Hope you like and feel free to ask questions in comment section.
xoxo
V.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Beauty fundamentals: Foundation
As some of you know, I really obsess over foundation and correct matching. One thing I hate seeing is floaty head (mismatched foundation).
Brides magazine has asked me to re-create some of my techniques for them. So here it is, step by step on foundation rules.
Hope you like and feel free to ask questions in comment section.
xoxo
V.
Hope you like and feel free to ask questions in comment section.
xoxo
V.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Beauty breakdown: Elle STYLE360 Theia F/W 2012
Cherry on the top! I finish beauty breakdowns from F/W 2012 with the show that is very close to my heart.
I love my job, I am grateful for every opportunity, every exciting moment I receive, as they shape me profoundly to who I am as an artist, as well as a person.
There are few moments in my career however, that will be permanently etched in my memory as incredible out of the body experiences. This show is one of those moments.
I can say, for the rest of my time, that this was the show that made me dissolve into river of tears and I am proud to say it.
There are so many elements to reason why and I will get to them, but sheer talent and craftsmanship of the design, made by hands of truly truly beautiful soul, Theia designer Don O'Neill is most important one.
I have written about people like him before in my posts The Messengers and Cover that started it all.
People whose messages leave me breathless and inspires me to create and keep communicating to the universe.
Beauty of his art work is truly complemented by who this man is as a person.
From the moment I met him he (and his partner Pascal) permeated by warmth and love that is sometimes lacking in our industry.
No matter how hectic it got, no matter how many people had opinion around him, no matter the fact that this is the most important show of his life, his very first, this man wore grace and kindness like most beautiful crown.
That is why, his success, his talent and beauty he creates is extra special. Because it is happening to truly good person and it gives you re assurance that you can be successful artist without loosing your beautiful compassionate humanity.
All of you who know me, know how much I love mystical, dark but beautiful esthetic (I secretly call myself Morgana Le Fay for god sake lol), so creating this look was extra special for me.
I was raised reading Greek Mythology, so when Don told us, at our test, that his inspiration comes from Athena, the warrior goddess of wisdom and art, my nerd goth kid got awaken and my ears perked up.
We have created strong eye fitting the warrior goddess, linear and dark. But there was so much feminine grace to the whole collection and I wanted to convey that somehow with make up as well.
That is why after framing models eyes with Drama Queen palette and mixing purple from Tropicana (all by our sponsor Beauti Control) I added special silver cream in the center of their eyelid.
I wanted it to catch the light, play off the elements of design and expose light center of a strong woman, like pulsing heart underneath the warrior's armor.
The look was so beautifully accompanied by amazing shiny tails created by talented Linh Nguyen and his team of hairstylists.
We kept the rest of their look fresh and minimal, so nothing competes with the eyes. Shiny highlight was added to their cheeks to shimmer, like water. Lips were finished by BC lip balm and their whole body was moisturized by BC Ultra Rich Body Moisturizer.
As always, at showtime, I go in front of the runway and position myself with photographers, phone in my hand.
That is how I communicate with my first assistant back stage, in case something needs to be fixed. Little did I know I was about to be taken to an emotional journey.
Light went down and in the rhythm of the most beautiful music, I saw ghosts of warrior goddesses gliding down the runway wearing designs spun with love and vision of a beautiful man.
As tears streamed down my face, overwhelmed by pride and realization that I am part of this, that I have worked so hard in my own career to be part of such beautiful vision, I felt my hand squeezed hard.
I turned around to see teary face of Don's partner Pascal looking at me and like in some movie moment we hugged each other watching the show and crying together.
When it was over, applause echoed like thunder trough out the venue and people stood up to greet the final line up and designer himself. When the light came on, I saw that my face was not the only face wet with tears.
It is truly one of the moments I will never forget. I witnessed a triumph of hard work and talent that belonged to most deserving of persons. I was there.
I love my job, I am grateful for every opportunity, every exciting moment I receive, as they shape me profoundly to who I am as an artist, as well as a person.
There are few moments in my career however, that will be permanently etched in my memory as incredible out of the body experiences. This show is one of those moments.
I can say, for the rest of my time, that this was the show that made me dissolve into river of tears and I am proud to say it.
