FINALLY!!! I have been waiting for nearly two months to be able to share these photos with you!
These shots are for a couture hat designer named Denise Dennis. She makes these beautiful hats by hand! If you want her info just leave me a comment on this post. Likewise if you want the info of any of the models.
My best friend and photographer extraordinaire
Alyson Holder of
3rd Eye Photography took the photos. She and I worked on the concept. We wanted the makeup to be sultry and chic without being over-the-top, so as not to distract from the hats themselves. We knew the shots were going to be tight-frame beauty shots, and so the skin would have to be perfect and the makeup precise and clean, with good contour because the background would be white. We tried black backgrounds but the glow and the subtle colours were lost.
The first model up is Jade West. She's a gorgeous girl of mixed ethnicity. I love that she experiments with her hair...for this shoot she all but shaved it off and bleached it almost white. I used a thin layer of a creamy beige foundation all over her face because although the quality of her skin is lovely, she was a little hormonally blotchy that day.
Jade is well named, because she has beautiful jade-green eyes, and I wanted to make them stand out, but subtly, if that makes any sense. I used a medium purplish-taupe colour on her lid, a deep plum eyeliner on her upper lashline (actually it was a lip liner - LOL!) and a deep royal blue liner on her lower lashline. I kept her brows soft and warm, since her skin is quite pale with a slight olive undertone. She has beautiful bone structure but because the backdrop was white, I defined her cheekbones, jaw and collar bones a little more strongly with a tawny matte bronzer than I would have normally, since a white background can wash out pale skin.
For her cheeks I used a very subtle peachy colour, rather than a pink, just to avoid any monotony in the tones, and highlighted her cheekbones with a shimmery pink.
Jade has a very full, pouty, sexy mouth, and so I used a pale, plumy-pink lipstick and a little gloss to keep it sexy without it becoming the focal point of her face.
We shot her wearing two different hats. Denise designed the hats so that their placement on the head can be changed for a different effect, as shown in the picture below. It's the same hat as the first photo of Jade. Which is your favourite?
Funny enough, Jade wears colour so beautifully, but never uses colour on herself! She generally sticks to neutral colours or black. The most she'll do is wear red lipstick. Keep an eye out for Jade in future videos. She just may be a new muse for me, because I think she's just stunning. She's super sweet, too.
The next Model up is Lara Rogers. Another stunning young woman, Lara has flawless skin, a lovely heart-shaped face, and wide-set doe eyes. The look done on her was originally planned for Shannon, but once I saw Lara in person I changed my mind. She had the perfect face for this look.
I love this hat. It's almost bridal, but still so couture. Lara wore this makeup beautifully. She has amazing porcelain skin, and I just used a bisque foundation in certain areas. She needed very little foundation, and she only needed concealer under her eyes. I didn't powder her skin because I wanted to preserve her natural glow. I used medium and dark taupe colours all along the lid and into the brow bone, a lighter lavender-taupe as a brow highlight, and dark browns and black along the lid and lash lines. It was quite heavy, but the white background, again, muted the colours somewhat. For a little bit of an edgy an romantic twist I swept the medium taupe and brown out from her lid onto her temple, which you can see in the above photo. Lara wears Novalash Eyelash extensions, and so didn't need any false lashes for this although I had originally planned the look with falsies. I lined her upper and lower waterlines with black gel liner.
This hat is a different one, but along the same lines as the first. I kept Lara's cheeks soft, and very lightly defined her cheekbones with a light matte bronzer and pale pink blush, and used a very mildly shimmery white highlight along the top of her cheekbones, the center or her forehead, down her nose and on her cupid's bow. I really wanted her to glow naturally. This makeup would be lovely on a bride, and can be softened or toned down as needed. It would be beautiful with a nude lip, as well. In fact, my makeup for my own wedding was very similar to this, with a nude lip.
As you can see, the darkness around the lash lines and the purple undertones in the taupe eyeshadow made the green in Lara's eyes stand out beautifully. (They're actually blue with a green center.) For her lips, which are naturally a gorgeous, perfectly symmetrical shape, I defined and filled them in completely with a dark red liner, then redefined them again and filled the corners with a dark purple liner. Over that I used a true red lipstick, applying it with a brush, had her blot, and reapplied it again. The result was this dense, rich lip that played off her pale skin beautifully.
Every makeup artist has those few looks that she is supremely proud of, and though this is relatively simple, it's one of mine. The finished product just took my breath away.
Last, but not least, we have Shannon Harris. As I said before, I had originally planned Lara's look for Shannon but changed my mind (although it would have been amazing on her), and so on the day, I decided to have fun with Shannon's amazing bone structure.
I've done Shannon's makeup several times, and many different ways, and she is truly a chameleon. She looks incredible in every look I have tried on her, from natural, to 80s supermodel, to ethereal fairy. There are a few shots of her on my portfolio tab if you want to go see. I absolutely LOVE making her up. She's one of those models that get Makeup Artists excited!
So for this I decided to go a little more French-Vogue-esque. I toned down her dark eyebrows, used purple contours, pale, shimmery taupe and lavender highlights through the whole center of her face, eyelids and collar bones, and no mascara. I also highlighted her cupid's bow, and ran a little beige powder through her eyelashes to further make them "disappear". Then we played around with the lips.
The first lip was nude, achieved by dabbing a satin-finish beige lipstick on with my fingers to stain the lip, rather than slicking it on.
I love this shot because you can see how Shannon's skin is glowing. Again, like Lara, she had on very little foundation only on the areas of her cheeks that were flushed because of the heat (it's extremely hot and humid in Barbados during summer). For this lip I just added a coral lipgloss on top of the beige lip stain.
This lip is my favourite. I used a healthy coat of chapstick and pressed a blue/purple (blurple!) duo chrome eyeshadow into it.
For this last lip, I lined Shannon's lips with a berry red liner and filled them in with a bright red lipstick. In this shot you can see the toned down eyebrows and lashes. Her eye makeup never changed throughout all her lip transformations.
There you have it! This was a very fun shoot, and these girls are awesome.
More is coming, so stay tuned!!
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