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"evolution" by The Powder Group
“Twenty Makeup Artists. Nine Themes. Five Days. One Unforgettable Experience.”
Since it’s conception, The Powder Group has come to be known by the makeup industry as a resource that puts forward outstanding artist education, events, publications, and more. One of their annual events is an exclusive, 5 day trip to Provincetown, MA. where a group of 20 makeup artists come together to partake in a unique experience to the beauty industry as a whole.
The tagline on evolution’s logo tells you enough to entice you, enough to know you need to be a part of the experience, but not enough about what happens each day. The vagueness is purposeful. The more open minded you go into evolution, the more you will get out of it in the end. I had the opportunity to not only experience this program once, but twice, and I want to share my experience with those interested in the process.
So I know you are waiting for the big reveal, what goes on in Provincetown and why isn’t its programs contents widely known by now? There are two main reasons that you may not have heard about what happens at evolution, even though dozens of people, ranging from beginning artists to those who are lead artists of top national cosmetic companies, have gone through the evolution program.
elevate artists Industry Workshop in the Washington DC Metro area
Hi World! First off I want to say Happy New Year!!!
I gave the blog a little makeover, and in my hastiness realized I put up the wrong logo. Greeaat. But as I work that out, I have a lot of great announcements coming up so if you can forgive the time I took in between posts (it hasn’t been a year, I just erased a bunch of dated stuff in between this and my last thread) then I promise you will get some info that will be timely! 
First things first…
I’m pleased to announce since we’ve last talked I have started a company with my husband called “elevate artists”.
elevate artists is a concept that was thought up and brought to fruition by myself and my photographer husband, Luis Aragon. (With the coaxing of some amazing artist friends). Throughout both our careers we’ve met and become great friends with incredibly talented and in demand artists in every genre of the fashion and commercial industry including other photographers, digital retouchers, makeup artists, stylists, models, and more. When we opened the doors to our Washington DC based studio, Studio400, we invited artists to hold workshops at their studio when noticing a trend of top quality education bypassing the area. The workshops that took them up on their invitation included in demand names such as The Powder Group, Billy B., Deshawn Hatcher, Sean Armenta, Suzanne Patterson, and more.
The Winner of the UNII Cosmetic Palette Giveaway is…
I thank each and every one of you for entering the UNII Cosmetic Palette Giveaway through this post here.
The winner is, ELISA, comment #5 chosen by Random.org!
Congrats Elisa and email me at kathy@kathyaragon.com with you address and choice of color and we will get that off to you right away. (You can find the colors here)
Enjoy and I look forward to bringing everyone another giveaway very shortly!
Posted in Featured
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New on the Scene: UNII Cosmetic Palette Review and Giveaway!
For a long time now it has been common practice for freelance makeup artists to consolidate their makeup kits for no other reason than to lighten the load they have to lug around and to have everything as neat and organized as possible.
Those cute packages that may draw our eye to a particular product may look harmless, but many of them grouped together give off some considerable weight, and ounces can seem like pounds when hauling a makeup kit. This is where magnetic palettes come in. There have been a number of palettes put on the market geared towards makeup artists that serve the purpose but skimp on the style department, but now UNII Cosmetics have come out with their own fun version for consumers and artists alike.
UNII Palette in Twilight
Is that an empty palette you ask? Why yes, it is! Not only is it empty, but it is magnetic, and it’s purpose is to cling on to the metal pans that lie within those pretty packages. This method is known as “depotting”. The metal pans that contain the makeup have a glue backing which adheres the product to the outer casing. Using techniques to warm up that glue loosen the pan, and voilà, the pan pops out and can then be stored onto a magnetic palette! The amount of product you can store in one palette depends on the size of the pan and palette itself, but there is no question…palettes are a great for consolidating your many products into one slim, easy to carry case.
Posted in Beauty Product Reviews, Featured, Giveaways, Video
Tagged consolidating, depot eyeshadow, depotting, magnetic palette, makeup artist, makeup kit, palettes, UNII, you tube tutorial
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Kat’s Kit Spotlight: Eve Pearl’s Salmon Concealer
Eve Pearl Magic Salmon Concealer Wheel
Ok, admit it, how many of you knew I would be posting about this particular product any day now? Many people that know my artistry in any way know that I am a “Salmon Concealer-a-holic” but it’s with good reason! For those of you not in the know about this dream product yet, let me have the honor of introducing you to one of my “Kat’s Kit” specialty items:
Eve Pearl’s Magic Salmon Concealer.
I first learned of salmon concealer when sitting in a workshop at the International Beauty Show years ago, before getting into freelance makeup full time. As the esthetician of my family’s spa, I was in gear to pick up some extra makeup education during my trip to the show. I sat in on an incredibly in depth and inspiring makeup class and it wasn’t until after I became a fan of the presenter that I realized she was 5 time Emmy Award winning makeup artist Eve Pearl herself. I would go to see her present every year and was amazed at all the new tricks I would learn each time I went. I also became very impressed with this special Salmon Concealer she talked about during the demo that just seemed to whisk away darkness under the eyes. Every year I would vow to buy the salmon concealer by the end of the show day and every single year I would get back to her table to find the concealer was GONE. Snatched up. Sold out before I was able to get my own hands on some!
Here is to 2010 with love for 2009!
Happy 2010 Everyone !!!!
I hope everyone is settled down from the Holidays and just as pumped as I am to start a whole new chapter for 2010! I have been busy so far in making some necessary changes and am ringing in the new year with a clean, uncluttered face lift to MakeupisArt.com. Trust me when I say I have already resolved to blogging on a regular schedule and have so many things up my sleeve I can not wait for you to see! I have a great feeling about this year and things have already been put in motion to make me feel that way.
Recently, our photography/makeup studio that we started a few years ago called Studio 400 had to close it’s doors suddenly at the end of last year when our landlord we were subleasing from decided not to continue his lease. I searched diligently and came across another space in the same Lorton area the was twice the size of our last place, and was not a shared space. We asked more amazing talent to come on board and Studio 400 has opened again and has already been in action every day of the new year!
Behind the Scenes: Washington Ballet’s “Wonderland” Commemorative book premieres
I had the immense pleasure of working on some scenes for a book that is already getting such wonderful praises for having been released to the public for only one day.
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.
Posted in Behind-the-Scenes, Featured
Tagged Cade Martin, Design Army, Featured, Hair and Makeup, Meridian House, The Nutcracker, Washington Ballet, Wonderland
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NFL Players Campaign shows “Strength in Numbers”
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!
Posted in Behind-the-Scenes, Featured
Tagged Featured, footbal players, grooming, mens grooming, nfl, nflpa
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