I'm going to NYFW! How did this happen?

I made an announcement last night via facebook, twitter, and instagram that I will be assisting two amazing, celebrity makeup artists next week at Mercedes Benz - New York Fashion Week. I instantly started getting inbox and text messages asking me, "HOW?"

Well, I'll tell you how!

I have to go all the way back to the beginning of my career to explain step by step how this happened.

This is a REAL Throwback Thursday.

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This all started with this drawing I sketched in 2004.

I was attending Harold Washington College between 2002-2005. I drew a model I saw in Elle Magazine using my chalk pastels, my fingers, and an ink pen. Since I was 3 years old, I have always drawn models I saw in magazines, random faces, eyes, makeup, lips; I literally had no idea I was making face charts and preparing myself for my future.

I was a BROKE college student and I needed money to support myself. I stepped up to Macy*s , The Body Shop , and other retail places to interview for a sales associate position.

I had no resume, no experience, nothing: All I had was my ability to draw.

The management looked at me like I was crazy for only showing them my drawings, but they had faith that I could do makeup on customers, so The Body Shop hired me on the spot in August 2004.



Step 1: Discover your passion

This was when I first discovered my passion for makeup.

This was where I met a lot of amazing people like:

Vivienne, Jonilyn, Romney, Lizi, Yesenia, Jasmine, Brittany, Ryan, Jordan, Justyn, Crystal, Anna, Shawn, Katie, Edith, Danielle, Vera, Joaquin, Cleo, and last but NOT least my boss for 5 years, Ioana.

Each and every one of these people allowed me to experiment on their faces, or taught me something new, or we partied together, had fun together, laughed together, cried together. They all helped mold me into the woman I am today. I don't talk to every single person every day, but I think about all of them all the time. They don't realize how much of an impact they each had on me for my life.

To each and every one of my Body Shop crew: I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU



I wanted to learn about makeup as much as possible, so I signed up for school at Makeup First LLC in 2007.

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Step 2: Educate Yourself

It was here I learned from artists Jill Glaser and Lani Swasko about amazing makeup artists like Eve Pearl, James Vincent, Maurice Stein, Kevin James Bennett, and amazing products like Make Up For Ever and Cinema Secrets. It was here where I learned how to do theatrical makeup, makeup for film and media, clinical makeup, basic hair styling, airbrush makeup and agencies within the Midwest. School is not for every artist, but it helped me get more focused on what I should and shouldn't do for my career.

To Jill Glaser and Makeup First LLC: I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU

Once I graduated with my Makeup Artistry certificate, it led me to create my first website and sign up for Facebook in 2007.

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Step 3: Network

Through facebook, my little world of makeup grew into a major passion. I started networking with hair stylists, makeup artists, photographers, and any one related to fashion. This is where I met the young fashion photographer around 2008 from Tanzania, Africa: Nuru Kimondo.

Nuru is an extremely gifted young woman! I met her when she was just starting out, she was 16 at the time. We started doing photo shoots together on a weekly basis, we would hang out together all the time, traveled to New York together, we became really close friends.

To Nuru Kimondo: I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU

On one of our last photo shoots together, I met hair stylist Dee Desalu.

Dee is absolutely amazing and she wowed me with her hair skills. Dee is super sweet, talented and amazing at hair styling. Dee is a true hair artist!

We always kept in touch and sent each other work from time to time. Dee always kept me up to date on fashion, events, networking, how to make a perfect curl and things I never knew about with hair!

Dee Desalu: I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU

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I met makeup artist Nicole Rogers via facebook.

Nicole was the first makeup artist I ever assisted on set, I reached out to her casting call for assistance and she brought me on board for a film set. I thought I knew what I was doing, but I didn't. Nicole put me in check REAL quick and told me what to do and what not to do with assisting another artist. If it weren't for her, I would have easily been a hot mess in my career.

To Nicole Rogers: I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU

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Step 4: Maintain Industry Relationships

One day, out the blue, Dee tagged me and a few other mua's to a post on facebook about a makeup artist looking for assistants for The Makeup Show.

It was celebrity makeup artist: AJ Crimson.

I honestly did not think AJ would reach back out to me, or answer my email, or even bother to read my message but in less than five minutes, AJ called me and asked, "Are you available?"

I said, "YEEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!!"

So myself, DeCarr, George, and Sarah were able to assist AJ for the launch of his makeup line.

AJ Crimson: I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU

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Step 5: Find A Mentor

In June 2012, I was working with photographer Escalante on a weekly basis. I reached out to him and a lot of makeup artists and photographers within the industry just asking for help in 2010. The only person that reached back out to me was Escalante.



