Molly's Preview

This weekend, I had the honor of getting Molly ready for her wedding to fiance Marvin. It was special for me because they're the managers for my spa! I was so excited to make Molly even more beautiful than she already is for her wedding day. Here's a little preview of the beautiful couple!

I'm so excited to get the photos back from their nuptuals in a couple weeks. Molly is more of a natural girl who doesn't even wear eyeliner, so we went with a dewey fresh-faced look with an emphasis on big eyes with champagne eyeshadow with light shimmer and beautiful lashes. More photos to come soon!

Angela and Jim's Purple Perfect Wedding

This past Saturday, I had the honor of being Angela's artist for her marriage to Jim. A couple of Angela's friends got together and hired me to do her bridal makeup as a surprise wedding present!

My biggest surprise? How calm she was! Amidst her children needing to get ready and quite a large family bustling about, she was the perfect example of what a happy and calm bride was! Patient, relaxed, with no hurry in her voice or expression. I'll have what she's having, please!

We talked as I worked and she sipped on a glass of champagne. Her ceremony was at the beautiful Sheraton Hotel in Anaheim right by Disneyland in the courtyard with picturesque waterfalls and rock accents. It was simply gorgeous. What I loved best was her attention to the details. Her daughter was the flower girl and had customized satin purple Converse as did her baby boy!

Angela was such a pleasure to work with and a beautiful bride! We went for a dramatic shimmering eye with a soft pink lip. Very Kim Kardashian and gorgeous on her. Here's a sneak peak with more to come in the near future

Congratulations Angela and Jim!!

The Classic Bride: Glam Lips

I can't believe I'm actually about to write this, but it's true.. Fall is almost here! Come Autumn, all the tones go deeper and hues come out in gorgeous plums and reds. A red lip is seen on almost every woman looking to be the ultimate classy chic bride from September to March! The look is easier than it seems! I gave Alissa a bridal look that is perfectly easy on the eyes with lovely eyes and a killer dramatic pout.            

A red lip has some essential steps needed to pull it off. 

Firstly, match the undertones of the lipstick with the undertone of your skin. If you have a cool skin tone, such as pink, then the red shade you choose needs to have undertones of blue or purple. Alissa has very pinkish hues in her skin, so this deep blue-red lipstick by Mary Kay called Red Salsa was perfect with her and topped with a deep pinkish red gloss. If you have warmer tones in your skin such as yellow, then more orange based reds are best.
Conceal around the lip line. Blend a concealer that is one slight shade lighter than the skin tone around the mouth stopping at the lip line. This creates the appearance that the lips are slightly prominent and gives a clean edge.
Choose a lip liner in the same shade family as the color you are using and line the lips. Correct any shape concerns. Fill in the liner.
Fill in the lip color with a lip brush. Use the edge of the brush to create a smooth, straight line along the lip line. Blot to adhere the color to the lips and remove any excess, then fill in again.
Top with a gloss of your choice and you have yourself a gorgeous red lip!

Today For You, Tomorrow For Me!

If I'm not doing weddings, I love doing costume makeup, especially theatrical. It's a talent to make someone look like a character and the results can be astounding! Last week I entered a Project Broadway competition in which models were transformed to resemble a character from leading Broadway musicals. I was ecstatic to join this project, especially when my team of three cosmetologists and an esthetician pulled RENT as our musical. We chose the character Angel and had the perfect model, Haley, to begin our transformation.

The goal was challenging. I needed to transform Haley, a woman, into a man who dresses as a woman. For work like this, concealers and contours are essential! I applied a foundation three shades darker than Haley's natural skin tone to get her skin to a darker ethnicity more similar to Angel's background. Her brows were thickened and sharply defined with a deep brown eyebrow pencil. Her eyes were going to be one of the most defined features for this look. I used darker mattes to accentuate her eye into an elongated shape and filled in her crease to deeply set her eyes. 

Men who dress like women are all about highlighting! For Haley, I used a white eye pencil (Milk by NYX) right under her brow to the crease and went over it with a shimmery white pigment. Two sets of lashes were used for her eyes. The part that changed her the most, however, was contouring. I took a darker powder and an angled face brush and darkly shaded a sharp line into her cheek bones and along her neck to create the shadow of an adam's apple. The five o'clock shadow was created with brown powder eyeshadow through facial gauze and an eyebrow pencil lightly shaded to create a double chin. And for her finishing touches, I used a bright red lip liner and lipstick with dabs of white eyeshadow in the center of her pout with a clear gloss overcoat to make her lips fuller.

Here was our finished look! The fabulous Haley as Angel from RENT

The entire project was a blast to work on and the best part was that our fabulous team came in second place for our efforts!

I said, "Yes!" too!

So I wrote a little bit before about the joyous update of planning my own wedding!! This week I received our engagement photos that my fiance and I had the pleasure of doing with Michelle Kirchner of MK Studios. Be sure to check out her link, she is a true artist! We picked the Los Rios Historic District in nearby San Juan Capistrano because of its beautiful vintage appeal with the old cottage homes and train station. The photos turned out beautifully. I did my own make up for the portraits, so I decided to share some of our favorite shots.

For the day time pictures I decided to go with a very light smokey eye and concentrate on big, natural looking lashes with individuals temporarily glued in and a peachy pink lipgloss. This is the iconic Chanel lipgloss in Orgasm and is a must have in any girl's make up bag!

Congratulations also to everyone engaged or married this summer!!

Lauren's Country Wedding

Last month on April 15th I had the wonderful pleasure of getting Lauren ready for her wedding. What a beautiful woman, inside and out! Just take a look for yourself..

We had a smooth trial together before her big day and decided on a very natural look with a slightly smokey eye and a pale lip. What I loved so much about Lauren's makeup was that she kept it true to herself! So many times I encounter brides that want to go full glam with a red lip that they have never worn before only to receive pictures and barely recognize themselves! Of course, it is gorgeous on some women, but for Lauren, this was perfect.

Lauren is a burn survivor who experienced a third degree burn when she was younger from a pot of boiling water. I used a mixture of yellow and skin-tone concealer to mask the dark shadows, sallows and pigmentation of the scarring along her forehead and cheek bone so you wouldn't notice them in her photos, but never one to be shy, Lauren left her arms untouched and stood radiant just as she was! For her hair, she chose this gorgeous braided back up do I fell in love with!

The wedding took place at Strawberry Farms, a rolling hill golf course set in the hilly area of Irvine, CA with a picture-esque barn reception. I had the opportunity to also work with her younger sister, a bridesmaid, and the mother of the bride. The whole day was surprisingly relaxing! She showed not a bit of nervousness as she sat around with her friends, chatting, laughing and sipping mimosas. I hope my day goes just as smooth!

You can see more photos of Lauren and her bridal party on my Portfolio. Photos courtesy of David Nget Photography. Congratulations to Lauren and Doug!