BTS: Vintage Floral shoot

So recently I got in the studio with a great team and we decided to do a floral shoot.

I'm also an amateur florist and love fresh flowers. So when the photographer asked me to style the shoot, I was super-happy!

By the way, we used fresh flowers like Heliconias and Gingers. The models couldn't believe they were fresh flowers becauseof how they looked and felt!

I'm going to give a shout out to some Maybelline eyeshadows which worked great without any primer, smooth and blendable. I grabbed some MAC, Nixie and MUFE eyeshadows and lipsticks. It's great to have a kit that one can rely on.

Check out the full spread, now on Bella Naija, "Vintage Floral".

BTS: Geometric shoot

So I got to work with a new photographer and some stunning new models. It was fun!

I really like my old staple, Black Opal cream stick foundation, though it's quite oily. Model Temi was a dream to shoot, so very unique-looking and lovely!

Defense of the Dark Arts

(In british voice): Harry Potter reference

Hulllllooooo my lovelies.

Yep, I've been sniffing pink nail polish, how did you guess?? Lool.

It is close to Easter and you know what that means: Party time! Now I know you've gotten all your funky ankara styles sewn, you've done all your shopping (well done on NOT buying those clear stripper 6" heels, your mother would be so proud of you!), and you've perfected your dance steps, but there's one little thing you may have just forgotten.

Have you mastered your dark, smouldering, smokey eye?

Meet our Dark Arts model,Chioma!

I decided to give her a wearable smokey eye, something not too dramatic. I added a dash of unexpected lime-green to the inner corners of her eyes, to make her look awake. Here are some products I used:

MAC eyeliner, Paula Dorf primer, Maybelline brow pencil, Ben Nye loose powder, Revlon Matte lipstick, NYX lipgloss, MAC eyeshadow, Bobbi Brown eyeshadows 

The smokey was made of a black eyeshadow (Bobbi Brown), a matte gray eyeshadow (Bobbi Brown) and the lime-green eyeshadow from MAC (it was a limited edition shadow called Sweet and Punchy).

Hope you likey.

Behind the Scenes: LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTIONN!

I've been lucky to work in different areas of the industry and no two areas of the industry are alike and what may work in one, may often not fly in another. So let's talk about one subject I'm really thinking a lot more about these days: Light.

 

actress on set for "The Johnsons",season 2

Ignore Ann. By the way, Ann is the chicken, not the girl.

Look at her face. It does look shiny, right? However, to the naked eye, my young client here looked perfectly fine. Observe the strong shadows behind her. They were caused by the harsh lights on her ( and when i say "harsh", I mean standing under them melted cheap thick hair cream to oils.). Those harsh lights would wash away almost all, but the strongest of makeup.

And that's the point of my post: as a makeup artist, it is your job to understand what your Lighting guy (tv and film), your photograper or your Lighting crew (theatre) is doing. In general, photography uses the least strength in Lighting, while theatre uses the strongest. So you as a makeup artist should tone your makeup application down, in this order from light to heavy: bridal, red carpet, runway, photoshoot, television, theatre. This arrangement depends on what your brief is sha. Cameras see a lot better than the naked human eye (thank you, HD): if it looks plastered on in real life and all you're doing is attending Tinuke's wedding, and not being interviewed on ChannelsTV, it will look heavy in pictures and AGE you. I've seen a lot of makeup artists make this mistake, and sometimes I'm guilty of it too. And by the way, if it looks normal (bit of shine) to the naked eye, well, definitely it's going to look greasy once the lights hit it. The trick to use a foundation that is rich in pigment, and go easy on the application. 

A scene from the tv show "The Johnsons", MNET, when it was aired

I'll finish this post with a suggestion of foundations in my opinion have worked for me. You, dear non -makeup artist readers of my blog, should give the commercially-available ones a try.

Black Up oil free liquid foundation

RCMA cream foundation

Black Opal cream stick foundation

Mary Kay Oil free liquid foundation

By the way, we all grew fond of Ann the chicken.

Love and Peace

Christmas Makeover special

Hello, and merry, merry christmas.

Happy holidays, seasons greetings, spare a thought for the cow, goats and chickens that are not going to see the New Year. I decided to grab a willing model and plaster her face. Meet Kachy:

Face prep: Embroylisse Lait-creme concentrate, Vichy Thermale Purete, The Body Shop Vitamin E toner, Aquaphor

Brands used: Black Opal cream stick foundation, Estee Lauder Sugar Honey lipstick, MAC blush, NYX lipgloss, Bobbi Brown eyeshadows, Face Atelier eyepencil, Maybelline Colossal Volume mascara, Nixie cream blush.

Sorry for the poor picture quality. I do hope you like this, and feel free to rock this for the holidays.

Merry Christmas.

PRETTY IN PURPLE

There’s nothing like a wedding.

Bridal makeup is supposed to bring out the loveliness of a woman, committing to a man in front of witnesses, about her love for him. Soft, pretty, sweet, demure, those are words we think of when we see a bride in our eyes. That usually translates to nude colours, browns and pinks, with some grey.

But what to do when your bride wants soft but not those colours exactly?

Enter our model, the lovely Chioma. Chioma was just recovering from an illness which stressed out her skin, and we were going for yellow and warm, she likes pink and purple and certainly didn’t want to wear yellow eyeshadow.

 

For her base, I used Black Opal Cream stick foundation, I like the texture of this when I’m dealing with dry skin that’s not so smooth, it can be greasy on others. I went with a pink eyeshadow on her eyes, with a purple eyeshadow in her crease (a blend of MAC 'Beautiful Iris' and Make Up For Ever '162'). Chioma has gorgeous brows, so I brushed them up and filled in sparsely with Tara Orekelewa’s eyebrow pencil. I left her blush and lipstick in the same family shade of pinkish-brown-orange. I deliberately went for that because her skin was washed out of colour by her recent illness, so I wanted to warm it up a little. No lashes, just 2 coats of mascara and eyeliner on the top (any liquid eyeliner will suffice, but in this case it was my kit staple Make Up For Ever Aqua Black, which will hold up through tears of “I do”, “My ex-bf is soo upset right now”, “OMG I’m married” and “Will I ever eat my mum’s soup again”.

By the way brides, you don’t always need lashes. So many times, I see lashes that are too big, applied on a bride. It actually makes your eyes look smaller and cast a shadow in pictures. Not always cute. Opt for more natural lashes or rock your God-given ones. Your groom likes the latter best.