This book is called “Wonderland” and is the brain child of the incredible Design Army , The Washington Ballet, and a photographer whose style takes one’s breath away, Cade Martin.

I have since received some of my best works through the Design Army/Cade combination and this is where it all started. I got a call to do about 4 scenes for The Washington Ballet and in no way knew this would be an amazingly grand production when getting into it. I walked into the Meridian House in Washington D.C. and saw all the lights, the fog, the costumes, the dancers, and already knew this would be unlike anything else I worked on before.

Oh, what it would be like to set up in a room like this all the time.

We started with our first dancers of the day, George Washington and King George III, also known as the Nutcracker and the Rat King. Septime Webre, dancer and extroidinary choreogapher for the Washington Ballet showed them what he would like to see in their upcoming scene they were playing out for Cade’s camera. I was fortunate enough to have my blackberry camera on me to get a few shots but not as fortunate to have a camera that worked very well. Alas, I wanted to include some of the behind the scenes shots to show the energy and hard work that went into this production.

Septime Webre showing the dancers the moves for the next shot.

That was practice, this was the magical moment that got caputred once they were on set.

Excerpt from the Washington Ballet Commemorative "Wonderland" Book

We had a couple more shots for a scene from “Carmen” and “The Nutcracker” as well as one of the bigger scale setups for The Nutcracker in which a number of children toy soldiers took part in.

Scene from "Carmen" of The Washington Ballet

Ballerina waiting for her cue for a "Nutcracker" scene

It was finally time for the last shot of the day which was a huge production. Tons of cute children and their parents took over the Meridian entrance in costumes of soldiers, bunnys, and even the older children donned outfits of scary rat soldiers! I think the pictures say it all…

They were all ready and gearing up to go outside and play their part. The young girl, Talia Statesman, who plays Claire in “The Nutcracker” was such a breath of fresh air. She was so talented, sweet, and so excited to be getting her hair and makeup done. I don’t think either of us was ready for the scene outside. On this chilly  fall day Cade and the Design Army created a misty morning scene with streaks of sunlight bursting through the trees. It was truly breathtaking in person and I have proof of just how much so. While I was playing a stand in for the moment I quickly snapped a pic with my dissapointing Blackberry camera phone without even framing the picture. When I went to look at what I caught of the ambiance this is what I saw staring back at me. 

These girls were ready to go and while the Rat Soldiers took their places I went back up to the front and grabbed a few more shots of the craziness.

With all that went into the shot, this is the stunning peice that came out of it!

I can’t stress enough how honored I was to work on such a magnificent piece and am looking forward to receiving my own book for my coffee table to share with my family. This Washington D.C. based book (The Capitol building is right on the cover of one of the editions!)  would make a wonderful gift for the Holidays for anyone from adults, to children, to artists alike! You can find the books at the Kennedy Center right now or order them online at The Washington Ballet’s website.

Tags: Cade Martin, Design Army, Featured, Hair and Makeup, Meridian House, The Nutcracker, Washington Ballet, Wonderland

Lots has happened since my last string of posts on my beloved blog, so I have a lot of catching you up to do! One great opportunity my husband, Luis Aragon, and I had was to do a beauty lip story for The Powder Group’s “On Makeup Magazine”.  Here is a behind the scenes look at what went down at Studio 400 in Washington D.C. for this shoot.

On Makeup Magazine Behind the Scenes from Kat Aragon on Vimeo.

Tags: "How-to" Makeup, beauty, Kathy Aragon, lips, luis aragon, on makeup magazine

Hello folks! Ok, so I admit. I was going to just go ahead and put up a post and act like I haven’t been away for almost the entire year…but anyone who knew my blog is  intelligent enough to notice something is up. So here is my official apology “My bad Y’all!” and I’m back with an all new layout and amped to get going all over again.

So with that ackward moment out of the way, I want to share with you something I did this year during my blogging lull that FINALLY just got released! I worked with dozens of amazing NFL Players in the course of a couple of weeks, most all in one day, and a wonderful campaign sprouted from it. You can check out the grooming I did for the NFL Campaign here.

I’m also thankful to have had my new OCC compact airbrush compressore and Skin foundations to get me through this entire week. We were out in the middle of every location possible, many with no available outlets, so my battery powered compressor completely kept up with the tough demands. I am so thrilled to have found Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics. Definitely check them out!

Make sure to put in your email address to get behind the scenes access to the videos. I am shown getting Luis’ Fathers Day present (an autograph from Minnesota Vikings bad boy Jared Allen) and Jared is absolutely crazy. I loved working with them all!

Here is a sneak peek at what you can find at the link above.

Tags: Featured, footbal players, grooming, mens grooming, nfl, nflpa

I have been so far behind in posting but I definitely did want to get my readers what was promised and put up footage and photos. In this case I felt  pictures speak louder than words! Join me in a look at the backstage fun at ChoCheng @ Bryant Park for his A/W ’09 showing.

Key Makeup Artist, Lottie, created a look of neutral toned shadows with doll pink cheeks, beautiful skin and lush lashes. It  is one that I have already adopted since the show and used on many different types of girls and I swear it looks good on every single person I try it on, including myself! 

