The Magic Of Alcone Sponges.

If you go on any makeup forum and ask what the best sponge is many makeup artists will tell you ALCONE. I got my grubby little hands on a whole bag of them at the IMATS and let me tell you...these are heaven sent. These non-latex sponges apply liquid and cream foundations like a dream and give you the most beautiful, even coverage. They are washable and bio-degradable and have been voted the "best makeup sponge" by InStyle magazine. These babies won't crumble or turn yellow on you and are water based so they won't soak up all of your precious foundation. I LOVE to use them wet to give lighter coverage. Look at how much bigger the wet sponge is on the left:

I used to mix Fix+ in with my foundation for lighter coverage but this was just so much easier for me. It cuts down on time and believe me, these are a must have!

Photoshoot with Jennifer..

Happy Monday everyone! This weekend I had the opportunity to team up with an awesome aspiring stylist, and an upcoming photographer. This shoot was a lot of fun. Our model was Jennifer, a bubbly personality that photographed beautifully. My inspiration for this shoot was Teen Vogue. The sylist, Ishmael has a great eye for fashion and all I did was tell him my vision, and this is what transpired! AMAZING! I couldn't have asked for anything better.

For her look, I wanted to keep it very fresh faced and youthful. We went very mininal on the eyes with a little bit of OCC's loose colour in Gecko in the lover lash line. On the lips we used MAC's lipliner in Chicory with MAC's Lipglass in Full on Lust. Her cheeks were warmed up with MAC's Gingerly and Breezy mixed together to give her a beautiful glow.

I also did her hair. I'm pretty good with my own hair but haven't really done others. I added body and volume by adding in clip on extensions and curled all her hair with a 1 inch curling iron. I back combed all the curls to give her that big, what we called, "Danity Kane" hair. LOL. I was very happy at the end result and will definately start offering light hair styling in the future

Not bad for my directoral debut huh? I was soooo pleased with all of the pictures!







This is an editorial page that Ishmael put together. He's using this for his portfolio. I envy his photoshop skills..because I have NONE! lol.

Reader's Request: How I Contour..

Good morning all my fellow beauty lovers! I received a reader's request the other day to show you all how I contour. I love hearing from you guys and getting feedback so if there is anything you'd like to request let me know! Contouring the face is a great way to sculpt the face without plastic surgery. If you aren't happy with something, then shade it! The key is knowing where to apply the darker color and what color to actually use. Something that is a quick fix is to shade in the cheekbone. This can instantly slim the face and make your cheek bones look way higher. I used this trick right after having the baby because I had gained so much weight in my face. I also occasionally shade around the nose area to slim the bridge of the nose.

My reader asked about the contouring of the cheeks specifically but I will be doing the whole face just to show you guys. I LOVE using MAC's Mineralize Skinfinish Natural pressed powder in DARK. Its just a couple of shades darker that my natural skintone and has a beautiful finish to it. It gives my skin a glow and adds some color to it without looking orangey like some bronzers. Some other good products to use are bronzers, cream foundations (a bit more complicated), or any other powder that is a few shades darker than your skintone. I've heard of other artists using eye shadows and blushes as well. My old MAC trainer even told me Lil Kim used to use Carbon e/s! That's a bit much I'd say.

Mineralized Skinfinish Natural in DARK:

Start by applying your usual foundation. Note: If you do use a powder foundation, you'll find that using a powder product to contour the skin gets a bit troublesome because powder doesn't stick to powder all that well. I used MAC's Studio Fix Fluid in NC40 sheered out with a wet Alcone Sponge.

Then, I take a fluffy powder brush, get the very point of the brush saturated in the MSF powder and go back in forth at the top of the forehead. Half of the brush is literally in your hairline. See how pale I look?

Then, you want to suck your cheeks in and shade in the bottom of your natural cheekbone. Use a swiping motion with the brush and take the brush up to your temple.
Next, shade in the jawline. You just want the best transition between the face and neck just as you would with foundation application.

Last, but not least, add your blush. Be careful as to not go past the apples of your cheeks because it would defeat the whole purpose of contouring the cheeks. You wouldn't want to just blend your blush and contour color together because it can look muddy.
In the end, the cheeks should look sculpted like this:

Do you see the difference? I love how tan it makes me look. I don't like to tan my face too much and this really helps me when my face is lighter than the rest of my body. Hope this helps!

Special Look for a B-Day Girl!

Happy hump day everyone! I just wanted to share a makeover I did a while ago in April for a 16th birthday! It was Amanda's sweet sixteen and her dress has so many vivid colors in it. We chose to do pinks and purples and this is what I came up with! The main color on the lid is MAC's Parfait Amour e/s (LOVE IT) and the crease color is MAC's Passionate e/s. On the lips we put MAC's Racy l/g from the 3-D lipglasses that came out a long time ago. I really wanted to keep it age appropriate but still have a little fun since it was such a big day for her. Enjoy the pics!

