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.

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Quick Tutorial on Depotting: I had made a video a while back showing one of the processes I use to depot. I warn you, this version is pretty hard core in comparison to some who use the oven and a cookie sheet to warm and loosen packaging glue. UNII’s palettes has a beautiful outside packaging that instructs on another method of heating up the bottom of the pan with a blow-dryer to loosen up the pan. I’m impatient, I go all out or nothing. When I start to depot I mean business, so here is my way to tear up and destroy some packaging while keeping my makeup intact!  Be careful when trying this at home!

In playing around with the UNII Cosmetic palettes I noticed some unique features that it had in comparison to other pro counterparts. UNII first offers many different colors which is great for color coding. If you have ever grabbed for a palette and found yourself opening the wrong one because they all look alike, this is a helpful feature for you. I love that all of the options coordinate with my bright turquoise Tutto case! It comes in Pomegranate, Twilight, Lemongrass, Eggplant, and Snow. Each colored palette is covered by a clear coating making it easy to maintain and clean!

UNII colors/ my Tutto makeup case

Another unique feature is the rubber strip on the inside of the palette which helps to create a seal and the clasp on the outside which keeps that seal air tight and budge proof. In the event that any product did happen to fall out of place inside the palette, you could rest assure the palette would not open and get that product into your purse/kit and all over your things.

I think consumers will really appreciate that the UNII Palettes are also very light in weight and has a magnetic “thumb grip” which can be moved anywhere within the palette to help you balance it while applying your makeup. A wide mirror comes in every palette making it easy to apply your makeup anywhere! If you take a look at UNII Cosmetics website you will see different ways people are using their UNII’s for work and home. Many brands automatically cling onto the magnetic bottom but for those that don’t there are magnet strips with sticky backings provided. These palettes run slightly smaller than other palettes on the market but have lots of features the others don’t. I love this in my purse to tote around while keeping others in my set bag or setting up one for talent whose makeup tends to stay the same for continuity on set.

Extra information for UNII users…

FUN CONTEST GIVEAWAY!

Makeup Is Art Beauty Blog has only been re-launched for a matter of weeks and has such a growth in readership! I want to show my appreciation by offering one of these sweet UNII Cosmetic palettes, in the color of your choice, as my current beauty giveaway!

All you have to do is leave a comment sharing your feedback on the Makeup is Art Beauty Blog thus far or what you would like to see more from it in the future. I will choose a random winner from Random.org on Friday, January 22nd, and let you know of the winner right here on this blog by 5 p.m.  that day. This contest is open to any of my readers so comment away and I can’t wait to get one of these fun palettes in some ones hands!

Tags: consolidating, depot eyeshadow, depotting, magnetic palette, makeup artist, makeup kit, palettes, UNII, you tube tutorial

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

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.

When first meeting Ted I instantly loved how polite and sweet he was and how easy it was to work with him. He completely worked around me and what I needed even after I was insisted that he be comfortable and in good spot  for him to work in. It was such a nice experience that I didn’t even mind the two video cameras taping me do makeup while he was doing hair. I truly had no ideal what a big star he was until his story started to unfold about his salon in NY and the new one he just opened in DC. When I asked him about the beautiful pink and brown boxed product  in front of him he proceeded to take out a few “Styling Hair Sheets”  wrapped in a shiny silver foil, embedded design, and his name on the front. He told me I could get his line at Target now and gave me some hair towelettes to try out in the future. Upon talking more about what they did and how I could use them for my own fine hair he then decided that his “Building Spray”  would work great for me followed by a blowdry and/or hot rollers and gave me a bottle of it to take home with me.  

He held himself in such a great manor and complimented everyone throughout the time we were there. It’s no wonder celebrities and his client’s alike  fall in love with him even before seeing the final result of the guaranteed gorgeous style!  Ted proceeded to give Amy an elegant hairstyle with a slightly off centered part with hair that swooped down both sides before cascading curls began to fall.

He told me he had just opened his new salon in the Washington D.C. metro area called Ted Gibson Salon & Hela Spa. It has already been visited by great celebrity names on the first day, like Anne Hathaway and Tatiana Ali.  He also told me how it sat atop of a Louis Vuitton store at The Collection in Chevy Chase, MD., only minutes away from downtown D.C. How much more fabulous can  you get?

Already, not even a week since we worked together I have heard Ted’s praises being sang repeatedly. While working on a model for Elite in NY yesterday I started taking out the Styling Sheets to use on her. When she saw them she shouted out and proclaimed “Ted Gibson! I love him! I just worked with him on an InStyle magazine shoot!”. It’s obvious you don’t have to be around him long to become completely smitten with the man, his talent, and with the fact he is living his dream out loud. I look forward to visiting his salon, trying out all of his haircare line at some point, and costaring with him on some random footage floating out there of us working together!

