Looking back on the Brides of 2010

It's been such an amazing year for me as a makeup artist.  I can hardly believe that December is days away...  And it has me feeling kind of nostalgic and I can't help thinking of all the sweet and beautiful women I've been so lucky to meet and work with over the year.

I had an incredible group of brides (no "Bridezilla's" to be found) and I wanted to take the time and share with you some of the photos that they've shared with me.  Unfortunately I don't have photos of all the weddings I did this year, this is just a sampling.  (pst...if your reading this and I did your makeup and you want me to share some of your photos, I would love to in another post, just email them to me :) ).

These are in no particular order by the way...

My sweet "baby" sister got married this year and I had the pleasure of doing makeup for her and the entire (read super big) bridal party.  She & Marc loves a party!  It was a week long festivity that ended up being coined as "Marianne & Marc's Big Fat PEI Wedding"

Photo's of Marianne were taken by Jill Hardy



I had a lot of fun doing makeup for this group of women.  It was a small bridal party, just the bride's sister and Mom.  But they were having so much fun, it was contagious.  This was also one of those days where other relatives would stop by, see the makeup and then beg for me to squeeze them in too!  I did have time to squeeze in a few extra aunts!

Another beautiful bride and bridal party.  I LOVE the blue dresses.  So pretty.  This was an end of summer wedding, and again another beautiful PEI day.  The brides were so lucky with weather this year!  The bride was so calm...modern brides don't seem to be as nervous for some reason.

 And the black and white photos are always so romantic!

I can't remember the photographer, but if I find out, I'll let you know!


OK, this wedding was so much fun.  Not a single person was from PEI, it was a total "destination wedding"  and I had so much fun meeting this family!!!  I got to work with my good friend and hair dresser extraordinaire Cheryl.  We travelled out to their cottage early (I mean really early) in the morning and it was a hair and makeup whirl wind.  I did makeup for 9 women, and as you'll see from the photo of the bridal party picture below, they were a FUN group of girls!

 You can't really tell from these photos, but it was blowing a gale that day.  And I'm not exaggerating.  It was sunny but WINDY.  And they were getting married on the beach.  Crowbush Beach.  You have to live here to understand how windy it can get on our beaches.  We were somewhat nervous about losing the hair extensions.

 And the dress was amazing too.  It's hard to see all the details in these pictures but it was one of a kind!

The photographer for these pictures flew in for the wedding too.  She took all the photos on a film camera, no digital photos.  It turned out so romantic looking don't you think?

THANK YOU BRIDES OF 2010!

My heart belongs to Yonka

When it comes to skin care products, I always suffer from the "Grass is Greener on the Other Side" syndrome.  I'm such a sucker for celebrity endorsements, glossy ads in magazines, or the promise of miraculous results.  Why, why, why do I fall for it?  Every time?!

But I swear, I think I've tried every freakin brand out there.  It all began way back when with Sea Breeze (I'm serious, I really did use it). Who remembers Sea Breeze???  I don't even think they make it anymore.  Then I moved on to Noxema, then Ivory soap with Nivea to moisturize.  Yes, I used soap to clean my face.  Oh the horror!!!  I used the Ivory/Nivea combo from about grade 10 till I finished my degree in university.

And that's when the real experimenting began.  It was then that I learned that you should never use soap on your face.  Oops!  How was I to know?  I must have been living under a rock.

That's when I first tried Yonka.  I loved it but I always had in the back of my head, what else is out there?  Is there anything else that could make my skin feel and look even better?  Why did I ever ask myself that question?

So on my skincare journey,  I've tried everything from drugstore brands (Cetaphil, St Ives, etc.) to the high end (Kinerase, Dermalogica, etc.) to the organic/natural brands (Dr Haushka, Burts Bees, etc.).  Did  any of these brands blow my mind?  Did they stand up to the claims?  One word - NOPE!!!

With all the money I've spent on failed attempts on skincare products, I could have bought....I don't even want to go there.  I'm just torturing myself.  I can't go there, I could have bought, (gulp) a pair of Christian Louboutins for gods sake! :(

Oh well, it's my own stupidity.  But I've learned my lesson.  My heart belongs to Yonka, and it always will.  My skin care routine is simple.  Cleansing lotion to remove makeup/cleanse my skin.  Elastin Nuit to moisturize every morning and night.  That's what works for me.  My holy grail.  I will never wander again.  I promise.  What's your holy grail skin care routine?  Not that I'm going to switch!!!  I'm just curious!

