Ziad Ghanem backstage London Fashion week! (with AOFM)

I was so excited when I was selected to be part of the backstage make up team for London fashion week! working with the AOFM pro team is aways a treat!

Of all the shows the most iconic for me had to be ZIAD GHANEM. after last years triumph I was truly inspired by the theatrics of the show, it was both magical and original. could they really top that?

Key makeup artist Michelle Webb (who was also responsible for February2011 LFW look for Ziad) came up with the individual looks for each model! all the models were artists or creative people of some kind, which really made the spirit of the show and made it less conventional! the looks ranged from totally black face to intricate roses painstakingly painted on to the face.

The show has been the highlight of my career so far! working with such a wonderful team and makeup artist make the hard work all worthwhile.I look forward to more shows with AOFM and LFW 2012!

Designer Scottacus Anthony lookbook shoot

I had the pleasure of doing the make up for the very Talented fashion Designer Scottacus Anthony, (you can check out the full collection on his website) the pieces for his graduate (featured at Graduate fashion week 2011) collection are Draped in rich purple pink and blue tones and detailed with intricate laser cut leather and wool!!..truly inspiring pieces and finished off with beautiful jewellery and accessories to match like the necklace below!! love it.

The photographer was Claire Huish who I have worked with a few times, love working with Claire her compositions are beautiful and really has an eye for fashion photography.

The inspiration for the make up was statues and stone, I used mac face & body white/C1 on Lucy to give her that pale look and heavy contouring to create the statuesque lines. on the eyes i used black crystals and pigment set with mixer medium and eyelash glue, For the hair I gave lucy a  bun to keep it simple yet elegant.

Graduate fashion week 2011

Beauty shoot with Faith Mason

So last week I had a fabulous shoot with the very talented Faith Mason, we wanted to do a beautiful beauty shoot with a slight edge, we shot in faiths bedroom against a blank wall, which was very effective, I love the simplicity of the images.The model Candice looked amazing considering she has only modeled a few times!

...The products I used were:

• Mac strobe cream as a base
• Mac face and body C3
• Mac skin finish in soft and gentle to highlight
• Bobby Brown concealer palette (natural bisque) to lighten and slightly conceal eyebrows
• YSL lip stick and gloss (Rouge volupte' 22) 
• For the hair I used Babyliss hair crimpers!! (oldskool)

Vintage Hair and Make up With Lucy in Disguise

I had a great day at The Big Feastival hosted by Jamie Oliver last week, A festival for food, wine lovers and great acts with the proceeds going to charity.

I was invited to work with a great creative team called The Hair&Make-Up Dept, Headed up by the lovely Natasha Devedlaka and her husband who is a fabulous hairdresser Michael Price. They will be managing the salon in the new Lucy in Disguise shop in Soho. Specialising in vintage hair and make up.

We were based in the WI tent (Women's Institute) along side Lucy and disguise clothing. There were also fantastic acts with hula hoops ,a great talk from Gizzy Erskine not to mention the mouthwatering chocolate brownies everywhere!!..

It was also a real pleasure to meat the Shoreditch Sisters a lovely group of ladies from the WI.
(below) Tara and Becky They do a great deal of fundraising and events so defintaley contact your local WI group!... Its not just for old ladies in twin sets and pearls anymore!

Throughout the day we created vintage inspired looks for the public ranging from 1950s to glam 80s! all free with a suggested donation to Jamies children's charity.

Check out Lucy in Disguise if you haven't already, gorgeous vintage collections for high end and more affordable lines too..

Kakuyasu Uchiide’s Eyelashes

I have been looking for some inspiration for a creative beauty shoot and came across these images, The make up is by Kakuyasu Uchiide he is the head makeup artist for Shu Uemura and International artistic director of the company. I love eyelashes and I cherish my Shu eyelash curlers they are the best!! If your into eyelashes its definitely worth checking out their website! superb quality with individual styles from natural to fantasy..and the Tokyo lash bar is inspiring!

I think eyelashes have the ability to transform your face they are the feminine focal point of your face in my opinion, I was not blessed with luscious eyelashes so i do my best to accentuate them with curling and good mascaras such as Max factor masterpiece, MAC zoom lash and YSL are super too.

http://www.shuuemura.co.uk
..

Backstage Make up at Graduate Fashion Week London

Hi Lovelies I have just got back from 3 days of fabulousness backstage at the GFW London. I had the pleasure of representing AOFM the make up was sponsored by Rimmel

We were given a large assortment of their products to use for the duration of the show .I have to say I'm not a big fan of cheap make up but I was pleasantly surprised by the Rimmel foundations they had a great colour range and the colour stay gave a really nice finish the only downside was that they don't do tones for darker skin.

We were split into two teams for each theatre I was in team B along with a load of lovely ladies who have trained at the academy and are now freelance makeup artists in their own right.

We also had the lovely Ariane Poole (Make up artist) directing and designing the looks for the the teams along with her assistant Melisa Green.