You can find Ted Gibson Salon & Hela Spa at  The Collection in Chevy Chase 5481 Wisconsin Avenue, Level 2 Chevy Chase, MD 20815 Contact: 301.951.4445

You can also find his complete haircare line at Target stores nationwide: Ted Gibson at Target as well as other select products at Sephora.

Tags: Amy Brenneman, celebrity hair, Chevy Chase MD, Hela spa. Washington DC, Inaugural Ball, Inaugural Hair, Kathy Aragon, makeup artist, Private Practice, Ted Gibson, Ted Gibson hair, Ted Gibson Salon

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.”

I went on to tell her that one day I was working in a salon that had the bulk stock of latex sponges. I used one, and besides the fact that it was flimsy and crumbly, my hand became incredibly itchy! Sure that could be a personal aversion I have to latex, but if my hand was feeling that way I sure didn’t want to take the risk of transferring that feeling to someones face!  In haste,  I ran into the CVS next door and grabbed the big bag of the Essence of Beauty Wedges. It stated on the bigger bag you get 25% more for free. Hey I’m no fool!

When I went to use it I realized that the bigger size of this non-latex sponge fit snugly in my hand as it was almost twice the size. It wasn’t flimsy like many other sponges I used which meant the product placed more easily on the skin.  It also meant I had more control with the tip of the sponge when needing to apply and blend into the contours of the face. Finally, a sponge that didn’t collapse into itself! Also the Essence of Beauty sponges were s-o-f-t , so so soft. *sigh*. They are  great for applying foundations and moisturizers because they are so dense that the product doesn’t seep into the pores of the wedge. I’ve found there to be a lot less waste with this staple item.

As if that wasn’t enough, once I took an HDTV class with Suzanne Patterson (whose master Beauty Advice Bits you can find on the sidebar to the right) I realized that these were the types of sponges you could tear in half and use the inside of to actually blend foundation even MORE seamlessly! Yes, the inside, like so…

Essence of Beauty Wedges

The random but fine texture in the middle of the sponge blends the foundation more seamlessly than applying foundation with a brush or with the straight edges of the sponge. (And guess what? No crumbling!) Just press and stipple away and any tell-tale lines from the foundation application just seems to dissapear into itself. Brilliant! So by creating a texture that becomes almost undetectable to the eye you end up making the bag of sponges last twice as long? Oh Essence of Beauty, you had me at “non-latex” -but all the other great benefits made this a winner.

So whatever did Ms. Cabinet member think of my love for these frugal finds? She said “I thought those were the Essence of Beauty sponges. I’m so glad to see you use them. My husband makes those”.
!!!!!
I mean seriously, what a small world!  Sure enough, I was raving about the sponges to the wife of the manufacturer, without knowing it. Of course my second thought was “Who can I talk to about getting these in bulk?”

Now imagine if she was the wife of the guy who made the latex ones? I’m sure there is a moral to the story here somewhere.

Tags: beauty review, CVS, Essence of Beauty, foundation sponges, makeup artist, makeup review, makeup sponges, makeup wedges

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.

More of Alex’s work can be found at : Alexandru Abagiu

Tags: alex abagiu, EmElle's, inspiration, Inspiration- "Makeup Is Art", l'oreal makeup artist, makeup artist, spotlight

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.

I decided to continue with more education and did every workshop and class I came across, but most importantly,  I just kept at makeup for years. It wasn’t hard to do because I loved doing it so much. A lot of what I learned to date has been learned through trial and error. I still learn so much on a regular basis from peer artists and even from the everyday woman who shares my love for finding that perfect (for now) product, look, or technique.

It has now been 9 years to the date of when I picked up my first set of makeup brushes and almost 6 years to the date that my line  “mia” makeup is art was created.

Cut to January 2009, where the electricity in the air is apparent in the Washington D.C. area. The feeling that there is an exciting new chapter around the corner is apparent. A new sense of passion seems to swell from the hearts around me.  My original passion in the makeup field got fueled by my “mia” makeup is art line and my passion now continues to be the makeup and hair work I am blessed to do on a full time basis. I now want to bring those two worlds together in some shape or form and that form seems to be taking place as this blog. I, too, am inspired to start a new chapter and am hoping this blog will be a good way to give back what I have learned through my endeavors.

My posts will be honest and about things I firmly believe in or am inspired by. That I can vouch for as it’s the least I can give to anyone putting time into reading this. I do, however, ask a favor of you.  Before my blog starts full speed ahead, I would love to get some feedback as to what type of topics you really look for in a beauty blog. I am open to all ideals and am confident that this blog will find it’s own footing fairly quickly.

I look forward to our time together!

xoxo,

Kat

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Tags: beauty blog, hair stylist, Inspiration- "Makeup Is Art", Kathy Aragon, makeup artist, makeup blog