Matte about You!

The whole world seems to be crazy about mattes- matte lipstick, matte eyeshadow, matte face, mathematics... (wait, that's not right...)

I love the trend and I think it works well in our hot, humid weather. And if you have a matte lip stain, you have half a makeup kit in your purse. To achieve this, you'll need the following:

A matte lip stain, an eyebrow pencil in medium brown, some black mascara, matte face powder, an eyepencil in any colour and a baby.

Yes. A baby.

First, put the baby down. This will immediately give you a panic attack and a headache and a time limit of 15 minutes, because the baby will start howling. Apply your makeup normally and then use your fingers to dab on he matte lip stain on your lips and cheeks. And your face is made up pretty! Now pick the baby up, because your neighbours don't deserve that noise in their lives.

Still more fashion work

I don't like me right now...I'm working on a job that takes most of my time and I would like to take this opportunity to say a shout-out to all those wives and mothers who work 9-5, face Lagos traffic and run home to cook and care for their families. YOU ARE AMAZING. I could slap someone at the end of each day, I'm so tired. Kai! Dear future-Nory, you BETTER be rich enough that the most worrying thing in my life is getting videoed while I beat my sister's hubby in an elevator.

Too soon? okay, okay, no more jokes on Solange...

I shot this a while back with uber-talented photog Emmanuel Oyeleke ( Hi Emmanuel! I miss you "waves").

That was a tough shoot for me (no, makeup work is rarely shits, giggles and glitter #DoseOfReality, kids) because the weather was soooo hot. I hope you guys like it though.

In hindsight, I feel (and I think you will agree with me) that products such as Laura Mercier oil-free primer under the foundation will help it hold on stronger to your face, wipe with Witch Hazel as a toner before (to reduce oil). Also eyeshadow will not crease if you go with Too Faced shadow primer under it (that primer is stronger than concrete mehnnn) and a super-duper waterproof eyeliner like Milani waterproof, Make Up For Ever Aqua Black or Bobbi Brown Gel liner.

So, take care till we are freeeee!!!

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

Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's MAYBELLINE

Hey guys. Light, Love and Sunshine is here again (had some issues, let me warn you, do NOT watch an eclipse in a bowl of water and run down steps in heels. You WILL regret both those actions).

Drugstore retail giant, Maybelline, has come officially to Nigeria! Woohoo, because they are makers of one of the world's most iconic mascaras, Maybelline Great Lash mascara. Maybelline sponsored the just-concluded Lagos Fashion and Design Week 2013, and yours truly worked backstage with the team, and it was great.

The company also kindly shared goodies with the team, so I got to do some brand catch-up:

I played with it first thing next morning (hey, forgive my makeup mistakes, I was 3/4 asleep) and here's how it came out:

 I used the Color Tattoo cream eyeliners on my eyes, Colossal Volume mascara on my lashes, Color Sensational lipsticks in Red and Neon Red on my lips, Eyebrow pencil in dark brown and Pressed Powder in Mocha to contour subtly.

Their Color Tattoo creamliners are PHENOMENAL. I mean, if those liners were a dude, they would be a tall, dark-skinned looker who went to an ivy league university abroad and has a great job in Nigeria and has no commitment issues and thinks you're beautiful after you've woken up from sleeping in a room with no AC. Yup, that good. The Color Tattoo liners last a full 24-hours, models would come back the next day and still have them on, I had to use some cleanser to take it off and they are soooo smooth to apply.

The Color sensational lipsticks are a creamy dream, first swipe give you see-through glossy colour, second swipe full-on power.

Their mascaras, well, you probably own one already, because y'all are Divas.

Check out the line, go shopping and have a Maybelline day!

Will the Real Slim Shady please stand up (Part 2)

Hey Chicas, how are you?

So, we've kinda established the fact that it's pretty hard to figure out what's real and what's fake. However, all hope is not lost (dramatic music should be played whilst reading this blog post btw). I put heads together with a lot of clever people and we came up with some guidelines, titled:

HOW NOT TO BUY FAKE MAKEUP

Step 1: Check the price. We are Nigerians, ladies and gentlemen,  we love money. So if we buy something to sell, we want to make a profit. If a pressed powder costs N2,500 to import into the country, there's no way an average Nigerian will sell it for N900 in the market. For the price to be that MUCH lower that actual sale price, it's either of 2 things: the powder is defective/expired, or it's fake. No matter how much the seller bought it on sale or wholesale, shipping and overheads MUST be added to the price, abi?

Step 2: Check how your product looks like. Take a look at the picture below, the upper one is real MAC (lip-pencil in Currant) and the lower one is fake MAC (no name, has a number).

Original products usually have embossed or engraved lettering on them (the logo is either raised on the surface or scratched in, either way you can FEEL it when you touch it), fake products usually just have the name of the product written on it, (and the lettering on the fake will be peeling). No company will wake up and change its logo. Even the package of the Iman I posted, the original had a computer bar on the back of the pack, the fake had nothing on it. If the logo looks different, walk away.

