Make Up Through the Decades - in Details

Hi Blushers,

Some asked me how is it possible that I transformed 1 face into 7 different looks. Well, here are the tricks:

Presenting the model for the day. All ready to be made up. Here goes:

1940 is known for its simplicity in make up, letting the natural beauty shines thru. It's still very groomed though, from the heavy groomed eyebrows to the stylised hairdo. Here, we were channeling Veronica Lake, with her famous peek a bo hairstyle. I reckon Dita Von Teese does a very very good 1940 impression. Good on you Dita! To achieve this look, you need to let the lips do the talking, but not any red lipstick, a reddish brown matte red lipstick is recommended. no visible blush or heavy contouring, simple eye makeup, a bit of mascara and clean complexion.

The 1950s is very well known for its sexy marylin monroe-ish make up, with downturn eyeliner and lashes and pointy eyebrow shapes. and don't forget the all important RED LIPSTICK! *beauty spot is optional..

here I changed the shape of her eyebrows and making it curvier and thicker. The eyeliner although heavy, was not in the shape of an obvious cat eye. Demure and sexy almond shape eyeliner was drawn while false lashes was glued on the outer part of her eyes, and slightly pressed down to add more drama to that sultry look. Red Glossy lipstick was overdrawn from her real lips to make it more supple and full. Black liner was used to draw the beauty mark.

1960.. who can forget the sultry look of smoky eyes and cat eyes? i would have to thank Brigitte Bardot to pave the way for us sexy females out there. Heavy smoky eyes technique is carefully drawn and blended to both her eyes. I think I layered around triple false lashes to her already long lashes! To open up the eyes even more to make it more innocent, false lashes was used on her lower lashes with heavy mascara. I contoured her cheekbones and found the palest colour of nude lipstick. In fact, I mixed a little bit of concealer to make it paler. Her eyebrows was thinned using concealer pencil.

the 1970s iconic figure here is (picture her with a red bikini)... Farah Fawcetttt.. bronze, healthy and really happy happy sporty woman. To achieve that bronze healthy glow, I used lots of shimmery products, powders and blush. Her eyes are made simple because the focus here is on the glowing skin.

1980. lace. too much colours. over the top accessories. and curly wurly big hairdo. but late 1980 was the comeback of our most iconic woman to date; Madonna and her famous Jean Paul Gaultier pointy bra. Seriously, i even had nightmares relating to those bras (LOL). Anywho, to recreate the famous Madonna look, you need a heavy dose of mascara and eyebrow pencil. Yes, thick, roundish eyebrows was the trend at that moment. Heavy blush, heavy contour and of course, don't forget that loud Red Lipstick!

1990 was the era of the supermodels.. linda, cindy, elle, naomi and .. Claudia. With her bleached brows, heavy mascara, smoky eyes and pale pale lips, she really was the brigitte of that era. I used concealer and slowly brush her eyebrows to 'bleach' them. The smoky eyes was in, but unlike the 1960, the eyes was less garrish, less heavy, less 'racoon-ish'. It was the modern version of smoky eyes, with just the right amount of blending and heavy heavy mascara to complete the look. Nude lipstick with a hint of gloss was used to personify the word 'sexy modern'.

and finally our millenium.. the make up is endless, uncategorised and free spirited.

Agyness Deyn is someone who has that new, modern look, with her straight eyebrows, androgynous hair and fashion.Make up for 2000 and above? the best (and the shocking) is yet to come.. we haven't even touched Lady Gaga yet.. :D

Carefully brush and draw the eyebrows to be straight with no obvious curve. The eyeshadows are drawn with a slightly cat eye, pointy edge, because after all, it's supposed to be edgy. Bronze, silver and gold was the colour I chose and mix together. Contour the face with highlight and shading, very little blush and find the softest colour of pink for her lips. Edgy meets Feminine :)

All the makeup used are from Make Up For Ever.

False Lashes are mostly Elisse and Bilqis.

Any question just drop a line!

Love,

A

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Before and After

The thing that I love most about Make Up is how it can instantly transform someone into.. well.. anyone.