New Domain Name!

Hey everyone! I've changed my domain name so my new one is http://makeupbycamilla.com.

You can also email me at eclecticbeauty@makeupbycamilla.com


Toodles!

IMATS Haulage.

I am officially obsessed with Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics! The pigmentation of their products is bananas and they are nothing short of innovative. Many of the colors they offer are colors that you usually don't see in many cosmetic brands out there and they are geared toward the professional makeup artist. Almost all of their products are made to mix and I was soooooo happy to visit their booth. I love this quote from a interview David Klasfield, the founder, "Because you're ready for something different, better and new. Because you love colour as much as we do. And like our dual motto's say: Because you don't need to be 'made over'. Because you're over the counter." Aren't you sometimes over the counter? I know I am! They variations of colors they carry are amazing and they can be used in so many different ways. Their stuff is cruelty-free and that's a big plus too!

I came to the IMATS for one thing really, LIP TARS! I dreamt about them. I envisioned all of the crazy mixes I could come up with. I read about them. I looked at swatches and picked out the ones I wanted and when I saw all the glossy goodness at their booth, it was love at first swatch. I also loved the texture of the loose colors so I picked up some of those as well. David Klasfield was the person helped me and I felt like I was in the presence of makeup royalty. I plan on pressing the loose colors and he instructed me on how to do so. I can't wait to do it! Here's my OCC haulage:

Loose colors (from left to right): Glisten, Platonic, Burning, Iced, and Lafayette.

Lip Tars (from left to right): Grandma, Feathered, Clear, Tarred, NSFW, Katricia, Safety Orange, and Vintage.
With Flash: Clear, Feathered, Tarred, Vintage, Saftey Orange, NSFW, Katricia, Grandma

no flash:

No flash: Burning, Iced, Glisten, Platonic, Lafayette

From top to bottom: Lafayette, Glisten, Burning, Platonic, Iced

Here is a look I did using Glisten all over my lid, MAC's MSF pressed powder in Dark in my crease, and MAC's Nanogold e/s on my highlight. The possiblilities with the loose colors are endless. You can add a little mixing medium to them to make them stick or use them as a beautiful liner. I wanted to do a bronzey look using minimal product just to go out for Father's Day. The lip colors I used were two parts Grandma to one part feathered. I also added a little clear gloss on top.

Here's the look:

In conclusion, OCC has something to be very proud of. The lip tars are like nothing I've ever experienced and I regret not getting all of them for the great show price of $10! The texture is great and it spreads like a freaking dream. They dry to a satin finish and stay on like no other. You literally need just a tiny amount to cover your lips so they will last you a very long time. They are cost effective at $12.50 for the lip tars and $10 for the loose colors as well so they don't hurt your wallet!

I NEED the airbrush kit in my life now! Has anyone used it?

IMATS 2009! UPDATE!

This weekend has definately been a memorable one! I got off of work Friday and got home at 4:45 and packed like a mad woman. My little brother was going to be here at 5PM and I hadn't packed yet. I grabbed my essentials, kissed the baby, kissed the fiance, and we started our roadtrip. The drive was entertaining as I was with my bestie, Maegan, my littlest brother, Nikko, and his good friend, Susan.

We arrive at the Hilton in Pasadena at around midnight and just kick it in the room. We had a big deal ahead of us. I had to be home early Sunday morning for my father's day suprise for Ryan so I wasn't able to go to the blogger Pow Wow. I was so sad because I had cut my bangs especially for the Lady Gaga theme! I decided to wear my Gaga inspired outfit to the IMATS so that it didn't go to waste. Check out my Gaga outfit:

As soon as we got to the IMATS we took the Eve Pearl seminar at 10am. She was so inspirational and made me want to be a better freelance artist. She offered awesome tips on how to create jobs for yourself and to really take pride in all of your work. Here she is doing a makeover and showcasing her amazing products:

Here I am with the gorgeous Marlena of MakeupGeekTV! I love watching her tutorials and her site is sooooooo cool!

The body art at the different booths was spectacular and the student contest was INSANE. The artistry behind these looks is breathtaking and I felt crazy inspired! It was like I was in makeup heaven!

Meeting all of the blogger babes was so cool! It's nice to hear voices of the people you've been commenting back and forward with! You guys were all soooooo nice! I wish I could've been at the Pow Wow with you guys! I'm sure you all had a blast and danced the night away :)

My bestie Maegan is now doing her little soul searching in the world of cosmetics! I've converted another one!

