Monday 21 September 2015

SHOW TIME MAKE UP.

I've been meaning to write this post for months. MONTHS. In June this year, I was in a professional production of Cabaret, performed and managed by the students, lecturers and professionals at Canterbury Christ Church University. It was an honour to be chosen to be a cast member and to work with the rest of the team and it was one of the most fun months of my life. I'd always been involved in the annual musical, having previously been part of the wardrobe team for Zombie Prom, and The Witches of Eastwick but this year was my first time on the stage and it was exhilarating. We rehearsed intensively for a month which was hard work but performing was one of the best feelings and it was honestly the best way to end my experience at university. Onto this post - one of my favourite ways to wind down before show time was to do my make-up.. quite often involved some tantrums with my false eyelashes but we got there in the end! It was a very stylised make-up look and with practice it became like second nature for me to apply.. this post is going to list the products I used and details of how I applied my stage make-up.. get yourself a tea, it's going to be a long one!

Okay, first of all let's give a brief description of the show - Cabaret is set in Germany, during the rise of the Nazi party and the whole show is set around the Kit Kat Klub, a seedy underground club where the tables are linked via telephone. Very naughty! Anyway, my character, Maria is zee baby of the Kit Kat Girls, the dance team in the club. The whole look for the girls in the club was very specific to the era, and although at first it was different and difficult to do, it ended up being so much fun to replicate!


So rather than starting with face, I would always start with my hair. Due to the babyish nature of my character, I had the easiest hairstyle! Two pigtails, right on top of my head. At first, they were curled however it proved to be too time consuming, so I decided to use my Babyliss Wave Envy to crimp them. I then used the Colab Extreme Volume Dry Shampoo, alongside a little teasing, for extra texture and volume. Finished them off with a little bit of ribbon and my hair was done - see I told you it was easy!

Moving onto face. Before I'd actually done my hair I'd coated my eyebrows with Vaseline - funny, but for the first couple of shows I used a tinted Vaseline and managed to have pink eyebrows for a while! So I coated them with Vaseline in order to slick all the hairs down before applying Grimas Eyebrow Plastic. We had to block out our eyebrows, but I'll explain more about redrawing them later! So to use the Grimas Eyebrow Plastic, you need to apply thin coats with a spatula, it looks horrifying, but once it's dry and covered with concealer or foundation it looks brilliant. All of the other girls used a glue stick, but because my eyebrows were thicker it worked a lot better for me to use this!

After eyebrows I moved onto priming my face - I used The Body Shop Instablur Primer (similar to Maybelline Baby Skin and Benefit Porefessional) I didn't feel like theatrical stage make up required a dewy finish so I chose something to mattify, and whilst that sunk into my skin I attached some surgical micropore tape to the outer corners of my eyes in order to make a harsh edge. I went onto applying my eye make up before a base because I had to use a lot of black so I wanted to avoid any fallout. I used a LaRoc 120 Summer Tones palette - basically the same as a BH Cosmetics 120 palette but I think cheaper. I used a grey tone as a transition shade, and then started to use black in and above the crease - as we were moving our eyebrows further up, it made sense to be able to blend our eyeshadow higher. I used a Grimas Greasepaint in Purple for all over the lid and then set it with a purple eyeshadow from the LaRoc palette - I made sure there was a harsh line along the crease to look almost like a cut crease and carried on using the purple along the lower lashline. I then used a Barry M Dazzle Dust in Gold for the inner corner and blended it into the eyeshadow on the upper lid. I tightlined my upper waterline using a Rimmel Scandaleyes Eye Shadow Stick in Blackmail- I hate tightlining, I find it really awkward so I used a chubbier pencil as it covers more in a quicker space of time. I then used a Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil in Pure White to line the lower waterline. I applied the Charlotte Tilbury Full Fat Lashes mascara to my upper and lower lashes, before adding a set of Ardell Demi Wispies. To complete the eyes I used the Illamasqua Precision Gel Liner to cover the band of the false eyelashes and make the lashes look fuller.