People asked me; What's the secret to really transform someone? What should be done to make people gasp when our client walks into the room?

After much thoughts, I think my answer would be this:

"Do your corrections correctly."

My term of 'correction' is quite broad. I'm referring to every kinds of correction techniques that you can probably think of; eye, nose, face, eyebrows, lips corrections. Do those right, you're on your way to getting the power of transformation.

Here are some examples of before and after that I've done. Notice that I used the term 'Before and After' and not 'Make Over'. Simply because some people need to be made over, and some need to be made under (hello? Snooki, I'm talking to you..!)

Love,

A

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Another works in the .. works.. :)

Elle Magazine - Aqua Rouge by Make Up For Ever Advertorial

 Elle Magazine - Aqua brows

Love,

A

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Bat your lashes, and lash out

Dear blushers,

I'd like to fill you in on a little secret I have. I have this obsession that I don't think my husband even knows!
I am obsessed with....

Fake Eyelashes

Really. When I say obsessed, I really mean obsessed. Instead of having just enough, my idea of false eyelashes is pretty much the same as having a pair of shoes. You can NEVER have enough of it!

Here's something that will make you agree how obsessed I am with the lashes. Those are just SOME of my lashes. I still have boxes of lashes safely stacked in my secret compartments. :D  Anyway, now let's talk more about the lashes and less about my obsession...! We're definitely blessed to be living in this time. There are so many kinds of lashes out there:

There are interesting fashion lashes...

'normal' pretty lashes...

must-have bridal lashes and many more..

Did you know, false eyelashes was first invented by the American film director D.W. Griffith while he was making his 1916 epic, "Intolerance"? Griffith wanted his actress Seena Owen to have lashes that graced her cheeks, to make her eyes shine larger than life. A wigmaker wove human hair through fine gauze, which was then gummed to Owen's eyelids. As the procedure was rather expensive (and tedious), only famous people could afford it. So not much awareness there then.

And then, in 2004, a breakthrough in material production. False lashes owed its current popularity status to several Asian countries known to the world by their search for beauty. Those countries are none other than Korea and Japan, who introduced the single lash application technique, and individual lashes technique, hence creating an easier application. Not only that, because of the technique, we can now afford to have a more natural, fuller, thicker (and SEXIER) lashes.

False lashes are now produced using either with human hair, sythetic materials or a combination of both, and is applied with eyelash glue. There are even permament lashes, also known as eyelash extensions, that are available for those who would like to wear the lashes for a longer period of time (although, after experiencing what it felt like, I wouldn't recommend it. The glue stings! And when your real lashes naturally fall out, it carries a whole lot of the fake lashes too, leaving you with bald spots. Not pretty.)

Some of the beautiful false lashes that I often used on my models are the ones that are proudly produced right here in Indonesia. (Did you also know that Indonesia is one of the largest manufacturers of false lashes, supplying its lashes all across the world? *clap clap*)

However, there are some lashes that really just took my breath away..

Paperself lashes are designed and produced by PAPERSELF, who was launched in 2009 by London based designer Chunwei Liao. It sole purpose was to unite artists, designers and manufacturers from East to West, challenging conventions of product design.. and beauty. Their lashes are simply beautiful.

Inspired by the art of Chinese paper-cutting, Paperself eyelashes blend an element of traditional culture with contemporary design. Intricately cut and delicately pretty, they are now available in 11 styles.

Another one that I have to give my wholesome credit to is Koji  - Dolly Wink false lashes. It is designed by the very famous Japanese gyaru doll-faced Tsubasa Masuwaka. I was pretty skeptical at first. I mean, any celebrities can just lend their name to any products and claimed to be super nice right? Oh man was I wrong.. the lashes are soo sooo gorgeous, and really, you can pretty much stop any taxi with those lashes. It doesn't make you look like a drag queen too.. that's a plus point there.

I promise to make a special review on these lashes, but just in case you're curious to get your hands on these Dolly Wink lashes, make your way to Sogo or Debenham, or Guardian (not all Guardian stocked them though..) Highly recommended!