There are so many elements to reason why and I will get to them, but sheer talent and craftsmanship of the design, made by hands of truly truly beautiful soul, Theia designer Don O'Neill is most important one.
People whose messages leave me breathless and inspires me to create and keep communicating to the universe.
Beauty of his art work is truly complemented by who this man is as a person.
From the moment I met him he (and his partner Pascal) permeated by warmth and love that is sometimes lacking in our industry.
No matter how hectic it got, no matter how many people had opinion around him, no matter the fact that this is the most important show of his life, his very first, this man wore grace and kindness like most beautiful crown.
That is why, his success, his talent and beauty he creates is extra special. Because it is happening to truly good person and it gives you re assurance that you can be successful artist without loosing your beautiful compassionate humanity.
All of you who know me, know how much I love mystical, dark but beautiful esthetic (I secretly call myself Morgana Le Fay for god sake lol), so creating this look was extra special for me.
I was raised reading Greek Mythology, so when Don told us, at our test, that his inspiration comes from Athena, the warrior goddess of wisdom and art, my nerd goth kid got awaken and my ears perked up.
That is why after framing models eyes with Drama Queen palette and mixing purple from Tropicana (all by our sponsor Beauti Control) I added special silver cream in the center of their eyelid.
I wanted it to catch the light, play off the elements of design and expose light center of a strong woman, like pulsing heart underneath the warrior's armor.
The look was so beautifully accompanied by amazing shiny tails created by talented Linh Nguyen and his team of hairstylists.
We kept the rest of their look fresh and minimal, so nothing competes with the eyes. Shiny highlight was added to their cheeks to shimmer, like water. Lips were finished by BC lip balm and their whole body was moisturized by BC Ultra Rich Body Moisturizer.
As always, at showtime, I go in front of the runway and position myself with photographers, phone in my hand.
That is how I communicate with my first assistant back stage, in case something needs to be fixed. Little did I know I was about to be taken to an emotional journey.
Light went down and in the rhythm of the most beautiful music, I saw ghosts of warrior goddesses gliding down the runway wearing designs spun with love and vision of a beautiful man.
As tears streamed down my face, overwhelmed by pride and realization that I am part of this, that I have worked so hard in my own career to be part of such beautiful vision, I felt my hand squeezed hard.
I turned around to see teary face of Don's partner Pascal looking at me and like in some movie moment we hugged each other watching the show and crying together.
When it was over, applause echoed like thunder trough out the venue and people stood up to greet the final line up and designer himself. When the light came on, I saw that my face was not the only face wet with tears.
It is truly one of the moments I will never forget. I witnessed a triumph of hard work and talent that belonged to most deserving of persons. I was there.
Beauty breakdown: Elle STYLE360 Malan Breton Fantome F/W 2012
Project Runway alum Malan Breton has put together mostly men show that required us to keep boys nicely groomed and fresh. We did however have 3 beautiful girl models join the party, one of them being super cute Alison Harvard from Top model fame.
Make up and hair inspiration for the show was combination of Belle Du Jour meets Robert Palmer Addicted to love video. Smokey eye and red lips. I wanted to keep it more refined by opting out dong too much color on the cheek and keeping smokey eye more controlled.
I have used darkest colors from Drama Queen Palette by Beauti Control to smoke out models eyes with more cat eye shape.
Cheeks were contoured by bronzer, I did not want to ad too much color to compete with already strong look.
We gave the girls lady like lips courtesy of Beauti Control new
XOXO Lipsick.
I love the color and we were certainly giving a lot of kisses backstage with it :)
Make up and hair inspiration for the show was combination of Belle Du Jour meets Robert Palmer Addicted to love video. Smokey eye and red lips. I wanted to keep it more refined by opting out dong too much color on the cheek and keeping smokey eye more controlled.
I have used darkest colors from Drama Queen Palette by Beauti Control to smoke out models eyes with more cat eye shape.
Cheeks were contoured by bronzer, I did not want to ad too much color to compete with already strong look.
We gave the girls lady like lips courtesy of Beauti Control new
XOXO Lipsick.
I love the color and we were certainly giving a lot of kisses backstage with it :)
Beauty breakdown: Elle STYLE360 Monopoly by Junk Food F/W 2012
We all know Junk Food as maker of vintage and fun t-shirts. This year they collaborated with different designers (including out fave Staci Igel from Boy meets Girl) to create visual narrative of wealth and trappings of it.
