Mizzie Make-up

Mizzie Make-up - Tips and Tricks - Dark Lips/ Metallic Make-up

2010-12-14T11:53:00.000-08:00

This weeks make-up question comes from one of our fav designers Amanda Valentine. She asks......

I need fun holiday eye makeup ideas! Not the usual smokey black eye!

Aw the smokey black eye. Yes that seems to be the go to look for anything dressy these days, but have no fear there are plenty of other ways to go that are actually easier and less mess and stress.

Nude Face/ Dark Lips

This is one of my favorite looks this season. It can easily go from day to night and is super quick to do. Perfect for you busy girls with a full schedule. The key is creating flawless fresh looking skin, minimal blush and eyes so the focus is the strong clean lip.

My lipstick tip for this look is to line the lips in a slightly lighter shade than your lip color and then fill in the lips with the pencil. This will create a base for the lipstick which helps it to be more long wearing for your holiday happenings.

Metallic Make-up

Metallics are bang on trend so go for the gusto! MAC pigments have some gorgeous metallic shades that won't disappoint. Here's a little tip for ya. When applying your metallic shadow, use a wet synthetic stiff bristled brush for maximum metal. For your holiday parties keep the focus on the eyes and keep the rest of the face clean and neutral then finish with a dusting of matte powder.

Thank you Amanda for the brilliant questions. And to the rest of you don't be shy and send in your questions and we will be sure to answer them.

Make-up Tips & Tricks - 5 to 10 min Make-up Look

2010-11-30T07:50:00.000-08:00

This week we answer our first reader make-up and beauty question.

Melanie asks:
What is a 5-10 minute make up look I can use for work? Simple but classy. I want my skin to shine and my eyes to sparkle.

Well Melanie just for you I have worked out a 6 step plan. And included some options if you have more time. So here we go.

When I approach my morning make-up routine the first thing I think about is how much time I have and then I add or subtract steps accordingly. For an easy basic morning make-up routine I recommend the following.

Step 1 - Start with clean freshly moisturized skin. If you washed your face the night before which something I highly advise then you can just apply you favorite moisturizer in the morning. It's important to use the same moisture base as your foundation if you are using one. Ex. if you use a water based foundation then you need to use a water based moisturizer. If your foundation is oil based then use an oil based moisturizer.

Step 2 - Foundation. Apply the foundation of your choice with your fingers or a foundation brush. I prefer a brush and my favorite one right now is M.A.C.'s # ?. Make sure you cover your eyelids and blend the foundation down to your neck so you don't end up with a line where you face neds and your neck begins. My skin has hyper-pigmentation so I use a medium coverage, but if you have an even skin tone then you may want to skip this step and go straight to concealer.

Step 3 - Concealer. I like to use a concealer under the eye and then anywhere else I feel I need it. Look at your face for any red spots or blemishes and using a tiny brush, you can use a lip brush, gently pat the concealer into your skin and blend around it. Less is more in this case. Places to focus on are on each side of the nose and the inner corner of each eye. I blend my concealor down into the tops of my cheeks to avoid raccoon eye and to give a nice highlight to the center of my face.

Step 4 - Blush. I use a cream blush but if you have oily skin I would stick with a powder. Apply a peach or pinky blush on the apples of your cheeks. This gives a fresh youthful look and using a cream blush or a powder blush with a slight sheen adds to the effect.

Step 5 - Eyebrows. Eyebrows frame the face and give a very finished look of done well. I see so many neglected eyebrows walking around I want to really emphasis what a defined tidy eyebrow can achieve. I use a pencil just to gently define my brows and I brush down the hairs before I fill in then brush them back up again after I'm done.

Step 6 - Mascara, powder & lipgloss. Three of my favorite products. If you wear nothing else wear mascara. It makes all the difference. And powder sets your make-up so it will last much longer than without it. Now add whatever lip product you like to use. I am wearing lip balm and carry with me a couple of lip glosses that I use throughout the day.

If you want to amp up your look you can add a darker lipstick like this lovely plum color or a burgundy depending on your complexion.

