Stefanie's H&M Trial!

Who: Stefanie
What: Wedding H&M Trial
When: Sunday, April 28

Thank you Brandon for introducing me to your sister, Stefanie! Meeting Stefanie was so much fun, and as we had the chance to share with one another during our H&M Trial, it turned out we had a lot in common! Yay for teachers! ... and super easy conversations, and similar approaches to relationships, and even to our one double eyelid vs. monolid!  :)

Makeup

Before and After #1



Before and After #2



Before and After #3
Making Stefanie's eyes pop was one of the things we focused on. With the thumbs up from Stefanie, I used some bolder lashes and rimmed her eyes using gel liner.


Hair

We ended up going with a half up-half down look, with some incorporated braids that Stefanie had requested.



Before and After
Front swoop and slight bump for some volume



Sides and profile views


Stefanie, you are an amazingly Godly woman and I'm so excited to hear of what future plans God has for you and Nathan, whether it be continuing on in both of your teaching, or possibly moving forward into missions work!

MUA and Hairstylist for a Retro Photoshoot!

Photo courtesy Jean Fernandez

What: Hair and Makeup for Retro Photoshoot

When: Saturday, April 27

Where: Santa Clara Studio

When George asked if I might be interested in helping out with a Retro photoshoot, I immediately knew I'd want to do it if all the timing worked out. And it did! Yay! There's something special about that era that I love... the simple bold eyes and daring lipcolor I'm especially drawn to.

As we were e-mailing back and forth with the details, it worked out that I would help our model Deanna with her hair too. I was excited and nervous since I had an idea for how the hair would look, but didn't know if it would turn out or not.

Thanks for the photo Bob! I started out with curling Deanna's hair first. We were on a time crunch, so the whole prep time for hair and makeup was under 1.5 hours. Eeks!

Before and After

I curled and pinned all of Deanna's hair first. While the curls were setting, we moved on to the makeup application

Please excuse the flash! I was using my iphone :)

Here are some of the things I did to achieve the retro look on Deanna:

- Flawless complexion

- Bold brows (I darkened them a bit from her natural brows and created a slightly higher arch)

- Thick, winged out upper liner with connections to lower outer lined bottom half

- Three tones of matte brown to create the look of a deeper crease

- Light application of blush on higher points of cheekbones

- Bold red liner to reshape lips to be slightly fuller and filled in with bold red lipcolor

With photographers waiting to get started, the finalizing of the look was a tight 5 minutes of letting the pins down, shaping the curls, hairspraying, and pinning one side back. Here's the final look!

I have to say it was a joy meeting Deanna and her mother Carlie. Both super nice and laid back, you could tell they have a wonderful relationship with one another. Chatting with Deanna was refreshing, hearing about the goals and plans she and her boyfriend (now fiance!) have for the future. Once makeup and hair were done, Deanna changed and slipped easily into model mode,  giving the photographers some great shot opportunities and poses.

A peek at the first set

George had built a set and described it with the following words:

       " Think smoky jazz bar, think vivacious blonde in 40's fashion, and you'll have the 'first' of two scenes for our shoot."

Photo courtesy Bob Stine

Photo courtesy Rennis Kaufman

I hung out for a bit between set changes and had a chance to meet most of the photographers. Again, super nice people with passions outside of their careers. A fun and diverse group with lots of energy :)

After they had a couple of rounds of shooting, there was a quick break as the set was changed. Deanna switched outfits and I was able to do some quick touch ups along with helping to add the black netting head piece.

Outfit change and hair addition

Gallery:

Photo courtesy Jean Fernandez

Photo courtesy Hannah

Photo courtesy Lynn

Great vision George! Being a part of the behind the scenes process is such a fun experience. There are plenty more AWESOME photos from this photoshoot that I couldn't highlight on my blog. Please click here to see more from this event!