The makeup team was sponsored by Face Atelier.

I hope you enjoy!

Tags: "How-to" Makeup, Bryant Park, ChoCheng, hair, Inside the tents, Kathy Aragon, lottie, New York Fashion Week, NYFW

I had the pleasure of working with Gretchen Mol this week for the Washington D.C. Premiere of her new movie “An American Affair” out tomorrow, the 27th of February.

Gretchen is a classic beauty that has a look reminiscent of the iconic roles she tends to play. She was Bettie Page in HBO’s “The Notorious Bettie Page”  and you may recognize her past role as Roxie Hart in Broadway’s “Chicago”. In her new movie she plays a character (a mistress possibly?) that has a relation to JFK in the time leading up to his assassination.

Regardless of the complex characters Gretchen tends to play, Gretchen herself is an amazingly down to earth, talented and beautiful actress as well as proud mother.

For her movie premiere I decided to add some waves into Gretchen’s naturally fine and curly hair. I included her input in the whole process and together we decided on a hair and makeup look that would set the right tone for the evening and would work with her classic Jason Wu dress, whom you may know as the designer of Michelle Obama’s Inaugural Ball gown.

I set her hair in medium sized pin curls while doing her makeup and when we released and lightly finger combed through the curls a form started to take place. I kept more of the formed curls in the front, left the hair pretty loose and carefree on the sides and pinned any extra length up in the back, allowing some of the hair to fall naturally out of the pins.

Hair and Makeup by Kathy Aragon for Gretchen Mol / Image courtesy of WireImage

For Gretchen’s makeup we did a soft neutral shadow with a black wing tipped liner. Her face was given a glow with a slight mix of Face Atelier’s Ultra Foundation mixed with a dab of Face Atelier’s Ultra Sheer foundation. I added a little smudged color under the eye, highlighted the cheekbones and opted for a soft pink over the cheek as she didn’t want to look too dramatic for this event. The lips were just a light sheer pink gloss over her natural rosy pigmented lips (lucky Gretchen!).

Hair and Makeup by Kathy Aragon for Gretchen Mol / Image courtesy of WireImage

I had a great time working with Gretchen and I wish her the best of luck with everything she does! I look forward to seeing more of her work and maybe, one day, we will get to see her in more iconic rolls. Let’s talk Marilyn Monroe!

Here is a video of the Movie Premiere After Party held by Washington Life Magazine.

WLTV World Premiere Screening “An American Affair” from Washington Life Magazine on Vimeo.

Tags: An American Affair, celebrity hair, celebrity makeup, DC Premiere, gretchen mol, hairstylist, Kathy Aragon, makeup artist, red carpet, the notorious bettie page

While in the process of putting a few random photos and videos up for friends to see and I figured my “Makeup is Art” readers were considered friends as well, right? I mean, in the past 3 1/2 weeks you have seen this blog from it’s first post ever to over 360+ dedicated subscribers, not to mention over 1,000′s of individual views, not a small feat being that my last blog had all of 13 loyal and awesome readers!

So for that, I thank you and consider you a friend!  Now that we are best of pals, I have decided to bring you some photos and very informal behind-the-scenes videos of the last shoot I did with my husband, photographer Luis Aragon this past weekend. This shoot was  for a handful of Elite’s NY runway girls.  NYC F/W09 Fashion Week is right around the corner so the girls  are getting their books geared up for those designer castings. We wish them the best of luck!

On another note, I am always in love with the wonderful clothes stylist David Widjaja  pulls for us on these shoots, including the infamous green Louis Vuitton dress Madonna is wearing on the front of Louis Vuitton’s website as we speak. Let’s see how fashion savvy my readers are. Let me know if you recognize anything. I know I had to be told 1/2 the time who designed what, but I’m getting there!

Photos by Luis Aragon
Hair/makeup by me: Kathy Aragon
Stylist: David Widjaja

Katrina Hunter/Elite by Luis Aragon

Jordan w/Elite by Luis Aragon

 

We stuck with a very natural makeup palette and hair look with just a pop of color on the lips or blush on some sets. The models, the legs, and the clothes, were the main focus so I wanted to keep thing fairly simple as to not compete with the overall look. I can not wait until Fashion Week rolls around and I will definitely put up more photos once the finals have been chosen.

Oh and one more video so I can feel like this post is more makeup/hair related…here is what my hair/makeup kit looks like when it spontaneously combusts by the last shot of the day, which ironically is of Angela Martini. The “Martini Shot” is an old Hollywood term used to describe, you guessed it, the last shot set up of the day!

P.S. If the videos aren’t showing up in the Feed Readers, I’m sorry. Just click on the title to head to my actual site. I just noticed it as I was checking through the other pages I follow. My bad!

Tags: "How-to" Makeup, david widjaja, elite models, Elite NY, fashion week, hair, Kathy Aragon, Louis Vuitton, luis aragon, nyc

DC Modern Luxury Cover/ "After Dark" Inaugurla issue. Makeup by me. Photo by Sota Dzine.

Next: Inaugural “How-to” Hair!

Tags: cover shot, dc makeup artist, dc modern luxury, inaugural makeup, inauguration ball, makeup forever, smokey eyes