Lace!

So I sat myself down after the baby went to sleep determined to figure out how to work those Sally Hansen Nail Effects and it turns out that you can do it all wrong and it will still look fabulous and last a week. I chose the lace effect and even though they kept getting mistaken for those digital widgets that are everywhere on magazines and windows, I thought they looked pretty cool.
All you do is clean your nails, fit the decals (there are 16 in a box so that you can get the ones that fit your nail bed best), peel off the plastic and stick them to your nails. You then pull them and they break off and then you file the ends away. The result is very smooth and, quite frankly, easier than polish because you don't even need to wait for them to dry! And I've never gotten more "whoa! Cool nails!" comments in my life. Even my nieces thought I looked cool.
Mission accomplished.

Magnets!

So, every once in a while Vogue does a piece on the latest in nail fashion. Usually its a little much for me - $300 for pieces of shed snakeskin glued on to a pedicure? Probably not gonna happen for me. And I hate the look of those little flowers drawn on to a manicure. But the latest is all about nail polish infused with...MAGNETS! Special effects nails with an edge! So exciting although I'm not sure why. I marched myself to Sephora and bought the badass gunmetal gray color and then went to my favorite ladies at Polish Nail Salon in Park Slope ($20 mani/pedi!) and we tried it out. It took some experimenting to get the effect right but, since I've been going to Polish for 8 years, they humored me and really got into it. You have to do one nail at a time, two coats per nail and then immediately hold the magnet that is built into the lid of the polish over the wet nail. But then voila! Voila what exactly? I'm not sure. But it looks cool and what's wrong with a little nail fun in these dreary news cycles.
Which got me thinking about those Salon Effects nail kits from Sally Hansen. I bought the Lace Effect one and will be experimenting with it tonight. Stay tuned.

Also, next week I will be working on the soon to air show Smash doing period 1920s and 50s makeups. Stay double tuned!

Back In Business

So sorry pigment readers. I solemnly swear not to let this happen again. A year ago I got my world rocked when I discovered I was pregnant and the accompanying morning sickness/exhaustion whittled down my ability to multi-task. Tisa, my former teammate over at SVU can attest that in between scenes I was passed out. So I dropped the blog ball but now I'm back! I left SVU in the capable hands of my friends Tisa and Dina and am now galavanting in the wide world of tv/movie makeup freelancing part time so I can still bring home some bacon but be the one raising my baby, a particularly fat little angel named Arthur.
Some things I discovered in pregnancy as it relates to makeup:

- That 'glow' that people told me I had was really achieved with makeup and moisturizer (thank you La Mer). I actually found that pregnancy sapped all of my skin's moisture so I had to light that glow myself. But people just want to tell you you're glowing so just say thank you.

- Tarte came out with these new Amazonian clay 12 hour blushes and they are for REAL. I put some on, never took it off after work (see above re: exhaustion) and had a super glamorous night sweat (TMI, sorry) and I woke up and STILL had the blush on. If there is a better endurance test for blush, I can't think of it. And the blushes come in all sorts of fresh great colors from neutral to really cute and bright.

- Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Bio Oil, Bag Balm, Belly Gel...they don't work to prevent stretchmarks. Even when applied religiously. Sigh. However, I have an appointment with my Derm tomorrow and besides my annual skin cancer check, we will be discussing LASERS! So ill keep you posted. Btw, my derm, Dr. Julie Karen, is featured in this month's Vogue. No wonder its so hard to get an appointment!

I'll be posting every week from now on with new Tales from the Trenches, product reviews, and updates about the new makeup parties I am starting to throw! Please keep tuning in!

Gore Galore!

Halloween looming has me thinking about gruesome gore.

I honestly don't know how I would do my job without one very specific makeup product: 3rd Degree. Its not glamorous or gorgeous but it is indispensable. Two jars are filled with different components of a silicone material that, when mixed together, gives a couple of minutes of working time before it sets up. You can apply it directly to skin to sculpt a wound, wart or whatever. Or you can put it in a mold to create a quick prosthetic appliance.

Want a scar like Frankenstein? Just mix equal parts of jars A and B with a small spatula and sculpt it onto the skin until it looks like what you want it to look like. Once its dry, powder it and then color it up with whatever color best suits your Franken-hue. Going as Phantom? Smear it on to half of your face with a spatula as you would cake batter, let it dry and then powder it with blush. Almost instant burn! Need a gash? Apply the 3rd degree as you would for a scar and then slice it open with your spatula or sculpting tool. Fill the gash with some fresh scab and some liquid blood and you are ready to gross out small children!

