Tough Economic Times

Just because the stock market is down and the banks are collapsing doesn't mean your look needs to be bailed out. There are lots of lower cost makeup items that I stock my kit with not only because they are economical, but also because they work the best. One industry secret is that the drugstore companies like L'Oreal, Revlon, and Maybelline spend millions of dollars researching and developing mascaras so that you and I can have luxurious lashes at a fraction of the price. (This year, L'Oreal will spend 507 million euros on research alone.)

So with all those bucks gunning to blast up your lashes or smooth out your skin tone, I thought I would put my 2 cents in to suggest lower cost beauty products that aren't a sacrifice.

A favorite mascara in many makeup artists kits is Dior Show. It is fabulous at achieving both volume and length. However, for half the cost, L'Oreal Voluminous achieves the same thing. They both have big, thick brushes to really envelop and coat the lash all the way to the lashline AND the waterproof versions happens to be my favorite overall.

Another Duane Reade alternative is in, of all things, foundation. You can't sacrifice on your base because a bad match in color or texture will throw off the rest of your look. However, if it is lower cost AND no sacrifice, then you get the best of both worlds. For someone with good skin looking for medium coverage of redness or slight blemishes, L'Oreal True Match (no, I do not work for L'Oreal, but I do like these products) has a huge range of shades to match any skin tone and it leaves a skin finish very similiar to Armani's Luminous Silk Foundation.

I will post more cost cutting alternatives soon. Now take all those savings and put it into an interest bearing account!

Ruts

One thing that I try to avoid is a makeup rut. When you get stuck doing the same thing over and over again, you sometimes cant see that a look has started wearing you. I avoid this every season by purchasing one new item of makeup and designing a look around it for myself. Last season it was Smashbox Muse Blush Rush, a peachy coral blush that was warm and bright at the same time. So for that look, I layered on the mascara, put on a peachy lip stain and let the cheeks be the focus. For spring, I dyed my hair Red so I am making my makeup all about making sure my face doesn't wash out: Operation Bold Lashline: Armani Maestro Liquid Liner and L'oreal Voluminous Mascara in Carbon Black.
At work, as a Makeup Artist, it is even more important that I don't get stuck in a rut. At SVU we work so fast that we don't have a lot of time for makeup changes so most characters maintain the same makeup look throughout the show. This can turn pretty boring, however, when you do the same people's makeup the same way every day 9 months a year. So I like to joke (sort-of) with my actresses that I have had a "vision" about their makeup and so we should try something new. I have never had anyone say "no, no, lets stick with the same old thing" and its good for me because it forces me to see them in a fresh way.
The truth is that as I am falling asleep at night, I am often thinking of how I could tweak something, refine something, or incorporate a technique or product to improve the makeup. That's why I am only sort-of joking when I tell them I have had a vision - no need to have people worry that I am obsessed. Although I suppose the cat's out of the bag now. And I am lucky that i get to work on so many faces multiple times. Recently I changed Stephanie March's (ADA Alex Cabot) makeup from a very polished and conservative look that I realized was getting lost behind her glasses to a makeup that didn't contour her lid at all but instead concentrated all the oomph on making her eyes pop with a single pale shell shimmer as the only thing on her lid and a fierce lashline. She sparkled. And it came to me just before my heavy lids overpowered my "vision" and I drifted off to beauty sleep.

Tales from the Trenches: cop lips

So, one thing that I always have to take into consideration besides "does it look fabulous up close and under the lights" is "does it look fabulous (or fabulously gory and real) once the film stock is processed and color corrected?" For years on SVU, we were using a particular film stock that pops bright colors - especially pinks and reds - and makes them look fluorescent. Which makes fake blood look vivacious but sometimes can be tricky if an actor or actress has particularly rosy lips. Mariska naturally has the color lip that people buy lip stains to achieve. However, since she plays a detective on the beat, its not necessarily in character for Benson to have taken the time to paint her lips that stunning shade of vibrant burgundy-rose. Instead, we use nude (or as we say: "nudie") lipstick to make it look like she has no lipstick on at all. After 10 years of searching, the perfect lip combo for her is MAC Whirl lip pencil - the exact color of her lip - to define them, and either Shu Uemura BG934 or Cle Du Peau 121 Extra Silky lipsticks which have the perfect "nudie-ness" and moisture for natural, film stock/cop appropriate lips.

