A Bird Called Iris

She is rather like an exotic bird herself. In all her bejewelled and befeathered glory, Iris Apfel is the latest fashion celebrity to collaborate with MAC. The 90 year old (yes, 90!) business woman, interior designer and fashion icon is certainly one to celebrate with her unmistakable flamboyance and joi de vivre.
The natural look ain't her, so that makes her perfect to co-design a range with MAC, themselves not the most natural of brands!
The line consists of deep pigments in strong, brave, vibrant tones. Lipsticks in hot pinks, obvious oranges and red reds, eyeshadows in peacock hues and nail polishes to be seen from space!
It looks like a great colour collection and with the items named after exotic birds it's a great representation of the old bird herself!

Check out this great interview with Iris on Into The Gloss where she shares her thoughts on beauty...

Making Up

Happy Monday my dears! I thought I would show you some shots of recent work I did. These are from a series of test shots that I did in the past few weeks. We were playing around with some new looks for this lovely model, Aisling.  I love the one above, I saw Cindy Crawford in Duran Duran's new video for Girl Panic - she still looks so sexy so this look was my homage to her! I used a cream shadow from Essence on her eyes with my fingers for a slightly messy look and patted a Stila shadow in Pewter on top for added sheen. I contoured the cheeks with the Tom Ford Contour in shade 01 (essential for sexy smouldering!) and on her lips I used one of Ken Boylan's lip glosses from his Makeup/Play range in Nearly Naked which I think is a perfect nude pink - not too blank, just pretty!

This was our Elvis look. How cool is her quiff designed by Michelle O'Halloran! For her eyes I used a Smashbox nude shimmer on her lid and shaded into the crease with a blusher from Kohl in Sea Shell (blushers are not restricted to cheeks!) Last of all I patted a tiny bit of Ken Boylan's loose shimmer shadows in Luster just over the eye ball area of the lid. I wanted it to look sheeny and unstructured with no liner and minimal mascara. I made the brows quite strong with the Essence brow kit, shimmered up the cheeks with Benefit Coralista over Smashbox Pose blush and the vibrant lips are painted with Fuchsia by Revlon ColorBurst.

Love these lashes! They are the Rock Star Chic lashes by Ja'Maal Buster. They have a really strong vinyl sheen and jagged tips that work so well with an edgy look. On the lids I used the Catrice long wear cream shadow in shade 40 - one of my current to die for products that I'm wearing myself nearly every day.  The sockets are shaded with Rain from Stila and the lashline is lined with Blacktrack gel liner by MAC. The cheeks are defined with Blushbaby from MAC and the red lip is Dubonnet also from MAC.

Classic and quite Christmassy!

The same as the first look but with added fringe...I love how much hair changes a face. False hair pieces are not for the fainthearted or for the wobbly of hand but when done well they are fantastic...

What do you think? Like 'em?

Photos by Ailbhe O'Donnell

Model Aisling Finnegan (Assets Agency)

Sweet Satisfaction

This shadow is one of MAC's latest Pro Longwear collection which began with foundations and concealers and then branched out into all areas of colour. I was sent a few bits to try out and I am most impressed indeed. Particularly with this shade called Sweet Satisfaction. It is a wheat-y, gold-y, champagne colour with the barest hint of flesh undertone. The up upshot of that means that it looks great on cooler skin tones who don't normally do so well with these type of shades. It's a superstar as a base shade with some deeper colours blended into the socket and outer corner of the eye but it is also fantastic on it's own as a veil of shimmer all over the lid. And does it last longer as the name suggests? I hear you cry... Well actually, yes it does. Provided that you prep your eye lid with powder first (as you always should) it lasts very well indeed and this shade is one for every makeup bag.

(pic via Firework Girl)

{Makeup Monday} MAC Paint Pot

I thought I'd wax lyrical about one of my favourite products today. This is the MAC paint pot in Groundwork and it is a right little treasure! It is a cream-to-powder eye shadow with fantastic staying power on the skin. I use it alone and also as a base for other, more strongly pigmented shadows. It is what I call a 'skin toned shadow' - a champagne/taupe tone that suits everyone so therefore is worthy of constant makeup bag usage. (see swatches here )They last really well without creasing which is one of the main issues for the cream category of shadows. I apply it over the eye using my ring finger and then blend out the edges with a 217 brush, also from MAC and also in my list of can't-live-without tools. This brush is firm enough to move creams and deeply pigmented colours whilst being soft enough to create a beautifully diffused edge to shadows. 

Making Up Gracie

Here's a sneaky peek at a shoot I did yesterday (snapped with my phone - the real pics will be much better!) The model is the sweet Gracie from 1st Option...isn't she beautiful.

She has only been modelling for two months but the girl has got it. Such beautiful, subtle expressions cross her face...

I posted this picture on Twitter yesterday and lots of people wanted to know what I used so here goes...

Chanel Pro Lumiere foundation in 02

Becca Illuminator in Pearl

Smashbox Eyeshadow in Fizz

Smashbox Cream Eyeliner in Blacklight

MAC False Lash Mascara

Tom Ford Brow Sculptor in Chestnut

Smashbox Blush Rush in Pose

Revlon matte lipstick in Pink About It

And here I am touching up Gracie's eyeshadow!

I can't wait to see the real shots, I will share them as soon as I can.

The Scoop On The IFTA's

So, the IFTA's were fun...they were very, very long. We were in our seats from 7pm till midnight for all of the technical awards as well as the big ones. Then there was a fantastic aftershow party where everyone let their hair down till the wee hours. It was so much fun celeb-spotting and I was on constant 'frock-watch' . Unfortunately, I didn't think there were that many stand out dresses, most people played it safe in black and there were a lot of short dresses as well as long.

Saoirse Ronan and Joely Richardson were my favourites as they looked so sophisticated and as I was a guest of MAC, I got the inside scoop on all the gossip from the makeup chairs, but I am far too professional to divulge, sorry! Suffice to say that the best of the MAC artists led by Lesley Keane looked after all the biggest stars including Kim Cattrall and the makeup was stunning as you would expect from this calibre of artist. MAC put so much time and energy into training their artists - it is one of the best programmes to be on for budding makeup artists as they are exposed to high pressure fashion weeks, shoots for print and are groomed in how to act in every professional situation. If I were starting over, I'd work for MAC!

So the pictures.... I only have one that is semi-clear as Lu had smeared her pawprints over my camera lens and the rest of the shots were impossible to see! So this is the only one...very soft focus!

The Perfect Line

I got an email asking about the differences in eye liners and which I prefer to use. So, gel liners vs. liquid liners. Who wins in my book? The answer is definitely gel. Of course, the line you end up with is as good as you are at drawing it, so practice makes perfect. But overall, a gel is much easier to work with in my book. If you're going for a huge flick like the one above at Louis Vuitton it will be easier to manipulate a gel to get the shape. As a rule, gels glide easier on to the skin and they have a deep pigment so look very dark, which is what you want.

My very favourite is BlackTrack by MAC. It is simple to use and you can add layers to build up colour. One of my pet hates about traditional liquid liners is that they tend to 'bump' over the lashline and after a few hours they are inclined to crack on the skin. Gel, by it's nature stays somewhat malleable and can move with the skin as it inevitably does.

My favourite brush to use with gel liners is this 209, also by MAC. The tip is thin enough to draw a thin line and you can be in control of how thick or flicky you would like to go.

If you're attempting this look for the first time, dot some little points along the lash line and then join them up rather than trying to draw a line in one motion. For a flick at the outer edge, draw straight out after you cross the pupil rather than following the lash line downwards towards the cheek.

Good Luck!