Just another day in the office

As you probably realised by the lack of new updates work has been pretty hectic over the last couple of weeks. Here a look into 2 days out of my schedule of last week.

Everybody has a place they call their office, maybe its a desk in a high rise or a shop in a mall but when you are a makeup artist your 'office' is in a different location every day.
Sometimes you are lucky that your office is outside, the sun is shining bright and the air is filled with the fragrance of spring blossoms. Just another hard day in the office hey  :)
Have a look at these backstage images of a fashion shoot I did for a Swedish magazine. You can see our beautiful location, the team hard at work, digital assistant Darren enjoying his 'office' and me playing with the props.

Can you see my little set bag full of essentials to keep the model

 looking fresh and beautiful for the outdoor shots?



Glorious sun filled outdoor shoots are definitely the perks of my job.

A not so fun side is that you sometimes have to abandon your friends and family cause you have to go abroad for a job. So also after this lovely shoot.

My cousin was staying over for a couple of days but I had to leave him the day after this shoot as I had to fly to Berlin for a job. Arriving on your own late at night in an empty hotel room is way less fun when you know that in your apartment back home you have family that came over especially to see you. The shoot (I hope I can show you the images soon as they are amazing!)  took only one day and straight after we wrapped I could fly back home to spend some quality time with my cousin.

It is a downside of the job and my friends and family know that if they book a holiday to see me I might not be in the country cause of my work. Or when I make diner plans with friends I might not be able to make it if a shoot over runs and I'm in the studio till late in the evening.

But these are things you and the people around you learn to live with, and don't way up to all the perks. Cause after all I have the best job in the world!!

H&M kids

Work has been hectic for the last week so just a short, but very exciting blog update.

My H&M kids conscious collection campaign is out!!!

These lovely images are shot by Solve Sundsbo.

 

Tools of the trade

While packing my bag for a job I though its about time I show you whats in a makeup artist's kit.
Starting with the most important, the brushes!
To apply good makeup you need good tools. A nice makeup brush makes all the difference when applying your colours. You have your real hair brushes, your sysynthetic fibers, blending brushes, blusher brushes, lip liners and so much more.
See here the brushes that are in my kit;

Foundation

This little yellow Bobbi Brown brush is for applying your concealer.
The 3 other once are for applying foundation.
Foundation brushes are always made of synthetic fibres, creamy textures are better to apply with synthetic hair then with a real hair brush.
Don't forget to was your brush every now and then (mine are washed after every job)  I use a anti bacterial hand soap to clean my foundation brushes.
White brush is from Lancome, then you have the Mac brush and the one on the bottom is a Body shop brush.

Eyeshadow From left to right
The round brush is from Revlon (contour shadow brush), this brush is great for applying colour to the eye crease.
Then you have the eyeliner brushes, little one is Shu Uemura 5F the other two are Mac and Revlon. These brushes are flat, thin and perfectly shaped to really press the colour in between your lashes.
The brushes in the middle are my eyeshadow brushes. The two black ones are the no.10 Shu Uemura. This is the best eyeshadow brush you can buy. They are the same number brush but the one on the left is way older and has some wear and tear ;) (Bristles shorten when you use them a lot.)
The brushes on the right are my synthetic fibre brushes, I use them for applying cream eyeshadow. As I mentioned before synthetic is better for creamy textures and real hair is better for powders. The white brush is the cream eyeshadow brush from Bobbi Brown, the yellow haired one the 07 from House of Orange and the left one from the Body shop.

 Blending
These are my Shu Uemura blending brushes, 25BL, 12BL and 7.5BL.
I use them to blend the eyeshadow together, smoothen the lines in your eye crease and the big one to apply strong blusher.
You don't see these brushes a lot but I couldn't go without my 12BL one, that is the one in the middle.