Pro Palettes

As someone who often has to schlep her makeup kit (a.k.a. her livelihood) around from job to job, I value products that are concise and condensed. A palette that contains 20 different shades of foundation is much more portable than packing 20 different bottles. Or a palette with 15 different neutral eye shadows that can be mixed to create a wide variety of looks is more efficient than a bag of individual shadows. This being said, it is hard to find palettes full of useful products. You know what I mean: you buy a palette around the holidays and in a few months a couple of shades are worn through to the bottom but the others are untouched. Whether you are a pro or a makeup aficionado who likes to do her friends up, the following are a few of the palettes that I can throw in a bag and feel fully supplied:

RCMA Foundation Palette
-Tops for being able to mix and match any skin tone. Its creamy but not greasy consistency means it works with almost anyone. Not particularly glam but very, very helpful.

Viseart Eyeshadow Palette
-The neutrals in this palette lend itself to creating any look - from beauty to special effects. Highlight, shadow, fill in eyebrows, smoke out an eye or even use the greys and brick shades to make someone look tired or slightly bruised. I literally always carry it with me in case of a makeup emergency!

Lorac Croc Palette
-For some reason this eyeshadow/blush combination of warm, shimmery pinks, bronzes and a deep brown works on everyone. I don't know why, I don't question it, I just use it.

Sephora Brand Harmony Palette
-Soft nudes and pinks that you can mix and match to achieve any shiny nudie mouth for anybody.

Tales from the Trenches: Tan in a Can

My friend Roxanne Rizzo makes an amazing spray tan for face AND body called Bronze Glow. It is the perfect cross between bronzer and self tanner. It lasts a day or two - so longer than makeup - but if you mess up (you've either seen it or done it to yourself, orange palms) it comes off in the shower (but not on your clothes). This one little can make even the palest winter bedraggled skin tone look like it just got back from a week in Miami. CIA ops probably use it to blend in to exotic locales so it doesn't look like they just flew from their desk at the Pentagon. You just hold the can a couple of inches away from your face and body and spritz (post exfoliation, of course). Layer it for a deeper tone or just do one dusting to warm up your pale face. It beats skin cancer.

The spray tan also saved me on the film Please, Give. Written into the script was the idea that one of the main characters was an "overtanner". We all know one. That person for whom you want to stage an intervention between them and their tanning bed/bronzer. Production was worried it would have to pay to send this actress to the salon to get spray tanned every week. As a low budget indie, they were not psyched at that idea, nor was my busy leading lady excited to have to go to the salon every week to literally be stuck in the super tan skin of her character. But my handy can of tan came to the rescue! Every day she worked, we would use a tan foundation on her face (Armani Luminous Silk 5.5 mixed with Makeup Forever in Camel) and then I would spray tan her body. I had to spray about 6 layers to get it past the point of "sexy, warm tan" to "whoa, that chick likes to tan". But because its such a great spray, it probably took about 3-4 minutes to acheive a full-body-super-dark tan. I realized how much my leading lady took the speed and ease of it for granted the day I was spraying her bod down and she told me "Hurry it up, toots!" Hurry up, indeed! To Roxanne's website!

WELCOME

Hey! Welcome to PIGMENT: An insider's look at the world of makeup.

