Artists at Play Intermediate Makeup Artist Course (2014 recap)

2014 was a big year for me. It wasn't all good but I learned so much and definitely grew as a person; 

plus I achieved so much workwise I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for me!

At the very beginning of the year when setting goals I decided I would dedicate my year to growing my business and developing my skills further. I enrolled in the Intermediate Makeup Artist course at Artists at Play . This was a 6 week course that focused on fashion, mature age and dark skin makeup; as well as advanced contouring & highlighting. The class only had 4 students including myself and we had the awesome  Holly Garvey as our teacher. 

The class was designed for students who had completed the 'Beginners Course or makeup artists that have been working in the industry and want to refresh their skills and update their knowledge.' I can't say I learned heaps but I thoroughly enjoyed being in the class room and playing around with new products! Watching Holly each week was awesome too!

At the end of the course we had a photo shoot and I loved the look I created on Christine. It's not often I get to go a bit crazy with makeup so I had a blast! The shots I got are awesome and I would definitely recommend the photographer (and fellow artists at play student) Christine Kopti . 

I have a wedding down in Denmark this weekend and I can't wait to share the pictures with you!

Love Belle xx

Discount Makeup Shopping Melbourne

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I have just got back from 10 days in Melbourne where I spent a small fortune on makeup. Because I'm a Mac Pro member I can use my membership at the Chapel Street store (normally I have to email my order in because we don't have a Pro store in Perth) and I went completely nuts. They sell a few of their best selling skin care products in mini travel sizes so of course I grabbed a few of those too. I now have a mini fix+ in every handbag :/

Having lived in Melbourne before I have always dreamed of going to the Estee Lauder staff shop. I imagine it to be the holy grail of discount makeup shopping. Having never been lucky enough to go I was over the moon when I found a Loreal disount shop on Bridge Road. I am not sure what the shop was called but it is over the road from You Little Beauty (another discount shop with brands like Revlon and Maybelline)

I'm going to call this shop the Loreal Shop because thats what it says on my bank statement. The Loreal shop stocked Biotherm, Lancome, YSL and a few other brands and is definately worth checking out if you're in Melbourne. There was skin care, makeup and perfume. I noticed on some Shu Uemura lashes that they had a David Jones sales sticker on them so I am unsure what this shops back story is. I bought YSL Le Teint Touche Eclat Foundation B50 for $35!!! This stuff retails for $82 at David Jones. I also bought:
-Lancôme Blush Highlighter Illuminating Powder in 001 Moonlight Rose $30
-Lancôme Bronzer $30
-Biotherm Skin Vivo moisturiser $35
-YSL Volume Effect Faux Cils $25
-Lancôme Hypnose Mascara $25

I totally recommend this shop and looking back wish I bought more!!

Makeup Brush Essentials - Face

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One of my girlfriends recently bought her first Mac foundation and powder and has asked me to write a post on what brushes she should use. There is so much information out there so I thought I would try and put this as simple as possible for all beginners :)

I'm going to tell you all about the brushes that I use the most on myself and on clients. Investing in quality brushes is probably the most important thing to spend your money on to achieve a flawless makeup. If you don't have the right tools it doesn't matter what products you use your look won't be its best!

That being said these days you don't need to spend an arm and a leg on brushes. There are cheap, quality synthetic brushes available thanks to brands like Sigma and Real Techniques.

MAC 190 FOUNDATION BRUSH: One of the first brushes I ever bought was the 190 Foundation Brush from Mac. Its now about 10 years old and still going strong. Which proves that if you invest in quality products you are going to get your monies worth! This brush is a mix of synthetic and goat hair. It works great with all liquids and creams:

SIGMA FLAT HEAD KABUKI BRUSH: I love using this brush to buff in my foundation. I find that this is the only brush I can use to apply Mac Face & Body foundation (for those of you that don't know- Mac F&B is super runny and best applied with hands to warm it up) This Flat Head Kabuki from Sigma is synthetic, cheap and amazing!

MAC 187 DUO FIBRE BRUSH: Duo Fibre brushes are a more recent discovery and have become really common in the past 2 years. The Mac 187 brush was my first duo fibre purchase and I love it. It can be used with liquids for a light coverage and with powders. It is really good at blending and making the makeup look undetectable. The Mac 187 is made of Goat and Synthetic hair but at $85 AUD its pretty expeno. Its not an essential but a nice to have.