Blush
There is no other way to apply blusher then with a nice brush.
As you can see I have different sizes, big once for a light dust of colour. And small brushes for shaping the face with a darker toned blush.
The really small one at the end I use to apply highlighter on top of the cheek bone.
From left to right these brushes are the Bobbi Brown blusher brush- the blushe brush from the Body shop -House of Orange and the little one is from Shu Uemura.
The House of Orange brush used to be way bigger but over the years its has changed to this pointy shape, it shaped to my hand. Makeup artist always want to work with there own brushes as they are all shaped to their specific way of working. No brush is the same after a couple of years!

Lips
Lip brushes are flat and have a soft point, so you can follow the soft contours of your mouth.
These brushes are from the Body shop, Bobbi Brown and House of Orange.

Powder
Powder brushes come in different sizes.
I use the small ones to blend colours together, the medium ones for actually applying the powder and the fan shaped one for dusting excess powder off the face. Very big and fluffy brushes are great for applying bronzing powder.
From top to bottom, Shu uemura 16R, Bobbi Brown face blender, House of Orange 02, House of Orange again , and one from the House of Orange (the numbers have fadded so I cant tell you preciacly witch ones they are) and the last one is from the Body shop. All these brushes, but the Bodyshop one, are made from real bristle as they work so much nicer with powders then a synthetic brush will do.

Miscellaneous

Here we have from left to right, my Shu Uemura eyelash curler, this gadget is the best around. If you want a natural look without mascara just curl your lashes for a fresh, open eye. if you want to go for full glamour, curled eyelashes with black mascara can look like fake lashes!

A plastic spatula to take cream out of a jar, if you use your fingers you can put bacteria in the jar.

My Bobbi Brown touch up brush, great for little dabs of foundation.

The fairy wand, Stephane Marais little duster to wipe away eyeshadow   that has fallen down under your eye. A little eyebrow brush, to comb and shape your brows. And last but by no means least the Tweezerman tweezers. These are the best for plucking your eyebrows, the will get every little hair and if they ever get blunt you can have them sharpened again.

As you can see Shu Uemura is my favourite brand for makeup brushes, they are expensive but will last you a very long time. Just make sure you look after them, put them in a separate glass or in a makeup roll so the bristles don't get damaged. And wash your brush every now and then with a soft shampoo. For a quick clean you can also use a brush cleaner, Mac or Bobbi Brown do a good one.
If your budget doesn't stretch so far have a look at the Body shop they do very good synthetic fibre brushes. They are so soft that the brushes are good for applying eyeshadow and powder as well. Revlon also has a nice collection.
If you can only buy one brush, go for the Shu Uemura eyeshadow brush in no.10, it will change your life!!

Sunglasses

As spring is slowly arriving it is time to get my favourite accessories out, sunglasses!
While on a photo shoot in Hamburg at the beginning of the year I found the best sunglasses shop. One of the locations was opticians Optikon, definitely worth a visit when you are heading over to Germany.
(ABC-Straße 1, 20354 Hamburg)
In this nicely designed shop you can find rows upon rows of glasses and sunglasses from every brand you can think of and more.
And what do you do when waiting around until the photographer has set his light up, you go sunglasses shopping!
Stylist Shirin and I fell in love with the Persol limit edition Steve McQueen folding sunglasses.
Fortunately for my wallet there was only one pair left and Shirin saw them first...
(you can buy them here though)

A few weeks ago I found another great pair of glasses while on a different photo shoot, a lovely pair of flower print wayfarers from Accessorize for a fraction of the Perso'ls price. Click here for a link.
I also found a great pair of mirrored aviators at H&M.
Have a look at Mister Prada modelling my new specs.

That just leaves us with one thing.....Bring on the sun!!!

Caracala Spa

If you find yourself in the south of Spain please go to the Caracala Spa in the La Cala resort in Mijas.
This is the most amazing spa I have been to in a long time.
Last week on my holiday we got a bit lost finding our way to the village of Mijas, we drove past a hotel and went in to ask for directions. While my friend Steve spoke to the lovely staff I was checking out the hotel to see if they had a spa (I always do that as I'm pretty spa obsessed), only to find out the hotel housed the best spa in the south of Spain!
After drooling over their brochure all afternoon, the next day we set of to Mijas once again but this time to get pampered to the max. The spa didn't disappoint, just have a look at these pictures.