While there are plenty of blogs out there in the stratosphere devoted to the best concealers or cutest packages, the information is mostly coming from makeup enthusiasts rather than professionals. If you want a pro's word, you probably have to pick up a beauty magazine (and even then, some of those tips and reviews have been bought and sold). But these are tough times boys and girls! Who wants to spend $3.95 on Cosmo when you can get the latest and cutest from your friends here at PIGMENT.

My name is Becca and I have been a professional makeup artist for 10 years. I am currently the Makeup Department Head at Law and Order: SVU and I freelance when the show isn't shooting (which is not very often as fans of syndicated TV are aware). The best part of being a makeup artist in film and television is the balance between character makeups, beauty makeups and special effects. Spending my days messing around with all sorts of faces, powders and potions has expanded my understanding of products, techniques, off-label uses (if you dare), and of course, this industry leaves me with plenty of Tales from the Trenches.

So keep visiting PIGMENT for the insider's look at the business of looking great!

Makeup Manifesto

You would never know it from looking at all the stuff I schelpp around on a regular basis, but one question I always ask myself is: How can I be doing LESS? Now, if my boss is reading this, I don't mean on the effort front. What I mean is, how can I achieve the look I am striving for in as little time and as few products as possible? Even people who love to have their makeup professionally done don't particularly appreciate the underlying idea that it takes them an hour in the makeup chair to be "done". (And certainly from a film/TV perspective, no producer prefers having their actor sitting in a makeup chair for 45 minutes when they could be done just as well in 25.) Who wants to put on lip liner, lipstick and lip gloss for pouty perfection when there might be the perfect lipstick out there that does all three? More on this later in my Double Duty postings.

Another question I am frequently asked by friends and strangers everywhere is "What makeup do I NEEEEEEEED?" To this, my answer is always the same: You don't NEED anything. You are beautiful just the way your mommy made you. No, that is not bull. You will not die if you leave the house without mascara. That being said, does it feel nice to look polished and put together? Yes. Does buying a $20 lip gloss sometimes act as the perfect pick-me-up? Yes, that's why Sephora does well even in fiscally troubled times. But people! You don't NEED it. So going forward, any information is to be taken with the grain of salt that this is all FUN. Makeup is not something to be intimidated or stressed out by. OK?

I might be locked up by certain makeup artists for making this little manifesto, but so be it.

Tales from the Trenches: duo lash

Now you might know by now that Pigment is big on multi-purpose products. But just like how old-school makeup artists will tell you stories of how they used toilet paper, banana and some frosted flakes to create brain matter for some head wound in some movie, not every product's double life is so cute!

I was the Makeup Department Head on the recently released film Please, Give which had some very fun character makeups. I can say that now since it all turned out well but one gave me a little anxiety. The daughter of two of the leads was scripted to be battling a bad case of pubescent acne. I worried on both fronts. Either they would cast an actress who did indeed have acne, in which case, when she sat in my chair hoping to be reassured by her makeup artist's many beauty techniques, I would have to push her out telling her she looked "perfect already". That, OR they would cast some sweetie with perfect skin and I would have to apply makeup acne to her face every day and she would learn to loathe me. Oh dear! Well it turned out they cast the latter and I couldn't have been luckier. Sarah Steele is the cutest cute that was ever cute and her skin could not be more radiant. (And the lady can act) Fortunately for me, her previous role required a fat suit as Adam Sandler's awkward daughter in Spanglish. So "real" once again had to trump "glamour".

Now DuoLash is a wonder product that I use every single day on SVU applying strip lashes to strippers or individual lashes to bump up the power of a lashline. Just drag the base of the fake lashes through and stick 'em into your lashline and they will stay there until you wash your face (More on "please don't overdo false lashes" later). But we discovered that a combination of pinkish-red makeup stippled onto Sarah's face, accompanied by scattered dots of DuoLash throughout gave the perfectly unfortunate effect of teenage acne. Once dry, a little gob of Duo looks squeamishly like a big 'ol whitehead.

Just because its a makeup product doesn't mean devious minds can't devise other off-label uses. Do you think Duo will start marketing this use of it's product?