Melanie I hope this helps and please let me know if any of you have any questions. Keep sending in those make-up and beauty questions we will have another answer for you in two weeks.

Make-up Tips and Tricks

2010-11-08T09:41:00.000-08:00

Introducing our new Mizzie Make-up post "Make-up Tips and Tricks". This is where you ask me make-up questions and I or our guest make-up artists answer them. If have always wanted to conquer the smokey eye let us know. If you want to know what shade of red lipstick is best for you then send us a photo and we will tell you. Feel free to give us a challenge or ask us something simple. It's up to you what we talk about so please start sending us your questions and we will start answering them.

Behind the Scenes: Net-a-Porter Event London

2010-11-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

This week I worked on an event for Net-a-Porter.com at their swanky new offices in Westfield Shopping Center London. I was very excited about seeing how they would dress the models and even more excited when I actually saw the clothes close up.

I fell in love and became totally inspired for the Holiday party season. Of course everything I wanted to marry and live happily ever after with was over £500 so I will need to interpret these looks in a realm that I can afford. We will call that realm reality. Here is an outfit that stood out to me among all the others probably because it consisted mostly of sequins.

Net-a-Porter Party Outfit by StellaShops featuring glass jewelry

Chloé Silk-georgette trapeze blouse
$1,380 - net-a-porter.com
Sheer blouse »

Isabel Marant Folco sequin-embellished leggings
$2,185 - net-a-porter.com
Isabel Marant leggings »

Jimmy Choo | Zinc cracked-leather cutout sandals | NET-A-PORTER.COM
695 GBP - net-a-porter.com
Jimmy choo shoes »

Nancy Gonzalez Patent-crocodile long clutch
$1,200 - net-a-porter.com
Patent leather handbag »

Lee Angel Martine glass-pearl drop earrings
$135 - net-a-porter.com
Glass jewelry »

Gorgeous right??

And this dress really "spoke to me" when I saw it on the model. I wonder if I can find something similar from the High street for a tenth of the cost? Hmmmm..Maybe I will make that a challenge for our guest stylists.

Anna Sui Dress by StellaShops featuring a slip on dress

Anna Sui Silk-tulle sequin-embellished dress
$995 - net-a-porter.com
Slip on dress »

Jimmy Choo | Liara studded leather strappy sandals | NET-A-PORTER.COM
775 EUR - net-a-porter.com
Jimmy choo shoes »

The event was great fun and I hope to work with Net-a-Porter again soon, if no other reason than for inspiration.

About Face - Scott Barnes

2010-06-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

Make-up books are like beauty bibles for me. I read them, study the photos, read them again and practice the tips and techniques that line the glossy pages of these instructional glamour guides. Recently one of my favorite make-up artists, also a favorite of Jennifer Lopez, Scott Barnes released a new make-up book titled About Face. He is the artist responsible for the J-Lo glow and in his new book he shares all his secrets.

I was surprised at how detailed he was on all his transformations. Usually artist are explain their techniques like this.... "I put on some concealer using a brush, the models skin was so perfect I didn't need foundation, then I applied a pink blush and finished off the look with a berry lipstick using my fingers." They make it sound so simple when clearly they have used three different shades of blush, a lip liner and more like a whole bottle of foundation and powder! Every time I finish reading a make-up application explanation like that I am like "oh wow thank you soooo much for sharing all your deep knowledge of beauty secrets with us. NOT!"

Well this is not the case with Scott. He graciously offers easy to understand clear instructions regarding his application including what kind of hair his brushes are made of and creates some truly stunning very wearable looks. My only complaint about the book is the extreme use of retouching in the "after" photos. The photos themselves are beautiful, but in my opinion they are just too heavily airbrushed. The poor girls look like claymation puppets or drag queens with all of their 3D reality stripped from there beautiful faces. If you can look past some over used photoshop then this book will improve anyones make-up skills.

If you want to learn more about the art of make-up application and can look past some over use of photoshop then About Face will definitely improve your make-up skills.

Scott also has some great tutorials on his website www.scottbarnes.com.