Which reminds me: there are also a plethora of different blood colors and textures out there on the market. There are bright red liquid bloods which are great on the show when we want the blood to look fresh and vibrant in a shadowy set. Dark liquid blood is great for a slightly less cartoony look, especially if the light on set is bright or our SVU victim is slightly less fresh. There is also a great great product from K.D. called Drying Blood Jelly that goes on and drips like liquid blood but then dries to that crusty, crackly dark brown red. There are eye bloods and mouth bloods and the gooeyest of all are the thick gel bloods called scab blood. The brighter one is great for adding texture to fresh wounds and a darker version can be applied and then powdered over with a brownish powder to give that "healed scab" look. Gross!

Alcone Cosmetics in NYC and Frends Beauty Supply in Lala have all the above and more to add gore to your holiday. Happy tricks and treats!

Halloween!

In this gloomy October weather, I feel the impending specter of Halloween. People constantly say "You must be so popular on Halloween" or ask "is Halloween your favorite holiday?". It has me thinking how much my job is like Halloween every day. (BTW, people find me more useful at weddings and children's birthday parties and my favorite holiday is my birthday.)
Every day that I work I see people in weird costumes eating candy (from the craft service snack table). Some days I come in and do beauty makeups, corpses in various states of disrepair, tattoos and bruises, a clown and a mime.

But in the spirit of Halloween, I wanted to give out treats of tips! Want to look like Marie Antoinette but can't figure out how to get the paleness/mole right? Thinking of going as Heidi Montag post-op and need some believeable bruising? Need a horrible looking wound and don't know how to make it look gory in 3-D? Send me your ideas/questions and we can come up with fabulous creative ideas together!

Expert Reviews

I am late on the band wagon for a great resource guide to the world of makeup and skin care product reviews.

Paula Begoun has a book that I have constantly passed by at the book store called Don't Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me. It always seemed like a losing proposition - a huge tome proposing to catalog the virtues and sins of every cosmetic on the market. With the speed that companies develop new product, the book is out of date before it goes to press!

WELL, last season Sharon Stone started reciting all these very informative insider facts she said she had learned them from Paula's book. E.g. Eye Cream is JUST regular cream in a smaller, more expensive jar. So I finally rushed to Amazon.com for the 8th edition of DGTTCCWOM.
It arrived and I pored over it. Her introduction and methods for testing are very interesting and honest. She is not wowed by packaging or marketing. Its: Does this product work or not?
Personally, I don't need as much help deciphering high and low quality makeup. I work with different products all day long and I can tell immediately if I like how an eyeshadow, foundation or lipstick applies and holds. What often does stymie me is skin care. The effect of a skin care product rather than a cosmetic is more often apparent after long term use.

Will the expensive eye cream fend off wrinkles 10 years down the road if I am consistent? Is it worth it to "invest" in your skin with an expensive night cream? Do the latest "it" ingredients really work better than Ponds Cold Cream or Noxema? Paula gets into the nitty gritty answering these types of questions. Often citing brands like Olay and Clinique as All-Stars and ripping skin care like Dior's for being overpriced, over fragranced and under ingrediented (that's now a word).

As I predicted, the book didn't have half of the product lines I use on a daily basis. However, this is the genius of her website. For an annual subscription fee, her website is continuously updated with pretty much every makeup and skin care line on the market. So if you are at the department store being tempted by a Dior creme for $275 that touts the rejuvenating effect of the whispers of fetal kittens, you can log on to her website, read the review, and then save yourself $275.

So, while I don't think the book is such a great investment, the website is something worth looking into if you, like me, find yourself susceptible to a shiny new jar of expensive miracle nothing.

Inner-Eye Concealer

So I've been thinking about how and why we use concealer. One of the deep issues of the ages.

Specifically what got me thinking was the phrase "under-eye concealer". When dealing with darkness, I would venture that 90% of the time we don't need concealer "under" the eye so much as in the outer and inner corner down into the orbital socket (the area created where your bone ends and your eye socket begins). That is where most darkness peeks through the thin, delicate skin.

The problem with the idea of "under eye" concealer, especially if you are using a concealer that is slightly lighter than your foundation, is that you get left with the dreaded Reverse Raccoon Effect. No one wants this!

I think using a brightening concealer is great, don't get me wrong. But ideally, you want to bring the fresh brightness to the center of your face. Not just UNDER your eyes. Highlight down below your orbital socket into the naso-labial folds. Add a dab between your eyebrows and in the middle of your chin. This creates a diamond of brightness to make your whole face sparkle! And maybe we should start a revolution to change "under eye concealer" to "inner eye concealer".

It could happen, right?