One Minute somewhere in Dunmanway

Can you spot me in this gorgeous video?

On a bright, cold day last November somewhere in West Cork (or somewhere in Dunmanway to be exact), I got my makeup brushes out, my wellies on and collaborated with a hugely talented group of people.


One Minute somewhere in Dunmanway from best day productions on Vimeo.


Shoot production and styling - http://www.pearlandgodiva.com/
Photography - http://www.lisaodwyerphotography.com/
Makeup - http://lottamakeup.blogspot.com/
Hair - Sinead from Urban Hair Design
Clothes by http://www.alicehalliday.com/
Jewellery by http://www.elsaandgogoboutique.ie/store/
Models ruth and rebecca http://www.lockdown.ie/
Models sam and marike http://www.pulsemodels.ie/
Flowers by Hanako - floral studio
Rodolphe of Best Day Productions - Wedding Fiims
Beautiful white carrier pigeons from Dove Days West Cork.

More from this photoshoot to follow soon...
I'll be posting close ups, giving details of the products I used and telling you how I crashed my car into a very deep puddle of cow poop. Really!

too much clutter

Our bedroom is the most chaotic room in the house.

It has been brought to my attention that I have far too much of everything.
Question: How would he know how much is too much?

So I'm in the middle of a long overdue clearout and some of the vast hoard must be binned. I really hate waste. I'm left wondering how these once desired lotions and potions were downgraded to half full jars of  unhygienic rubbish?
My skincare and makeup routines seem to evolve through trial and error (lots of trial, loads more error!) So I guess that the "beauty errors" in my bin can't be avoided and the whole process helps me to sift through the market to find the best products out there. These beauty products are going in the bin because they produced poor results.
Do I think I can learn to be more careful before buying into new beauty trends?
Can I

Nope.

Screenface Notting Hill

This little shop with its quirky basement level has every inch of wall space devoted to professional makeup products. Function and quality are on the shelves here, no fancy merchandising like the beauty hall at Liberty's. Ranges include Kryolan, Ben Nye, Temptu, Dermacolor, Japonesque and the Screenface brand itself. I could have pottered around in here all day but the fact of the matter was that I had 10 mins to spare before rushing back to the hotel to collect my luggage en route to Heathrow.

In my brief scan of Screenface's Notting Hill basement I quickly picked up a very long white eye pencil, Ben Nye Ultraset Neutral Setting Powder and a pack of Ardell knotfree individual lashes in size medium. It's so much better to get a full pack in the size you use most.

And that is all. But I could have stayed to browse all day-we don't have a retailer remotely this specialised in professional makeup provisions back in Cork.

Thank goodness for online shopping!

Mac Pro Store in Soho, London

In effect, 28 Foubert's place in Central London is my local MAC Pro store as not all MAC Pro products are available in Ireland, even in Dublin! Lucky I don't need to "pop in" too often then.

Now don't get too excited, this MAC haul reads more like a grocery shopping list as I stocked up on some kit basics. The bulk of my purchase was my very first mac pro 15 palette along with 10 eyeshadow refills-shroom, sable, satin taupe, woodwinked, cork, copperplate, carbon, blanc type, antiqued, brown down. If you are familiar with MAC then this is an incredibly boring selection. If you are new to MAC then this is a decent selection of colours to put together a neutral palette for yourself. It's near enough what the fabulous assistant with the Bettie Page fringe and ruby woo lips suggested anyway.

Hmmm, what else was on my list?

MAC Pigment - Naked
Brow pencils - Fling, Spiked and Lingering
Paint Pot - Painterly
Lipglass - Ample Pink
more Studio Finish Concealer - nc 20 & nc 30
Satin Lipstick - Brave
Matte Lipstick - Russian Red (will this stand a chance against my beloved matte red Ruby Woo?)

And that is it. No blush or bronzer, no powders or foundations, no eyeliners , no mascaras and easy on the pigment. In short I made a list and stuck to it.

A personal triumph!

Jemma Kidd Make Up School

I'm just back from London where I completed a course in Professional Glamour Makeup at the Jemma Kidd Makeup School near Notting Hill. Oh joy to be left loose in a studio full of pro make up products and watching slides depicting female glamour icons of the 20th century. We were taught about everything from photographic lighting to classic lip shapes.

David Horne is the director for education at Jemma Kidd. His career in makeup artistry spans Balenciaga catwalk shows and a meteoric rise up the ladder at MAC- his last position with them was as creative director for MAC in the UK, Germany and Switzerland. Let me tell you, David Horne knows make up!It's not often you meet a total technical perfectionist with a brilliant sense of humour. He had us in stitches for the whole course and I reckon that's why he's in such demand as an instructor. Every detail that David tells and shows you is delivered with wit, and well, it just sticks.
As I expected we were given a selection of products from the Jemma Kidd Make Up School and Make Up Pro product ranges. We used some of these in class but mainly used MAC, Laura Mercier and Illamasqua. I will definitely be posting a Jemma Kidd product review after I put them to more use over the next few weeks.

This course was amazing, not only was I pushed creatively but I also learned some highly skilled make up techniques. I never knew quite how technical glamour can be! Here's me applying the finishing touches to Kate's catwalk smokey eye look.

Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation Review

Initially I got a free sample of this in the shade recommended to me 5.5 (this falls in the medium range on their foundation colour charts, see these on the Armani website). In the beginning I was so pleased with this buildable, lightweight foundation that I decided to purchase. A whopping €42.50 to Irish consumers-ouch!
Now it sounds like I'm happy so far, right?
It's just that as time has gone on (I bought this 2 months ago) I'm less impressed. It doesn't give fantastic cover on my combination/oily/occassionally blemished skin, despite careful application and blending up to 3 layers and powdering. Luminous Silk seems to wear and fade noticeably on my skin type after a couple of hours. The moment I realised this was definitely not going to stay in my makeup bag happened last week when I mixed in a drop of revlon colourstay to improve the coverage.
Say what? Improve a €40+ foundation with revlon colorstay?
It's important to mention that I have had greater success with Luminous Silk as a kit foundation used on normal/dry skin types. Although it will not become a makeup kit staple.
Now maybe I would have had more luck with Armani's more matte finish Lasting Silk but the sales assistant didn't even suggest it. I sensed this was a result of hurried commision led selling which is often the trouble with some beauty counters. Will they ever learn? Sigh...

Verdict: Armani Luminous Silk is definitely better suited for normal to dry skin types but is overpriced.
Suggestion: The best expensive foundation purchase for normal/dry skin remains Chanel Vitalumiere.

Welcome to Lottamakeup

Hello and welcome to my blog.

I started this blog because I am utterly consumed by my work in makeup and beauty. I was at serious risk of becoming a makeup bore, never mind artist!

Also probably better to blog than to get left in the corner at parties muttering to yourself about eyelash adhesive, best under eye concealer, duofibre brushes, matte shadows, airbrushing, wrinklefillers, achieving a dewy finish, skin primers...etc....etc...

I hope you enjoy reading about my life with makeup as much as I do writing about it?

Linda  X x