January 2013 – MUAHbyAlex

Pageant Queens, Makeup, and …Butt glue?

Take a moment, clear your mind and imagine:

Your backstage… Surrounded by mountains of hair extensions, cans of hairspray, countless amount of lashes, enough powder that resembles a dusting of snow had fallen the night before, and let’s not forget …gallons of butt glue. What really goes on during a pageant? Who are these girls? & why do they go to bed dreaming of a crown and bouquet of flowers? Now let’s not be anti-feminist and judge, I mean after all some people may think it’s silly my dreams consist of makeup brushes and the perfect concealer pallet. But that doesn’t make anyone else’s dreams less real!

This was the first pageant that I was Key Artist for. I spent the week confirming other artists who would be doing touch ups, and discussing the event on conference calls. I was really happy I got my hair girls ( Alyse Camara, Chelsea Harris, Kyra Tarquinio & Lindsay Baxter) to participate also, along with my mua friend Jillian Vandenburg. I loved working with my fabulous team to make the VIPs and title holders look their absolute best. Setting up in the VIP room, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve worked on films and commercials where actresses think they are DIVA’s and the best thing since sliced bread. But this past weekend, that wasn’t the case. These girls were no drama queens, but simply beauty queens. Their beautiful looks are a perfect reflection of who they are; gorgeous, optimistic, intelligent and outgoing.

My first task was filming a tutorial along side of beautiful Keylee Sanders who is the owner and creator of Style Studio. I demonstrated on Sabrina Mastrangelo (Miss New York Teen USA 2012) focusing on highlighting and contouring (which is so important!). I then made my way back to the VIP room to continue Sabrina’s makeup along with the other title holders. These girls were absolutely gorgeous, with amazing personalities to match! Where are the TV camera’s when you need them? After bonding with these ladies, I’d much rather watch the real stories on pageant girls in a pageant world than drunk, teenage drama on MTV’s Buckwild. These title holders were talented, smart and definitely make a difference in our communities! They do so much charity work and have such high spirits. It’s also nice to see girls support each other! We need more of that!

Photos: Me & Sabrina, I gave her a glam look without over doing it. Her hair by Alyse Camara

Pageant makeup is such an important part of a winning image. Being a professional artist you MUST know which products will create the right effect on stage, which makeup will photograph beautifully, and which makeup will look perfect and flawless on television. (Especially with high definition these days!) You need to know skin tones, shadows, correcting colors, and shapes.

-MOISTURIZE &PRIME! All about primer. This will help your make up stay long wearing, smooth your skin and help set your shadows.

Good products are important but technique is ~~king~~— QUEEN! For interview, you want to have a flawless look, being conservative, pretty and age appropriate. For stage, you want to really contour and highlight, defining the contestants features. BLEND, BLEND, BLEND! Looking close in a mirror you might think your wearing too much makeup, but remember, your on stage, the lights are hitting you and your far from everyone. They can see the shape of your makeup but not every detail. I always put lashes on for a stage look! You also want to avoid any shine at all! No shine.

Photo: Second day of pageant Chelsea doing Sabrina’s hair right after I completed her makeup look

You don’t want to create the same look for every girl. Each person has their own different, beautiful features. Focus on enhancing their natural beauty. Different foundations are used based on the girl’s skin type. KNOW YOUR PRODUCTS! A lot of HD makeup was used. When it comes to eyes focus on which tones will bring out the eyes. When doing pageant makeup, you want to create Glamour -not drag. Remember long-wearing products are key. I also used high pigmented colors, not sheer colors. High pigmented colors will also be best against harsh camera flashes and intense stage lighting. Also want to say thank you to RAIN cosmetics for sponsoring and giving us some great colors to work with!

Photos: (1) I gave Ryanne Harms (Miss New Hampshire 2012) a nice smokey eye, smoothing out her skin tone and adding the perfect amount of blush to create a dramatic yet elegant look (2) Kelsea Campbell (Miss New Hampshire Teen 2013) Chelsea Harris did her hair giving her bounce and volume, as I used shades that brought out her beautiful eye color

My friend Jill doing Amber Faucher (Miss New Hampshire USA 2013) & Chelsea Harris doing her hair:

I also had the pleasure of applying makeup as my friend Alyse Camara styled hair for host Julissa Bermudez both nights. You will definitely recognize her from her show Empire Girls on Style network.. Or maybe you’ve seen her co host on BET’s 106 & park.. She’s hosted the MTV after hours and Jersey Shore reunions. She’s a fabulous actress, host and tv personality. This girl had such great, powerful energy. When I did her makeup for the second day of the pageant, she told me she admired the way I contoured her, as she showed me a photo of her on instagram from the night before. I could see why she was so wonderful, after talking to her mother who was also so down to earth and sweet as pie!

