Lipstains Continued: Josie Maran & Returning to Work

Just an update after yesterday's blog on lip stains:
Full Disclosure...I am a lip-licker. I have been accused of this by my friend Liz who can put on lipstick and it is still on 4 hours later. That is never gonna happen for me. I bite and lick my lips on an unconciously regular basis. So that is another reason, in addition to being a bright, sheer summery look, why stains work for me. But my habits have been known to take down even the most sincere attempts at tinting my lips. If a lipcolor can last the length of a subway ride, it gets a C+. If it lasts the whole commute and an extra hour, B+. If it can last past a cocktail, A.
Yesterday, I wore Josie Maran's Magic Marker lip stain in Mambo to my sister in law's apartment. It indeed lasted the entire commute and after checking on it post-glass-of-wine, there was still a little bit left although much faded. So I give it an A- for effort. The color was beautiful and it wasn't sticky or drying.

On a completely different note, I am getting ready to head back into work at SVU. It seems that we will be moving stages from our 11-year home base in glamorous North Bergen, NJ to the old Mothership Law & Order stages at Chelsea Piers. It should be different and interesting to shake it up, so we'll see! And it will for sure save on bridge and tunnel tolls - for me at least!
It is interesting, however, how used to having down time I can get. When you do movies for a living, as opposed to TV, they tend to be shorter periods of work and then shorter periods of downtime. That downtime, however, is fraught with the anxiety of "finding the next job!". Our show crew works 10 months straight of 15 hour days and then we get a substantial break. Because we have the show to go back to (for now) it decreases the anxiety of losing one job and having to go find another every few months. Especially in this economy, that is a real gift. But going from being able to see family, friends, movies, and museums to work work work is an adjustment! So I am trying to get into a work frame of mind...I'm even doing a commercial with my friend Dina this week to get my head back in the game. I'll keep you posted.

Ok, anyone reading have some lip stain advice for the rest of us?

Summer Swelter

So I was asked recently what a girl is to do, makeup-wise, in this heat! It is humid and sticky and, while I personally believe that it gives you that dewey glow that we are always trying to achieve, sometimes I understand, you want glow and makeup to not melt off your face.
My main two ideas to beat this heat are:
1.) Use less! Instead of my winter routine of rich creme, sunblock and foundation, I put those on the shelf and bust out the tinted moisturizer with spf. I have praised the La Mer SPF 18 Fluid Tint
but if you want a less costly option, buy a squeeze tube from Duane Reade, put a little bit of whatever L'Oreal True Match base matches you, and mix it with Oil of Olay Complete Defense Daily UV Lotion with SPF 30. (Olay has some of the absolute best bang for your buck and this particular version is a light, daily summer style lotion.) By cutting back on your products, you will feel cleaner and the makeup has more room to absorb.

2.) Stains! Makeup does not mean foundation alone. If you want color but want it to stay where you put it, consider a stain. I am a big fan because it makes bright colors wearable but because they are sheer, they don't make your cheeks or lips look like they are SCREAMING for attention. I love love love love love the Tarte cheekstains, as I am sure I have written. The colors are great and they really do last on the cheeks. And I likewise love Benetint and Poseytint. Especially in combination. Now I am on the hunt for the best lip stains. While the colors in the new Covergirl Outlast Lipstains are fun (and those ads with Drew are gorgeous), they do not outlast anything. Soooooo, I recently invested in a slew of new lipstains and I will be reporting back to you about which do what best.
The ones I bought are:
Josie Maran Magic Marker in Mambo
Tokidoki Fantastico Lip Ink (I had never heard of it but love the silliness, so lets see!) in Cactus Friends
Tarte (I know, I know, why don't I just marry Tarte) Lipstain Pencil in Joy
Benetint PocketPal

So I will wear one every day this week and see how they do. Ill keep you posted. Stay Fresh!

Eyes First

So sometimes, when I am doing someone's makeup for the first time, I get about 10 minutes in and they nervously ask "Did you forget to put any foundation or concealer on me?"
No Silly! I always start with the eyes. Remember those beauty magazine articles that told us to put a heavy application of loose powder under the eyes to protect your perfectly applied concealer from any falling eyeshadow? Just sweep it, and any stray shadow, away! Yeah right, and why don't you just put an age-stipple under there too while you're at it.
Why have we been told to do our concealer BEFORE our eye makeup?? A lot of makeup artists I know do the same thing: EYES FIRST yes, its nice to have a clean canvas of perfectly primed skin to start from, but it won't stay that way once that new Burburry Khaki eyeshadow has fallen where you didn't mean it to. Eyes First allows me to really get in there and do what I need to do on the lid and underneath the eye, stick a swab in a bottle of Lancome eye makeup remover (yes, its the best), and sweep up where makeup is not meant to be.
Sometimes, when doing my own face, I will do whatever eye makeup I plan on wearing before I have even moisturized. In the sticky, hot humidity that is Summer in NYC, I have trouble pulling my eyelid taught in order to put on eyeliner if I already have sunscreen on my face and hands. Conversely, if doing makeup on a client, I moisturize first and the time it takes for me to do their eyes has allowed the moisturizer to soak in.
Voila! Perfectly perfect eyes and no concealer re-do.