Here I am with the always fabulous Maxi! He was seen on the show Blush, and was definately drawing the crowd over the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics booth. His personality is so warm and flambouyant and he was truly an amazing person to meet in the makeup world. I can see why he's made it in the business. People LOVE him!

After the IMATS and checking out of our hotel, we found this ALL YOU CAN EAT sushi spot and decided to drop by there before we walked around Melrose. They happened to just start the all you can eat sushi THAT DAY and we were their first customers to try it out! It was $20 per person, and the only rule was that you had to finish everything! You can't take anything home or else they charge you $1 a piece. We killed like 11 rolls and you better believe we ordered all the expensive shizz..lobster rolls baby!

Susan and I being silly with the gigantic Rainbow flip flop outside of their store on Melrose:

This weekend was definitely great and I won't forget it. I was with great company and found some cool stuff. I'll be posting more consistently now (hopefully) and next up will be my new set bag! It's freaking awesome and I plan on using it in a gothic shoot I have coming up.

It's monday tomorrow! BOO!

EDIT: To all the beauty bloggers I've met, I'm sooooo sorry that I couldn't hang out more! I had a limited amount of time and pretty much ran laps around the convention center and had to leave by 1pm. You are all more gorgeous in person! I was a bit nervous coming in like,"What if they don't like me? What if they're expecting something different?" But you all were just as I imagined...nice, warm, welcoming, and fab! I admit, you are all more petite than I though..lol. But I love you all and I'm glad we got to connect there!

Back in Cali! He Proposed!

Hey all my loveys! I'm back from my amazing vacation in Disney World in Orlando, Florida and I'm so sad to be back. Don't get me wrong, I missed the baby dearly but it was the best trip I have ever been on. Disney is a great place to bring your family together because it creates an environment of happiness and joy. Before I met Ryan, I had not been to Disneyland in CA in about 12 years. After we went once, I was hooked. It made me appreciate my youth and I was not afraid to be a kid for a few hours while I was there. There are four theme parks and two water parks. The Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, The Epcot Center, Disney's Hollwood Studios, Disney's Blizzard Beach, and Typhoon Lagoon. We didn't want to swim in kiddie pee water so we avoided the water parks and swam at our resort (which was AMAZING as well).

Park hopping between the parks was so hard considering that the parks are MILES away. I figured it would be like Disneyland and California Adventure where you can just walk across and enter the other park. You have to take buses between the parks and we had to shuttle from our hotel. The taxis were ridiculous amounts so we avoided those.

We got to our resort at about 6PM and we wanted to get to the Magic Kingdom to make our reservations at the Cinderella's Round Table Restaurant at 9PM. We were both tired so we hung out and took our time getting ready before finally leaving. Our hotel shuttle arrived and we didn't realize that they stop at EVERY park before the Magic Kingdom so we were stressed about being late. We finally got to the park at 9PM and smashed threw the crowds while a parade was going on so we were a bit nervous about missing our reservation. We finally got through and checked in. We take a picture with Cinderella and I'm just soaking everything in. WE'RE HERE!! I'd been waiting for this vacation for so long and it feels amazing to be spending this time alone with Ryan. We get seated at the head of the castle in front of everyone. The stain glass window to my left looks over all of Fantasyland which is my favorite part of Disney ever. The always spectacular fireworks show was beginning and the sky was lighting up in beautiful colors. Our appetizers come out and mine comes as a pillow on a plate with a diamond ring on top of it. I look down and think, "wow Disney gives out nice stuff with their dinners!" (cuz Ryan had to prepay the dinner! :) Ryan get down on his knee and starts to say something and I'm just like, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" so many emotions are going through my head I don't even hear anything he's saying until he gets to, "I love you, will you marry me?" Everyone in the restaurant is cheering and I cry in my hands, look at him and say, "YES!" I stand up and hug him. We kiss and I realize my makeup probably looks like a hot streaky mess but at this point I don't care. I wipe it with my hands and we sit and eat our dinner. I'm so shocked and I had no clue he was going to propose. Everything went perfectly and I'm in awe!

The proposal just set the tone for the whole trip. I went to Disney World and had an amazing time at all of the parks, but the Animal Kingdom was the best one! We're thinking of honeymooning there with the family first, then taking a cruise ship from there to the Carribean alone ;) Here's some eye candy for you guys! The pics are in backward order so the pics taken right after the proposal are the last ones!

Our last day:

Our picture from Aerosmith's Rocking Rollercoaster!
My fave Disney shirt by far!


Check out the rock! He did really well!

The gorgeous Epcot at night.













Our new ears from our engagement basket.

Isn't it just beautiful?
Right after popping the question.

I don't have a boyfriend anymore! I have a FIANCE!