Shaking the Tree

Time and time again when people learn that I am a professional makeup artist, they ask for advice on their personal daily routine.  I must admit, I am always reluctant to advise on day to day makeup.  You all know I dove tail this conversation into my famous Mary RC quote "If you can slap it on in less than 5 minutes and feel good about yourself, you've done the perfect makeup."  Or when asked for specific rules to makeup application my standard answer is "There is only one makeup rule... There are no rules." It's not because I'm lazy, or I think the person is unworthy of my advice, its because I feel I am unworthy to have an opinion about a persons self esteem.  Because lets face it, if I felt comfortable with my naked face, I wouldn't wear a stitch of makeup how bout you?  So if someone wears makeup I assume they're trying to enhance their self esteem.  Absolutly nothing wrong with that, I do the same myself.  I am not an expert when it comes...

In honor of the amazing Sandra Bullock and her Best Actress win at the Oscars, but mostly about her fuscia red lips, were gonna talk lipstick today.  Man she looked good last night!  I saw some stunning classic old Hollywood makeup on the red carpet.  I must admit, it is my favorite. I have to mention my good bud Jessica at Jessica B. Photography asked for a tip on purchasing red lip stick. As we all know, red can be a deceptive color and difficult to purchase. Red comes in shades of orange, pinks and blue. I should know I carry 5 shades of red in mykit and sometimes I'll mix in a bit of the above just to make the color work on my subject. This is where beauty advisors at the mall come in. But first thing is first! You need to be in control of the purchase.. Don't be mesmerized by the sale's girl's makeup mastery.   And counter hop, every line's colors are going to be different, so be prepared to tell the truth and be opinionated. Yes, they will hate you ...

Remember all those awesome Runway Looks I told you about. Boy did I have fun doing them on this beautiful flawless model. She looked amazing. Actually, she'd look amazing in a gunny sack..   Now that it has hit the stands, I can share the Spring Fashion Shoot with you via Luxury Las Vegas Magazine. These were my faves of the bunch.  Now I you know you all wanna go out and buy orange eyeshadow and tomato red lipstick for spring right?  Just kidding. I myself find breaking the makeup routine difficult.  Especially as I age.  Yesterday, we were going out on a date, so I decided to try a new makeup look on myself.  I used a product on my eyelids that I love to use at work and never use at home.  It was a disaster, it looked aweful.  Now tell me why is it I have trouble with makeup???  I'll tell you..  My face isnt young and flawless anymore.  In fact I have very crepe-y eyelids, due to a bout with psoriasis in 2000 that was a...

So when it comes to smokey eyes time after time I see almost as much smoke under the eye as on the lid. Making the poor girl look as if she has already been out all night before she stepped out of her bathroom. Well when it comes to a clean looking smokey eye, you need to take precaution. Even Oprah has advice on this... I believe Kevin Aucoin had this same advice as well. Apply loose powder under the eye over your foundation and concealer to protect it. When your done blacking out.. swish the dirty powder away with a fan brush. My question is how many of us actually have a fan brush in our makeup bag? Here's my favorite..  It definitely works getting the excess powder off, but if your like me and have lovely lines under your eyes, 9 times out of 10 that excess powder over-sets your concealer and then its cakey . While I don't entirely disagree with this method, (great for Halloween ) I like my way better. It's so genius, you will not believe it! Do your...

OKAY how silly was that? I could have dressed up for the occasion, ya think? Also, I think I sound just like those silly teenagers, I'm just too old to act like that. Anywhoo here are my favorite backcombing products I'd like to share with you. Warning I'm a bit old school... Shaper, oh yes what I like to call glorified Aqua Net! I recommend regular Shaper for backcombing, works great the only thing is, if you breathe too much of it your nose hairs stick together and break off. As I said in the vlog, this is one of my new faves, Elnett. You can find it at Target for around $15. What I like about it is that you can comb through it easily if you need to, and I've yet to see flaky build up. And this my friends is what I have deemed the proper backcomb. I buy mine at Sally's beauty supply. They also have them as a full comb without the parting tip, and they're only a few bucks. With this particular style of comb, I find there is less breakage than there is...