Escalante has been a fashion photographer for the past 25 years, so he knows all the ins and outs of the fashion industry from the United States to Europe. Escalante helped me sharpen my skills, fine tune my lines, quicken my pace with makeup, connected me to my first agency: The Rock Agency, and really helped me become an all around better makeup artist. He pushed me to my limits and encouraged me to do hair styling which I never thought in a million years I would ever do. He also encouraged me to travel and market myself outside of Chicago. Because of him, I dropped a lot of fears and doubts I had within myself and worked harder than ever before. I made my first trip to Los Angeles to visit my family, but little did I know I would also be signing with an amazing artists agency from a referral through AJ Crimson:

Black Board Group

To Escalante: I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU

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Step 6: Take Risks

When I first signed with Black Board, they told me I needed better models, better photographers, better everything in order to get better jobs; that's when Jennifer Avello and I started working together more often. I started working with Jennifer in 2010.

 Jennifer and I took risks together, experimented, completely changed our portfolios, we worked to exhaustion to try to make our books more to our liking. We were getting so frustrated with people telling us to tone down our work, and telling us, "Your work is not commercial enough." Or, "It's not edgy enough" or , "It's not good enough."

After a while, we said, "Fuck the agencies!" and we allowed our creative juices to flow when we worked together. We did whatever we wanted to do and our skills grew stronger together.
Jennifer Avello is absolutely amazing.

It wasn't until we did this photo shoot for Tantalum Magazine together, with stylist Marta of Factor Artists, that Black Board Group was finally excited about my work.

This was when I got the message on August 27th, 2013 simply asking,

"Are you available September 4th for fashion week?"

To Jennifer Avello: I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU
 

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Today was when I realized everything and every person in life is for a season and a reason:

- My drawing skills led me to employment at The Body Shop >

- which led me to  > school

- which led me to  > social media

- which led me to  > amazing and talented people that I networked with

- which led me to  > referrals
- which led me to  > fashion week

This was NOT an over night process.
Your journey will be completely different than mine, but just remember:
Who you meet today could be the key to your dreams coming true tomorrow.

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It makes me sad that I'm not able to talk to all these people every day, but I understand now more than ever that they were all in my life for seasons and reasons that I can only explain is God's doing. I have been working, and planning, and editing, and deleting, and second guessing, and going broke, and messing up my career from the beginning, but it was ALL to prepare me for next week, and for the rest of my career.

So right now, if you are going through a crazy time period in your life, or if things are not panning out the way you hoped, or things are not as good as you think they could be, just remember:

It's only for a SEASON!



How To: Look Amazing Only Using 5 Products!

You ever have those days where you want to look pretty, but you don't feel like putting in the time to get super glam? I have those days all the time! I never have the time to contour my face like crazy, try on a new lipstick and look like a drag queen, so I keep it very, very simple to save time. Here is what you will need to look like you are naturally flawless with only five products.

Here is what you will need:

1.) Vaseline

2.) Foundation

3.) Mascara Wand

4.) Concealer

5.) Powder

No Brushes Necessary! Watch and See :-)

Step 1: Cleanse, Tone & Moisturize your skin:
My skin is super sensitive, so I use things that are all natural and contain very little to no fragrance. This is my current regimen. I switch up my products every few months, but this is what I have been using for the past 6 months and it has worked the best for me.

I have been using Aveeno face scrub to cleanse my skin lately. Aveeno is one of the few face scrubs I have used that doesn't irritate my skin. The last time my skin was this even, I was in 8th grade! I use Aveeno every other day and it has given me great results.

In high school, I used astringents or sometimes rubbing alcohol as my toner. At the time, strong astringents definitely helped with my acne. Now that I am getting older, I need to keep as much moisture in my skin as possible, so I use an all natural oil to lightly tone my skin.

Benefits of Almond Oil

I usually use almond oil at night time, but for colder weather I use it day and night. I really love almond oil because it's not greasy, it's actually a very light weight oil and it naturally has vitamin E: Vitamin E helps keep the elasticity in the skin for a LONG time. I use almond oil as a toner because it lightly cleanses, refreshes and makes my skin feel really soft after I washed my face. I use a few drops on a cotton ball and it lasts all day. I noticed a lot of expensive eye creams and face moisturizers had almond oil, so I figure I could save money and use straight almond oil for my skin. Almond Oil has amazing benefits for hair, skin and nails.
Here are a few websites that explain:

- www.buzzle.com
- www.naturalremediescenter.com


I finish off with a light weight moisturizer from Simple. I found this product from CVS and I really, really like it. It doesn't make my skin feel tight or heavy, just leaves a balanced moisture to my skin.

This is my skin after my daily regimen. This is normally how I look on set for work: No makeup, no photoshop, straight from my camera phone.

There are times when I am up super late at night and the next day you can clearly see the fatigue in my face. For days like these, I only need a few products to hide a few things. Let me show you how.

Step 2: Vaseline & Mascara Wand

These two products are the perfect combination for two situations: Your brows & your lashes.
This is what I use to groom my brows in one direction as well as creating a little shine to my lashes.
It's a lot less harmful than mascara and looks just as good. If you are blonde and prefer darker lashes, definitely go for a brown mascara to darken them up.

