Orange You Know I'm Engaged?

Ok, I know, my title isn't the best, but it's the end of the day and my brain is fried.

Dylan and I took our engagement photos with our amazing photographer, Rustin Michael, at Paramount Studios' New York Street last month. We both starting working for CBS at Paramount and have a lot of memories there together. We still go on movie premiere dates and actually live in walking distance of the studio, so to be able to take photos there was incredible and super meaningful. I was pretty nervous at first because I'm not used to being a "model," and it was so hard not to laugh while staring at Dylan's pores about 2 inches away from his face the whole day, but we really had a blast.

I've talked about Lime Crime's My Beautiful Rocket shade of lipstick, and I think it's worth bringing up again since I wore it here. We did a heck of a lot of kissing, and while Dylan's face was covered in orange stains, the lipstick did stay on pretty darn well. I didn't even touch up for the four-hour shoot! It was so creamy and really popped in the photos. I'm so over the red lipstick look and I didn't want to do some boring nude color, so My Beautiful Rocket was the perfect choice. Clients love it too. This is a must for every artist's kit. 

 

Click Rustin's link below to see the whole shoot!

Photographer: Rustin Michael Photography

Venue: Paramount Studios

Hair Stylist: Ella-Maria Alonzo

LIP PRODUCTS USED

MAC Pro Long Wear Lip Pencil in What A Blast

Lime Crime's My Beautiful Rocket



Derek's World

Two weeks ago I had the honor of painting a very good (and very pregnant) friend of mine's belly, Sharon.  She and her husband John were expecting their first baby on November 21st and well, baby couldn't wait that long. She gave birth ONE WEEK after we did this photo shoot on November 14th to a healthy baby boy weighing in at 9 lbs, 8 oz! We made it just in time lol. Since John and Sharon have always been travelers and have gone all over the world together, we came up with a "world" theme. Here are some photos of the process shot by Mr. Photographer/Dad Extraordinaire, John Ejimofor.

I started out by tracing the shapes of the continents on Sharon's belly. The baby was fluttering around here.

Then I filled in the "water" first with the light blue in the MUF Flash Palette and set it with MAC's Light  Blue pigment.

Cappy loves pregnant people lol

Momma was such a good sport

Next I filled in the continents with MUF Flash Palette's green color and set it with various MAC green eye shadows.

Mid Action

I left Antarctica white, because let's face it... it's icy cold!

So fun!

The blue dots represent all the places John and Sharon have traveled to. The heart is over L.A., where the baby is :)

Momma likes glitter, so we did a sparkly baby plane

Isn't he a cutie?

She literally has the whole world in her hands

We went with a mother nature theme, isn't she radiant?

And finally, without further adieu...

Welcome to the world, Derek John Ejimofor!

November Plaid

Happy Thanksgiving Week! I found this cute design on Cute Polish's Youtube page and gave it a whirl. I was inspired by the leaves turning colors this month and was looking for a "fall nails" look to do, and this was perfect. It was a little harder to do than some of my other nail art designs but well worth it. My cuticles are a little sloppy here, but the nails looked SO cool in person! I got compliments everywhere I went. I think the secret to them looking so cool was the base color I chose. I went with OPI's 18K Ginza Gold, which is a buttery marigold with tiny silver flecks. It's like an orange pumpkin that's turned yellow from the sun. *Sigh* I love fall....

PRODUCTS USED

Kiss Nail Artist Paint in White, Black and Gold Glitter

OPI's "18K Ginza Gold" as a base

October's Shop & Tell

Hi peeps!

I'm a little late on posting this but I recently went Halloween makeup shopping and wanted to share some of the items I purchased with you. Click below to watch my "Shop & Tell."

You can find the products below at http://shop.cinemasecrets.com/

Party Girl (Katy Perry) Wig -- So fun! The wig looks great out of the bag and the curls are easy to manage.

Flesh Latex-- Works great. I dribbled some onto my face and neck for a "melted skin" appearance on Halloween eve and it totally worked. I just dabbed on some concealer in my skin tone on top and it was good to go.

Super Sealer spray -- I sprayed some over mine and my fiance's Halloween looks and it worked pretty well. I also used some recently for a maternity painting and it worked so good that I got a text from the mom-to-be the next day saying the painting was STILL on!

Black lipstick-- I was SO bummed because this Cinema Secrets-brand lipstick came out super sheer and looked like Clinique's Black Honey lipstick shade.

