Assisting Rules by DeShawn Hatcher

If you haven't had a chance to read my blog last year, let me fill you in on something: DeShawn Hatcher is an amazing artist and beauty educator based in NY. I had the opportunity to assist DeShawn last season for NY Fashion Week; I learned so much in such a short amount of time working with her. I wrote a post about my experience at fashion week but just incase you missed it, here it is:

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week SS2015 with DeShawn

So fast forward to today, I had no clue DeShawn was working on her book at the time when I met her! All I knew was that I needed a monthly subscription to DeShawn's blog because she would spill SO much truth about the world of makeup which is very rare in the fashion industry. I encounter many great artists who are great at talking about the pretty side of makeup but they don't share anything valuable to the amateur artists that will help them get ahead in life. DeShawn holds nothing back from no one; I just adore that about her.

One of the first blog posts I read of DeShawn's was this: Assisting 101 by DeShawn Hatcher  I am so thankful that she expanded this into a beautiful and easy to follow book for all artists.

"Assisting Rules" is one of those must-have books if you are a makeup artist, hairstylist, or even a wardrobe stylist trying to break into the freelancing industry but you don't know the proper way to go about it. DeShawn pays respect to the former and current great master artists so that new artists of today understand how to properly work in their field. 

I cannot stress this enough: The information in this book is something you will NOT learn from YouTube or Instagram. 

This is pure, honest, unfiltered, and very rare advice from a real working artist. Thanks to DeShawn, I now see the mistakes I said, did, made in emails and phone calls from my past. Now, I am reaching out to people I haven't spoken to before, or haven't spoken to in a while, and I am switching up how I communicate with people to be more effective with selling myself. DeShawn also talks about agency do's and dont's, how to work in fashion week, on set etiquette, standard portfolio presentation and there's much more inside.

Here is the link to purchase her book:

Assisting Rules

Fashionising.com | Jennifer Avello Photography

New F/W 2014 editorial out now featured on the popular fashion blog, fashionising.com 

This fashion story was inspired by girl power, feminism, bronze skin and fierce hair; basically Beyonce'! We had a blast on set with these two beauties from Factor Women.

The backdrop was a huge painting Jennifer created using oil and acrylic paints, her painterly style worked so well with the sleek leather wardrobe.

Michelle the hairstylist worked wonders with both the models hair and used NO extensions whatsoever, the hair is all created by wind power and hot curls. Melissa's hair literally looked like clouds on set.

I worked with Ben Nye Bronzing Tint covering their bodies neck to feet to create a realistic looking glow, I also added baby oil on their skin for a nice sheen on camera.

This tint is really awesome for two major reasons: 

a) Ben Nye Bronzing Tint does not stain clothing, the wardrobe stylist was extremely happy about that.

b) This does not create an orange or fake appearance; this product creates an amazing tan, you can add layers of the tint for a deeper tone. 

Here's an example of Miranda's makeup before and after I applied the Ben Nye Bronzer.

Everyone put in so much hard work for this editorial and I am really proud that Fashionising.com took the time to showcase all of our talents. Take a look at the full story on Fashionising.com

- All Black Everything -

Photographer & Editor | Jennifer Avello of 10 MGMT

Wardrobe Stylist | Jessica Moazami of Factor Artists

Hair Stylist | Michelle "Mimeki" McNeil

Makeup | Andrea C. Samuels

Models | Miranda & Melissa of Factor Women

Battle of The Blush: February 12th, 2012

So there was this crazy makeup & hair competition created by Clif Ellis of Lakrem' that happened this past Sunday at Estate Club in Chicago, IL. At the last minute, literally, a few days before the competition I decided to join it with hair/mua and friend Iris Guevara. I love to challenge myself, I love to work under pressure, I love to try new things, and I love to work with a strong team to create a beautiful project, so we proceeded.

After 10 minutes, we decided to call our team: Timeless
Battle of The Blush consisted of three categories to show our creativity.
Iris and myself went over what to do for each model and our ideas came along smoothly and beautifully.

Sunday comes; I'm SOOOOOOO excited and just a wee bit nervous. I was trying a few new techniques that I have never done before but I had faith that every thing would turn out well. Here are a few photos of the process from hour to hour. Photography by the always awesome and always nice Mr. Jon Recana, Dean Reid, and a few random camera phones.
Enjoy!

There were ten teams total participating in the competition. It felt like a reunion seeing so many familiar faces. There was a beautiful array of talented people in the room. I felt proud that myself and all the artists participating got to represent our ideas and our passion by bringing it to life.

Team Timeless with artist Kat DeJesus


Group Shot :-)


Close up shots of my kit.




First category was 'Naked Beauty.'


In the guidelines, it states 'less is more' and 'create a natural look that could be seen walking down a runway.' We chose model Savannah Thomas to be our 'natural beauty' model. We chose to stick with gold and bronze tones to create a 'golden goddess walking down the runway." I used Gold Leaf & Gold Pigment to create her eyebrows. Iris applied Gold pigment in Savannah's hair to give her a golden glow.














We were talking in code getting ready for the next category ;-)

Second Category was 'Texture.'

The judges wanted to have the feeling of touch from each model, so we chose Megan Graveline to fill this role. I was inspired by two amazing makeup artist's to create this face: Kabuki & Pat McGrath. I am in LOVE with the hairstyle Iris chose to create on our model. Megan ended up looking like an anime character! Megan was KILLIN' IT walking down the runway!










Third Category was 'Time Machine.'

The judges wanted to see how well we can move forward or go backward in time. We chose Alejandra Rodriguez to play the part. We went with a 1960's Barbie theme: pastel pink lips, bright pink cheeks, bright blue eyeshadow, twiggy lashes, and a bee hive bouffaint. With all the drama on her precious face, Alejandra pulled it off!








TEAM TIMELESS!




Congrats to The Winning Team! >>> Zee Planet


It was fun, really fun, the most fun I've had in a long time. :-)