 Here are some illustrations on how eyelashes (when done properly) can enhance your eyes even more:

 This model, like many Asians, has monolids. With proper use of false lashes, it helped create double eyelid for both of her eyes, making her eyes appear larger.

This beautiful model is my every supportive mom. Volunteering (forced actually :D) herself to become one of my victims, she wore a stagerring 4 layer of false lashes, one on top of the other in each eye. What a trooper. Can you see how it helped to 'lift' sagging eyelids? Love you mom!

Promise to keep my promise for the eyelashes review..!

Till then, Love,
A

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Works works works..

Elle

Female

 

Highend Teen

Highend Teen

 Love,

A

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Makeup Through the Decades

I was very blessed to be given the opportunity to have my take on how I see make up through the years. This was done for Fashion TV magazine Indonesia, the pearl edition. Thanks to the super talented stylist that further realised the vision. The shots turned out amazing!

1 model

7 looks

here we go..

Love,

A

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My First Make Up Guru

Dear Blushers,
Today I wanna tell you guys about my first ever Make Up guru. He's the first person to really inspire me about make up, even brought out the curiosity and passion to know and learn more about it. I can honestly say that if I didn't know about him, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing right now. Seriously. He is that influential on me. And till this very day, would you believe that I still flip through his books like my beauty bible?
So, who is he? He is none other than ... Kevyn Aucoin!

A LOT can be said about Kevyn, and it would take me forever (and hundreds of blog pages) to just gush how awesome his works are. I believe he was and is the first Celebrity Make Up Artist, a celebrity by his own right. I realise I'm not very good in summarising his life, so I took this lovely excerpt of Kevyn from Lisa Eldridge website (http://www.lisaeldridge.com):

"Kevyn became interested in make-up at a very young age. As a young, obviously gay, flamboyant boy with a passion for make-up, growing up in Louisiana in the 60’s and 70’s was extremely difficult but despite being relentlessly teased and bullied he stuck to his dream of becoming a make-up artist.

In 1982 he moved to New York where he ambitiously perused his career. Initially working for free with up-and-coming models and photographers, he was discovered by Vogue and championed by their then beauty editor Andrea Quinn Robinson. For the next year and half, he worked closely with legendary photographers Steven Meisel and Irving Penn before shooting his first Vogue cover in 1986 with Cindy Crawford – over the next three years, he did the make-up for 18 more!

Kevyn had a legion of celebrity fans from Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Sharon Stone even the late Audrey Hepburn.

He was a real style leader and truly innovative. His talent was quickly recognised by Revlon, who hired him in 1993 (aged just 21!) to be the Creative Director of their new prestige make-up line Ultima II. With them, he developed a make-up line called The New Nakeds (later renamed The Nakeds), which broke all of the trends for cosmetic brands at the time as it incorporated make-up for women of all skin tones. He also used a variety of neutral, matte, tones in his face, eye and lip products that went against the best-selling vivid colours of the time but that followed his belief that make-up should be a tool in helping people to discover their natural beauty. Kevin led the way for brands like Bobbi Brown and Laura Mercier, which were also built on this aesthetic.

In a way his most enduring legacy to the world of make up was creating the original ‘Nude’ Look, and particularly his take on a look that I like to call ‘Heavy Natural’. Using neutral tones of mainly matte texture he would sculpt, define, highlight, shape and tone a face, minimizing and maximizing features like no one before him (or since!). It was a look, which has become synonymous with the late 80’s early 90’s and although he moved on from this style later in the 1990’s I think most of us will always remember and admire him for that particular vision of beauty.

Tragically, Kevyn passed away in 2002, not long after he finished working on his own brand, Kevyn Aucoin Beauty, but his legacy definitely lives on."

Such a loss for the world, to lose someone with an exceptional talent in beauty. Whether you are an aspiring Make Up Artist, an Established Make Up Artist, or just someone who likes make up, I really urge you to get his books and be truly inspired.

This is his first ground breaking book, that holds a very special place in my heart.

followed by his next inspiring follow up books

now do you believe me when I said I've learned my contouring techniques from a young age too? :D



Kevyn, you are indeed deseved to be called a Guru.


Love,
A

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