From eyes, I moved back to the eyebrows, using the MAC Pro Longwear Concealer and a Beauty Blender to dab concealer onto them. This used a large amount of product, so I wanted to use something full coverage in lots of thin layers. I then set using the MAC Select Sheer Pressed Powder which was then lost during the performance process. Sad times. I moved onto base and used the MAC Pro Longwear Nourishing Waterproof Foundation which I swear is an absolute Godsend. I made sure to use a Beauty Blender on and around the eyebrows in order to avoid moving the Eyebrow Plastic. I then used the Pro Longwear Concealer again to conceal and highlight the face. I dampened the Beauty Blender using MAC Mineralize Charged Water to blend in the concealer. I love using a spray like this, it's so handy when you're not really near a sink!  I went onto contour using the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit and like always, using the shades Java and Fawn, however this time I used a brush that was a lot more dense in order to create a harsh contour line. I used a fluffier brush for the jawline and hairline and slightly on the nose. I went in next with a bright pink blusher - Hussy by Illamasqua. I applied this mainly on the apples of my cheeks but blended alongside the contour. We were working from a photograph for inspiration and her cheeks were so pink so I chose the brightest blusher I had!

After blusher, I decided to bake in order to create a harsh contour and bright under eye. If you don't know what baking is, it's where you apply a loose powder and leave it to set for a pro-longed period of time. I used the MAC Prep and Prime Loose Translucent Powder with a small triangular sponge underneath the contour line, and everywhere I had highlighted (forehead, chin, under eyes, nose and cupids bow) and left it to set whilst I finished my make-up. I actually went to mic check and vocal warm up like this, getting some odd looks from the band and the rest of the crew!

After this I went onto lips where I used a Essence Lipliner in Wish Me A Rose to line the lips, followed by a Rimmel Colour Burst Lip Crayon in a pink/red colour (I don't remember the shade) and sealed it with a coat of Lipcote which I had never used but love! My lipstick didn't even come off after cleansing!

I drew on a new set of eyebrows which proved difficult - they were probably different for each show. I used a L'Oreal Super Liner Perfect Slim in Intense Black at first however I felt as though they looked too harsh and by the end of the show I was using the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade in Medium Brown as the brown colour made them look a lot better, and as natural as they could possibly look.

After this, my face was finished - after mic check and vocal warm up, I dusted off the loose translucent powder from baking, and applied The Balm Mary Lou Manizer highlighter everywhere! Tops of the cheekbones, forehead, chin, cupids bow, and tip of the nose. I felt as though the highlighter really allowed my little girl character to come to life!

That was the finished product, requiring a lot of make-up and lots of touch ups throughout the performance! Stage make-up is possibly my favourite as it requires a lot of work but you become a completely new person through it! For anyone wondering too, this week my skincare routine proved to be very important and I used the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser to remove the make-up at the end of the day. Cream Cleansers can be heavy duty and therefore brilliant for removing stage make-up!


Be prepared for lots more posts now I've finally found the motivation to blog again - including lots more about stage make-up!



Tuesday 8 September 2015

BEDSIDE BEAUTY #1.

We all have those beauty products we just can't live without and some of those live in the top drawer of my bedside cabinet - making them easy to reach for before bed, and when I wake up in the morning. There's not many products are lucky enough to be one of the first things I want when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I want at night but these are the lucky few..



First of all, the most used and definitely most important is a bottle of water. 'That's not a beauty product' I hear you say, but it is. Water has many health benefits especially upon the skin, staying hydrated keeps your skin looking plump and young, which is one of the many reasons I always have a bottle next to my bed. You'll also find the Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream, used more often than not a a lip balm however it can be used as a thick protective moisturiser and hand cream. I much prefer to use it as a lip balm, however as I love to keep my lips nourished and hydrated, especially when I go to bed. One slick application of this and my lip's definitely aren't dry in the morning. I keep a Witch Blemish Stick there at all times as it's something I swear by for any spots or blemishes - a generous application on top of a clean face at night time and it helps to keep all my unwanted friends at bay! Enough said there really.. Alongside this skincare favourite is my night cream - it's the Simple Kind to Skin Vital Vitamin Night Cream, It's thick so you only need the tiniest amount imaginable. I haven't been using it for long enough to be able see a difference yet, which is a reason I keep it in my bedside drawer - to remind me to use it! The final few bits are some scrunchies .. I like to sleep with my hair up sometimes and these are the most comfortable things to wear your hair in (although I feel like I'm secretly reliving my 90's childhood). I also keep two pairs of glasses and my television remote controls for my Sunday night CSI/NCIS marathons..