Our families suffer for our art

Makeup artists see the world as a blank canvas, a canvas begging for a splash of colour and a stroke of fabulousness. We love to add beauty to the world, if we had our way all ugly buildings would be demolished and replaced with giant size cupcake replicas complete with huge swirls of icing and a cherry on top big enough to be seen from space, the world would look like a platter of sparkly yumminess from space!

But alas, we share this world with accountants and other equally grayscale people so we search for canvases closer to home - I can hear the collective nod of boyfriends whose eyebrows have been plucked, sisters who have been forced to wear lipstick, brothers who have been pushed into metrosexuality, friends who are unsure of the blue eyeshadow painted on their eyelids.

Desire De Goede is especially guilty of this crime. Her husband can name a MAC shadow quicker than I can, with 100% accuracy. And he built her a fancy mirror with lights. When she's done with him I'll take him off her hands! They became parents to a gorgeous little boy this year, I know I know every time a makeup artist gives birth to a boy a fairy dies.... but he really is super cute and he too suffers for his mother's art...

"I found this little baby giraffe wondering around in my garden.....I'm going to keep him! Happy Halloween everyone!!"

I heart muas!

Mike loves me

I love being loved. The greatest compliment for me is when people I have worked with want to work with me again.

I did a shoot with Mike Mullane and had a blast! He has a great sense of humour, fab Irish accent and the funkiest shoes I have ever seen on a tog!


Mike really is great fun, he let us drink wine and play loud music. And he indulged the clown in me by letting me try take a pic of him running and jumping in the air... my phone's camera is a bit slow so Mike had to jump many times in the hopes that I would get the mid air shot. He jumped many, many times. I didn't get the shot but had a good laugh trying to get it!




I also got an awesome arty shot of Mike while he was shooting, yip I have skills.


I got this message from Mike today:
Hi Stavvie,
hope all is well.. looking forward to working with you again so much for Michelle's shoot... We really missed you at last weekends shoot with Ashley, your energy,mischief and freakin awesome makeup skills as well as the support and encouragement fuelled by several bottles of grape origin... :D
I have a shoot on the 13th of November at the same studio and would really really love you to come and play, work, be you...
Can you make it?
Mike :)

I love being loved!

Here's a pic from the shoot:


Model: Kerry Visser

Dirty Girls

If I was a model and I knew I was booked for a photoshoot, I would start preparing weeks in advance. I would go for sunbed/tanning sessions, I would make sure my nails were perfectly manicured, I would have perfectly groomed eyebrows, I would defuzz everything that needed to be. I would arrive looking like a doll without ANY makeup on, that includes remnants of last night's makeup.

But alas that is often how models do not arrive to a shoot. I have seen some scary hygiene issues *shudder*. My pet hate is dirty hair. I don't like the fact that in this industry I am expected to do hair too, your face and hair are two very different entitities so why should I have to do hair?!? So I have this aversion to hair styling and then a girl with dirty hair sits in my chair, do you have any idea how sickening it is to use a hair iron on greasy hair? It literally melts into a flat disgusting strip. So gross. I used to grin and bear it and try not throw up a little in my mouth, but now I have discovered Dry Shampoo!!!

Its a spray that refreshes your hair between washes and makes it look squeaky clean, it really works, it will change your life forever! I now keep a bottle in my kit ready to fumigate any dirty heads.

I see dead people

I often get asked to help behind the scenes; I make a great reflector girl and am good at coming up with Macguyvery ways to solve problems. But there is a limit. Dead people are the limit.

We were shooting an instructional video for the SAPS Forensic Unit and after finishing the pretty detective's makeup I was asked to do some makeup for John (is it John? Maybe Ed, or Joe... I was too traumatised to remember!). I turned around and was presented with a human skull! There were numbers written across the forehead with permanent marker and could I please cover them up? Erm how about no? I feel very uneasy about dead people, especially dead people who were found in a veld with trauma to the head and who were never ever claimed by their family. I dont want the lost soul of a murder victim latching onto me as I rub its forehead like a magical lamp.

I squealed and whined so one of the real detectives (Detective McSteamy - more about him later!) took over the task. I must say he did a pretty good job!


Our dear John Doe did a great job that day too, he really is a natural!

We've been sniffing our brush cleaner

A certain makeup artist and I never seem to be clever at the same times. One of us is always confused, and the other one has a good laugh.

Recently I passed a wedding on to her because I wasn't available. I sent her a mail on the 12th of August with the date in the subject box and all the necessary details. I didn't check my mail again that evening and the next day I found 3 mails from her, sent a few minutes apart:

1st reply: "Hi, I dont mind helping at all but when is it?"
2nd reply: "Oh duh, just noticed your subject line in BOLD 11/09. Ok now I'm really confused wasnt that yesterday?
3rd reply: "Oh wait we are in 08 (August) LOL !!! I've been awake since 3am this morning (Isabella's teething) is that an excuse for my moment of extreme blondeness!!!!!!!

I heart muas!

Custom Kicks

I bought a whole lot of new nail polishes at the Professional Beauty Expo, it's a tough choice but I think my favourite of the lot is Custom Kicks by China Glaze. Its a beautiful bright teal with gold shimmer, the pics do it no justice at all! It is extremely vibrant and you could definitely get away with only wearing one coat. This may very well be the colour that forever reminds me of summer 2010! Let's see if it's the first bottle of polish that I manage to finish in a single season.


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I… just… can’t… do it Captain

Many people think that modeling is easy, after all how hard could it be to sit and look pretty? However, shoots are mentally and physically exhausting, for everyone involved. The photographer/ makeup artist/ stylist/ anyone present can’t help but act out the pose/expression required from the model:
Tog: ”Lift your chin”
*all chins in the room lift*
Tog: “Bend your knees”
*all knees in the room bend*
Tog: "Give me a smile"
*colgate smiles all around*
It’s a subconscious thing, and before you know it we've all had a face and body workout.
But sometimes we consciously make the model uncomfortable. Generally, the more uncomfortable a pose the more beautifully it photographs. And the photographer never gets it right with one click, never ever.Tog: "Beautiful, now hold it, hold it,*click*, one more, hold it, *click*, hold it, one more (for the record, it's never just one more, never ever!), hold it, hold it.


Model: "WHY AREN'T YOU TAKING THE PICTURE?!?"

Photographer: Matthew Rademan
Model: Celeste Mellett

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