South African theme

We had a world cup theme in the office for an upcoming event and my team was assigned South Africa. If there's one thing I love about my current company, it's the abundance of such talented & creative minds. They've put together a photo shoot as part of the pre-activities and I was tasked to do some of the makeup.

The inspiration for the first look came from Naima's photo on America's Next Top Model. But in my model's case, I opted to skip the black color on the cheek plane since the facial features didn't seem to fit it, as seen in this behind-the-scene photo. 

 

Or maybe I just couldn't figure the strategy for applying it. Anyway, I erased it eventually and here's the tight shot that was taken later on.

I also realized that I should always finish the contouring/blush first before drawing patterns on the skin. I had such a hard time dusting colors on the cheeks after I made the dots so it wouldn't smear the kohl pencil. 

Then I did another look. This time, I used plums on her eyelids and tried to make it smokey, with heavy false eyelashes and a thick eyeliner. For the coverage, we were opting for a dark skin shade with pale lips. 

I'm so happy with how this photo shoot turned out. It's my first time to do it for fun, without considering the time limit or how the output would affect my grades. I'll definitely do more of this in the future with my aspiring photographer friends who are also trying to beef up their portfolio. =D

Back from hiatus!

It's been a while since I applied makeup on anybody. After my Saturday classes ended in May, I had no other venue to practice my skills. I guess I was a little bummed out too that it would take my school an entire month just to deliver our grades. So back then, I didn't know if I should be ecstatic or not because I wasn't sure I qualified for the basic makeup certificate yet. But I was informed that since I was being invited to internship opportunities for the school's events, that means I practically passed the course already and I just need to complete the required on-the-job training hours before they hand out my grades & certificate. Woohoo!!!

This past week was a special one to me. I helped my friend with her makeup for another friend's wedding where she was one of the bridesmaids.

Then I also had a chance to participate in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women victory party last Thursday at the World Trade Center. This was part of my internship requirement and I did the makeup of one of the belly dancers. Here was the peg for her look.

I had a difficult time with the eyeliner. First, I used the felt-tip type (L'oreal Super Liner) but it kept cracking on her upper lashline. That's when I realized I can never use this product on chinita eyes because the inner folds on the eyelids tends to break the layer of makeup. To fix it, I need a smooth surface that won't rub against the skin so I used a gel liner instead and set it with black powder eyeshadow afterwards.