Turning Japanese...

This morning I found myself browsing one of my favourite sites Tokyo Fashion. I've always had a fascination with Tokyo street style. The famous Harajuku district style is becoming more and more popular in main stream fashion. Taking inspiration from the clashing fabrics and colourful outfits fashion designers have adopted and adapted these fashion trends and sent them down the run way.

Tokyo street fashion (all photos taken by tokyofashion.com)

No matter how much my own personal style has changed over the years I still have that fondness and love for the young people of Tokyo who have the courage and the passion to show their personalities through their sense of style. They are always pushing the boundaries and setting new heights for others. It's truly inspirational as someone who has a love for make up to see. I get instant ideas for photo shoots and make up concepts.

It soon got me to thinking about how easy it would be to bring a little Tokyo style into my wardrobe. Fortunately I'm lucky enough to live close to Camden Town the alternative cultural mecca of London, for others it may not be as easy. So I decided to do a little internet online 'window' shop. All the items I have found can be bought on your average high street or shopping centre. I chose a few items that could bring a little of that japanese flair to your wardrobe.

Baby Bear Faux Fur Trapper from Accessorize £25

Eye Patch from Topshop £8.50

          Feeling a little adventurous? Why not try this Studded Eye Patch from Topshop!

Cream Bow Lace Skirt from River Island £25

        This cream lace skirt is perfect for a cute spring time lolita look.

Contrast Pocket and Collar Dress By Sister Jane from Topshop £70

This dress is on the slightly pricey side but it's perfect for the cute school preppy look and also adds a splash of colour into any outfit you wear! It reminds me of Minnie Mouse!

Bow detail over the knee Socks from New Look.

These over knee socks are almost like an essential part of the Harajuku style and the best thing about these socks from New Look are they are now on sale for £2! Bargain!

So there you have it! It's as simple as that! Don't forget to mix and match, do not be afraid of clashing prints and ultimately Tokyo style is all about being yourself and being unique, so don't go with the trends, go against them! Enjoy!

Theatrical

There has been a recent trend with theatrical style make up, with artists like Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj causing a storm not just with their music but their extreme styles it's hard to see why you wouldn't want to join in this colourful craze!

Lady Gaga & Nicki Minaj

I was doing some online 'window' shopping yesterday evening and found myself on my favourite websites MAC Cosmetics and Illmasqua. Both make up companies have produced lines that are dedicated to the decadent lifestyle of the theatre so naturally I felt inspired! This morning I got my make up out and felt the urge to create my own take on this growing trend. Of course I used my new Illmasqua pressed eye shadows which I purchased at 75% off at IMATS. So here is the finished product:

Let me know what you think!

As for the song of the day I had to choose this wonderful woman cause her music has been playing round in my head for ages. I just love her voice! Another amazing performer with a colourful style and personality!
This is Pink with her powerful song 'Sober'. Enjoy!

IMATS

At the beginning of this month I had the pleasure with a friend and my boyfriend of attending what was possibly the Mecca for all make up artists and make up lovers a like. What is this magical event you ask? Well it's none other then the International Make up Artist Trade Show or IMATS for short. This was my first year attending the event and for loss of a better word I was extremely excited and the exhibition certainly met my expectations!

IMATS

The trade show was held at the beautiful Alexandra Palace and I couldn't think of a better place. Upon entering the venue early on a Saturday morning the place was filled out with stalls. These stalls sold masses of professional make up products from beauty make up to special effects supplies from some of the biggest names in the industry such as MAC, Illmasqua and Alcone. As well as there being some familiar names there were a few make up lines that I had never heard of and it was good to explore and discover new products to fall in love with. One of favourite new discoveries was a company called LA Splash from America, this make up line was aimed for the inner Californian girl in all of us, lots of bright summery colours and glitter! I couldn't resist I had to buy an eyeshadow set from them. The best part of all of this was the incredible bargains that the exhibitors were offering (some products being sold at a 75% discount!). We had booked tickets online to IMATS for £45 each and with the discounts and special offers available it certainly was worth the money.

As well as the exhibitors there were master classes and live sessions with some of the top make up and special effects artists in the industry. We played it safe and queued up early to a live session with one of my favourite artists Neill Gorton, his credentials seem to go on forever but he is best known for his work on Dr Who, Saving Private Ryan, Being Human and Torchwood. He is also part owner of Millennium FX. Getting to the Main Stage early seemed to pay off well as we managed to bag seats third row in from the front in a room that held 750 people! In this live session Neill Gorton showed off his incredible skills by creating a monster make up. With the help of his colleagues he applied a whole head, face and chin prosthetic appliance as well as painting and adding texture to the piece. He did all this in an incredible 90 minutes. Which by industry standards is super fast! He was not only amazingly professional but also charming and down to earth. I was glued to my seat the whole time!

