Catwalk Lip

In today's lesson we looked at creating a catwalk lip. This look features a black lip where the natural lip shape is altered to give it a very dramatic cupids bow.
-To start creating this look I tried to selected concealer close to my models skin tone and apply this to top of cupid’s bow in order to block out the natural lip shape. I think the colour I selected was probably a bit too yellow which meant I had to work a bit harder to blend it in with the rest if the skin.
-I then set this with a translucent powder. I opted for the Ben Nye powder in fair.
-Using Mac's balcktrack gel eyeliner I then outline where the natural cupids bow was to give me a guide and then drew in an exaggerated bow. I think the bow I created was a good shape and fairly symmetrical.
-I then moved on to fill in bottom lip and for this I kept the natural shape when I first did this the shape I created was quite wobbly and not very clean looking. I later fixed this.
-I then moved on to fill in corners and centre of the lips so that the pink tone of the natural lip  didn't show through as this would have ruined the impact of the look.
-My final check was to make sure edges were nice and sharp I did this by using an angled brush.
-I then put some Vaseline on top of the liner to add shine making sure to be very minimal as otherwise the product would have broken the blacktrack down to further ensure this didn't happen I did not take the Vaseline right to corners of the lips.
Overall I think this look was sucsessful if I were to re-create this I would powder the concealer a bit more as it bled through the balcktrack slightly.

Due to my camera not working I do not have evidence of this look so I re-created it on myself at home.

Adding Texture To Hair

Today's lesson focused on putting texture into hair. This is something that is being done regularly on the catwalk at the moment. There are many ways of adding texture to the hair.
-A crimper can be used to create waves and then back combed to add fullness you can then put up with lots of texture in it.
-Rick racking is another method which is a good way to achieve afro frizz but you do need time to do this. To do this you need to wrap small sections of hair around a pin in a figure of eight then hold straighteners onto the pin you can then let it cool and remove the pin and unravel it which will create an S shaped wave. Alternatively you can leave the pins in and brush them out all at once, this is what will give you afro frizz. With this method a smaller pin will create a tighter curl. This method will create a style that will last all day with spray
-A Crimper is also a good way to create texture this can be used as an alternative to plating hair and holding strighteners over the plait which also works well
-For my look I decided to put the hair in lots of small plaits and apply heat to them. I did this in layers and due to the hair of my head block being do course I didn't need to fasten them with any hair band or grips
-This is not a method I would use again as it was very time consuming and did not create as much texture as I would have liked I feel this may be partly due to the fact that I added too much setting spray to the hair before I did my plaits.Due to the lack of texture in my hair it ended up looking very 90's rather than high fashion.

Adding texture to hair

Texture added

Texture added

Chignon

In today's lesson we looked at creating a textured chignon. This is a look that is often used in fashion and also on the red carpet.
-I started by putting some curl into the hair. I did this by using a small curling wand I wanted my curls to hang downwards so that I could pull all the hair backwards easily and it would sit nicely.My curling went well. The hair had lots of product in from previous classes so therefore the curls held very well. One thing that was a problem was that as I came toward to front of the hair I had previously had a middle parting in the hair and I tried to create a side parting  but I didn't section all of the front of the hair over to the side when curling it meaning I had the effect of two partings in the hair.
-I then moved on to creating the chignon. To do this I started by putting the hair into three sections. I then took the back section of the hair and used this to create the chignon. When I first started trying to create my chignon after I had put the hair in a ponytail I was just focusing on trying to make a shape and fighting what the hair naturally wanted to do. my tutor then showed me that by just pushing the hair you can find where the texture I had created sits and to use that to create my shape. I did after splitting my ponytail into three sections and used the wave of each section to make shape.
-With the front two sections of the hair I created twists going back into the chignon. I then gripped these in place by gripping upwards into the twist to conceal the grip. This looked nice but due to the issues I had with my parting the twists were uneven.
I am very happy with the overall look of my hairstyle but I think it needs some fine tuning and I need to play more attention to detail.

Texture added with curling wand

Final Look from back

Final Look front veiw

Contouring-Light coverage

Today’s lesson focused on contouring. Contouring should be used to enhance the face not alter it.

We talked about products that can be used to highlight. There are many varieties including liquid, cream and powder. To highlight you can use a colour lighter and brighter than the skin tone or something with shimmer
Specific products we discussed were Mac stroke cream this is a cream with some shimmer in that bounces light off the skin it‘s good for photos and other fashion work as it contains silicone so dries quickly however it also blocks pores therefore is not good on a regular basis as it will cause breakouts.
Our teacher also recommended the Revlon photo ready skin lights highlighter this ia also a cream highlighter that comes in a variety of shades and doesn’t  cause the skin to break out and is very affordable.
The Nars orgasm Nars Laguna liquid illuminators are also a good option Laguna works particularly well on darker skin.
Stick illuminators also have cream consistency but often dry to a powder so these are nice for blending in and then have a good staying power
Some more specific products we looked at were the Ben Nye fireworks fantasy wheel, Ben Nye illumineer, Mac silver dust, Mac Vanilla pigment

We then moved on to talking about contour. I learned that contour colour should have grey undertone as this creates shadow I had previously used bronzer to contour with as it is a darker colour but having seen the demo I think that mixing eyeshadows to make a taupe colour works better.

