S W E R V E S O M E

Winter Flawless Look

Here’s the promised luminous look done for the gorgeous Julianna from our shoot last week. Make sure to check out my previous post for a peek of their lovely pictures! This look is very clean and polished— just perfect for the camera. Side note: I’ve some fantastic news for SWERVESOME that will be posted soon, so make sure to check back! Eee! So giddy. Okay. Whew. Now for the look:

1. Gently exfoliate. Even with the convenience of Photoshop and digital photo editing, it’s always a good idea to lay the foundation of your look on as smooth and clean a canvas as possible. I delicately exfoliated Julianna’s skin with the brilliant Clarisonic Mia 2 and the all-natural, 100% organic Suki’s Creamy Foaming Cleanser.
   
   
2. Moisturize, Prime, & Lay the Foundation. Winter is especially drying to the skin so good moisture is key. Embryolisse Lait Creme Concentré is a bit of a legend in that department so I smoothed a dime-sized dallop of this all over her face with my fingers. Already, her skin began to look radiant.
   
   For a primer, I used Laura Mercier’s Oil Free Foundation Primer and because Julianna’s skin had relatively few flaws, Laura Mercier’s Oil Free Tinted Moisturizer in Sand worked perfectly, as it is lightweight but more of a medium coverage. I smoothed this over with my fingers as well, blending it in down to her neckline.
   
   In order to achieve a flawless finish, I believe that one should only use the right product in the right places. (Read: If you have trouble spots on just, say, your chin or forehead, then only do full coverage in those areas.) I will be addressing perfect foundations for specific skin types in a later post.
   
   
3. Conceal & Highlight. Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation in Nude covered and blended into Julianna’s skin perfectly. It is seriously one of the best concealers I’ve ever worked with. A synthetic concealer brush like the MAC 195 is great to pat the tiniest bit of this on any blemish. Use a synthetic blending brush like the MAC 224 to blend and feather out the corrective foundation into the surrounding skin.
   
   With my fingers, I applied Becca Shimmering Skin Perfecter in Opal on the highest point of her cheekbones, temples, and brow bone, forming a luminous C (and backwards C) shape. Make sure that you use only a tiny drop— a little goes a long way. This step is very important to achieve that glow. Be sure to blend, blend, blend.
   
   
4. Set with Powder. I am in love with Louise Young’s LY20 Super Fan brush. It is soft and dense and perfect for picking up a super finely milled powder like Makeup Forever HD Microfinish Powder. It also works on all skin types and shades. Take this fan brush or a powder brush and pick up a small amount of the powder, lightly dusting it on every contour of the face, especially the T-Zone.
   
   
5. Prep the Eyelids. Now for this step, you can use any good eyelid primer in your arsenal, but for Julianna, to cancel out any redness, I used a MAC paint pot in Painterly. With my ring finger, I gently patted a tiny bit of this on her entire lid. This will help keep her eye makeup in place.
   
   
6. Fill in Eyebrows. Julianna’s eyebrows are naturally thick and beautifully shaped. Still, a bit of filling in with Benefit Brow-Zings in Dark helped out a lot. Here’s a good YouTube tutorial with one of Benefit’s Brow Experts on how to do just that. 
   
   
7. Crease & Liner. To give her eyes more depth, I used MAC’s Cork eyeshadow with a MAC 217 to softly blend this into her socket, right under her brow bone. Then, with a MAC 210 brush, I precisely lined her upper lash line and gave her a nice flick. I’ll be posting a tutorial on how to do this soon, as well. Make sure to leave no gaps between the line and lashes.
   
   
8. Macara, False Lashes, White Eyeliner. I used DiorShow Iconic Extreme mascara to coat her lashes from root to tip in a slow, zig-zag movement. Then I applied Eylure Naturalites lashes with a thin line of Duo lash adhesive in White/Clear and a pair of tweezers right on top of her lashes, pressing them in lightly at the lash line. Another coat of mascara to blend them in and a light press of an eyelash curler after it dried made her lashes look incredibly full and lifted.
   