This show required thinking on ones feet, since it had make up and hair change in the mid of the show. More on that as we go along...
This show was delightful mix of models and personalities alike. Young singers, actresses and reality personas walked runway together. Look we came up with was really flattering and fresh on all of them.
First part of the show was kept minimal, beautiful skin, strong defined brows (with an amazing Beauti Control brow grooming trio), bronzed skin and vibrant orange lips.
To ad extra little glow, I have placed clear BC gloss on the top of their eyelids for extra sparkle, but it also served as segue to second look.
Designers had the idea of transitioning first look by having black smoky eye with glitter on the top of it for the second.
I have already divided my team into black cream crew and glitter crew to be ready to pounce on the models as they changed for the second look.
Since hair change and clothing change is happening at the same time, after observing the rehearsal I knew that it is close to impossible to create beautiful transition with black in such short amount of time (mere seconds) while models is constantly moving in panic of clothing change.
Yes, we could have done it, but it would be sloppy and read like a mistake, I am too vain to send something like that down the runway ha ha ha.
So I came up with "gloss already on the eye" idea right there and then and proposed it to the Junk Food people and they loved it. I know, I know....what brilliant idea ha h aha
So disaster averted, my assistants sighing in relief waited for model change armed with fun gold glitter.
First look was glossy eye with with nice sharp brow, and then transitioned into rich gold glittery fest that finished the show quite nicely.
We even had Junk Food mascot walking the show (no glitter applied on the pooch), and he had a little diva moment too. It was fun energetic show!
This show required thinking on ones feet, since it had make up and hair change in the mid of the show. More on that as we go along...
This show was delightful mix of models and personalities alike. Young singers, actresses and reality personas walked runway together. Look we came up with was really flattering and fresh on all of them.
To ad extra little glow, I have placed clear BC gloss on the top of their eyelids for extra sparkle, but it also served as segue to second look.
I have already divided my team into black cream crew and glitter crew to be ready to pounce on the models as they changed for the second look.
Since hair change and clothing change is happening at the same time, after observing the rehearsal I knew that it is close to impossible to create beautiful transition with black in such short amount of time (mere seconds) while models is constantly moving in panic of clothing change.
Yes, we could have done it, but it would be sloppy and read like a mistake, I am too vain to send something like that down the runway ha ha ha.
So I came up with "gloss already on the eye" idea right there and then and proposed it to the Junk Food people and they loved it. I know, I know....what brilliant idea ha h aha
So disaster averted, my assistants sighing in relief waited for model change armed with fun gold glitter.
First look was glossy eye with with nice sharp brow, and then transitioned into rich gold glittery fest that finished the show quite nicely.
We even had Junk Food mascot walking the show (no glitter applied on the pooch), and he had a little diva moment too. It was fun energetic show!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
New Anne Klein optical ad
I had an amazing opportunity to be a part of beautiful new campaign for Anne Klein. Here is first shot from the series
I had fun mixing lipsticks together to create perfect dusty coral as well as bright fuchsia that will be coming out.
I had fun mixing lipsticks together to create perfect dusty coral as well as bright fuchsia that will be coming out.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Beauty breakdown: Elle STYLE360 Bebe Black F/W 2012
I love drawing reference from cult movies, historic eras and beautiful art work. Luckily for me, so does super sweet and talented Charles Benton from ever popular Bebe label.
His inspiration for this year was combination of 40s girl meet Blade Runner.
Naturally, I had to pay homage to noir girl by playing with color red. There is nothing more beautiful then sharp, classic red lipstick!
Not to go into period make up and still preserve contemporary and fashion touch, I have played with textures and left little bit of unfinished feel to the look (not adding mascara for example, for more powdery open eyes).
Another textural play came in combination of new beautiful shade of red from Beauti Control called XOXO and placing of pure red pigment on the top of it.
I did this to create very mat, velvety mouth that, when it started to separate, created bit bloody, unexpected and little dangerous vibe of modern Blade Runner heroine.
Their eyes were framed with Au Naturel palette from BC, more in the contouring fashion then traditional eyeshadow application. Lightest matte color from the trio was used inside waterline in their eyes, to give them very intense gaze.
I have framed their faces with BC bronzer but opted out of using color on the cheek.