Step 3: Check the name. MAC names its products: Lady Danger, Ruby Woo, Woodwinked, Raizin. So if you see a product with a MAC logo and no name, it's probably fake. Same with Sleek, all their collections have names, a quick Google search will tell you if what you have in your hand was made by the company, if you can't find it online, it doesn't exist.

These are your best steps in avoiding fakes. In my next and final post on this subject, I'll talk about the feel of fake products and places I trust to shop. So keep reading and feel free to share this post with your friends.

Till next time!

Will the Real Slim Shady please stand up? Part One

I walked into a store in Adeniran Ogunsanya mall and asked for their cosmetic products. They showed me some MAC stuff, priced at N2,500 and upwards. I laughed and removed myself from the shop without making a purchase.

All the MAC they had was fake.

Welcome to buying fake cosmetics world. It is has become exhausting trying to find makeup that isn't fake: I've bought fake MAC, fake Iman, fake Mary Kay, it has become ridiculous. The fakes are so well-done you ca't spot the difference, in particular Mary Kay and Iman. Here are images to prove my point:

Left or right, which do you think is fake? Can you tell?

 

Here they are from the front.

In both pictures, the one on the right is original, the other is fake. It is easy to be deceived, unless you know what to look out for.

I'm not trying to be a snob, there's nothing wrong with affordable cosmetics. But I like knowing what ingredients are in the products I'm using on my face, and my clients' faces. I've seen fake cosmetics burn the skin (nasty stuff). And if I'm gonna pay for stuff, I'd like to know what I'm buying is the real deal, the real McCoy, the real Slim Shady. And I'm out of metaphors with that sentence.

In my next post, I will talk about how you can identify real from fake.

Red lipstick, stay on

A client asked me a question recently during a consultation.

"How do I make my red lipstick stay on long?"

Well, great question, simple answer. Layer it. Start by using a red pencil all over the mouth, after you've defined your lip outline, then colour it in (like how you colour in stuff when you were a child). Apply your lipstick over that and I guarantee it'll last longer and fade evenly. Because it will fade no matter what, and I don't like lipstick sealers, they are too drying. So this will ensure it fades and leaves some colour behind.

This was a model for a fashion show in New York. I know we used MAC lip pencil in Redd and Cherry, then covered with MAC lipstick in Russian Red. Other red lipsticks I like are NYX red, Revlon lipsticks in red (all shades, these are beautiful), Jordana matte red lipstick, NYX lip pencil in Hot Red and Zaron lip pencil in red is one of the best lip pencils I've ever used.

So, there you have it. Happy red lipstick day.

Line Like You Mean It

Hello there, back with another blog post title from a band I really like, The Killers.

Eyeliner is an amazing product and it's probably the first piece of makeup everyone steals from their Mummy's handbag as a child. But some out there can be super-annoying: hard, don't release colour well, don't have a smooth texture, expensive for what you're getting, blah blah...

I mean, seriously, Life is tough already. My eyeliner shouldn't be.

I've tried out a few brands, and decided to put all my black eyeliners to the test of long-lasting longevity. I wanted to know, which would last through a crying session of "OMG, Bez Idakula the singer is engaged, I thought I'd meet him one day and we'd get married and have natural-haired babies who play guitar and paint watercolours, mah life izzz overrrrrr"

MAC pencil in Smoulder, Rimmel eyeliner pencil, Face Atelier Powder pencil, Zaron Khol Kajal, MAC waterproof pencil in Engraved, Bobbi Brown gel liner, MUFE Aqua black cream liner

Swatches of all the liner

And swatches of all the liners after I washed my hand with soap and water lightly

I'm not going to make a decision or tell you what I think, I just wanted to show you how they acted under circumstances like water (a sweaty bride or client on a hot day or just any gal with oily skin, take note).

So, as per eyeliner, what's in Your wallet?

Editor's note: We at Naijapretty and Noredia Mua wish Bez congratulations and a happy married life. 

Pack 'Em Up!

Inspired by that line above (which is from an action movie), I thought I'd share how I carried my lipsticks.
Being a makeup junkie (in treatment for this ailment), I have a lot of lipsticks and it was getting to be a pain transporting them. Plus I had lost some to a job or two, where some random monkey (you know yourself!) tried it, liked it, dipped her hand into my kit and took the whole tube. Change had to come, and since I love depotting and organizing, I went the DIY way:
 

I made lipstick palettes out of pillboxes and some palettes, but you can get actual lip palettes at the following places:

• Hegai and Esther
• Sacred Artistry
• Gifty's Daughter

You can arrange them how you like (I did mine by colour). Just cut off a section and put it in the container, some people melt theirs after to give a smooth look. I don't, because there are some lipstick formulations which change after being subjected to heat and some which refuse to melt, no matter what.

 I'm gonna go back to my movie, let me know if depotting your lippies is a good idea or not.

Taaaa.