REAL TECHNIQUES TRAVEL ESSENTIALS: A fairly recent purchase of mine is the Travel Essential Kit from Real Techniques. I discovered Real Techniques from watching Pixiwoo on youtube. Samamtha Chapman is one half of Pixiwoo and helped to develop the Real Techniques line. They are really good, super cheap synthetic brushes that are completely animal cruelty free. These brushes are so soft to touch :) The pink powder brush is just so good! It Blends exceptionally- its my new fave

BEUAUTY BLENDER: Last but not least these bad boys are a god send. I'm talking about the Beauty Blender! Don't even bother with the dupes! These are essentially a sponge that you wet and it doubles in size. They make foundation look like a second skin. They are AAAAAmazing! The Pink BB has been wet so you can see how big they get! (You can get them super cheap here

Real Life Weddings - Brett & Laura

Brett and Laura wed on November 1st and I was lucky enough to be chosen to do the makeup. Laura is one of those effortlessly beautiful women so we kept the makeup natural and bronzed. Laura and her Sister Sophie both have ridiculously long, thick eyelashes that we mere mortals can only dream of. Because of this I didn’t need to apply false lashes to them, just lashings of mascara! I did use strip lashes on the other two bridesmaids, however apart from this most of the makeup on all the girls was the same.

As mentioned before the makeup was bronze. Very bronze actually. The girls had all had spray tans so it was easy for me to get carried away with bronzer and sparkles. For the eyes I used Woodwinked, my favourite eye shaddow ever. Which makes me think I should write a post about it. I could write a book on how much I love this colour but I am getting carried away. Ok so I used Woodwinked, Bronze, Handwritten, Embark and Carbon (all Mac colours) and finished the look off with black liquid liner.

Shameless Self Promotion- Christine Hallauer

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One of my good friends is an absolutely stunning eurasian who is a ring girl for ONE FC (Asia’s version of UFC). Her dad is Swiss and her mum Filipino. I mean, are there even any unattractive Swiss or Filipino girls? Imagine mixing the two!

I have long been doing Christine’s makeup however last weekend she had an event in Manilla and asked me to do her tan. The result is pure sex! I used Techno Tan Flash Tan Blue in dark and she looked out of this world amazing in it. She has kindly let me use some photos to share with the world what a knock out she is and how natural the tan is! She looked after it by moisturising heaps (which you should always do!) and it lasted way over a week. [side note- the Flash Tan line from Techno Tan actually has a special dermal barrier that locks colour into the epidermis of the skin]

I’m a self confessed spraytanaholic. I get one every week without fail and this colour is my new favourite! It looks so fricken natural I can’t even deal.

I’ll shut up about it now and let you look at what a stunning specimen Christine is

Fashion Fridays with Ruth Tarvydas

In November of last year I was accepted to help out with the makeup for Fashion Fridays featuring Tarvydas’ new Sea Mermaid SS14 collection. The collection is based on an under water theme and included a lot of lace, beading and West Australian pearls. The event is held monthly at the Parmelia Hilton in Perth and for many years Ruth has showcased at the events November luncheon.

It was such an honour to be working alongside such beautiful dresses and models. I even met Ruth!

The makeup was to be simple with a bold red lip. We included a thin black winged liner and lots of bronzer. Initially I thought we were going to be running on a strict deadline so kept things simple however looking back I would have had time to add a little more creativity into the makeup. They all looked stunning so it’s just me being a little OCD!

I used different products on each of the models depending on their skin tone / type however the main ones used were:

Chanel Perfection Luminere 30 and 40
Mac Mineralize skin finish natural- Medium
Mac face and body (you cant go past this foundation for models with perfect skin!)
Mac lipstick- Lady Danger and Red lip liner
Mac prep and prime high lighter
Calvin Kline brow pencils in blonde and dark blonde
Ardell brow gel
Nars bronzing powder in Laguna
Mac Mineralize skin finish in Soft and Gentle
Mac Fix +
Mac Black track gel liner
An assortment of bronze and golden eye shadows

My beautiful friends wedding day (Makeup by me)

At the risk of sounding corny and cliche, one of the things I love about being a makeup artist is being a part of someone’s special day. (Vomit right?) But seriously it’s such an honour to be able to share in a virtual strangers big day. The thing I love most about being a makeup artist is when friends ask me to do their makeup for their big day. That’s what this post will be about.
In October two of my best friends got married and I did her makeup. (Dan wishes I did his). Sometimes I get weird about working with other makeup artists that I don’t know but because Desiree had 5 bridesmaids including myself I decided against doing all the makeup and initially was just going to do Des and have my makeup done. Being the control freak I am I decided to do my own at the last minute. I was uncomfortable with the other artists, their set up and kits. One even had fake Mac brushes! I also ended up having to completely re-do Jane’s makeup. Her face was about 3 shades too light and it would have ruined the photos. Ok enough about this!

Desiree doesn’t usually wear liquid foundation because she has flawless skin so we went shopping together to get one. We ended up getting Chanel Perfection Lumiere. It has an SPF 10 in it so generally I would shy away from using anything with SPF in it if there will be photos. I used Mac Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation to set the liquid. This powder is medium to high coverage and prevented the foundation from flashing white. Her face looked completely flawless!

Complete products listing:
Mac Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation – C4.5
Chanel Perfection Lumiere- 40 Beige
Mac Bronzing Powder- Refined Golden
Mac Mineralize Skin Finish in Soft and Gentle
Mac Woodwinked and Handwritten eyeshadow
Mac Black Track gel liner and Sephora liquid liner
Ardell individual lashes both medium and long lengths
(Can you tell I love mac?)