Panache PEI Model Fall Photo Shoot

Wow!  It's been such a busy month.  From boudoir photo shoots, IMATS, a trip to Halifax... I thought November was supposed to be slow for makeup artists!  But I'm not complaining, I love every minute of it.

Last Thursday and this past Monday, I did makeup for the Panache PEI Model photo shoot.  These photo shoots are so much fun and I just love being involved!

There were 12 models on Thursday night and 19 models of Monday night.  This is part of their modelling course and is used to build up their professional portfolios.

So here's the scoop on the photo shoot.  There's 3 photographers set up across the city and at the Panache PEI studio there are 3 makeup artists and 3 hairdressers.  We're set up to transform each of the models for all 3 of the different looks - natural face, eye wear, and a modern Marie Antoinette look.

All of the looks were fabulous but I really loved the Marie Antoinette look.  It had tons of colour on the eyes, cheek and lips.  So awesome!  I can't wait to see some of the photos!!!

I don't have any of the photos yet, but I can share some of the photos from the Panache PEI Model photo shoot that I worked on this past summer.  The 3 photographers from last summer were Katelyn Fraser, Mark Anthony, and Patrick Callbeck.  The 3 themed looks were natural, sculptural modern minimalist, and broken down circus.  Here are the fab models, they were so amazing to work with!

Megan

Christina

Aleshia

Allison

 Rebecca

Tanner

New Clothes!

So I forgot to mention that I did manage to squeeze in a full day of shopping for clothes while I was in Toronto.  I actually don't buy that much year round, I kind of save up till I go away to a larger city and then I kinda go a little crazy.

Yes, it looks like we went totally crazy, but in my defence, half of these are Tracy's!

We got up bright and early Friday morning, and were actually waiting for the stores to open their doors.  Desperate!  Our first stop was Over the Rainbow, oh how I love that store!  I pretty much found everything on my wish list there.  I found the most awesome pair of jeggings by Citizens of Humanity, and another pair of skinny jeans by Fidelity.  And I almost flipped out when I found my black leather Mackage jacket that I wanted so badly there.  Bought it on the spot!  And I can't believe this, cause I've resisted the trend for soooo long now, but now that I have my jeggings and skinny jeans, I bought a pair of Uggs!!!  And you know what?  Those damn things are sooooo comfortable.  I won't take them off.  Nope.  I may never put stilettos on again.  My feet will thank me!

This is a picture from the Mackage website of the jacket I purchased:

Oh!  And when I bought my jacket they gave me a free case of Stella beer glasses.  So I had a little gift to take home for my honey.  (Even though it was a total pain in the butt to cart those glasses around the airport all day on the way home!)

Our second stop was Second Time Around, it's a great little consignment store with some really great designers.  It can be hit or miss with sizes though.  My friend Tracy scored bags full of goodies, while I did not have so much luck with finding anything my size.  I did find a white cashmere Alexander MacQueen sweater that I fell instantly in love with.  I feel like I should be lounging in a ski chalet in Vail, or the Swiss Alps when I wear it!

Then on to Betsey Johnson.  I swear I was only there to help Tracy find a dress for Christmas, but those amazing sales girls kept giving me dresses to try on and I ended up buying the Bambi dress, a bath robe and an awesome little belt.  Oops!

This is a picture of the Bambi dress.  I know it's out there, but I loved how it fit and it made my legs look awesome.  And you know when you put something on and you feel a jolt of something magical?  Well that's what I feel when I wear it.  When I first met my husband he used to call me Dharma from the TV show Dharma and Greg.  Well, he is a total "Greg" and I guess I do have some Dharma tendencies:)

I pretty much got everything on my list except for black boots.  I just could not find anything that fit the picture I have in my head.  I hate it when that happens!  Well there was a pair that fit the bill, but they were Prada at Holt Renfrew and the price tag was no where even close to being in my budget.  Oh well, I think I did pretty good anyway!

This weekend I'm heading to Halifax for my annual sister's trip.  I have 3 sisters and we try to get away for a little sisters only trip.  This year we thought we'd keep it simple and go to Halifax.  It's going to be hard to resist shopping again because that's what the sisters are wanting to do on Saturday...yikes!  Wish me luck!

