Dreamy Peach and Gold

Peach and gold are made for each other.  I just love this colour combination.  If you follow my other blog about my recent house reno, you know I'm not a huge fan of the colour peach.  But peach can be beautiful if it's the right shade, and with the right colour pairing.  

We created this dreamy styled shoot this past winter, and we have been anxiously awaiting its publication.  Check out the entire collection of photos on the Wedding Chicks blog. 

Our lovely bride for this shoot is Johanna.  Her peaches and cream complexion could not have been more perfect for this shoot.

I wanted her makeup to not only be soft and dreamy but also elegant and sophisticated.  The colours that I selected all had a warm undertone, like the golden peach eyeshadow, which compliment her skin tone.

Johanna is wearing a Christina Wu dress provided by The Perfect Pear.

I really wanted her lashes to look full and lush, so I used a beautiful pair of Velour Lashes on her.  They really make her eyes stand out.

And how handsome is the groom!?  Josh is wearing a tux provided by Dow's Menswear.

OK, how adorable are these two?!

 This is one of my absolute favourite shots from the day.  It's so soft and dreamy!

...and I love this one too!

The feathers almost look like snow!

We also had our shoot video tapped by Lowell Productions, so you get to see the behind the scenes of our dreamy styled wedding shoot!  Click here to see the video

This shoot could not have happened without the talent of these amazing ladies:

Photographer - Rachel Peters Photography

Design Concept - Modern Jane Design

Design Concept & Paper Products - Kim Roach Design

Coordinator - Kiss The Bride

Cake & Dessert - City View Bakehouse

Makeup - Michelle Cudmore Makeup Artist

Hair - Cheryl Weeks Hairstylist

Special Thanks To: 
Lowell Productions, The Perfect Pear Bridal, Nortons Jewellers Ltd, 
Dow's Fashions, Fiveelevenwest, Prestige Floral Studio, Caseley's Tent Rentals and our amazing models, Johanna and Josh!

Wake Me Up Foundation

I can't believe that I've found a drugstore foundation that I really, REALLY like!

I found a sample pack of the Rimmel London Wake Me Up Foundation in a fashion magazine a few weeks ago and I finally just got around to trying it out.  Admittedly I had very low expectations, but I'm excited to say I really love it.

I would say it's a medium to full coverage and it feels nice on the skin.  I can't say that it "reawakened and illuminated" my skin, but I like it all the same.  It claims to have peptides and aVitamin Moisturizing Complex with visible anti-fatigue effect.

The only thing of caution that I would say about it, is that it is scented, and I'm not sure how my skin will react to that after daily use.  But I'm willing to try it out, I'm actually going to purchase this drug store foundation, and that hasn't happened since my university days!

My Golden Globe Favourite Looks

Oh the Golden Globes, how I love checking out all of the rich and famous strutting their stuff on the red carpet.  It's a guilty pleasure for sure. 

Here are some of my favourite looks from the night.

Nicole Richie looks so glam, she's come such a long way since that trashy reality show she did with Paris way back when.  I love the colour of her dress, the glam retro curls, and the icy blue eyeshadow was well done without being over the top.

OMG Kate Hudson looked so beautiful!  Love the black and gold dress, love the golden bronze cheekbones.  A classic and timeless look.

 Jennifer Lawrence makeup was beautiful, a soft smokey eye and I loved how her skin looked radiant, fresh and natural.

 Katherine MacPhee looked gorgeous with her dark sultry eyes.  Reminded me a lot of Mila Kunis.  But regardless I still love this look.

And my favourite look of the night goes to Jodi Foster.  Man she makes 50 look amazing!  Her makeup was perfect!  Loved her eyes, loved her soft subtle lips, her skin looked dewy and radiant.  Just beautiful!

What was your favourite Golden Globe look?

It's Just Makeup

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope your new year is off to a good start and that everyone is achieving their goals and resolutions that were set on January 1st.  I don't usually make a resolutions.  But about 10 years ago my husband and I decided every January we would sit down, review how the past year went, and write down the goals that we have for the upcoming year.  It's amazing what you can accomplish when you write down your goals.

This year one of my personal goals coincides with my career goal.  And that is to not take makeup so seriously.  Even though it's my profession, which I do take seriously, you can't be creative when you have strict rules or also being too scared of making mistakes.  That kind of thing pretty much squashes out all creativity.

When I scroll through Pinterest or check out Youtube makeup tutorials and I see posts that state "the right way" to apply foundation, or whatever the case may be, it drives me bonkers!  Are you kidding me?!?!  Are you telling me there is only one right way to apply makeup?!  That's so ridiculous!