Spritz!

In this weather, we could all use some refreshment. I know it might all seem like fancy, overpriced water, but I love a good spritz. After a long day in the sun, hours on a plane, or 14 hours in a sound stage in NJ, a refreshing spray of mist can wake up your makeup, open your eyes, soothe your skin, and relax your nerves. All that from a bottle of over-priced water!

The most ubiquitous in the biz that can be used from everything to wetting a cake eyeliner to applying fake sweat (when combined with glycerin) to cooling an actor down is the Evian spray. This is, literally, water in a can. But the genius behind the marketing ploy is that it disperses the mist in a fine, gentle spray - so different from a hose to the face.

Dermalogica has several toners in spritz form but I love the Soothing Protection Spray because it smells delicious and, as I mentioned in Double Duty, completely refreshes your makeup and gives a dewey glow.

Caudalie Beauty Elixer and Shu Uemura Depsea Water Facial Mist (I spelled it right, its Depsea) are another two favorites and during a heatwave, there is nothing better. They smell great, hydrate, and are also really helpful when an actor has unseasonal wardrobe to prevent them from passing out or to make an actor feel cared for after s/he has taken off their makeup.

Refreshing! Couldn't we all use a little bit of refreshment right now?

Continuing Education

So, last week I took an advanced airbrushing seminar at Kett Studios, and as they warned me, it kicked my butt. I do have an airbrush and I do know that it could be useful...did that mean I used it? Um, no, it did not. But SVU is on hiatus currently and so I used some of my free time to improve my skills with the airbrush. Let me tell you, it was harder than I thought it would be!

Airbrush makeup can be used to many results. For beauty, it is a technique to give a smooth, even and minimal application of foundation/contour/what have you. The micro-droplets of foundation float from the gun through the air and disperse themselves, settling gently and evenly on your skin. You know, that "airbrushed" look!
While I was there to learn that, I was particularly interested in learning some of the less pretty aspects of airbrushing: veining for corpse makeups, creation of freckles/sun damage/age spots, covering large surface areas with makeup quickly, and tattoo covering (Sheila, one of the artist/instructors/Kett founders, utterly vanished a tattoo, armed only with a knowledge of color theory, some amazing foundations and her airbrush).
Even the retail beauty industry is trying to market it for personal use at home as evidenced by this New York Times article.

The class began with a demo where Roque, my other artist/instructor/founder, did a full beauty makeup combining traditional makeup techniques with airbrush, all the while explaining how to control the gun and application. It seemed so easy!

Then onto learning the "dash and dot" technique - methods to control the dispersion of the makeup from the gun. You can't just hold that gun up and shoot! Once we had some control, it was on to face charts. Again, Roque demonstrated...piece of cake! Um, not so much: as evidenced by some of my earlier charts (see above), it is gonna take me a few more days (weeks? months??) to get those techniques down comfortably. Airbrushing skin tone makeup on skin is more forgiving than onto white paper. It really let me see when I was getting it right and when I had done that chart wrong.

Just when I was beginning to feel like a total hack, we moved onto doing actual makeup on one another. There was only one other makeup artist in the seminar with me and we both got a little more confident once we got going.

All and all, it is a skill that has a wide range of uses which I am very interested in continuing to develop and I really enjoyed the class. It also taught me that it is OK to not know everything - someone else might know it and might be willing to teach it to you!

Thanks Kett!

Fave Sunscreens!

I know, I know: it has been hot. If you are like me, you are basking in it. If you are like my Cleveland-bred husband, you are sweltering. But let me tell you how glowing your skin looks in the humidity! Who needs product when the air itself provides you with that dewy glow!

The glorious weather has gotten me thinking about something very specific: Sunscreen. I try to wear it every day now that I am no spring chicken anymore. And not just on my face. Dont neglect what my friends and I call "The Leather Bib" - you know, that area of your chest that is often exposed by an open collar or t-shirt? That gets as much sun as anything and I regret I wasn't more vigilant sooner.