Boudoir Makeup & Hair

I had an awesome day yesterday doing makeup and hair for a group of beautiful and confident women at Jill Hardy Photography's boudoir photo session.  You should check out Jill's work at www.jillhardyphotography.com/blog/

This is the second group boudoir photo session Jill and I have worked together on and I have so much fun working at it!  The last session was back in January, the girls were giving their hubbies (or boyfriends) the photo album as a Valentine's Day gift.  How lucky are those guys?!

Here are some of the beautiful women I had the pleasure of doing makeup & hair for last January:

Jill has such an amazing personality and sense of humour that she instantly puts all the girls at ease.  Not an easy task I'm sure!

So right now Jill is busy working away at editing the photos from yesterday, so I don't have any photos to share yet, but as soon as I do I'll be posting an update!

IMATS Toronto Students Competition

Quick little post, I really just wanted to share some pictures of the student competitions at IMATS Toronto.  I wasn't a competitor, just a spectator!  Sometimes it's fun just to sit back and watch someone else apply makeup :)

On Saturday the theme was Beauty/Fantasy based on Alice in Wonderland.

Here are some pictures of the students working on their models:

And here are the models working the runway...

This one is my favourite!  It was the judges favourite too, cause it was the 1st place winner.  Don't you just love the details?!

And then on Sunday there was the prosthetics competition.  Here is a picture of one of the students working her makeup magic...

And here are the rest of the final looks waiting to be judged...

I missed the awards ceremony on Sunday so I'm not sure which model won 1st place.  But they're all
pretty spectacular and inspiring.  I think all the students did a great job!  What do you think?  Which look is your fav?

And I have one last photo to share with you all, this was an airbrush artist at the Kett Cosmetics booth. It was so cool!  Do you like it?

I Met Celebrity Makeup Artist Kandee Johnson!!! (And more celebrity artist sightings!!!)

There is just so much I want to talk about with my recent IMATS Toronto trip, that I really felt the need to blog another post on it.  Some of you have been asking if I met any celebrity makeup artists.  And YES I DID!!!  I was in line bright and early Saturday morning and at the first booth, who did I run into....

EnKore Makeup and Pursebuzz!!!  I was such a goof, I could barely squeak out a word, but they were soooo nice, and they both said they liked my earrings :)  I just wish I wasn't so star struck and could string together an intelligent sentence or two.  (sigh)  Oh well, maybe next time I'll pull myself together.

Then the guest speaker on Saturday morning was....Kandee Johnson!!!  She is so BEAUTIFUL!!!  She is pretty in pictures as you may know, but I'm telling you, in real life that girl just sparkles!!!

There were over 300 people squeezed in to the main stage area, hanging off every word she said.  People were standing all over the place and out the door to catch a glimpse of her.  She actually broke the record for all IMATS shows!  What an amazing lady!  She has such a positive out look on life.  I just love her, even more then I did before :)  And here is one of the reasons why.  After she spoke, she had a meet and greet that started at 11 am, and the line up to meet her went, literally around the entire conference centre.  She sat in that directors chair (by the way she's pregnant!) for over 3 hours with no breaks, until she met every single one of her fans.  Don't you love her for that???  And I swear to God she was just as excited to see the last person as she was with the first!  Her energy needs to be bottled and sold.

Then there was Kevin James Bennett who presented "Tool Time"  (funny title, I know), and "The Perfect Complexion".

Dani Fonseca from Temptu presented "Airbrush For Runway"

 This look was one from this spring's runway but I forget which designer it was for...

And this is a picture of Vargas, a world renowned body painter, doing a demo.   His creations of the weekend were just amazing, you would swear the models were wearing clothes, but nope, it was just makeup!

This is Roque Cozzette from Kett Cosmetics, doing his magic on an airbrush demo at his booth.

And I also got to meet David Klasfeld from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, who is very sweet and very funny, but I was so into what he was saying, I forgot to take pictures!

I also met and chatted with Suzanne Patterson, an Emmy Award wining artist (who is a high def genius) and got lots of tips and tricks on high def makeup application.  She also presented "The Camera Ready Face" which was all about HD makeup application and I learned so much from her!

So that's who I saw at IMATS Toronto this year, it was so incredible to be there and see these amazing professionals first hand.  It's so inspiring and it makes me love my job even more.  I feel so lucky to work in such an incredible, fun and dynamic industry.