I have to admit when I started out in my career as a makeup artist I was a wee bit obsessed about doing things "the right way".  But after being in the business for a few years now, I know there is never just one right way.  It's just makeup!  It's supposed to be fun, creative, and an expression of yourself.  So my advice to you ladies, who have shun wearing makeup because you fear that you aren't doing it the right way, just do it .  Enjoy yourself.  If you like to use your fingers to apply foundation, but some sales person told you never to do that, well do it the way you like to do it if it is working for you!  Bring fun back into your makeup routine, and worry less about being right.  Take chances, be creative.  Yes, there maybe some, "I'll never do that one agains", but that's how you learn.

Good luck this year, and cheers to creativity!

Adios Moustache

I'm not ashamed that I have a female moustache.  No, not ashamed, but if I could wish that darn moustache away I would.  But since that's not likely to happen, I'm left with figuring how to get rid of my hairy situation on my own.  I used to get it waxed/sugared.  But it always broke me out, and by the time my skin healed, my hair would be growing back in.  arghh!!!  So for awhile I left it....and tried to convince my self that it isn't THAT bad.  And it isn't, it's just sort of annoying, like a hangnail, you know what I mean?  It's there, you try to ignore it, but it just keeps bugging you.

So, I drove to Shoppers Drug Mart and picked out 3 facial hair remover kits.

I picked these 3 products based on ads I'd seen and mentions in some of the beauty magazines that I read.

Olay Smooth Finish Facial Hair Removal Duo.  $32.99 (CAD)  This was the priciest of the 3 products.  It's a depilatory type of product.  It is designed for fine to medium hair (which is the exact type of hair that I was trying to remove).  The box claims that there is up to 12 uses.  It comes with a skin guarding balm that you apply first over the area that you're removing hair from.  Then you apply the hair removal cream, wait 6 - 10 minutes, wipe off and you are supposed to be hair free.  Does it work?  Well not on me it didn't!  If you ever tried to light a bbq the wrong way and ended up singeing your brows, well that is exactly what you end up like with this product.  The balm protects you skin, but the hair removal cream seemed to have "burnt" off my facial hairs.  It looked and felt nasty.  For $32.99 this product was a total waste of money for me!  Strike 1.

Veet Face Ready to Use Wax Strips.  I got them on sale for $11.89.  On the box, it claims to be ideal for small and delicate facial areas like the upper lip.  Works best on short hair.  And contains vitamin E and sweet almond oil to help protect the skin.  The pack contains 6 wax packets, that you warm by rubbing it between your hands then you pull the strips apart, and you have 2 wax strips.  Plus it also comes with 3 perfect finish wipes to wipe off any extra goop, oops I mean wax off of your face.  Does it work?  These strips have a lot of wax on them and I struggled with it.  I had wax all over my mouth, thank god for the wipes, but why the hell do they only give you 3?!??!  Bottom line for me on this one, I had more wax on my face then I had hairs pulled out on the strips.  Strike 2.

Veet High Precision Facial Wax.  I got it on sale for $6.79.  This product is specifically designed for eyebrows and upper lip.  Claims to have 20 + applications.  It comes with the tube of wax, 20 wax strips and a precision stick.  You heat the tube of wax in warm/hot water.  I put hot water in a cup (but NOT boiling water) in a mug, set the tube in it and let it sit there for 1 minute.  It spreads easily and compared to the other 2 products I tried, it actually removed hairs!  You have to make sure that the wax gets warmed up enough.  I tried it once with just running warm water in the sink and letting the tube sit in the warm water for a minute and it didn't work as well.  You can actually see the hair on the strips, which for some strange reason makes me feel like I've accomplished something good.  I kind of think that it is best for fine, peach fuzz kind of hair.  If your facial hair is coarse then I don't think this wax is strong (not sure if that's the best word to use) enough to rip out that type of hair.  Bottom line:  I would use this product again.  It works (maybe not perfectly) way better then the other 2 products and it's easy to use.  And a pretty decent price too.  But in all honesty.  None of the products removes the hair like a professional wax job.  There's a reason why they are professionals.

PEI Surf Wedding

There is only on place in the entire world that I want to be during the summer, and that place is on any of the beaches, here on PEI.  I've been lucky enough to have been able to do some travelling in my lifetime, and in my humble opinion, there's just no other beach like home!

And I think it's safe to say that I'm not the only Islander who feels this way.  That's why our group of talented wedding vendors decided to create a beautiful PEI surf styled wedding.  Although PEI is not known to be a traditional "surfing" mecca (like Hawaii), PEI is well known for other types of "surfing", like windsurfing and kite surfing.