   With a white eye pencil (any will do), I tight lined her bottom water line, tracing her lower eyelid. I also drew a bit on the inner corners of her eyes as well as the brow bone to highlight, blending them in with a MAC 217.
   
   
9. Blush. Now for that beautiful flush! NARS Deep Throat blush is a great pinky peach. The cult favorite Orgasm is good, too, but Deep Throat to me has a bit more depth that pays off beautifully on medium skin. I used the MAC 138 tapered brush for this, starting from the apples of her cheeks and blending back up to the hairline. You could do a bit of contouring at this stage as well, but I wanted to be sure to keep her look uber fresh and clean.
   
   
10. Lipstick & Gloss. Okay. Take a look at those lips. Such a pretty pop of pink (you know I had to use alliteration somewhere here)! I custom mixed two colors of the YSL Rouge Volupte Line— Opera Rose and Exquisite Plum to get that juicy pink hue. To top it off, I used MAC Nymphette lipglass at the center of the lip to give her full lips a little more dimension. 

That completes the look! Hope you find this good and useful. Let me know if any of you try it out for yourselves. Remember that any of these products have good dupes so you don’t have to be using exactly what I used. Christine from Temptalia.com has a FANTASTIC Dupe List that will be a big help for anyone who wants good, cheaper options for any product. Feel free to shoot me any questions you might have, too!

Makeup & Mayhem

What fun I had doing the makeup, wardrobe, and photography for my dear friends Julianna and Nathan Rennard of Rennard Photography here in Seattle! It was a three wardrobe change / three location shoot that took us to some of our favorite places in the city. The shots below were taken from our beloved Golden Gardens in the Golden Hours of sunset.

Was it cold? Yes. Did it feel like my chattering teeth would make a fantastic spice grinder? Of course it did, but I had no curry spices on hand. Did Julianna boldly prance around barefoot in wet sand just to show off how beautifully she wore my printed dress? Yes. And it made for some lovely pictures. So I grew some cojones, grit my teeth, and braved the cold for these beautiful people. And aren’t they beautiful?

Because of the swift nature of autumnal light, we only had time to do two makeup looks for Julianna. The first very pretty, luminous, winged-eye look is pictured above. The second sultry, evening look will be posted soon along with a detailed description of how to achieve both for yourself. 

Julianna has the facial features that makeup artists sigh over: great skin, bold, beautifully shaped brows, lovely bone structure, expressive eyes, and full lips. I had so much fun making her up but I do confess to botching up her eyeliner a couple times. She’s hilarious to work with.

There’s so much more to come!! I’m presently building my visual and literary portfolios for a phenomenal project that is sure to rock house very soon. Thank you so much for following me here! I won’t disappoint, I promise. Please know that I love feedback. Give me what you got! 

Blue Nights Blew Into My Life

“As the blue nights draw to a close (and they will, and they do) you experience an actual chill, an apprehension of illness, at the moment you first notice: the blue light is going, the days are already shortening, the summer is gone. This book is called “Blue Nights” because at the time I began it I found my mind turning increasingly to illness, to the end of promise, the dwindling of the days, the inevitability of the fading, the dying of the brightness. Blue nights are the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but they are also its warning.”

When I read The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion’s lush and penetratingly honest memoir of the passing of her husband, I recall thinking that it would win the Pulitzer. It did, as it should have. But don’t read it because it won the Pulitzer or the National Book Prize. Her retelling of their intimate marriage and the textured focus on the depths one plunges into in grief left me feeling as if no stone was left unturned inside of me. Few books resonate with me the way The Year of Magical Thinking does.

Her daughter Quintana Roo died of septic shock shortly after the death of her husband. Blue Nights is dedicated to her. She writes of her daughter’s childhood, her doubts and fears about having children, about illness, about growing old.  In this book, Didion directly addresses the reader and herself, weaving in and out of conversation the way our lives naturally unfurl. 

