Paintopia Body Painting Festival - Urban Jungle

For the last couple of years I have been trying to attend the Paintopia Body Painting event but never get there always due to work commitments. This year Jennie Roberts, head of this event, asked me to judge a new competition titled "Creative Makeup Artist of the Year".

There was also a new section called "Online Alley" hosted by Jo Peters alongside well known Instagram artists such as Maria Malone, all showing their designs.

It was great to see Kryolan, Illusion, Mistair, Treasure House and a host of other body art/makeup companies selling their products at the event.

I was also able to watch some of the teaching sessions led by the Kryolan team of Paul Merchant and Gemma Horner.

At 11.30am I went to judge the Creative Makeup Competition with Victoria Lee representing Kryolan and Maria Malone. We viewed some really exciting designs and it was interesting to see each contestants take on creative makeup. After serious debate and reviewing each contestants work we finally decided on our final three.

At 3pm it was the Urban Jungle stage presentations of the body painting work and awards. For the Creative Makeup Artist our final three were:

1st Place - Karen Harvey

2nd Place - Suzanne Forrester - Beer

3rd Place - Liz Bylett   

They were given prizes from my range, JT Makeup and Face-Lace 

I loved the whole day and wished I could have stayed for the whole weekend.

Well done to Jennie and her team, Kryolan for sponsoring the event and everyone who participated.

HD Brows Definition Tour

Last night I attended a HD Brows event at the Sanctum Soho Hotel, London focusing on the new HD Brows Makeup range. 

The HD Brows team are hosting Definition Tours in major UK cities & I was lucky to be invited to the London event.

I met Nilam who created the HD Brows range, a few years ago when we were fellow judges for a Makeup Competition hosted by Olympia Beauty. I was impressed by her approach to business and the concept of HD Brows & undertook the training myself. For me this is an additional service I can offer to the artistes I work with in the Makeup Industry. Nilam is very impressive and has a very focused vision for her company and is the driving force behind this successful business.

The event was well organised by the HD Brows Events Manager Laura and her team of experts including Christina who is heading up the Makeup Education for HD Brows. The team were very welcoming and offered opportunities for us to test out the makeup and the HD Brows treatment.

I met up with my friend Joyce who runs Brides & Beauty & we sampled the new makeup range while chatting to the HD Brows Team. We felt the range was of a good quality, in particular the foundations and concealers. We decided that the range is aimed for Bridal, Proms, Special Occasion & Red Carpet events. It would be good to see a darker range of foundations in the range but the team mentioned that there are plans in development to widen the colour ranges. 

We really enjoyed finding out more about this range. The HD Brows treatment is very popular in salons throughout the UK and I think the makeup range is a valuable extension to this unique company.

We had a really informative evening and enjoyed testing the makeup plus also receiving a HD Brows treatment by Laura.

Big thanks to Rachael, Christina & the rest of the HD Brows team for such an interesting evening

For more information on the HD Brows Definition Tour contact www.hdbrows.com

Twitter: @hdbrows

Instagram: officialHDBrowsUK

Bloody Marvelous Workshop at PAM London

As I was free in the daytime today I attended a workshop hosted by the Bloody Marvelous Team at PAM in Shepherds Bush. The event was advertised on the PAM Website and on their Facebook site and I was keen to learn more about the product range.

I was lucky to work with Claire Williams, one of the Directors of the Bloody Marvelous range while working in the crowd room on the set of Da Vinci's Demons in 2013. Claire is a well known Makeup Designer in SFX and well respected in the Makeup Industry. The Da Vinci Demons production in 2013 was headed by the Makeup Designer Jacqueline Fowler. The large crowd room was headed by Morag Smith and Claire was one of the her daily team. I think it was one of the most organised crowd rooms I have worked in, alongside 80 other makeup artists. I learnt alot from Claire and was amazed at the potions she mixed up on a daily basis for the makeup teams to work with. 

Later on when working on occasional Saturdays in Screenface I became aware of the Bloody Marvelous range of products. I loved the colour of the bloods and how they worked on the skin and was really pleased to find out that Claire was behind this range. Its an area she has great experience of and I think it is a really good range to work with.

