Backstage spy work

I thought I’d make a video (yes, a video…I know I’ve not delivered on those lately AT ALL but good news I have Mandi here all week to turn my boring makeup room into a magical beauty palace which is gonna make my videos world rocking and hopefully give me the filming confidence I need!) and demonstrate my hair and makeup from start to finish. So in the meantime it would only be prudent that I offer to you a hot list of the very most important things I was able to gleam from the mega pros.

(If you look closely in this photo you can see that I have a not-so-tiny granny panty bunch up problem going on. I’m not at all embarrassed that some Allure photoshop ninja will most likely spend the better art of an afternoon fixing that:)

Starting with the best tips I got from DJ Quintero/Hair Whisperer

1. Crazy amazing clips
I love me some duck bills. The only problem is when I want to keep the hairs around my face in place while I do makeup or let it set it crimps or marks my fringe. Well guess what, the heavens have shined upon those clips in the form of a little bit of softness.

Clip any where you darn well please, these bad boys have a crimp free guarantee! Get them HERE

2. 1 inch irons are his jam
He swears he doesn’t have a curling iron any bigger, for bigger curls he just round brushes them out a bit.
I knew I loved you all along one inch. I knew it. He also used a hot tools get one HERE.

3. Big hair, so so so big
He used this spray right in my roots all over my head. After each spray he shot in some blow dry to set it and then moved to the next section.
It smelled good, gave my hair body and texture and solidified my love for big voluminous hair.

4. His thoughts on hairspray
“Hairspray should be used to freeze a look, not to create one.” In other words he things you should use it at the very end but not rely on it to get your style to work in the first place. That’s what texture sprays, curling irons and clips are for. This is his favorite hairspray BTW.

5. & Hair length
Obviously all kinds of lengths have their own strong points but when your hair is really long you lose out on a lot of the versatility and volume up top. He suggested I cut 2-3 inches off my extensions and I agreed. As soon as I got home I did just that and he was SOOOO right. I mean, I’m a long hair addict and everything but my curls hold like crazy and I have so many more options with bra strap length hair. I will admit though, when it was just down and straight, I liked those inches.

Next up here are my tips from Junko Kioka, the makeup artist.
6. She loves cream foundation
The foundation she used came in a pallet with six colors and photographed beautifully. It went on velvety and wasn’t heavy or cakey at all.

7. She has mascara tricks
Something I loved that she did was after I put mascara on my top and bottom lashes (we kind of worked together:) she took a flat synthetic brush and dipped it in the mascara to finish off the very roots of the lash and make sure there were no bare hairs.

8. She uses a very light hand
This is something I have noticed from a lot of really talented makeup artists lately. And something I could really improve on. You hardly have to even touch the face with those brushes! Maybe you are already applying yours with a light enough hand but just for experiment sake try doing it even lighter and see what happens. I’ve been practicing lately and I feel like everything looks more natural and is easier to blend.