^Above is the photo Julissa showed me, that she took of herself after I applied her makeup giving her the perfect contoured nose!

I then applied makeup for host, Susie Castillo. Susie is a former beauty queen herself! She who held the Miss USA title and Miss Universe also hosted tv shows such as MTV’s TRL and appeared on multiple television shows. Me and Susie clicked as soon as we discovered our mutual love for a healthy life style. I became so excited as we discussed juicing, and healthy regimens. We exchanged numbers of course and I plan to have a healthy lunch date with her when I visit LA.

Beauty queens are just more than being beautiful. It’s about beauty and brains. These girls are an asset to our communities! I must say I definitely have a new found love for pageants and their queens after last weekend. I want to congratulate 2013’s Miss New York Joanne Nosuchinsky & Miss New York Teen Nikki Orlando. Excited for these ladies to represent New York! Hope to do more makeup for Miss New York again!

Photos: Me on stage right after crowning, doing touch ups for the 2013 Miss New York & Miss New York Teen USA

^ Letter of recommendation & the VIP hair & makeup room.. Can you guess what movie it’s from? BLACK SWAN!

Also Congrats to Heather Elwell first runner up in the Miss Maine USA pageant this past weekend. (Even though I think she should be in the next Victoria Secret Catalogue) & Thanks to Nancy Schuster for being awesome! Can’t wait to see all the professional photos from Tess Johnson !

I also got to be the makeup artist for Music Choice last week. Music Choice is a company that programs music and produces music-related content for digital cable TV & mobile phones. If you have an iPhone, download their App., allowing you to access all 46 music channels and related music videos while on the go. While I was there we filmed a commercial for Valentines Day. Eh, more like an Anti-Valentine’s Day commercial. I can’t wait to see the finished product, the commercial was too funny! What wasn’t funny, was trying to catch a taxi home at 5pm back to Grand Central!

On another exciting note, I found out my work along with hair stylist Chelsea Harris’s work has been published in the new hardcover 2013 Inspire Book. Salons & brides be on the look out as we take over page 6 & 7 !

Photo:Alicia King

Here is one of the prints I got back from my shoot I did makeup for with Nastasia Scott.. You’ve seen her on the latest season’s America’s Next Top Model 😉

Photographer: Lora Warnick Stylist: Dawn Notaro & Hair: Anthony Terry

Okay, that’s enough catching up for a week. Be sure to tune into Syfy’s FACE OFF tomorrow night and root for my friend MEAGAN! She is fabulous and her work is amazing and so creative. This week is filled with brides. Bring on the bridezillas! This week I used RAIN Cosmetics lip sticks, glosses and eye shadows. Rain Cosmetics sponsored Miss New York USA & I fell in love with their highly pigmented shadows, and long lasting lip colors! Xoxo

DIY winter beauty regimens

I can’t lie and say I don’t love waking up to a beautiful snowfall in the morning, but lets be honest… This dragging winter has left us with much larger issues than shoveling fatigue. I’m talking dry skin, dry, dull hair strands, and dry feet (ew) that hasn’t seen much… besides the inside of our winter boots. Ladies (and fabulous gents) please if your hair and body is feeling a bit parched this season, take some time out for yourself to whip up some of these DIY beauty regimens, so you’ll be sitting pretty this winter!

Body scrub for dry skin
¼ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
15 drops peppermint essential oil
½ cup used coffee grounds from a freshly brewed pot

Combine ingredients in a medium bowl and thoroughly blend. Transfer the scrub to a wide mouthed jar, and store in a cool place until ready to use. The scrub will keep a little over a week. Make sure to keep refrigerated! This is a treatment thats used in Thai spas and a luxurious start to any cold day.

Mask for Dry Skin
½ avocado
¼ cup honey

Mash the avocado in a bowl, then stir in honey. Apply to skin and leave for 10 minutes, then rinse.

Eye De-Puffer
2 chamomile or green tea bags

Make a cup of tea for yourself to enjoy, while admiring the winter wonderland outside your house. Remove tea bags and place in refrigerator until chilled. Place cool tea bags on closed eyes for 10 minutes.

Smooth Dry Hands & Feet

Mix 1/4 tsp of olive oil and 1/4 tsp of sugar and massage into the backs of hands & feet. The oil will soften, while sugar removes scaly, dead skin cells.