PAM offered the workshop day with a demo by Claire and more of an insight into the product range. The Bloody Marvelous team were there headed by Claire and Angharad Davies who are both Directors in the company. They had planned to demonstrate a slit throat effect using a silicone prosthetic piece. The piece had been sculpted and pre made by Claire and was attached to the models neck area using prosaide. Under the silicone piece was a tube in place to release a "fresh blood" effect later on.

Photographs of the silicone piece sculpted and applied during the demonstration. Also a photo of the Bloody Marvelous product range used during the demo.

The event hosted by PAM was well attended by a range of makeup students mainly from LCF, all at different stages in their training. It was a really interesting session with Claire sharing her vast experience of SFX work while working methodically applying and creating the desired effect.

After colouring in the silicone piece using a flicking method and a Skin Illustrator Palette, Claire began to develop the colouring for wound before finally adding the Bloody Marvelous Wound Filler into the "open wound". The final detail was to use a syringe and release the runny blood through a tube directly under the silicone piece to achieve the fresh wound effect. Claire used the Bloody Marvelous Prop Blood to finalise this effect.

The Bloody Marvelous range of products are available directly in the PAM Makeup Store in London. Additionally you can check out this product line on the company website for Bloody Marvelous at www.bloodymarvelous.tv. 

Their website is informative and offers demos about the product range. 

I really enjoyed this session, learnt a great deal about this product range and would highly recommend this range to any SFX Makeup Artists kit. The team will be at the UMAE Trade Show in April . Check out www.umae.co.uk for more information on this. A big thank you to PAM for hosting this event and to the Bloody Marvelous team for showing us their range and sharing their expert knowledge.

Beauty Mart at Box Park

I went along to the "Meet the Experts" event with Daniel Sandler yesterday hosted at Beauty Mart. Previously I have visited Beauty Mart in Harvey Nichols but this new venture started as a pop up store at Box Park, Shoreditch and has proved to be really popular. Beauty Mart is a niche store providing carefully selected items in beauty, hair and makeup.

The store was busy continuously and I lost count of how many of these products I have in my professional makeup kit. I tested abit of the Charlie Perfume which always reminds me of my teenage years & how gorgeous Farah Fawcett was.

One special find was the Batiste dry shampoo available in a mini version (great for an onset bag) and also coloured versions of this dry shampoo in blond and brown colours to enhance the colour.

Daniel was busy throughout talking about his range and doing makeovers using his range. Beauty Mart have just increased some of the Daniel Sandler range due to popular demand.

It was great to catch up with Millie Kendall and her charming team at Beauty Mart, all very clued up on the ranges available in the store. The star of the day was Millie's daughter, 6 years old and already aspiring to be a makeup artist !

 

Check out Beauty Mart on twitter and Facebook for details of opening times. There is now also a customer loyalty scheme, for more information check out the Beauty Mart website

Rick Baker Masterclass - Paris

On Wednesday 9th October I travelled with the Artists Liaison team from MAC Cosmetics to see a masterclass with the legendary Rick Baker.

I felt really honoured to be invited by Jo Scicluna, Christina, Francis and Dean. The other invited guests were Amanda Knight, Christine Cant and Sharon Martin. It was a real privilege to be invited and included with such inspirational makeup designers whose work I really admire.

We met at St Pancreas early morning and travelled by Eurostar direct to Gare Du Nord in central Paris. On arrival we checked into our hotel near Notre Dame and after a lovely lunch we made our way to the masterclass.

The venue was in central Paris in a club named Chez Raspoutine which was decked out in red velvet and gothic chandeliers, very apt. The music was a blend of gothic haunting themes that seemed perfect given the nature of the masterclass.

Rick Baker is the master of horror makeup and disguise, a true artist in this field. He has recently collaborated with MAC Cosmetics to design a range inspired by Halloween.

This is something close to Ricks heart, he enjoys Halloween each year.

The Spider Queen

This range is in the form of a Spider Queen Pro Palette of 6 colours, coloured pencils, acrylic paints and the wonderful chromagraphic pens in black. Rick completed this design on stage .

