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11:00 AM 15
Hi Bellas!

Today I called in sick. I've been having stomach issues for the past two days so this post is going to be short :(

I wanted to show you some of the goodies I've received from fellow bloggers in the last few weeks.

Look at all the NYX goodies I got! CosmeticJunkieLover sent them to me! I've never owned so much NYX. I just had about 4 items from NYX. Now I have enough to do an entire look! I'm going to do a tutorial in the next few weeks for all my NYX addicts out there :)



I won a nail care set from Mischo Beauty. Look at all she sent me! Two complete nail sets, a Cargo makeup set, and a Peacemaker lipgloss. She definitely didn't need to hook me up with all the extras, thanks girl!


I got this one from Bringing Out the Beauty. It's an eye cream. I'm planning on bringing this with me when I travel since it's tiny :)


My girl Lena works at the Bumble and Bumble salon and hooked me up with all these hair samples. I'm kind of hoarding them since I don't want to use them all, lol. I've never seen my hair so shiny from just shampoo and conditioner. It's ridiculous! Thanks girl!


May from Changing Faces by May is my girl! We chat all the time and share stories about our Makeup Artist adventures. If we were in the same city, let alone state or country I know we'd make a great team. She told me she sent me some goodies she doesn't use for her kit and I sent her a bundle too. Look what she sent me, she hooked me up!
A Bobbi Brown lipgloss palette, a Smashbox highlighter, two Makeup Forever panstick foundations (one of which matches my skin perfectly lol) an eyeshadow from Makeup Forever, a MAC mineralized trio (perfect for Indian Weddings), a loose pigment from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, and a Cargo Eyeshadow Duo.


A view spread eagle (as pink likes to say, he he) Thanks so much May!


I'm back to bed to recover. I got a lot going on this weekend including a gig tomorrow and a lunch with some fellow bloggers so I gotta get better, lol.

Have a great weekend bellas!

Atlanta Makeup Artist

10:19 AM 18

Hola Bellas!

Happy Thursday. One more day till the weekend :) I woke up this morning where my left eye is all red and puffy so I'm trying to squint as I type this lol.

So Valentines is coming up. It's on a Saturday this year too, yay! I wanted to do another collaboration with a fellow youtuber to do a look. Some of you might remember my last collaboration with MissChievous on our insect themed Halloween looks.

This new collaboration is with the beautiful and talented MsDebraMaye from youtube. She's a Filipina representing Canada. She's a relative newcomer to the youtube scene but is doing well already. I wanted to give her an exposure to my viewers to give her a subscriber boost and vice versa.

Our theme was Naughty Vs Nice looks for Valentines. I did the Naughty and she did the Nice. My objective was to do something crazy and out there. This is a sort of Kat Von D inspired/feline/rock star look.

To be honest, this was my "Screw Valentines Day" look. You know how most guys are averse to bright and funky makeup...if you have a date or don't, rock whatever makeup you want to wear! Clearly, this look is a bit on the fantasy side. If you want to rock it, go for it. If not, you can definitely tone it down.



Check out MsDebraMaye's Look!


The eyeshadows I used in this look come from my Stars Makeup Haven 96 shadow palette. Love it! Review coming soon :)


The final look!




Till next time, Ciao Bellas!

Atlanta Makeup Artist

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9:02 AM 25
Hi Bellas,
I wanted to share some pics with you of the sweet 16 makeover I did recently. First off, our birthday girl was having pictures taken for her invitations.
She had this picture as her makeup inspiration:


We discussed this picture and toned it down a bit to make it more age appropriate. In the end we went for a smokey cat eye minus the harsh lines and lashes on the bottom. We focused on making her skin smooth since like many teenagers she was facing breakout issues. After which, we added a nude lip and voila, her Kim K inspired look!
I'm really liking this picture of Kim K, would you guys be interested in seeing a tutorial?
For our birthday girl, I used:

EYES
-blacktrack fluidline-carbon e/s-vanilla e/s-smolder eye kohl
-lashes
-MAC splashproof mascara

FACE
-Cinema Secrets foundation
-MUFE camouflage palette
-Graftobian powder
-definitive sculpting powder
-housewine blush
-NARS albatross highlighter

LIPS
-stripdown lip liner
-4n lipstick

We took a few outdoor shots...

This was the "clubbing look". Ahhh to be young again :)



She was going for a flapper's look here...her party theme was Casino Royale reminiscent of the Al Capone days.

And here is the flyer for her bday party.



I remember my sweet sixteen. My two friends and I split a party and it was so pitiful, lol. My mom wouldn't let me wear anything "sexy" like I wanted...we rented a huge hall that stayed nearly emply, lol. Oh I wish I had a makeup artist for my big day!

