This past year I find many of my favorite memories seem to include a particular group of artists, over and over again. This group of artists are talented, passionate, giving, knowledgeable, inspiring, and has etched a huge name in the forefront of the makeup industry. They are known as The Powder Group and they are headed up by founder Michael DeVellis with phenomenal talent James Vincent, right by his side. I am proud to once again be highlighted as a presenter for them at The LA Makeup Show February 28th and March 1st!
The Makeup Show LA
We invite you to join us for 2 days of fun in warm and sunny Los Angeles while networking, getting in advanced makeup education and taking in some outstanding “show specials” and deals from your favorite cosmetic lines and industry companies!
You can find me manning the WebPhotoMaster booth, both days, in between my presentations. This company is responsible for my personal portfolio website: KathyAragon.com. I will be their with artists Teena Hoffstetter and Heather Wilson, two other satisfied WebPhotoMaster clients helping to answer any questions and we can also take signups right on the spot! We will be holding a drawing to receive your own FREE self hosted online portfolio for an ENTIRE YEAR! Make sure to come by the booth to sign up and to take advantage of our “Show Only” specials too.
Last year I had the wonderful opportunity to work with a fantastic up and coming designer named Marti’ who has a knack for making classic fitted pieces for her self named collection. A good photographer friend, Josh Marks, had asked me to join him in shooting for her first look book along with another friend and model of ours Missy, of Q Models.
Marti’s pieces are meant to be classic, yet simple and sexy so we wanted Missy’s look to stand out a bit more in terms of hair and makeup. I opted to give Missy’s hair a mass of curls which form was almost bell like. We kept her eyes dark and simple with a winged liner, and used OCC Lip Tar in “Safety Orange” for the extra pop that this beautiful red head could pull off!
When I talked to Marti’ at our second shoot together yesterday, I found out the first look book was a success and the line is stirring up business while Missy’s look has become a signature one for the company. Here is a sample of some of the looks we did that day and to see all of the photos we did for the current season click here.
Copyright Josh Marks
Copyright Josh Marks
Yesterday we did another photo shoot to showcase many amazing new pieces Marti’ has added to her collection including leggings, draped skirts, and stunning dresses. At the end we decided to play a bit with the makeup and take out those oh so perfect curls to give Missy a more colorful statement.
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.
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!
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.
Posted by makeupisart | Posted in Behind-the-Scenes | Posted on 30-01-2009
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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!
Posted by makeupisart | Posted in Industry News | Posted on 25-01-2009
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I pride myself in keeping my blog personal to my experiences and to reviews of things I have tried and come to love. I try not to report on a brand new product or company that is out unless I’ve tried it myself to give you my honest opinion on it. So, in having adapted this philosophy, it doesn’t surprise me when big news slips through my radar, but I am finding that news worth reporting somehow brings itself right into my face, such as with star stylist Ted Gibson!
During Inauguration Pre-ceremonies I had the pleasure to do makeup for Amy Brenneman, the beautiful actress from the show Private Practice. I came a bit early, chit chatted with her amazingly talented husband about how things have been in D.C. thus far while setting up and waiting for Amy to arrive. A few minutes later Amy came in with a hairstylist followed by two videographers. I figured she was going to be doing an interview of some sorts while getting ready. It turns out the two men were actually following the hairstylist, who introduced himself to me as Ted Gibson. The two men had been collecting footage of the events he was doing including an earlier shoot he had with Ted and Caroline Kennedy for VanityFair.
My name is Kathy Aragon, or Kat for short, and I am a professional makeup artist and hairstylist in and around the DC Metropolitan area up to NY. My work ranges from doing hair/makeup for CNN and high society events to doing commercial and fashion editiorials for popular national magazines.
I started my relationship with the name “Makeup Is Art” after my first little girl, Mia, was born. She was an inspiration to me and when my family and I developed our makeup line we named it after her- “mia” makeup is art. After working on the line for a while I realized my passion started shifting from marketing with doing occasional makeup to wanting to be the creative artist behind the products I believed in. I didn’t want to go the route of using stock pictures for marketing as it didn’t feel genuine to me. I wanted to take the reign and start doing the photoshoots on my own. That is when the makeup bug hit me big time.
The instant gratification I got from creating something beautiful all the while lifting someone else’s spirits was addicting. After the bug hit, I realized I couldn’t do both sides of the job wholeheartedly. My heart just wasn’t in the paperwork anymore. That was when I decided to become a full time freelance makeup artist and retired the“mia” makeup is art line.
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Luis Aragon Photography- my husband's portfolio.
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