It was so wonderful seeing the girls marching like confident women down the runway. They were total Betties (as I called them) with their awesome Victory rolls (great job Linh Nguyen and his team) and line stalkings.
I was especially proud to see Charles taking his bow down the runway and being celebrated for his talent and vision. Rock on girls!!
His inspiration for this year was combination of 40s girl meet Blade Runner.
Naturally, I had to pay homage to noir girl by playing with color red. There is nothing more beautiful then sharp, classic red lipstick!
Not to go into period make up and still preserve contemporary and fashion touch, I have played with textures and left little bit of unfinished feel to the look (not adding mascara for example, for more powdery open eyes).
I did this to create very mat, velvety mouth that, when it started to separate, created bit bloody, unexpected and little dangerous vibe of modern Blade Runner heroine.
Their eyes were framed with Au Naturel palette from BC, more in the contouring fashion then traditional eyeshadow application. Lightest matte color from the trio was used inside waterline in their eyes, to give them very intense gaze.
I have framed their faces with BC bronzer but opted out of using color on the cheek.
It was so wonderful seeing the girls marching like confident women down the runway. They were total Betties (as I called them) with their awesome Victory rolls (great job Linh Nguyen and his team) and line stalkings.
I was especially proud to see Charles taking his bow down the runway and being celebrated for his talent and vision. Rock on girls!!
Beauty breakdown: Elle STYLE360 Emu Australia F/W 2012
Emu Australia, makers of famous cozy footwear delivered much more than boots in the beautiful palette fit for easy going girl.
I wanted to preserve that chill, fresh Aussie beauty, that mimics color palette of the Outback.
Hello earth tones!
Unlike some of the other looks I have created for Fashion week that required more even look and more coverage; this one was all about feel and look of natural skin.
Model's foundation was kept minimal, with just spot concealing. I wanted to expose model's beautiful freckles (which many had) and preserve that youthful glow.
Just, as I like to call it (and my team delightfully chuckles as I utter it "DELICIOUS SKIN").
Two eye shadow palletes were used in this look (both from our wonderful sponsor, Beauti Control).
Earth colors from "Au Natural" were most dominant part of the look and were smoked out in circular motion all around the eye.
To ad definition, I used darkest color from "Drama Queen" palette to press into the lash line and softly defuse it.
I wanted deconstruct the look and ad freshness to it by applying eight hour cream (by Elizabeth Arden) in the center of the eye.
That dissolved some of the make up, for more worn in look and added beautiful shine.
To create that wind/sun burned look, TAN blush from BC was used in the center of the apple of the cheek.
Tops of their cheekbones were highlighted by the same cream used on their eyes.
I finished their look by keeping their lips natural color, beautifully hydrated by new delicious Beauti Control lip moisturizer.
This was probably most wearable and mistake proof look I created for the runway and it can be easily translated into everyday wear. Just beautiful, effortless nature girl.
I wanted to preserve that chill, fresh Aussie beauty, that mimics color palette of the Outback.
Hello earth tones!
Unlike some of the other looks I have created for Fashion week that required more even look and more coverage; this one was all about feel and look of natural skin.
Model's foundation was kept minimal, with just spot concealing. I wanted to expose model's beautiful freckles (which many had) and preserve that youthful glow.
Just, as I like to call it (and my team delightfully chuckles as I utter it "DELICIOUS SKIN").
Two eye shadow palletes were used in this look (both from our wonderful sponsor, Beauti Control).
Earth colors from "Au Natural" were most dominant part of the look and were smoked out in circular motion all around the eye.
To ad definition, I used darkest color from "Drama Queen" palette to press into the lash line and softly defuse it.
I wanted deconstruct the look and ad freshness to it by applying eight hour cream (by Elizabeth Arden) in the center of the eye.
That dissolved some of the make up, for more worn in look and added beautiful shine.
To create that wind/sun burned look, TAN blush from BC was used in the center of the apple of the cheek.
Tops of their cheekbones were highlighted by the same cream used on their eyes.
I finished their look by keeping their lips natural color, beautifully hydrated by new delicious Beauti Control lip moisturizer.
This was probably most wearable and mistake proof look I created for the runway and it can be easily translated into everyday wear. Just beautiful, effortless nature girl.
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