I was also hired to do her makeup for the big party. I showed up and the place was decorated really cute! They had poker tables and real poker dealers everywhere...they had lights and a videographer...casino decor everywhere. For her entertainment, she had a male dance team perform and the rapper "Shawy Lo". I didn't stay for that part.

She wanted the same look, smokey eyes and nude lips. She didn't want it as bold as the pictures so I toned it down and added some MAC reflects pearl glitter to make it more fun.



Till next time, Ciao bellas!

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9:18 AM 15
Hi Bellas,

I've received a bunch of requests to do a highlighting and contouring video so I decided to bust one out. I tried to be super thorough and even planned it out on paper before I filmed. The video is a bit long so you may want to use my video highlights section if you want to skip around.

Contouring and highlighting is a process which slims/deemphasizes certain areas of your face that you'd like to hide (i.e. a double chin, a wide nose, a large forehead). It's pretty much plastic surgery without the surgery. One often pairs it with highlighting where you accentuate certain features of your face (i.e. the cheekbones, bridge of nose, chin, browbone). In order to contour you typically darken areas of the face where the shadows naturally hit. It is the opposite for highlighting, where you lighten areas where the light naturally hits.

You can pretty use anything you want to contour. Powders, foundations, creams, blush...they can all work. Try to make sure that they are 2-3 shades darker than your skin tone and don't have too much of a reddish tint to them.


Here are some popular contour tools:
-MAC mineralized skinfinish natural
-MUFE compact modeler
-NYX blush in taupe
-MAC blush in emote
-MAC sculpt and shape duos
-bronzers
-darker foundation
-brown toned blushes

For highlighting, you can go the shimmery or matte route. I prefer shimmer strictly on my cheeks and go matte everywhere else.

Here are some popular highlighting tools:


-NARS albatross highlighter
-mineralized skinfinishes
-MAC shaping powders
-bobbi brown shimmer bricks
-lighter foundations
-highlighting powders

Check out my video for a super thorough tutorial!

Check out my video highlights to help you navigate the video:
0:40 I show you various products you can use for Contouring Tools
2:20 Take a look at several options for Highlighting Products
3:38 Brushes for Highlight and Contouring
5:09 How to Contour – Watch me shape my face (using the 3 or E method) with MAC sculpting powder
8:25 How to contour your nose
10:33 What I’m Wearing!
11:45 How to Mask a Double Chin
12:14 How to minimize a large forehead
12:37 How to highlight the high plans of your face
13:35 Make those cheekbones pop!
14:32 Highlighting the bridge of your nose
15:14 Make your lips bigger Angelina Jolie Style
15:30 Where to place your blush

Here is the final product, sculpted and shaped! I actually wore this look for my anniversary dinner with the BF.

Close up of the eye makeup. I wore pure what chromaline as a base, gesso eyeshadow, bright sunshine eyeshadow, and blue calm eyeshadow, all from MAC.



Our yummy anniversary dinner.


Happy Anniversary Babe!

Till next time, Ciao Bellas!

9:21 AM 16
Hi Bellas,

How was your weekend? Mine was exhausting. I had two big gigs Friday and Saturday that tuckered me out! I'll post pics soon! I was soooo close to calling in sick to work this morning but I toughed it out, lol. Back to the post!

A few weeks ago, I did a boudoir makeover for a client. I've done a post on this in the past, but just to recap I'll explain the background on a Boudoir Shoot. These days, the latest trend is for brides to give their fiancees sexy pictures as a wedding present. They usually hire a makeup artist, a photographer, and then a nice hotel room to take the pics.


My client actually found me on google and has been a faithful reader ever since! She was nervous that she wouldn't be able to pull off a smokey look even though she absolutely loves the Kim Kardashian look. Another concern of hers was her undereye circles. I knew we could fix that right away. It's amazing how different you look once the undereye circles are gone.


When you work with a client, you have to make sure you can appropriately guide them on what looks best, but also find a balance in making sure they like it as well. For instance, after applying the lipcolor, the client was a little overwhelmed because she wasn't used to darker lips. I easily solved the problem by removing the lipliner but keeping the same colors. Problem solved! Another trick I used on this makeover was shaping the eyebrows without tweezing them. The client had just gotten her eyebrows threaded, but not to her liking. I helped her out a bit by using cream concealer to even them and thin them out a bit. Just apply the concealer where you want to hide excess hair and it looks like you just had your eyebrows done!



Per my client's request, I'm only going to show the after picture :)







Here's What I Used (All MAC unless otherwise stated):



FACE
-cinema secrets foundation
-MUFE camouflage palette #5
-graftobian powder
-shadester sculpting powder
-NARS lovejoy blush
-NARS albatross highlighter


EYES
-bare canvas paint
-soot e/s (pro color on crease)
-carbon e/s (outer v)
-smoke and diamonds e/s (inner lid)
-vanilla e/s (highlight)
-Revlon colorstay liquid liner in blackest black
-smolder eye kohl
-Ardell wispies



LIPS
-boss brown pro longwear


We're going to be doing the bridal consultation in the next few weeks. I'm excited, I love doing Arabic style makeup, yay!