Step 3: Foundation

I LOVE Make Up For Ever Liquid Foundation for photo shoots and runway! On myself, I currently use Inglot Creme Foundation #36

It is $18 USD and I LOVE the way it smells!! It smells like a garden, or greenery, or lettuce... it's hard to describe, but it's very fresh and clean. The creme is water based and very lightweight; and this is literally the only foundation I have found that matches me perfectly. I only need a dime size amount to cover my face and I am good for the day. I use my ring finger and apply all over.

Step 4: Concealer
I switch back and fourth between MAC NW45 Concealer and NYX Concealer. For today's look, I used NYX "Nutmeg" Concealer.

I used my ring finger to apply the concealer in areas of hyper pigmentation, such as: under my eyes, around the nose, around the mouth, on scars and my chin.

Step 5: Powder

I use MAC "Deep Peach" Loose Powder. Apply your powder in the same place you applied concealer to set it in and keep it in place. You can use a sponge or flat brush if you feel it is necessary, but I use my finger once again and lightly tap the powder in place.

To wrap it up: I personally love a little highlighter on my cheekbones, so I use Vaseline again as my highlighter on my nose, my cheekbones, my lips and my collar bones. Guess what I used to apply the Vaseline? My fingers only!

The one question people ask me when they watch me do makeup is: 

Why Use Fingers?

The reason why I use my fingers is because the texture and warmth from your fingers can do what no other brush on the market can do to create a natural look: your fingers literally melt the makeup into your skin to make the makeup look like skin and not makeup sitting on your face. The Beauty Blender is very similar to fingers, but it absorbs makeup. Your fingers can glide and melt the makeup into skin which is great for hd cameras, so I personally prefer using my fingers while on set of a photo shoot.

This is the final look:

Here's a before and after (with a flash) and no photo shop was used:

The makeup is SO subtle that you really cannot tell too much of a difference.
BUT what you can notice is:
- the skin looks more even
- there is no darkness nor bags under the eyes
- your skin will look more fresh and 

This is the exact same method I use with models for test shoots. For some models, I do fill in their brows, or contour their nose, but I usually only use very few or no brushes for the first look, then build from there. A lot of people think I am not applying makeup for these natural looking photo shoots, but believe it or not, I am! Very little to no photo shop was used.

For Example:

Arlynn | The Rock Agency

Photography | Escalante

Natalie | Factor Women

Photographer | Jennifer Avello

 Samantha | Ford Models

Photographer | Jennifer Avello

And there you have it!! You will easily be done with your makeup within 5-10 minutes AND look naturally flawless with just 5 products. I hope this helps!

The Goods Magazine - April 2012

Model: Sharon Hinnendael of LA Models
Photographer: Escalante
Stylist: Ruben Lopez
Makeup & Hair: Andrea C. Samuels
Interviewer: Kelli Kickham

You can purchase your copy right here! >>> thegoodsmag.com
Here are a few photos from the 6 Page Editorial.

Fashion Editorial with Escalante

Here are a few shots we did last weekend playing around with different concepts, outfits, models, and ideas. The rest of the shots were sent to an editorial magazine for their Summer Issue.
Longest weekend EVER but so worth it.
Enjoy!

Photographer: © 2011 ESCALANTE
Wardrobe: Ruben Lopez for Claudia Kleiner
Hair & MUA: Andrea C. Samuels
Models:
- Veronica of Ford
- Eliana of Ford
- Annette of The Rock Agency
Location: The Blackstone Hotel; Chicago, IL

Happy Birthday to Me :-)

So like the dork I naturally am, instead of celebrating my birthday at a normal party with normal friends in normal birthday attire like most normal people do, I was working at photo shoots. Honestly, as much of a home body I would like to be, I'd rather work than do nothing at all.

My first shoot was with Emily Gualdoni, one of my fav photographers.

She cooked breakfast for the team!! I have never had freshly cooked eggs and cinnamon toast as breakfast for a photo shoot before. She made it with love and it was REALLY good!

I did natural, fresh, clean makeup on model Lauren Maria . I couldn't stay for the whole shoot, but the stylist brought beautiful vintage, natural clothing and I know Lauren is a divine model. Here are a few shots from the day :D

My next shoot was with photographer ESCALANTE.

You HAVE to write his name in all CAPS because his PERSONALITY is just that LARGE in LIFE. He is a photographer with over 20 years of experience, he is a real sweet heart and EXTREMELY passionate about fashion and models. I really enjoyed working with him because he keeps it REAL, he let me know things I didn't know I needed to know about the artistry industry, and he genuinely cares about showing people the right way to present yourself and present your work.

Here are a few shots we did for the day with model Steffan. The first look was a 'princess eye' with bold, red lips and a sleek, high ponytail to show off her bone structure. The second look was a simple smokey eye with a pink, nude glossy lip and a ballerina bun to top it off. Simple and clean. Emily is a fresh new model with lots of potential:

At the end of the day, I got a honey bun as my birthday cake and jerk chicken for dinner from my man.

I couldn't have been happier.