The past two posts were pretty text-heavy, so it's time to lighten it up with some pictures! Photos from Hun-Sun's Big Day this past August are now up at artistrhi.com. Despite the early morning for all the ladies involved, everyone was excited and raring to go! I always love the buzz of being behind the scenes and am fortunate to have such awesome clients at all times of the day...I mean c'mon, it's not easy to wake up at 5 in the morning and have someone poke a brush at your face!! I had a great time with these ladies - just take a peek at Hun-Sun's beautiful smile - it's contagious.

Congratulations Hun-Sun! Thank you for letting me share in your special day :)

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REMINDER
On a side note, don't forget to enter the Harajuku Lovers Fragrance contest if you haven't already! Please refer to the Official Rules and Regulations for contest eligibility. Good luck!

Harajuku Fragrance giveaway on artistrhi!
a little bit about the fragrance from the official site:
Harajuku (hara•joo•koo) n. 1. A style and attitude of Japanese girls from Harajuku, Tokyo. n. 2. Anything goes: outrageous, layered, and eye-catching.

Harajuku Lovers Fragrance: n. 1. A fatal attraction to cuteness.

Inspired by the electric street scene of the Harajuku shopping district in Tokyo, the Harajuku Lovers fragrance collection captures the lyrics and iconography from Gwen Stefani's albums. These unique fragrances, in their adorable doll-decanters, will appeal to anyone with a "fatal attraction to cuteness." Choose the girl that best fits your personality, but (trust us!) after meeting one, you'll have to have them all!

artistrhi has teamed up with Matchstick Marketing and Coty Canada to bring you this contest, where you can win the entire set of Gwen Stefani's HL Fragrances (retail value of $250.00 CAD)! The contest runs from September 9, 2009 at 12:00PM EST to October 7th, 2009 at 11:59PM EST. Winner will be announced on October 9th, 2009. Only one entry allowed per person. Prize will be delivered to contest winner directly from Matchstick Marketing. Read the Official Rules and Regulations for full contest details.

To enter, you'll have to:

1. Read the Official Rules and Regulations listed below in the comments (3) section.
   
   
2. Gwen Stefani has said that "Harajuku Lovers can be anything that inspires me". Leave a comment on this post or email me (with the subject line: HL Fragrance Contest) to let me know what inspires you.
   
   
3. Do ONE of the following if you haven't already:
   a). Become a Facebook fan OR
   b). Follow me on Twitter.

Contest is officially underway on Wednesday at 12PM EST. I look forward to hearing your responses! Good luck everyone!!

I was interviewed by blogger and freelance writer extraordinaire, Cheryl Santamaria, for a feature article on Women on Business. The article details the importance of using the Web as a tool for advertisting, both for budding entrepreneurs and established companies.

Working as a freelancer in make-up, I realize that there's so much that I've learned along the way just by doing (rather than picking up from the classroom) especially on the business side. In the early days, when I first attempted to market myself to a large audience, aside from word of mouth, the Internet was my best advertising friend. I used livejournal, a free web-based journal to help me document different make-up looks I did on myself and on friends. Nowadays, if you're an aspiring make-up artist, there are many more user-friendly resources available to you on the Web. Sites like Blogger (where this blog is hosted), Yola and Dripbook allow you to build your own blog/site with little to zero programming knowledge required. Social media-based sites like Twitter and Facebook allow you to send instant updates to those on your subscriber/friend list and further spread the word online. The best part about all these sites mentioned is that the basic layouts are free of charge to use!

So, if you're just starting out and looking for your best promotion tool, take good quality photos to document your make-up work. Print out a few business cards (you don't have to spend a lot of money, and can do this on your home computer), send out a mass email to your contact list, post it to your Facebook status or update your Twitter. Let your web presence be known and essentially you can initiate your own 'e-word of mouth'.

Playing With Colour
Make-up artists usually don't get the opportunity to use colours outside the traditional palette of neutrals for bridal make-up, but the lovely bride-to-be, Jenny, had a style all her own! From our initial bridal make-up trial, I could tell Jenny's look would be as outgoing and fun as her personality.

Jenny wanted to incorporate turquoise eyeshadow into her overall look, which makes for a make-up artist's dream - playing with colour! But of course, shades of blue are always tricky colours to work with (yes, think visions of your mom's blue eyeshadow). To keep her bridal make-up from looking 'dated', subtlety was key - especially since we were playing with such a bold colour!

Get the Look
We focused on a subtle blend of aqua eyeliner on the bottom lashline, which meant the use of waterproof make-up products was imperative. To get the look, I used Clarins Waterproof Eye Pencil in Aqua along the outer corner of the bottom lashline as a base. To reinforce the line and keep the look long-lasting, I layered FACE atelier's Transforming Gel with a turquoise eyeshadow atop of it. The result was a bright pop of blue that highlighted Jenny's gorgeous features. Check out artistrhi.com for more from Jenny's Big Day.

Congrats, Jenny! Thank you for letting me be part of your beautiful Big Day!

Special thanks to the wonderfully talented photographer, Spencer Fu, the creative eye behind the pics of Jenny's wedding. Be sure to check out his site for more!

Photos from a wedding in July with the beautiful Rose are now up on artistrhi.com! It's funny how things balance out, as I had one wedding in July, but now 11 in August (#10 and #11 are up tomorrow!) It's been a whirlwind of a month, but I'm happy to be back on the blogging tip with all the new material!

Vegas was amazing: my gorgeous pal (and bride-to-be) Michelle had a beautiful wedding day against a styling backdrop of the Wynn and Caesar's Palace (no other way to do it...it's Vegas, baby!). I'll be sure to post these pics as soon as I can, but there's about 8 weddings in between to show off until then. :)

Thank you to all my amazing August brides (and bridal parties!)! For putting up with the early call times, the laughs and the smiles...you guys rock!