Mina if you're reading, hey girl!
Till next time, Ciao Bellas!


Atlanta Makeup Artist

9:00 AM 15
Hi Bellas,

Thank goodness it's Friday! This weekend I'm doing another makeup bar so hopefully i'll get lots of good pictures for you guys. Makeup bars are especially challenging because you have to churn out cute makeup quick, in 20 minutes if you can.

Meanwhile, I wanted to show you another shoot I did a little while ago. This is the second installment of the shoot I did with a model I worked with a few weeks ago. This was the Avant Guard segment of the shoot.


Funky outfit right? Would you believe that her dress is made of simply of trash bags stuffed with tissue paper and bound with tape and binder clips? Her "head piece" is actually a combination of two black panties, lol. The stylist definitely had a vision and it turned out awesome. I helped him to form and shape the dress and head piece. It was so much fun!


This is definitely an edgy look that I'm loving. The makeup is the same, smokey eyes and nude lips.








Till next time, Ciao Bellas!


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9:00 AM 11
Hi Bellas,

I purchased my BBR items the day it opened because I was looking forward to this collection. Overall, I would say thumbs up! The colors are super wearable and pretty. Being a MAC collector, I definitely wanted to pick up the 3 msfs and two of the brushes. Besides that, I wanted to pick up what I would actually wear.







In terms of eyeshadows, I picked up Henna, 100 Strokes, Flip, and Pincurl.



I skipped on a bunch of them because there were definitely some dupes. I also already had Femme Fi from the Neo Sci Fi.

In terms of lipsticks and lipglasses, again I got ones that I thought I'd actually use. I'm loving the combo of marquise d lipstick with live and dye lipglass.


I also purchased Strawberry Blond lipglass, Red Devin Lipglass, Soft Wave Lipglass, Pincurl Eyeshadow, and Brunette MSF but I don't know what I did with the pics!

I decided to do a more earth toned look since I've been doing a lot of bright colors lately. It's very wearable. If you don't have the colors I used, you could use sumptuous olive/mink & sable, ricepaper/gorgeous gold, and sketch.

Check out my tutorial! Sorry about the light and dark light changes, my camera was acting up.







Here's What I Used (All MAC unless otherwise stated):

FACE
-umm don't remember foundation and primer, usual face stuff
-bobbi brown dark peach corrector
-bobbi brown beige concealer
-blond msf (highlight)
-brunette msf (blush)

EYES
-Anastasia brow wiz
-pure white chromaline
-henna e/s
-100 strokes e/s
-flip e/s
-raven kohl power pencil
-lashes
-blacktrack fluidline
-smashbox mascara

lips
-marquise d lipstick
-live and dye lipglass

Till next time, Ciao Bellas!

Atlanta Makeup Artist
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12:14 PM 4
Hi Bellas,
After watching my regular fav YouTubers XSparkage and Queen of Blending, I was turned onto a new mineral makeup company that just seemed right up my alley. This company is called Lime Crime Cosmetics. The owner Xenia has a popular blog where she has the most amazing pictures of herself modeling her makeup and her eclectic style. I was hooked once I saw how she created such dramatic looks. She also has a great wardrobe and sense of fashion.
Check out her blog here: Doe Deere Blogazine
Picture courtesy of www.limecrimemakeup.com
Here is her website: Lime Crime Makeup
As you can see, the whole idea of this company is super bright, fun makeup. The colors are absolutely amazing. The owner definitely plays into the fantasy aspect of makeup. The pigments all have fun names and a little story behind them.

For example, one of the most beautiful shades in my opinion is Mermaid. This is what the website has to say about it:
The mermaid lived in a creek behind the levee. Each night, when the village lights languished and people were fast asleep, she climbed on top a big rock and sang songs of faeries and unicorns, moonlight dancing on her shiny, green tail.

'Mermaid' by Lime Crime is a lovely blue-green with gorgeous sheen. Can be applied wet of dry - we recommend wetting your brush for extra-dramatic

It was very difficult for me to choose colors since they were all gorgeous, but I ended up picking my favs. They are: Mystique Blue, Mermaid, and Empress.
Swatches done dry without a base.


Here's a pic of a look I created using the shadows. As you can, they're super pigmented! I tried filming a tutorial but I accidentally poked my eye and it was a waterfest. But you can see the final look.