For Dry Hair:

A quarter cup of coconut oil, two tsp of extract, one tbsp of apple cider vinegar, and 1 cup of warm water. Microwave the coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl for 30 seconds then mix ingredients. Coconut oil helps seal the cuticle of the hair, also leaving the hair super shiny and packed with tons of protein! So important for healthy hair !! Leave on for 15 minutes then rinse with cool water.

On another note, who watched the season premiere of syfy’s FACE OFF last night?! If you have not watched this show, and your a makeup junkie like me GO WATCH! It has some of the most beautiful and creative work on television.

My good friend Jason competed on the last season of the show, soon after, landing a job on Saturday Night Live. Go Jason! This season, the challenges are most intense than they’ve ever been and I’m happy to say, my other friend Meagan is a contestant on the show. We attended her premiere party last night and was pleasantly (not surprised) that she won the first challenge. So excited for her and to watch the rest of the season!

Ok! Tea & American Horror Story time.. This weekend you can find me doing makeup for the Miss New York pageant ! I am so excited that I’m key makeup artist. 🙂 I will keep you posted!

Xoxo

A Beautilicious Weekend!

Ahh.. Weekends are always a fabulous time to recharge and relax.. unless your a makeup artist named Alexandria. It’s been a work hard kinda week which is great in my opinion, but exhausting. This week seemed to fly by, don’t you think? I started my week off in Brooklyn shooting a DirecTV commercial, followed by another commercial shoot. The second shoot was a corporate commercial for hospitals around the country. Gary from Christine Studios produced the shoot, and the crew from Moving Pictures directed and filmed it. These guys are legit. I love working with them! I met them working weddings. If your a bride that needs photography or videography, PLEASE check out Christine Studios & Moving Pictures. You won’t be disappointed.

While we are on the topic of brides, a brief background about me…. I’ve been a makeup artist for about 4 years now, working all types of jobs including entertainment and photo shoots, but I specialize in bridal makeup. I recently won Best of 2013 from the Knot. I get a lot of brides asking if I travel and I do! In addition to makeup, I work with fabulous hair stylists that I love doing weddings with! Some of these stylists you can find at Salon 52 in Poughkeepsie. This past weekend we threw an event at the salon, “Blow dry bootcamp”. My job was to give mini makeup lessons and tutorials to new clients. 30 minute one on one sessions. I had all the ladies bring their own makeup. I think it’s great for ladies to learn how to apply the makeup they already have correctly, and learn to create their best looks with their own products! All the proceeds we made that night were donated to a hurricane sandy relief. The event was successful and I can not wait to do it again!

Today, I did a cover shoot with gorgeous model Nastasia Scott, 20, from Cycle 19 of America’s next top model.

Such a beauty inside and out. Our shoot today was so fun! We didn’t just do our jobs, but singed and danced and laughed all day! She’s still going to school, even though she’s signed with the top modeling agencies in the world which is awesome. She is determined to finish her degree no matter what. I did the makeup, while Anthony “Hollywoodstylist” Terry styled her locks. Anthony and I bonded immediately after Nastasia asked what skin care products I recommended for her and we both quickly replied with “Hylunia!” haha you beauties know how much I love HYLUNIA products and anyone that loves it as much as me! I also want to shout out our lovely photographer today, Lora Warnick ; stylist, Dawn from Dawn of New York ; & videographer, Harry B from HarryBVideos !

Alright, I am a bit of an awards season junkie & I’m about to log off to finish watching the Golden Globes as I’m studying the hair and makeup.. (and loving that Tina Fey & Amy Poehler are hosting this show) but just to answer a few quick questions I’ve received recently….

…My favorite foundation: Makeup Forever HD

…My favorite eye-shadow primer: Potion by Urban Decay

…My favorite hair treatment: It’s a 10 Miracle Mask (sulfate free)

…Favorite pressed powder: MAC mineral skin finish

Everyone enjoy the rest of your Sunday !

XO,

What makeup is right for you?

The wrong makeup can make your skin or acne worse! Being a makeup artist I tell ALL of my clients this. People with less than perfect skin (including myself!) Can NOT use heavy foundation and oily concealers! Your skin will never clear up if your not using the right products for your face. The only time I’ve used heavy foundation and powders was for commercials or films I was working on. Every major makeup company now makes oil-free foundations!

My favorite foundation to use on myself and for all my brides is Makeup Forever foundation.