AOFM ladies

Over the days we were given demos of the designed looks which we had to emulate for all the shows, ranging from very natural to heavy eyes and bold lips.

The Loreal pro team did an amazing job with the hair too!

Loreal Team

There was some awesome collections and I'm very proud to be part of the show! All in all i had a blast and met some wonderful people who I will definitely be staying in contact with. We also got to keep the products we used so that was a nice bonus too!



Natural with dark lip



Black smokey eye

Lydia Garde Folk Fashion Shoot

I recently collaborated on a lovely editorial shoot with  talented photographer  Lydia Garde, the theme of the shoot was Folk and she even managed to hire a professional team of Morris dancers!!

We shot in Lulworth a small village off the coast of Dorset. I really enjoyed the shoot and think the pictures turned out fantastic!

I kept the make up quite soft and pastel as the colours she was wearing were very bold and vibrant.

The styling was lovely especially the hat that Lydia made..i thought that was a nice touch. Check out her website.

 http://www.lydiagarde.com/

Amazing Paperself eyelashes!!..

I stumbled across this fabulous collection of eyelashes from Paperself, a lovely little company that makes cool things from..yes you guessed it paper! They have been featured in 2011 fashion week and have transcended down to the high street.

You can find them on ASOS or they have an online shop http://www.paperself.com/ps%20%20all.html prices range from 8-12 pounds!..get some before they run out!!!!!

This summers essential beauty buys !!!

Hello lovelies well the summer is almost upon us and if the weather forecast is correct we are set for a heatwave..good news for your tan! bad news for your skin!! here are some of my favourite cosmetics that will get you through those long summer days and humid nights

1: Mac Liquid Powder

This amazing powder comes in three shades and in actually made from water!!..the lightweight formula freshens and cools the skin while giving you are gorgeous glow to you face!..dust on lightly with a kabuki brush. available now at your local MAC

2: YSL pure pigment chromatics palette

I cannot say enough about these eye shadows they are awesome!! made with pure pigment the colours are dazzling and if you add water to your brush the colour becomes more intense. Perfect for a hot day they don't crease in the eye socket and come in a range of beautiful shades...available at House of Fraser now for 37 pounds (pricey but oh so worth it)

3: Evian water spray

I stock up on these as I cannot live without them, they are perfect for setting your makeup for the day and cool you down on a hot day..I keep one in my bag and kit at all times and they are a cheaper alternative to the MAC fix and spray

4: Smoochy lip balm

100% natural ingredients and smell so gooooooood you'll want to eat them!! various different flavours..check out the website very cute packaging too. only 4.49

smoochy lips
http://www.gwdihwbalm.co.uk/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=6&Itemid=26

Master class with MUA Michelle Webb/ St Tropez team and Elle beauty editor at AOFM

I recently just attended a Masterclass day at AOFM with Michelle Webb, St Tropez team and the beauty editor of Elle Magazine!!!

First was Michelle Webb renowned for her colourful and creative work she has worked on films such as Xmen, Pirates of the Caribbean and her own Zombie movie which is set to be a cult movie classic! I first encountered Michelle when i was on the course at AOFM, she is one of the tutors, I was very inspired by her creativity and down to earth personality. so I was excited to hear she was doing a masterclass!

We started the day with champagne and canopes which was lovely and got to catch up with the girls and what they had been doing.

Michelle started off with a simple yet very effective look using metallic gold tiles as eyebrows and MAC gold pigment mixed with mixer medium for the lip and created a luminous skin tone with strobe cream and Laura Mercier foundation. She brushed concealer through the lashes to give the pale lash effect.

Next she moved on to grease paints/aqua colours and pigment creating a colourful editorial look mixing all the different mediums together to create alternative texture, she started with the eyes building up the colours gradually and did the same on the lips as before with a orange pigment and greasepaint (MAC)

After this look Michelle showed us how to make it quirkier by applying the same method to the neck using grease sticks, Water based paints and pigment, you can just be as creative as you want with this look and go for it.

Next was the St Tropez Class the team and Abi came along to show us how to apply various creams and mouses and how to effectively achive the best tanning results. I have to say i love the skin Illuminates they have three colours white, rose and gold you can you use them to highlight face and body.This product was used in many shows at fashion week (Zac Posen used it for the glowing skin in his show) I will definately be getting them for my kit!you can buy them in boots and superdrug or online at

.http://www.st-tropez.com/gold-skin-illuminator

The last Class was a treat to meet the beauty editor of Elle magazine and pick her brains about the industry and what her job involves. She showed  us some tear sheets from issues of Elle displaying trends in makeup colours and looks. It was really intresting to see that what looks are created in fashion shows usually set the key makeup trends for the up and coming seasons. She was presented with a bouqet of flowers at the end of her presentation as a big thankyou from AOFM for taking time from her busy schedule to come and see us..what a lovely lady she was. And what a great day it was! ...cannot wait for the next one.