New York Trip - Part 1

I was in NYC last week for a visit with the college I work for. This was my last trip with a college group as I am leaving my position in June to concentrate on running the JT Makeup Studio and working freelance.

I love NYC, its an amazing city, full of surprises everytime I visit and the people out there are so friendly. As this was a college trip we went on visits to the Empire State Building, Radio City, The Guggenheim, Grand Central Station, and Ground Zero. For makeup visits we went to Sephora in Times Square, this was on the day we arrived and it was snowing. It was great to see so many brands available and I saw the Illamasqua range in there for the first time. Sephora stock such a wide range of products and I invested in a selection of Smashbox & Nars products plus the Naked palette by Urban Decay.




The next day we visited the Makeup Forever store and the students received a 40% discount on their purchases. I could see the MUFE flash palettes were a popular choice and also the brush holders. The team at MUFE were really supportive, friendly and the students received a goody bag on leaving. This store is very arty and urban in design with a wide range of large body painting visuals placed around the store, as well as a stock of makeup books and magazines for visitors to view while in the store.

 

The next makeup visit was to the MAC Pro shop which is based in a loft style location. We were given a great demo by one of the MAC trainers based on a recent catwalk creation by Val Garland for a recent runway show at NYFW. The key to Val Garlands work are eyes with a strong fluid line incorporating the feline eye or straight lines working with MAC black track.

 

We were introduced to a brightening serum to prep the skin prior to makeup and were told the makeup should be all about the skin. The brightening serum was really effective and reduces redness, a great asset to any makeup artists kit.  A foundation product called Mineralise SPF base was applied to the face area to create a satin finish using a brush. Working with eye colours in plum tones from the Archies Girls range and Hush for highlighting, a strong eye design began to form. A white MAC pencil was used on the inner rim of the eye and then stronger plum colours were worked under the eye area. MAC black track was used under the eye to give depth to the colour tones and then a strong 50's flick was created for the upper eyelid. Mascara was added using a strong black to create volumne and definition against the liner and the brows were filled in and finished with brow set. Finally the makeup was completed with soft neutrals on the cheeks and lips.
It was great to see a recent couture design by Val Garland re created for the demo and our MAC artist talked to our students about the long hours and what is expected as well as giving us all a detailed account of how she got be a trainer for MAC in NYC. Following the demo we spent time in the Pro Store making purchases and I bumped into Neil Young who is a part of the MAC Pro team and is based in NYC. Neil is originally from the UK and I have seen many of his demos for the MAC pro events in London. He is really lovely and a great makeup artist.

Following the visit to MAC I went to spend some time over in the MUFE Academy in Union Square, NYC and will write about this in New York Trip - Part 2.