After receiving our fluffy gowns and towels we started our treatments with the thermal circuit/Spa experience, a superb indoor and outdoor hydrotherapy pool plus Thermal Suite inspired by the ancient roman tradition of sequential Thermal bathing. All the different baths and sauna's got us totally relaxed and re-energised.

The experience is made up out of these baths;

Exercise pool, for if you want to have a proper swim  (I believe we exercised for 1 whole minute...)

Hydrotherapy pools, an indoor and outdoor (!) warm pool with airbeds, body and foot jets, neck massage fountains and a geyser.  This is ultimate relaxation and the outdoor pools just has the most amazing view.

Feeling the sun on your skin, seeing the beautiful Spanish mountains, wile having the very strong bubbles blaze all the last bit of tension out of your muscles is just bliss.

We moved back in to discover the Thermal suite, they have a,

Hammam, Turkish-style relaxing steam room where aromatic oils diffuse into the steam to relax and calm the mind. The fragrance was absolutely beautiful and the perfectly formed stone seats make you want to pack up home and move in.

Herbal Steam Room, felt like walking into a giant teapot full of chamomile tea. This Cabin is hotter then the hammam and does wonders for your skin. My sun rash completely disappeared after 10 minutes.

Garden Crystal Sauna, dry heat of 80 to 90degrees C to help you relax and tone your body. Beautiful big chrystal in the middle of the sauna and the sauna has a window to enjoy the country side even further.

Experience showers, compared to the cold plunge baths normally found in spa's these showers are a way more interesting way to cool down and refresh. The showers have different water pressure, temperatures, lightning, fragrance and sound. Every program gives you a different experience, I loved the rain program, the tropical shower and the one programme that gives a a very fine mist of water all around you. The best thing about these showers is the fragrance, every program smells different and not your normal run of the mill lavender and rose, proper interesting tones are being spritzed around you.

Igloo, a room I had never seen before in any other spa. This cold cabin provides you with a different way to cool down after the sauna. You have to rub your skin with fresh ice crystals that fall from the ceiling into a beautiful bowl. The ice rubbing sounds way more scary then it is, I absolutely loved it! the soft ice melt directly on your skin and is way more gentle then the cold shower you usually take after the sauna.

They also have Kneipp Foot Baths, foot massage with cold or warm water, a Tepidarium, a warm slightly humid area with heated ceramic loungers and a Relaxation Room.

After all this relaxation I had 2 treatments out of their big spa menu, an Indian Head Massage and a Reflexology Foot Massage. What is lovely is that your therapist comes and find you in the Thermal suite so you don't have to worry about the time and missing your appointment.
The treatment rooms are beautifully decorated and my therapist massaged every last bit of stress away. Of course it was over before you can say 'please Sir can I have some more' but the good thing is you can return to the Thermal suite for a bit more Sauna action.

Other things on the spa menu,
Rasul, a 21st century facility inspired by an ancient Middle Eastern custom of herbal steam and mud bathing.
Dry Float, individual body-wrap treatment were you are going to be cocooned in a warm water bed.
Decleor facial and body treatments
Ytsara Treatments, drawn upon centuries of healing tradition to experience the ultimate Asian spa journey. These relaxing and restoring treatments combine the sense of tropic smells with the soothing value of acupressure massage.
They also do special spa packages, one of them is  Golfers Revival (ideal after a round of golf) as the La Cala resort is Spain's largest golf complex with 60 holes to choose from. Sorry golfers I forgot to mention that as I find spa's way more interesting! :)
Other packages are the Eastern Promise, Tranquillity Escape and the Top to Toe treatment.
If you really want to treat yourself you can book yourself the 2 or 3 day distress&pamper programme, sound yummy!

For more information go to the La Cala website

I am just going to close my eyes and pretend I'm back in the outdoor Jacuzzi....

Your Friday giggle

To get you in the mood for the weekend.

I recently done a shoot with photographer Emma Tunbridge, one of my favourite images of the shoot is this crocodile boy. You cant help but smile.

Have a nice weekend!