Here are the price and product stats: $12 for 1g of product in a decorative 5 gram jar

This is a great new company out there, definitely check them out! They also have brushes, an amazing primer, and other face products.
On a side note:
I've chosen 5 winners for the Poupourri give-away. At random, they are:
Shana
Tahnee
bookmouse99
lena0313
LadyJane

You have 24 hours to email me your name and address and i'll mail you your product this week. Thanks for participating!

Till next time, Ciao Bellas!

9:22 AM 73
Hi Bellas,

This post isn't exactly makeup related, but I wanted to share with you guys a product that I've come across and I find absolutely amazing!

Introducing...Poo-Pourri! Funny title huh? The name says it all...it's basically a deodorizer spray for when you go number 2. Unlike most air fresheners, you spray Poo-Pourri before you "take a seat". Spray 4-6 squirts directly into the toilet bowl water beforehand, and voila! No fumes are emitted during the process. Instead, you're left with a citrus fresh blend of Lemon-grass, Bergamot, Grapefruit and other natural essential oils that leave the bathroom smelling clean and fresh!




I created my own focus group for testing out this product including: the BF, my bro, my bestie Sai, her BF and myself. After getting back feedback, it worked on all of us - girls and guys alike. My bestie's BF who's a PHD student at Georgia Tech explained that the milky liquid coats the toilet water to trap the methane gases. Makes sense right?

Another benefit of this product is that the manufacturer gave it ultra cute packaging. You can stick it in your bathroom and not worry about it looking odd or out of place.

I love this product so much I gave it out as a stocking stuffer to my friends and family. It's such a cute idea...I mean everyone has a use for it.

I'm going to give away 5 travel sized versions of Poo-Pourri to stick in your purse for when you're on the go. This is perfect for bringing with you to the office or random public restrooms...it's brilliant! No more fear of causing embarassing bathroom blunders.




Check them out at http://www.poopourri.net/. They offer a 30 day absolute money back guarantee if this product doesn't work for you. They also offer other versions of the spray including the "Royal Flush" which is designed in a more masculine container for the hubbies out there. Other scents and gift packages are also available on the website.



Leave a comment and I'll pick 5 of you at random to receive the spray. I'll announce the winners tomorrow!

Till next time, Ciao Bellas!
***Pictures from http://www.poopourri.net/

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4:11 AM 7
Hi Bellas,

Happy MLK today! It's nice to have a day off. I had an exhausting weekend. I had two great makeup gigs that I'll share with you soon. One includes a celebrity photographer who has shot with artists like Jay Z, Prince, Allan Iverson and more! I also did a huge sweet 16 party, it was definitely super sweet 16 style. Stay tuned for more!

Meanwhile, with inauguration tomorrow, I thought it would be appropriate to focus on our First Lady Elect. Many have stated the she is the next style icon. Never has their been such an exemplary source of style in the White House since the era of Jackie O.




Michelle Obama is known for her subtle and polished look. Her makeup, hair, and clothing is always on point. The focus on her makeup is keeping your skin looking great and going for a natural yet glamorous style. Her makeup to me looks very Bobbi Brown. I made a video to show some pics and tips for Michelle Obama's look.

A few of the video highlights for your viewing pleasure:

Pictures of Michelle Obama's Makeup

Step 1: The basis to all great makeup -great skin

Step 2: Make great skin look even greater - foundation

Step 3: An essential key to the look - arched eyebrows

Step 4: Simple and easy eyeshadow

Step 5: Make those cheekbones pop - blush

Step 6: Perfect that pout - lips

Step 7: Remember to smile!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's giveaway!

Atlanta Makeup Artist
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9:00 AM 36
Hi Bellas!

Happy Friday Bellas! Any big plans? I'm going out tonight with my man to celebrate our anniversary. We're doing dinner at our favorite seafood restaurant and ordering the $90 King Platter, woohoo! We did that for our anniversary last year so you'll probably see similar pics, lol. Since our anniversary is so close to x-mas and valentines day, we like to keep it simple and spend money on going out together instead of gifts. Any suggestions for a makeup look?

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but my laptop had been broken for the last two weeks. Fortunately, my boyfriend's old school laptop was working and I had saved a lot of posts on blogger so i've been able to function okay. On my computer, I had some pics from New Years that I wanted to share with you.


As I mentioned before, I was inspired by MACNC40 to do my New Year's Look. She did an icy blue look which I loved! I didn't do it exactly like hers but I pretty much used the exact same products.


Close up eye shot!



Shot before dinner


Another one for yah


My group of friends headed out to a Tapas Restaurant and bar before the New Year's countdown. It was a really chic and trendy new restaurant and we got our grub on!

Group shot! Don't you love the ethnic diversity going on?

Customary couple's shot :)

Later on, we went home and changed and met up at my bestie's house to ring in the countdown. Here's me and the boo again :) This is prior to drinks and guitar hero and then me falling asleep while everyone played, lol.



That's all for now folks! Till next time, Ciao bellas!



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