Glow in the Dark Body Gel-- Total waste. It smelled funny and felt gross. And didn't even glow.

You can find the products below at http://www.naimies.com/

Elegant Lashes-- According to a trusty friend, these lashes are from the same distributor as MAC's eye lashes. I have to agree because they went on just like MAC's lashes do and worked fabulously. $2.99 a pair and probably the best purchase I made all day.

Beauty Blender-- This adorably bright pink teardrop-shaped little wonder is amaze-balls. My foundation has never looked better. I absolutely love the pointy end to get into the nooks and crannies (like around your nose and eyes). The best part is that this sponge, unlike others, actually washes out and is reusable. And it better be, for $18 a pop!

MUF Eyebrow Corrector-- I love this stuff! I've talked about this fab eye brow filler before on my blog, but it's worth a second look. If you don't believe me, ask recent convert Allyson Stagg, who now swears by the number 0 shade. I'm a number 3 girl myself.

MUF Mate Velvet-- I'm pretty happy with this medium coverage, matte finish foundation. It keeps up with me as I work, make meetings and appointments, hit the gym, walk the dog and make dinner.

MUF Flash Palette-- The colors go on beautifully and did really well when I used them with MAC's Invisible Set Powder for body painting. However, I found that they moved and melted when I used them to draw intricate designs. Bottom line is, it's a great palette for body painting, not so much staying power on the face.

Nail File-- It's aight. I've had better.

iHate Products

Advanced Home Active Brazilian Peel

MAC Pro Long Wear Foundation

Monster Bride-To-Be

Halloween was SO much fun this year! Here I am as the Bride of Frankenstein. Dylan found the costume online discounted for $16. I found the wig ($27) at Cinema Secrets in Burbank. This was my first time concealing my own eyebrows, and I got the biggest kick out of it. I feel like if Lady Gaga was to dress up as the Monster Bride, this is what it would look like. Enjoy!



Lovin on my Lil' Monster



PRODUCTS USED

Face: Makeup For Ever Mat Velvet foundation, MAC's Studio F/X powder in Lavender
Lower Eye Lid: MAC eyeshadow in Nocturnelle
Upper Eye Lid: Makeup For Ever's Flash Palette in green as base, MAC pigment in Chartreuse, MAC eye shadows in Bitter, Velvet Moss, Femme Noir, MAC Crystalized Yellow Glitter
Eyebrows: concealed with glue stick, covered up with various MAC concealers, and set with MAC Invisible Set Powder. New shape drawn on with MAC Fluidline in Black Track.
Lips: MAC Velvetella lip liner and Cinema Secrets black lipstick.
Face and Neck: Contouring done with MAC's Bark and Scene eye shadows.
Stitches: Makeup For Ever Flash Palette in black
Melted skin effect: Cinema Secrets Flesh Latex and MAC Select Coverup.



Lil Frankies

I took this idea from GoldieStarling on Youtube. It worked well since Dylan was Frankenstein for Halloween. This design is SO easy to do, it's ridiculous. It was time consuming, but totally worth it.

What You Will Need

A white polish

Black nail art polish (that comes with a brush)

Bright green polish

A bobby pin

STEPS

• Paint two coats of the green polish
• Carefully draw on Frankie's "hair and sideburns"
• Take the ball end of your bobby pin, dip it in the white polish and draw two eyeballs on each nail.
• Use your black nail art pen/polish to draw on eyebrows, pupils and the mouth with stitches. DONE!

Franken-Fiance

What...a good sport. Right? Here's my monster lover, who was basically the happiest Frankstein I've ever seen. I'm totally swooning at the fact that he allows me to dress him up like this once a year, and doesn't even complain when the makeup takes two days to remove. I didn't have a lot of time, as I had to get both of us ready for a party in the O.C. and my parents were in town helping me with wedding stuff, but here's what I came up with. Enjoy!

What a looker

PRODUCTS USED:

Cinema Secrets Cream Makeup Stack in Undead
Woochie monster bolts
Cinema Secrets Frankenstein foam latex prosthetic
Spirit gum
Cinema Secrets Flesh Latex
MAC eye shadows in Swimming, Nocturnelle, Velvet Moss and Femme Noir
Makeup Forever's Flash Palette in black and green
MAC Paint Stick (in the dark purple shade, I forget the name, but it's only sold in Pro stores)
MAC Invisible Set Loose Powder