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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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Gretchen Mol’s Hair and Makeup for DC’s Premiere of “An American Affair”
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.
Working with Star Stylist Ted Gibson and chatting about his new Haircare Line and DC Salon.
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 Vanity Fair.
CVS’s Essence of Beauty Foundation Wedges “You had me at non-latex.”
CVS Essence of Beauty Wedges/ cvs.com
I wanted to thank each and every one of you who participated in my poll on the very first post. It has definitely shown me what you look for in this blog and I will try my best to deliver. With that being said, if it’s products you want to know about, it’s products you are going to get! Let me do you one better. I’ll start right in by recommending some of the cheapest items in my kit that don’t lack in the quality department, whatsoever. If that sounds good, let’s get started!
This first item was something I hadn’t originally planned to talk about right away since it is admittedly random but I ran into some funny odds yesterday during the Cabinet shoot and took it as a sign to confess my undying love for CVS’s Essence of Beauty Wedges.
As I was making up a lovely Cabinet member yesterday I was applying some foundation and blending it down with my favorite Essence of Beauty Wedges. She commented on how she liked the sponges and asked what kind they were as I didn’t have the bag out that showed the name. I told her “Believe it or not I only used CVS’s Essence of Beauty brand and have never been able to find a brand that compared to it in quality. I can be at a beauty supply store and decide not to buy sponges there and I’ll go ahead and make the extra run to CVS. I even pass up bulk prices for these things.”
“Makeup is Art” Spotlight- Alexandru Abagiu
When I started doing makeup full time, right around my “mia” makeup is art days, I looked to the internet to find many inspirations. I didn’t have to travel far to find one of my immediate favorites , Alex Abagiu.
I first ran into Alex more than four years ago on a popular pro makeup artist forum called “EmElle’s” that I frequented. I was so in awe of his work but even more in awe that someone with his talent and credibility gave back so willingly to the makeup community. The preciseness, cleanliness, and creativity of his work still comes through in every face he touches.
Elle/ Photo: Steven Eskey
Alex seemed to dissapear from the scene for a while and his website and his beautiful gallery of work went with him. I was devasted! I wrote EmElle and asked her about him and she reported back with a note she got from Alex mentioning he had been busy with his new role as one of L’Oreal’s lead artists in Romania!
When thinking of the first person to spotlight for this blog there wasn’t a more obvious choice than Alex. He was my original inspiration in the makeup field and years later his work has stood the test of time. His website is now back up with a fresh body of work and it’s just as immaculate as ever. Alexandru Abagiu shows that Makeup is indeed Art.
“Makeup is Art” Reborn
Welcome to my new baby of 2009!
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.
http://www.elevateartists.com
http://www.themakeupshow.com
http://www.kathyaragon.com
http://www.luisaragon.com