And honestly, we just love showcasing PEI as a wedding destination!


Click here to see the entire shoot on the Style Me Pretty Canada site.

The "Brides" Makeup

I wanted "Amy" (otherwise known as Emily) to have a warm, golden bronzed beach makeup, that was beachy but still sophisticated. She has gorgeous green eyes, so I used a warm golden eyeshadow (MAC All That Glitters eyeshadow) and a brown eyeliner (MAC Dipdown fluidline) to play up her eyes, and a golden bronzer to emphasize her amazing cheek bones.  I finished the look with a light coat of golden peach lip gloss by FACE Atelier.

Special thanks to all the wedding vendors who made this shoot happen!

Modern Jane Design - Jane Gallant - Event Design/Concept
Kim Roach Design - Kim Roach - Wedding Stationary & Paper Products
Rachel Peters Photography - Rachel Peters - Photography
Michelle Cudmore Makeup Artist - Michelle Cudmore - Makeup Artist
Cheryl Weeks Hairstylist - Cheryl Weeks - Hairstylist
Kiss The Bride - Jennifer Clark - Event Coordination
City View Bakehouse - Jennifer Prinz - Cake, Treats, Sweets
Love Charlie - Alisha Stephen - Custom Arm Bracelets

The Perfect Pear Bridal - Kelly Moorehead - Bride's Dress + Shoes
Dow's Menswear - Groom pants + shirt
Norton's Jewellers - Peter Norton - rings
Hearts & Flowers - Flowers
JJ Stewart's Root Beer - PEI Root Beer
The Orange Lunch Box - Food items

Nail Bling GIVEAWAY

I'm back!!!!!  What a whirlwind of a summer!   With 30 weddings, plus trying to squeeze in some family time, the summer just flew by.  I really can't believe it's September all ready!  The kids are back in school, weddings are starting to wind down, and I have time to blog and Youtube again!

So I thought a fun way to kick off the fall season would be to host a giveaway!

I'm giving away 5 Nail Bliss bling nail appliques in some fun and funky patterns, perfect for fall.

To enter just click on the options below.  Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway


*  all products have been purchased by me.  One winner will be selected.

Beach Waves and Wavy Hair Are NOT The Same Thing

This is mostly a makeup blog, but every now and then I feel passionate enough about something else that I really feel the need to blog about.  And today I really feel the need to blog about beach waves.  Beach waves and glamour waves are 2 totally different things and it drives me crazy when you see pictures in magazines of these beautiful girls with beautiful glamorous waved hair and they are calling them beach waves.  They are so not beach waves!  Hello magazine people, have you ever even been to a beach?  Have you ever seen a single person at the beach whose hair looked like this pic below?  Um, the answer to that is a big fat NO!  This picture is from the Who What Wear Beauty blog, which I love that blog, but I am shaking my head at this post this morning because this is so not beach hair.  Not even close!

Now these pictures, on the other hand, are perfect examples of beach hair.  Beach hair is not soft and shiny.  It's gritty and dirty and messy and tousled and imperfectly perfect.  The best way to get beach hair is to drive to your nearest beach, go for a swim, towel off and viola!  Perfect beach waves.  If you don't live close to a beach, then spray your dry (not freshly shampooed) hair with a either a beach spray product or make one yourself (check out my DIY below).  And that is it!  Ah, it's so simple really.  Forget the blow dryers and curling irons, that just defeats the purpose.

 How to make your own beach wave spray:
Fill a spray bottle with 8 oz of water
Add 1 to 2 tsp of sea salt (not table salt)
Add 1 tsp of either coconut oil or olive oil.  This helps moisturize your locks from the drying effects of the salt
You can also add some essential oils if you'd like to add some scent to your spray.
Shake the bottle, spritz all over, scrunch your hair and you are done!

Benefit Ultra Plush Lip Gloss

OK all you lip gloss junkies, here are some new glosses to add to your collection!  Benefit just released 6 new lip glosses that match their famous blushes and bronzer.

I purchased the Bella Bamba, Coralista, Dandelion and Sugar Bomb.  Click here if you want to see my youtube review with swatches.

My top 2 favourites are....

Katy Perry Wide Awake Makeup

One of my Youtube subscribers suggested to me that I should do a Katy Perry makeup look.  And I just happen to love Katy's new video Wide Awake, so I though it sounded like a great idea!  

