The day I became a coffee snob

I have never been a coffee connoisseur, to me coffee is coffee. I lie. Ricoffy is my favourite - don't judge me. I went to a Patrick Holford seminar (not willingly - I got roped into going with my health freak of an uncle), he spoke about caffeine and how bad it is for you, I made a mental note. I had a shoot a few days later and was offered a coffee, I said no thanks (see Patrick? I did listen). The photographer insisted he had good coffee, but I was being 'healthy' and coffee is coffee. Then he mentioned that his wife won the coffee machine. People who win things fascinate me, why can't I ever win stuff? She didn't just win a coffee machine, she won a Nespresso coffee machine! If it's good enough for George it's good enough for me. Okay I'll have a coffee.

What flavour would I like? What? I can choose my flavour? Now I definitely want that coffee you offered!

There is a little booklet that tells you about each flavour, it's intensity level and whether it's best drunk as a cappucino, espresso or latte.

Level 10?? Death by caffeine. I won't be having one of those!

I settled for Dulsao do Brasil - a safe 5. The Thrill of Brazil is one of my favourite nail polishes so I figured I couldn't go wrong with this one.


And just when I thought this couldn't get any more fun he pulled out a container full of flavour refills, and let me fill the box!

Yes colourful things distract me, don't let me get started on shiny things! So you choose your flavour, pop the coffee capsule thing in the machine and it gets to work (I forgot to take a pic while the coffee was brewing so I let the machine make a play play one with water for an action shot)

And ta daaaa a seriously good cup of coffee. Now I know that all coffees are not created equal.

All that was missing was some chocolate sprinkles. And Marvellous George.

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Pushing buttons

I was part of the team that did makeup for a Schwarzkopf hair show. Francois Nel was the key makeup artist and would give us the brief for each look and then demo the look on a model. Call time was 5-frikken-am, in Midrand. The night before, Francois had insisted I be at an event he was part of so we both only had about an hour and a half of sleep. We were tired. We were cranky. Where was the damn coffee? We were both irritable. And then I got past the irritable phase and got to the overtired, stupid phase.

Francois: Okay guys this look is very natural, I want you to lightly emphasise the facial hair, I don't want it very prominent, on stage it must just look like 5 o'clock shadow

Remember I was in the overtired,stupid phase. I completed my look and took the model for inspection.

Me: *snicker snicker* Francois is this okay?

One day that man is going to murder me.

It's the end of the world

One day, the humans in Johannesburg woke up and instead of blue skies and sunshine they saw this:
Within minutes there was widespread interest and slight panic, THE SKY IS FALLING!! I could picture chaos in the matrix too, "A boom mike? A boom mike. A BOOM MIKE!?!?!?!" (if you haven't seen Bolt do it now)

Facebook was flooded with pics of the phenomenon.... and we laugh at Japanese tourists



Everyone was instantly a self proclaimed journalist reporting from the depths of doom, if they didn't immediately add to the millions of identical pics on Facebook we would surely cease to exist.

Luckily for me I had Lisa in the trenches and got a first hand account of the events from someone I know and trust, I was to be saved from the impending doom, hooray!!
Well I would have been if she didn't take the pic from behind a window covered in bird poop. If it really was the end of the world, forget flashbacks of my life, my last thought would have been 'we have put a man on the moon, surely birds can be trained to dig a little hole in the ground to do their business in?'. Yip, the aliens would have dared each other to eat my chewy but tasteless brain. Lisa claims it's paint not poop, but I zoomed in, it's poop. She's a model. And blonde. It's poop.

After an hour or so the panic calmed and I was getting bored of the streams of end-of-the-world pics. And then I saw the best pic ever!!!
Such a clever boy! (I wonder if the SPACE shirt was a coincidence? *cue creepy alien music*). Kyle Goulden is a photographer I haven't worked with yet, but I have to. I am gonna show that pic to someone in a long time from now and they'll say 'yeah I know that pic, you know how many awards it has won?'. And I will have worked with him.