The Bride of Frankenstein

This design for me was incredible I had thought the stitched part of the face was a prosthetic piece but was achieved using highlight and shading techniques. Micheline was the model in the original video and was also brought over to Paris from LA to be Ricks model.

Zombie

Again using products from the Rick Baker selection for MAC we were mesmerised by how quickly Rick achieved this design using old school makeup principles of light and shade.

For the finale all three models lined up and Rick did a Q&A with the audience. He is a real storyteller with a history of the development of makeup in Hollywood especially recalling his experience of working with Michael Jackson on Thriller.

Rick gave us some very honest views of the industry and his origins and it was exciting to hear his passion for his craft.

Rick Baker is very family orientated and spoke of how his family engage in his work and also of their love of Halloween. In fact this year MAC cosmetics are hosting a special Halloween party in Ricks Makeup Studio. After the Q&A Rick took time to move around the venue and chatted to each of us, he is a legend and such a charming man.

This range designed by Rick Baker is available at MAC but will sell out quickly. They are great colours to have in your kit and I can't wait to play with mine. The range is in the form of palettes of eye colours, gothic lipsticks, pencils and acrylic colours.

The MAC team looked after us so well and we went for a very special dinner in the evening. I felt very spoilt and very inspired travelling back to the UK the next day. Big thanks to Jo, Christina, Francis and Dean for such an incredible experience, I am still pinching myself

United Makeup Artists Expo

Charles Fox Makeup Marathon Weekend

For the last couple of years the Charles Fox team have held Master classes at the Royal Opera House. Charles Fox Ltd is owned by the Makeup Brand Kryolan and they have always played a part in my role as a makeup artist from training to working in makeup to putting student kits together. They offer the staples that everyone should have in their kits.

I have known Vicky who heads the team at Charles Fox for many years, like her mum Ann she is a big part of Charles Fox and they head up such an amazing team of hard working creatives. I go into Charles Fox quite often for work, Sarah and Irene are always so helpful and friendly and always find what I need. Its a family run business and that is evident in the way the shop runs, really friendly and welcoming. 
When Paul Merchant joined the team a few years ago he wanted to bring in new ideas and promotions and this is where the idea for doing a Masterclass weekend at the Royal Opera House came about. Its a great weekend, seeing a range of demonstrations and talks by fellow creatives in all walks of the makeup industry. It also gives you an opportunity to catch up with fellow peers and learn about new products available at Charles Fox.

Special Effects demo by the very talented

Stuart Bray 

I have attended these events for the last 3 years, the first being held to celebrate over 135 years of Charles Fox in Covent Garden. The Royal Opera House is such a prestigious and beautiful building. Hosting seminars in there is a dream as there is such an amazing atmosphere due to the Opera and Ballet studios, photographs hanging in the corridors displaying the legends of the past. It is an exciting place to host these seminars. When I was training in Makeup I was lucky enough to undertake work placements at the Opera House under Ron Freeman who was a legend in his time, held high standards and disciplines and I learnt a great deal from him.

This weekend was so interesting with demonstrations by Gary Cockerill showing us what he is known for, making women look beautiful. 

Work photographed above by Gervasio Larrivey, a makeup artist from Argentina known for his use of theatre themed makeup

Body Painting above by the lovely and enchanting Mona Turnball.

The day also featured prosthetic applications by Stewart Bray, makeup by Carol Brown and Amber Sibley talking about heading the team for the Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

I really enjoyed the above photographs of demonstrations by Jo Sugar using her airbrush in a creative way. Airbrushing and paint effects by Jo Sugar, was a real pleasure to watch her work.

 The above photographs shows a collection of design work by Hyewon Ahn who currently works on the Opera Productions at the ROH.

Best of all the presentation by the Charles Fox Artistic team, the photographs above and below details some of the teams work

More work by Stuart Bray using silicone pieces, scary and realistic to view

A big thank you to Vicky, Paul, Sarah, Irene and the Charles Fox teams, they make you feel so welcome and it is one of my favourite places to shop.

Costumes on the models arranged by the talented Joey Bevan