For my hair I just curled it with a curling iron, but I was wishing I had the same blue/purple hue that Katy has.  Of all her funky hair colours, I like this one the best.  For the hair accessories, I went to Michael's craft store and found some pretty butterflies which I hot glue gunned bobby pins to.  Believe me, it was very simple to do.

For my makeup, you can watch the video tutorial here.

Products used:

EYES

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

MAC Patina

MAC Shroom

MAC Blacktrack Fluidline

Urban Decay 24/7 pencil in Corrupt & El Dorado

Lancome Hypnose Doll Lashes mascara

MAC Brow pencil in Stud

Anastasia brow powder in Med Ash

MAC #36 lashes

FACE

MUFE HD Foundation

MAC MSFN in Medium

MAC Omega eyeshadow as contour

MAC Lovecloud blush

LIPS

MAC lip pencil in Subculture

MAC Creme Cup

Bobbi Brown Crystal lip gloss

Lancome Luxe Box Giveaway

Woohoo!!!!  I't giveaway time again!!!  Who doesn't love a giveaway?

And this is such a cool giveaway!  Loose Button and Lancome Canada have created a limited edition box with deluxe Lancome beauty samples, wait for it....hand picked by Youtube beauty guru Michelle Phan!!!  I know right, how cool is that?!

I've used a lot of exclamation points in this blog post...can you tell I'm a little bit excited? lol

Ok, enough with the chit chat, contest closes in less then 1 week, so so you'd better enter now.  Good luck ;)

(Open to Canadian residents)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Makeup Birthstone Series - June

Who knew that June has 3 birthstones to represent the month?  Well, maybe all the June babies do, but I had no idea.  Pearl, alexandrite, and light amethyst.  Nice to have some options I guess.  Since I could pick from the 3 stones, I decided to create a look based on the light amethyst, which is a pale purple.  Here is what I came up with:

If you would like to watch my youtube tutorial on this look please click here.

PRODUCTS USED:

Eyes:

Bobbi Brown Long Wear Cream eyeshadow in Malted

Urban Decay Ecstasy

MAC Girlie

MAC Malt

Bobbi Brown Long Wear Gel Eyeliner in Violet Ink

Dior Show New Look mascara

MAC Brow Pencil in Lingering

Velour Lashes in TdotOhh

Face:

Make Up For Ever HD Foundation & Mat Velvet +

MAC MSF Natural in Medium

MAC Peony Petal blush

Make Up For Ever lip pencil in 15C

Pink & Gold Modern Wedding

Over the winter, an amazing group of talented PEI business women, and myself, came up with the idea of doing a modern, pink and gold styled wedding shoot.  It took months in the planning and preparing, but just less then 2 weeks ago the planned shoot took place at the home of Kendra Mills located at the Y Loft condos in Charlottetown.  

Less then 24 hours after we submitted our shoot to Style Me Pretty, we heard back from them, and they loved our shoot and wanted to publish it!  eek!!!!  I can hardly contain my excitement!  Getting published on Style Me Pretty is a pretty big deal, especially since they get over 400 submissions a day!  

Click here to check out the full article on Style Me Pretty!

The radiant "bride" for our shoot is the lovely Chelsie McInnis.  She is such a natural beauty, and I wanted her makeup to look fresh and modern.  She has adorable freckles and amazing skin, so I kept her foundation sheer by using Kett Cosmetics airbrush foundation.  Her eye makeup was light and neutral, but I added some glamour with Velour false eyelashes in Tdotohh - and they look amazing on her!  Chelsie has great lips, so I new right away I wanted to do a bold pink lipstick on her.  I used OCC lip tar in Anime, which is a bold, almost neon pink colour. 

The talented group of business women who were involved in this shoot are:

Rachel Peters Photography - Rachel Peters

Modern Jane - Jane Gallant

Kim Roach Design - Kim Roach

City View Bakehouse - Jennifer Prinz

Cheryl Weeks Hairstylist - Cheryl Weeks

Michelle Cudmore Makeup Artist - Me :)

Love Charlie - Alisha Stephen

Kiss The Bride - Jennifer Clark

A huge thanks to the wedding vendors who also provided product for this shoot:

Dow's Menswear - tux and men's shoes

The Perfect Pear Bridal - wedding dress and shoes

Heart's and Flowers - flowers

Nortons Jewellers - rings

Newman Estate Winery - wine

And of course this could not have happened without our adorable couple Chelsie McInnis and Jared Murphy.  Thank you!!!

Now here are a few of my favourite shots from the day!

This is such a Carrie Bradshaw/Sex in the City shot!  Love it!!