We then created a light coverage with contour
- The first step was to mix a base colour and use fluffy eye shadow brush to cover any imperfections. My model had a very yellow tone to her skin so I struggled mixing a  colour that would match her skin tone well from my La Maquialge Morag Ross pallette. I tried to be as minimal as possible when using the base. I then took d32 just under the eye and reapplied the base over the top.
-I then added some make-up mixer to my base with a ratio of ¼ foundation to ¾ mixer and applyed this all over the skin. After this I set under eye with translucent powder
-For highlighter I patted in a Ben Nye stick foundation with my ring finger to the top of cheekbone, brow bone, nose, cupid’s bow and chin. I think this worked well as I made sure I was light handed when applying it so it gave a soft glow to the skin.I them set everything with powder
-To contour I mixed a grey, a beige and a brown colour from my Ben Nye eyeshadow pallete and applied this very lightly to the hollows of the cheeks, temples and jaw line. I had been a tad heavy handed so I used my foundation brush to help it blend in better. I then used a tiny bit on either side of the nose
-During our teachers demo she groomed and filled her models brows she used the derma pallet to fill brows as this gives natural effect to brow it also doesn’t move due to the waxy consistency and mimics hair. This was something I’d never seen done before but I like the effect that it gave. Unfortunately I ran out of time to do this so I’ll need to work a bit faster next time.
-I then added a tiny bit of Macs vanilla pigment over the top of the existing highlight which enhanced the glow to the skin.
-The last thing I did was use my lipstick pallet to mix a blush colour for my model I chose a pink toned peach shade and applied this with my ring finger I used the same colour on lips which tied the look together nicely.

Unfortunatly I do not have a photo of this look as the camera I used has been stolen.I have re-created the look on myself and used this photo to demonstrate the look.

London Fashion Week

The next fashion show from London fashion week I looked at was from Ashish's ready to wear collection.

What I like about this make-up is that it features a statement eye look whereas most of the looks I have seen recently have all been about the statement lip.

The make-up artist for this look was Maybelline's UK make-up director Sharon Dowsett. The look did not feature any liner or fake lashes but instead had gems bordered the bottom lash line and a shimmery eye-shadow and gems placed over the top of this.The brows look to be kept quite natural so if I were doing this look I'd just use brow gel. The lips don't look to have any product on and therefore if re-creating this look I would just use a lip balm like 'lano-lips' . It doesn't look as if any foundation has been used on this look as one of the models suffers from vitiligo a skin pigmentation disorder which has been left uncovered. This is another I really like about the look, where alot of people may have tried to cover this the make-up artist who did this look has made it a feature of the look. Dowsett has said on creating the look “I used the Maybelline Big Eyes Pencil to create a graphic structure underneath the crystals and on top of that, I put Coral Drama from the Diamond Glow Eyeshadow range all the way up to the brow. After that, I piled on the glitter and star cutouts in the same colours, using corals and golds and deep bronze to work with the skin tone.

“We left the rest of the face completely naked expect for a little of Dream Fresh BB Cream and concealer, and Maybelline Baby Lips balm to hydrate them.”

I like how the hair has been styled relatively simply in this look but the sparkle of the dresses has been echoed in the hair by using shimmer hair inserts. The chief hairstylist for this look was Ali Pirzadeh on the look he stated that he 'wanted the hair to be super shiny, almost swaety in apperance so used L'oreal 'Liss Control' to smooth it down then a lot of L'oreal professionel mythic oil'




 

London Fashion Week

A make-up look I was drawn to from London fashion week was the make-up from Burberry Prorsum's womenswear collection.
This look featured a neutral eye bold red lip and glowing skin. The look was created by Wendy Rowe on created the look she commented on her blog saying 'The Burberry beauty look is inspired by The Birds and the Bee’s mood of the ready-to-wear collection. Christopher Bailey’s collection use’s insects and the colours of nature to create ‘something natural and free’ this is reflected in the makeup with a gorgeous honey skin. To get this I used Fresh Glow in Golden Radiance to warm up the girls skin and Fresh Glow Foundation for a dewy radiant finish. Tawny eye’s are washed with nude hue’s to create a natural depth using Light Glow – Earthy Blush. The lips are a deep ruby colour created using a combination of Brick Red Lip Definer and Lip Cover in Ruby. Brow’s are filled in with the new Effortless Eyebrow Definer – for natural brow you’ve always wanted! This season, we skipped the mascara to give a modern feel. ' If I were to re create this look I would try to use the products mentioned. 

I like this look as it is very wearable and follows a similar style to many other make-up looks in fashion of the moment.

What I like about the hair in this look is that it is also very wearable.  If I were to try this look I would set the hair on a middle parting and then use curlers on the bottom half of the hair and then brush through to soften them slightly. Unfortunately cannot find the name of the hair designer.

Pat McGrath

Another make-up artist whose work I have chosen to look at is Pat McGrath.

Pat McGrath is a British make-up artist born in 1970 in Northampton. McGrath has no formal training in make-up or fashion but did complete an art foundation course at Northampton College.
McGrath's breakthrough came in the early 1990's when she worked with Edward Enniful editor of i-d magazine and 'helped launch i-d to a position of international importance' .
McGrath has worked with several designers throughout her career and in 1999 designed Armani's make-up cosmetics line.
She is know for her innovative use of materials hand making her make-up and using mainly her fingers rather than brushes.
In 2013 McGrath was named an MBE for services to the fashion and beauty industry.

Pat McGrath inspires me due to the range of her work and how her looks have inspired fashion. For example she created a two tone lip in 2009 and it is now used alot in fashion.