I’m only halfway through the memoir as my eyes were burning too painfully due to fever, otherwise you bet your teeth that I would have read it voraciously in one go. But I can say this: for any one with fears of aging, rearing children, laying them down to rest too soon, or even your own death— you must read this. Didion writes with an almost numbed eloquence that only serves to make her work more haunting, more profound. She will move you to feel, to think, and appreciate the good in your life, just as any truly brilliant, iconic writer would have you do.

La Beaute de Madame Grès

“Perfection is one of the goals I’m seeking,” Madame Gres was once quoted as saying. “For a dress to survive from one era to the next, it must be marked with an extreme purity.”

If you were to physically see these stunning pleated pieces outside of the context of the Musee Bordelle in Paris where ‘Madame Gres: La Couture a L’Oeuvre’ (couture at work) was on display this Summer, it wouldn’t take any stretch of the imagination to mistaken these for the designs of one from our generation. But these were hand-pleated and draped in a time when our parents could have been zygotes.  The fact that I would most willingly hop into any one of these dresses in the 21st century is a testament to Madame Gres’ simple and timeless vision. Though she died in obscurity 17 years ago, the girl that was Germaine Krebs —who grew up to become this indomitable sculpturess of jersey— went on to inspire and influence the powerful women she dressed, generation after generation of designers, and fledgling designers like me who deeply admire the rigor of her minimalism. Ca, c’est la Beaute de Madame Gres!

The Magnificence of Macarons

If you call my favorite confectionary delight a “macaroon” to my face, you’ll have to overlook the twitch that is likely to develop in my left eye and the imprint of my teeth on my lower lip. It’s a macaron, people! A predominantly French bite of airy, subtly decadent heaven, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the lumpier coconut macaroons of Girl Scout fame (though goodness knows those Samoas can be addictive). 

Granted, Americans have a more difficult time with the French gutteral rrr’s, but at the very least, pronounce it this way (just disregard the “or macaroon”) so that others can understand what specific confection you’re referring to. 

Let’s see, how do I describe what macarons do to me… You know that enthralling sense of victory you experience when you beat your husband in a video game? Or that exhilarating sense of contentment that overtakes you when you slide into a fragrant bath after a long, hard day? Imagine those emotions fusing and producing a sweet, sweet baby in the form of a delicate sandwich cookie. That would be the classic macaron. 

If you’ve never had one, seek them out! You’re seriously missing out. There’s a bit of a macaron craze that’s filtered from Europe to Asia, and more recently, the US. In fact, the 148 year old iconic Maison de Ladurée has finally crossed the Atlantic to open its first doors on American soil in, where else but New York City, on Madison Avenue, 84 to be more precise. They’re scheduled to open tomorrow, August 27th!!  Doors will be opening at 9 AM and closing at 6 PM Monday through Friday, and Saturday from 9:30 AM to 6 PM. They will be closed Sundays. 

Of course this would be happening almost as soon as I move to the West Coast! If you live in Seattle as I do now and if you have an itch to scratch for macarons, you might want to try Le Panier by Pike Place where I can personally vouch for their perfect crisp and creamy texture. There is also Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle— I’ve heard gorgeous things about their Parisian macarons. The fantastic neighborhood of Ballard is also graced with a comfortable bakery called Fresh Flours where I could gorge myself on their exquisite Earl Grey flavored macarons. I don’t only because it’s, you know, impolite. 

If you’re ambitious and/or suffer from delusions of grandeur like I do about making your own macarons, David Lebovitz, famous cook, pastry chef, published writer (author of The Sweet Life in Paris - definitely on my To-Read list) gives us a fantastic list of links that will lead you through the mystical realm of macaron preparation and baking. Bon courage! Oh, and I’d love to hear about your macarons attempts.