beauty Shoot - part one

Rather than write another blog post on yet another new product, today my friends, I have something a little bit different. I thought it might be interesting to show you what goes on in the lead up to, and behind the scenes of an editorial beauty shoot.

I was asked by my two lovely friends Christiana Amankrah, makeup artist and JC Candanedo, photographer, to work with them on a beauty shoot for a magazine submission. The shoot was to be based on current Autumn/Winter '14 trends and would involve two makeup artists (myself and Christiana) working on two agency models. 

Firstly I had a phone call with Christiana where we chatted while simultaneously emailing each other inspirational looks and ideas. There was a lot of ooohing and aaahhing as images were sent back and forth. Our makeup styles are quite different so we were looking for ideas which would work for both of us, and that would result in images that we would both like to add to our portfolios. By the end of our phone conversation we had a fair idea of the looks we were going for and Christiana had graciously offered to find us a hair stylist and fashion stylist to collaborate with us.

Mood board 1

Mood boards were created, studio space at Flash Avenue Studio was organised - it is such a fantastic studio in east London (Bromley-by-Bow) and I highly recommend checking them out if you need a space to shoot in. Rachel Williamson was booked to do the hair, and Elizabeth Adina was booked to style the shoot.

Mood board 2

JC has a great relationship with First Model Management so we were lucky enough to be able to work with two of their girls. We wanted the models to have two very different looks so we chose Anastasia and Jessica. So with our full team in place, our Zuca bags packed and ready to go, we were ready for the shoot. 

In next week's post we will go behind the scenes on the day of the shoot - stay tuned!

New Work - fashion + beauty shoot

I did a really interesting shoot with Antonio Milevcic, fashion photographer, and Elissa from M+P Agency last week. The shoot took place in Bromley which took me right out of my comfort zone and forced me to drive off into the unknown. Aside from a few technical i-phone issues, I made it in one piece. It is a lovely part of the world.

I kept things very natural for the first look. Elissa's skin is amazing so she didn't need much coverage. The eye makeup was kept to a minimum and I just enhanced her natural features.

I went darker on the eyes for the second look and added some texture to her hair. 

And for the final look I put the hair back in several messy braids and went super-smokey on the eyes while pairing the lips right back to almost the colour of her skin tone.

Photography: Antonio Milevcic

Hair and Makeup: Pascale Maestri

Model: Elissa from M+P Agency