But there are so many different types out there. There are the 80's style zinc based sunscreens which are still adorable on the tips of little kids noses but maybe not for the chic, sophisticated Pigment Reader. Sunscreens with Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxides, however, are great for sensitive skin even if it takes a little more effort to rub in. They are also the main sunblock in any foundation that has SPF. Dermalogica makes a great one called Super Sensitive Faceblock.

Then there are ingredients like Helioplex, Cell-OX Shield, which are in the new high SPF sunscreens like La Roche-Posay Anthelios and Neutrogena lines - two of my faves for their ease of application and high protection.

Then there are fabulous makeup sunscreens like La Mer's The SPF 18 Fluid Tint that my makeup artist friend Dina introduced me to. It gives sheer, but very effective, dewy coverage, and takes care of your sunscreen needs. Even on the leather bib! Or, if you love your foundation and want to SPF it up, add a little bit of Dermalogica's Solar Defense Booster and you are all set!

Word to the wise, however, no sunscreen gives the level of protection that you think you are getting because we generally don't put enough on. So don't necessarily count on that SPF 70+ to keep you protected for 3 days straight. I carry a little bottle around with me at all times - the sprays or the little sample bottles are great for this - just so I don't give my Dermatologist a reason to chastise me!

Have Safe Sun!

Weddings

Now I would not call myself a Wedding Makeup Artist, but chances are, if I like you and I am invited to your wedding, I am going to offer to do your makeup - like it or not. (And I won't take it personally if you say, "no thanks") When it is a friend or family member, its a great chance to spend time with the bride on her biggest day and (hopefully) help make her feel relaxed and beautiful.
Unless the bride has a specific idea in mind, I tend to go for the "You Only Better" look, as my sister coined it. The groom wants to recognize whoever is charging down the aisle at him so the look shouldn't be drastically different from everyday. I like to smooth out and polish up the skin, pop the lashline as much as possible and only use waterproof mascara. No matter how much the bride swears she isn't gonna cry. A stain under any non-sticky gloss helps keep lips tinted even after the groom ruins the shine. I particularly like the Tarte Rise and Shine plumping lip stain and gloss duo.
If the wedding has a particular aesthetic - for example a friend's recent wedding had a distinct 30's flavor - add something to tie the look in, like a distinct smudgy eyeline. But in general, if your bride wears little makeup regularly, you don't want to throw a dark lipstick and smoky eye on her.

Don't Be Nervous!

A Makeup Artist should not only be able to do makeup on a face like their own.

I am always surprised, as a white woman in her 20's, when a non-white or mature client responds with pleasant surprise that I was able to do a makeup on them that they felt comfortable in. I wouldn't be much of an artist if I only knew how to do makeup on white women in their 20's, would I?

That being said, there are some common mistakes that I've witnessed with doing deeper skin tones and more mature skin, which gives reason to aforementioned nervousness.

Not having the right base for a black/south asian/mediterranean complexion will throw off the whole face, possibly leaving you with an ashy or orange subject. NG.
Many cosmetics companies aren't jumping to include a diverse color range in their bases but RCMA has a shade for ANYONE. You can even mix a shade if need be. There is no excuse for a Makeup Artist to not have makeup that works on any potential client.
Another product in particular that my 2nd in command at SVU introduced me to and that works for anyone is the Kett Sett No-Color setting powder. I looked at her like she was insane when she took it out to set a particularly dark toned actress's face - the powder is as white as newly fallen snow. But it blends into nothingness and sets like nobody's business. From Karen Elson to Alec Wek.

With a more mature face, you want everything to look soft, smooth and lifted. (And bring those lashes back) You want everything to point up. And using products that are too sparkly will enhance crepe-y or wrinkled skin and only serves to highlight signs of age. Eyeshadow with a soft, subtle shimmer (Shu Uemura and Lorac are good for this) work well to blend and soften lids. Think Vaseline on the lens.

Two Tones?

I am not trying to get you to buy more products, I swear. But maybe consider 2 shades of base?
Observing people's natural pigment patterns has led me to adapt a technique for really highbeaming the features on a face. Many of my darker-hued actors have several different tones in their face: the hairline and periphery is noticeably darker than the center of their face. We love this. We want to keep this but scrub it up so it is shiny and gorg.
Subtly accentuating - or even creating - this feature, with highlights and contours, is a fabulous way to bring focus, warmth and brightness to a person. Its like shining a youthful spotlight in the middle of the face.
On a lighter skin tone, I might match the base to their skin and then use a highlighter (like YSL Touche Eclat) from the inner corner of the eye, down the side of the nose and blend it out to the apples of the cheeks.
On a darker complexion, I might use two bases - a lighter one for the center of the face and darker shade for the periphery, and then use a deep bronzer around the edge of the face and on the bridge of the nose.
It is such an easy but very effective way to make you look like YOU! Only Better!