Here are some other pics of his work:




That last one is my favourite! No, seriously, why haven't I worked with him yet?

I truly am a colour lover

It never crossed my mind that I might have a slight obsession with colour until I walked into Brigitte's salon room.
**(Brigitte is a french lady I met who needed a model for some revolutionary new eyelash enhancement technique - she basically sets your eyelashes so they are evenly spread out and curled up, almost like lash extensions but nothing is attached to your own lashes - have I confused you yet? have a look at this link -> http://www.makeup4ever.be/EN/our-procedures.html, scroll over the eye pics, how fabulous? I am super thrilled with the results!)**
Back to Brigitte's room, it's the cutest salon room I have even been pampered in. One wall had a lifesize Audrey Hepburn sticker on it, another had a beautiful mirror and ta daaa my favourite.....(the cellphone pic does the colours no justice)

I'm trying to learn French so was super excited when I saw it. It's in front of the bed and while Brigitte works her magic on your lashes you get to stare at the Eiffel tower and imagine being fed croissants by a handsome, dark haired, blue eyed Frenchman. And then it hit me. I didn't just see a cute wall sticker, I saw a wall sticker and my mind started rattling off nail polish colours like a quiz champion...
The wall wasn't light green, it was Mint Candy Apple...
The leaves on the right weren't grey, they were Chinchilly...
The leaves on the left and the chicken weren't green, they were Grassy Green...
The car wasn't dark green, it was Paper Chasing...
The tower and bird weren't maroon, they were Damsel in a Dress...
The clouds weren't light blue, they were Blanc with a few drops of Mesmerise and a splash of Manhattan...
*GASP* am I a nail polish addict too?! Oui, je suis!

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My favourite photo. Ever

I love this photo. Well, to be more precise I love what this photo is not. This photo is not of a doll-like girl crossing a busy New York street. No. This photo is of a real girl, really in South Africa. This photo is the genius of Seagram Pearce (I asked him what his name means, I was expecting a cool story, but according to him Seagram is just Seagram *shrug*). When people think of Photoshop they think of no wrinkles and big boobs, but this photo proves how phenomenal Photoshop can be. Photoshop is magic!

Seagram is a Cape Town based photographer and his work is simply amazing www.seagrampearce.com. He had a trip to JHB planned and was looking for makeup artists to work with. After seeing this taxi pic I would have given body parts to work with him! But boy oh boy was I nervous!!! I had pictured a fairly serious middle aged guy who would take one look at my work and shout 'I can't work like this! Off with your head!'

I was pleasantly surprised. How do they package so much talent in such a fresh young container? And he's funny, real funny. Just take a look at what he does on other shoots with famous people
Fun huh?

Here is a pic from the shoot I did with Seagram, it's not the best of the series but I just love Thabi's shoes so had to post this one!

Seagram, I still have some body parts I'm willing to part with, let me know when you're in JHB again :-)

DISCLAIMER: I had nothing to do with the taxi photo, I wasn't there when it was taken, I don't even know the model. I just love the photo. A lot.

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My best makeover

We were shooting a lingerie catalogue in Germiston (aaall abooaaard, passports and vaccination certificates please) and we spotted this girl in a bad part of town. She had nothing, barely a scrap of clothing....


Something had to be done. We had to help her. I rushed over and a couple of puffs and brush strokes later she was transformed! My best work yet!


Sometimes a little eyeshadow and nipples are all a girl needs.


Photographer: Natasha Andreoni www.natashaandreoni.com
Model: Catia Rodrigues
Lingerie: Sin-til-late www.sintillate.co.za

Model Movember

Most times when a model brings her boyfriend to a shoot it creates tension and really is counterproductive. However, on some rare occassions the boyfriend actually contributes to the shoot and makes himself useful. And on the rarest of occassions he lands up entertaining the makeup artist! Okay okay so maybe I forced him a little....here is good old Mark showing his support for Movember:



I take no responsibility for what happened next! What is it with boys and their obsession with fake things?



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