Burberry is Beige.

2010-05-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I worked as a make-up assistant on the Burberry fashion show for London Fashion Week. I was so nervous about the event that I woke up at 6:00 am and did some yoga to calm me down. I made sure I had ample time to get there and made sure I looked the part for the job. I was 30 minutes early to the venue and it's a good thing because I was not on the list. A few phone calls later and I was walking into the backstage area where Christopher Bailey sat chatting with the head make-up artist. Was I intimidated? Um yeah, but hopefully I hid it well while my internal organs were doing the conga in my torso.

After a brief introduction, the head make-up artist pointed me to my station and I started setting up my area. Trying to act nonchalant, I think I reorganized my foundations like ten times in an attempt to hide how awkward I was feeling as I looked around the room of strangers. A few minutes later, the first assistant walked up to me and ever so kindly asked me to remove my eye make-up. In a lovely French accent she said, "Do you mind taking off your eye shadow? I am sorry, but I have been asked to ask you to remove it and you know Burberry is beige and the models will be wearing hardly any make up. So your light aqua shadow.... well... I hope that's ok. Thank you." In the moment of sheer shock I replied by nodding my head like a bobble head doll and saying "Yes, yes, of course yes. I'm sorry." As I sat wiping away my carefully applied aqua shadow I started yelling at myself in my head. "How did you not know that Burberry was beige? It's so obvious! Well that's it. You'll never work fashion week again. You've blown it." I managed to calm myself down, decided to not let it bother me and began my plan for making up for my mistake.

With naked eyelids and lips, I stood busying myself at my station as the other assistants started arriving. The ones that planted themselves near me were from Bobbi Brown and thank goodness they were really lovely. We chatted while waiting for the models to arrive. Slowly as the day went on, what started out as a good size room with two rows of what looked like plenty of table and mirror space began to fill with fabulous looking people from the fashion industry. Cameras began flashing from all directions one right after another like a light show at a concert.

Burberry was doing a live feed of the prep for the show from backstage which Carla got to watch (but don't tell her boss) from her desk in Nashville. All the backstage footage was shot in 3D for the events taking place in major cities around the world. Another faux pas of mine that day was the size of my hair. The director and camera man had to keep asking me to move out of the shot, and believe me I was trying to stay out of the way, but it was not always easy to figure out where they were shooting. 3D cameras are really weird looking. Apparently my hair, that I have been seriously growing out for the last year and half and had styled in a lovely messy wave, was too big in 3D. It totally over powered the shot even if I was in the background. Ha ha Seriously not a good beauty day for me. The size of my hair became a running joke between me and the camera man and added some lightness to the intense day.

Thirteen of the models were coming from other shows and arrived about 40 minutes before the show started. We were all aware that it was going to be madness when they arrived and had foundation and brushes in hand ready to pounce as soon as the girls walked through the doors. I worked on a beautiful Aussie girl stuck in the middle of mayhem being bumped from behind by a hair person and nudged in the side by the many people trying to squeeze into a 3 foot path. My girl was done in about 20 minutes. I got the thumbs up from the first assistant and then stepped back into an open space to observe and jump in where I was needed while staying out of the way. It was just as crazy as I thought it would be, but I loved the experience. Next time though, I will be sure and come bare faced with slicked back hair.

This is the model I did.

About Me

2010-05-19T10:23:00.000-07:00

As a professional hair and make-up artist I work with a potpourri of men and woman in a variety of circumstances. I have painted the faces of nervous brides, jet lagged models, hilarious actors and dynamic burn victims. Each one of the individuals I have worked with has something amazing to offer the camera or audience I am preparing them for. This blog is a place where you can visit to learn insider tips and tricks of the trade, get unbiased info on new products and hopefully leave feeling a little more confident about the amazing and beautiful person you already are.

If you have anything that you would like to know or want featured on the blog feel free to email me.

P.S. My #1 beauty secret is......... a smile : ). Everyone is beautiful when they smile. I know it's cheesy but it's true!

Contact Me

2009-05-18T05:50:00.000-07:00