Double Duty: contour

When I am really trying to put together a face for the camera, I am not just looking at what colors or shades are best on a client, I am also looking at where to put them. Taking facial structure into account is CRUCIAL in makeup application. As someone who someday dreams of having cheekbones, therefore, I am a big fan of contouring.

Anyone who has read one of Kevyn Aucoin's books (or seen J. Lo's face) is already a little familiar with how using darker or brighter shades on the face can highlight or recede certain shapes. But not everyone has 45 different foundations or the time to apply them. Nor does contour need to be drag-queen-y or only look right in a photo, head on, with proper lighting.

This being said, no one wants to take a highlighter and sharpie to their face to create/enhance/deflect certain shapes. In my career I have always been on the prowl to find the ideal contouring shades. Bronzers are great to finish a face but often they have too much orange, red, brown, or shimmer to act as a proper contour. My fave unisex (that's right fellas, we know you want a little square jaw action) shade is WEDGE, by MAC. A neutral taupe, its great for fair to medium skin tones because it isn't too brown and it isn't too gray. Use a tapered brush to create a subtle crease in your lid or an angled blush brush at the base of your jaw to give the illusion of shadow there. It can even be used to shade the tip or bridge of a nose.

Some products that give good cheekbone (my dream!) are NARS NINOTCHKA and ZEN and BENEFIT HOOLA. All three have a quality that seems like a deeper level of real skin tone. And all of them are flat - meaning no shimmer. Ninotchka for the fairer, Zen more medium, and Hoola for a deeper or olive complexion. (If you have a deeper complexion that that, using highlighter, rather than a dark contour is a better bet. More on this later) Just use that same angled blush brush (Chanel makes a beauty) and sweep down your cheeks UNDER the area you would place your blush and blend down and out. Stop before you hit the apples of your cheeks.

Well, isn't your face shapely!

Double Duty

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am constantly looking for products that can do double duty to save time and energy. But lets think outside the tinted moisturizer as tint AND moisturizer! mentality. I love products like Tarte Cheekstains because they not only provide fresh, sheer long lasting color for your cheeks but if you pucker up, it's a great stain for your lips. Magically, there are several other stains out there: Benefit's Benetint is the cute, pink, mothership, and PosieTint is the Skipper to Benetint's Barbie, but Tarte gets the prize for having the widest range of super flattering shades. And did I mention that it lasts despite all its dewy sheerness? That and a little mascara and you have a fully polished face in 2 (count em!) products. Perfect for when you have 3 minutes before leaving to do errands on a Saturday.

Aquaphor is another double duty-er. Yes, that ultra un-glam blue and white tube that will help heal your scars or diaper rash is a great emollient if you want to protect your lips from windburn OR create that sheen-y highlight above your eyebrow. (Not for people with oily skin, but if you are a dry face, like me, having a moisturizing product that does double duty as a highlight, get on it!)

Dermalogica Soothing Protection Spray is on my list too. Sure it's great to restore your PH balance after washing your face. And SURE it smells like a Tuscan lavender field. But what if you have been wearing your makeup for 7 hours and you need to wear it for another 7 but you don't want your makeup to look 14 hours old? Well, my pet, you only need to spritz your face 2-3 times with this and your face will return to all its "beginning of the day" freshness. I don't know how, but somehow it reactivates your makeup without mushing it up.

And along those lines, La Mer The Eye Concentrate, does the same thing around the delicate undereye area. Put it on in the morning with the little metal roller doo-dad and your eyes are hydrated and depuffed and your face smells like a cucumber. But put a dab on a concealer brush mid-day or before going out in the evening, and gently pat it over your under eye area. The gel will mix with your concealer but fear not, in a minute or two, the moisture will have soaked right into your skin leaving your concealer right where you put it the first time only rehydrated and refreshed.

Don't you look FRESH!