The Grass is Always Blue-er

It's definitely been a while since I've posted, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been doing anything!  The first thing that I did since my last post was: I did make-up on the pilot of a web series called Crossgene.

After that I returned home to Louisville for a month, then came back to Los Angeles.  Not wanting to do an unpaid internship in a city where I had no support, I decided to take the amazing opportunity of becoming a camp counselor in the San Bernardino Mountains.  At Pali Adventures I taught kids how to sew, and for a couple of days I got to take over the make-up classes, too!  A few times a week we all had the excuse to dress crazy, which is why I found myself dressed as some sort of "tribal" person, a Harajuku girl, and (yet again) a man.  The first two were for the runway show that the Fashion Specialty put on.  The third was for Miss Pali, which is basically a drag pageant  show where the boy counselors dress as women.  What you see here, however, is the first ever Mr. and Miss Pali, in which the girl counselors also dressed as men.  We got third place!  That summer I had a really great time, and met some amazing people (I learned how great Australians are).

                      

While at camp I realized that it wasn't my time in the city of angels, so I moved back to my old Kentucky home far away.

When I moved back to Louisville I got a job as fast as lightening.  I've been living the make-up counter life at Dillard's Greentree.  I work at Elizabeth Arden, which is a really great company (which unfortunately most young people have never heard of).  There are some really fun facts about Elizabeth Arden that people forget about.  For instance, she was the first woman to own a horse to win the Kentucky Derby.  She was also the first woman featured on the cover of Time magazine!  In World War II and even later, women in the Marines had to wear lipstick that matched the red cord on their hat, and Elizabeth Arden was commissioned to design this lipstick called Montezuma Red.  So next time you think about Rosy the Riveter's red lips, realize that Elizabeth Arden had a part in that!

So that's just a brief catch up!

Fun Tip:
When you buy mascara, take an extra applicator with you (the disposable kind).  They're really great as eyelash combs when your mascara clumps.

Special Effects

Over the last couple of weeks I've been in my first special effects class, and it's been a blast.  It's a lot different from all of the beautification we've done before now.

The most fun I've had so far is the beard work.  It was difficult to learn, but it's really worth the final effect.

Here is what my class came up with for our beard finals.  I am the lumber jack, and I made Paul McCartney.

We also did old age makeup.  Here is a picture of a woman that I aged about ten years with stretch and stipple (latex).

We've also done vinyl bald caps.  We're going to learn how to make our own bald cap molds out of latex soon, and I'm hoping for better results for that.  I did get a great photo of my friend, Lauren Bencomo, though.

I found out that my head is crooked, so I hopefully won't be shaving my head anytime soon.

Right now we're working on prosthetics, and I don't have any good pictures of that yet.  When I do, I'll put them up!

Hair!

This past three weeks I learned a lot about styling hair.  And I must say, it feels really good to be able to do both hair and make-up.

First we had to work on doll heads, which was fun.  I'm glad we got to practice on those first.  If we didn't, we probably would have burned each other's faces off with Marcel curling irons.  For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, you're not missing out on much.  Marcel irons are like regular curling irons, except there is no spring in them.  So instead of pushing down on the handle prong, you pull it up.  It's really difficult (and therefore dangerous), and I don't think it proves much different than a spring-loaded curling iron.  However, we had to use them.

I won't put my photos in order of when I did them, but rather in the order of period that the hairstyles come from.

1920's: Finger Waves

Here is where we left them outside to dry.

1940's: Victory Rolls

1940's Up-Do

You may have seen something similar on  Lucille Ball.

1960's: Beehive and Bouffant

This is what my partner and I did for our final project.

1970's: Afro

Even though afros were around way before the 70's, they were really popular in America in the 70's. 

First I wrapped sections of hair in a figure-8 around hair pins.

Then I flat ironed those pieces and took out the hair pins.

 Then I brushed it out.

She crimped my hair.  We were really excited, since it was my first time being crimped and her first time being afro-ed.

Lots of girls in my class got afros.

Present: Wedding Party

Left is the bride, middle is the bridesmaid, and right is the mother.

Present: Half Up

Braids

We spent an entire day doing braids.  

Since I already knew how to braid, I got to move on to fancy braids.

Future?

This was our runway project.

Now that I know how to do hair and make-up, and how to bring the two together, I'm ready for my next class: Portfolio.  In this class we get to make professional photos for our portfolio.  We get a real model and photographer.  Can't wait!

Last of Beauty 101

My first class if finally finished!  We learned a lot, and we had fun, but I'm ready to move on.  

These are the other things that we did in class that I thought were blog-worthy.

This day we picked the looks that we wanted done on ourselves.  Kelsey, my partner wanted a smokey eye, which I really needed practice at.

The next assignment, Brides, gave me more practice at smokey eye.  I think I've finally mastered it.  For this assignment, we also had a say on what was done to us.  We made up an imaginary wedding, and had our make-up artist bring our dreams to life (on our face).

On this day, we did make-up for black and white print/film.  I made my model 1930's, and my make-up artist was inspired by Audrey Hepburn. 

These next couple of looks were film/character assignments.  Here is a musician, a Twilight vampire, and Snow White.  Guess which is which.

Now I'm in Beauty 201, which is a hair class.  We're working on doll heads with real human hair for the first couple of days.  Then we can work on each other.  Here is a photo of my first blow dry with a barrel  hairbrush.  Doesn't she look like Jackie Kennedy? (Actually, she kind of looks like Brenda from Six Feet Under.)

Stay tuned for some more awesome hairstyles!

Welcome to Burbank

So I've been going to the Make-Up Designory (MUD) for about three weeks now, and I think I'm about ready to post.  I've learned a lot so far.  I've learned the importance of primer in cream foundation, how to make lips look bigger and happier, and what if feels like to have your face mauled every day.  (The first week my skin was really dry and red, but after I put eczema cream on it and started using primer in my foundation it healed.)  In class we've tried different looks like Skin Care Ad, Beach Look, Pin-Up, Marylin Monroe, and Victorias Secret.  The pictures I put on here are of me and my models.  We're paired with partners, so my models did my make-up.  The Marylin one is of my whole class.

Skin Care Ad:

 Beach Look:

 Marylin Monroe:

 Pin-Up:

 Victorias Secret:

Next week we're learning how to airbrush, so tune in next time for me with a tan (scary!).