The MUFE HD Foundation is housed in a typical plastic bottle which comes with a pump that dispenses just the right amount of product. I find this foundation makes the skin soft with a dewy finish. The coverage is pretty good for a liquid foundation – it covers most imperfections such as fainted acne marks, freckles etc. It lasts about 5-6 hours on me looking fresh. Best of all it photographs very well.

When I don’t use foundation, I use tinted moisturizer.

Laura Mercier is my favorite! This is mainly what I use during the summer. It contains SPF which is always a plus 🙂

My favorite concealer right now is Laura Mercier’s secret camouflage.

The Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage is a two-shade compact concealer. There are currently eight shade combinations available. The one I use is SC-2. This product is for use on any part of the face that you want to even out. Two shades give you some leeway to mix the product to match your undertone. The consistency is that of a firm cream. I find that it works very well for spot concealing. You can find this online, or at your local sephora.

I also have a love for Erase Paste by benefit.

The tub of product is incredibly tiny for $26 (just .15 oz), but thankfully you only need a VERY tiny bit to get the job done, so this product lasts me a very long time! This concealer comes in three different shades: Fair, Medium and Dark .. I use No. 2 Medium shade. It’s great for colour correcting if you have dark under eye circles or a red pimple! It’s also a dream to blend. You can find both of these products at Sephora.

For people with oily skin, use mineral foundations, it helps your skin become matte for longer. I like a “dewy” look so I add High beam by benefit to my every day routine for some extra glow.

Urban decay has a great spray called “dew me” which is a setting spray, also creating that glowing finish.

Here’s a photo from my makeup space yesterday, working on set for a DirecTV commercial:

I’m filming for another commercial again this week, then booked up Friday with one-on-one makeup lessons and tutorials! If you have any other makeup questions, please ask! Love to all readers! Be positive, stay hard working, and be beautilicious ALWAYS!

XO!

Would you like a cup of tea?

Hello beauties! Hope the start to your 2013 has been great so far! I’ve been focusing so much on work. As Confucius once said, “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”… easier said then done right? I absolutely love what I do, but work is still work. This year lets cheers to pushing our comfort zones a bit more. This year I’m hoping to focus my efforts and seek out opportunities that excite me the most. You see, I’m a little all over the place, constantly diving into various projects. I get bored too easily, and constantly need to be booking a job, or doing the next best thing to get me to my goal.

I am happy to say I am key makeup artist for the Miss New York USA pageant this month, and will be in charge of 2o other artists. I’m hoping to meet Trump before the event, I would love to get my hands on his hair to fix it up a bit 😉 I also just booked a job doing makeup for a Bank of America shoot next week and 15 upcoming weddings for this year so far. The thing with being a makeup artist is you never know who your going to meet, and what jobs are going to come your way. It’s a very hectic, busy, colorful lifestyle but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Makeup & hair for Miss Samantha DeRosa for her big concert last night!

But now I’d like to take a moment to discuss tea. Tea is my second favorite love after makeup and slightly before my collection of Yankee candles. Ever since watching Alice in Wonderland, I’ve been a fan of tea. I mean, how can you not? I will confess, I’m a tea drinker all year long. You will find me sipping on hot the from the depths of winter to the blazing hot summer.I have always loved the idea of tea time. Tea time is definitely one of the main highlights of my day. It has become not only a love, but an obsession. It reawakens my senses in the morning and then rejuvenates my body at the end of a crazy, hectic day.

Tea is warming, soothing and welcoming. Did you know that after water, tea is the second most commonly consumed beverage in the world? With many health benefits, a well-earned tea break can be the “healthy way” to relax, calm ourselves, and help us catch our breath in the bustle of our busy days.

Thank you to the ancient Chinese emperor for discovering tea, after his servant boiled drinking water after some leaves accidentally blew into the water. So I guess I should thank his servant too. There are so many varieties of tea- green, white, black, herbal, red, etc.

A tea bag is great for my quick cup of tea, but I love taking loose tea and taking a few minutes to brew it. It’s a ritual for me. Saturday afternoons I like to get lunch and tea at the local tea room with friends. I’ve hosted a handful of tea parties. Whats better than sipping on herbs sharing your week with your ladies, while enjoying the smell of earthy-tea aromas and delicious finger foods and scones? mmm.. not much.

The first photo is of a tea pot I made and painted at a pottery place & the next is my favorite set my bf bought me for my birthday 🙂

Ahh.. there is nothing better than a good cup of tea. You can sit back enjoying this beverage that not only tastes so good but does you good. Now that is refreshing. Happy tea drinking to all! May ALL of your dreams and goals happen in 2013!

Live well.

xo,