On one rainy morning, We headed up to a beautiful spot in Kendal, St. John - The Duck Pond. It's a natural freshwater pond on old Plantation land, and is home to hundreds of ducks. The road bends sharply twice right around this pond, and it's along one of the rally routes in Barbados. But it's also a stunning spot.
The ducks just belong to the plantation, they're not bred for commercial use or meat, they simply live free on the plantation, fed by the workers, and protected by the management. They're all comfortable with people, and even walk along the road without fear. Funny enough, they hardly ever get killed in the road. Drivers follow an unspoken rule that they drive very carefully around this pond, especially because the road curves so sharply, it can be dangerous to drive it. During a rally, the ducks are herded and kept away from the road by a spotter.
We had secured a bunch of dresses, and had a bunch of girls model for us. Two of them were professional models, two were friends that we were just dying to get our hands on. We enjoy working with amateur girls as much as professionals because we hand pick them for their beautiful, interesting faces and what we always see strengths in them that we love to help them realize in front of the camera.
In addition to makeup, I usually help direct the shoots, a la Mr Jay from America's Next Top Model. Aly trusts me to help her get the best out of our models. Our friend Gigi Ma'at was the hairdresser for the day.
I'll show you two of the four girls in this post, Rebekah and Jessica. Rebekah, Bex to us, has been a dancer all her life, but she is not a professional. She has milky white skin, a beautiful face with stunning hazel eyes, and edgy, red hair. She wore a gorgeous rich brown bridesmaid's gown, by Bajan designer Pat Blackman, that really warmed her skin up. This was photographed along the straight stretch of road leading to the first sharp bend.
I had done Bex's makeup before for parties and fetes, and I had a look that I really was dying to try an arabic look on her. This was the face that took the longest that day. I kept the skin cool in colour because the brown warmed her up, and I knew I'd be using reds, coppers and peaches on her face. I didn't want her to end up looking too red in the face! Be mindful of the way that the colours you wear and use on the face interact. In this case I used an Ivory foundation with a very neutral, yellowish undertone. I did quite a bit of concealing around Bex's mouth as she has quite a bit of acne scarring on her chin and cheeks. I used the buffing method described by Wayne Goss to hide the scars. Check out his video here. I got some of my inspiration for this look from Julia (Misschievous on Youtube). Check out the video here.
Bex has such big eyes that she can handle a lot of makeup, and I love that her face is quite soft and gentle. I love the juxtaposition of lots of edgy makeup on her gentle features. I used a black cream base blending up quite high and used a dark coppery purple on the lid, defined with matte black, and blended in the crease with a dark burgundy colour. I used liquid liner because my Fluidline had dried up, so getting the sharp liners was actually a bit of a challenge. I find I just don't have as much control with a liquid as I do with a gel. You can't really see it in the photos but I gave her three little wings gradating up into the long sharp wing, like in Julia's video. I also carriend the liner a little lower done on the inner corner to elongate the eye, although I didn't do the exaggerated innor point that most arabic makeup features. Instead I opened the liner on the lower lashine into the inner corner.
By far my favourite part of this eye makeup was that open line at the inner corner. The highlight colour was Amber Lights from MAC, a gorgeous, luxurious gold colour.
I kept the cheeks peachy/bronze, and then just for a little couture glam, I kept the lips a cool pink.
A bonus shot showing off Bex's awesome tattoo. It extends right down below her waist, but that would be a whole different kind of photoshoot! ;)
Jessica is a professional surfer and model. I had never met her before that day, but as soon as I saw her beautiful bronze skin and stunning face, I was super excited to get my hands on her!
The dress we chose for her was a stunning black creation with a corset and bustle. It was heavily beaded and had lace overlay. It was designed by the talented Bajan desiger Antonio Cumberbatch for PoshPunk. Aly photographed Jess in the grove of mahogany trees around the far side of the pond, but the rain was falling and getting heavier and so we didn't get to do as much with her as we wanted. The rain gave a beautiful hazy, romantic feel to the shots, though, so we weren't that mad!
I love this shot. It has a very mysterious, romantic, Twilight-ish type of feel to it.
Jess' eyes are a green hazel, she has incredible bone structure, and her skin is absolutely flawless and bronze. I used very little foundation on her, and I kept her cheeks bronzed and somewhat scultped. the lips were soft and nude.
The eyes were a look I'd been waiting on the right girl to try - a messy, punky, khol-rimmed eye. I used my fingers to spread a creamy black all over the lip and along the lower lid. I wasn't trying to be neat. I actually wanted it to crease a bit, and so I had Jess squeeze her eyes shut a few times before I patted on a matte black shadow, also with my fingers. I did that cycle twice more - applying more creamy, having Jess blink, and patting on matte black - to make the eyes extra inky black and sultry.
I absolutely love the messy fishtail braid that Gigi gave Jess, inspired by my messy khol makeup.
For a wearble, adaptable version of this looks, check out The Kristen Stewart makeup look by Lisa Eldridge here. I have two more girls to show you from this day, so stay tuned!
Love, hugs and cuddly ducks,
Mandy
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