Neill Gorton Live Session

 After the live session with Neill Gorton we grabbed a bite to eat at one of the many Cafes at Alexandra Palace. If paying around £10 for a sandwich, drink and cookie seems a bit steep to you (it certainly did to me!) then I suggest bringing a packed lunch. We wondered around the exhibition hall for a little bit checking out the different creations being made up around us. We got the chance to check out the Special effects museum which held pieces by the wonderful Nick Dudman. He is responsible for the magical looks of the Harry Potter films, Beowulf and Grendel and Batman Begins. Unfortunately it seemed we were not able to make it into his live session but whilst we were at the museum we did manage to bump into him and Warwick Davis who was to model for his live make up creation. Warwick Davis was even kind enough to pose for a photo.

Warwick Davis

Special FX Museum with pieces from the Harry Potter films

I have to say that I will definitely be returning next year. I urge make up artists and make up lovers a like if you have never been to this event then you should!

My tips for this event:

1. Book online a few months ahead as there are discounts for customers who purchase their tickets early. 
2. Try to make it down to the venue as soon as the doors open. It seems pretty early but worth it as by lunch time the place was packed and it made it a little bit more difficult to browse and purchase items as long queues were beginning to form. 
3. Try to make it to the more well known and popular stalls such as MAC and Illmasqua first as they become pretty impossible to approach as the day goes on due to the high demand in their products.
4.  If you are wanting to attend a live session with your favourite artist keep in mind that the best places to be are at the front, so get to the stages as early as you possibly can! 
5. Don't forget to be out going and network and enjoy yourself, make the most of the special offers as this event only happens once a year.
6.  Oh and don't forget to bring your camera!

Visit the website for more information about IMATS: http://www.imats.net

Here are a few photos I took through out the day.

Sample of work

Second post of the day! I must have been really missing this blog. Anyway so I thought I would show you all out there some photos of my make up work. I'm in need of updating my portfolio, better get to work!

'A litte to fat'

Okay Okay, I've had a few people tell me to carry on with the blog so here I am again. After forgetting my details then my password and having to do a number of changes to passwords etc, I have finally managed to get back into my blog!

So let me update you on every thing that has happened over the past 12 months! 

1) I've been back to the Philippines. I had a wonderful time! I will post a few pictures up soon. 

2) I've been sitting in my room for the past couple of months trying to teach myself the techniques of special FX make up, sculpting, prosthetics etc. It's a slow process but I feel I'm starting to get into the swing of things. Again I will post some pictures up of my progress.

3) Well there is no number 3 but I'm sure there will be soon!

I'm going to start with something that has plain out irritated me of recent. I don't usually comment on recent happenings in the media but this caught my eye. Following my post about being proud of our bodies I felt particularly angered by the recent comment Karl Lagerfeld fashion designer and Creative Director of Chanel so harshly made about the Grammy Award winning artist Adele. For those that have not read the news Karl Lagerfeld felt the need to comment on Adele's weight calling her 'A little to fat'. Now don't get me wrong I understand in fashion there is a need to watch ones weight but what is Adele 'a little to fat' for? She is a recording artist and quite frankly a bloody amazing one at that. I find it interesting how Mr Largerfeld found it easy to dish out his opinions about other people's weight when he was once over weight himself. Screams hypocrite to me! 

                                           Before                               After

Largerfeld has now retracted his comment saying that his statement was taken out of context. I'm not sure what he was trying to say in the first place but as far as I'm concerned he meant exactly what he said!

Adele has since held herself in a way that every woman should be proud of, she has been graceful and not lowered herself to Mr Largerfeld's standards. Now hardcore Adele fans have encouraged others to boycott Chanel. Maybe it's time for Largerfeld to bite his tongue next time he feels the urge to spit his horrendous opinions upon anyone else.

                                                                            Adele

I would really like to know your opinions on this matter. As for me I would just like to say that Adele is a beautiful woman with an incredible talent. She strives for what she believes in and is a fantastic role model for the every day woman. Keep it up Adele! 

With all that being said I'm showing my support by dedicating my song of the day to this lovely lady!

So here is one of my favorites, this is Adele 'Someone like you'.

Enjoy!! 

It's been a few days!

So it's been a few days since I've submitted anything, I just havn't had the time or anything interesting to say! But I'm back!

Last sunday I had a wonderful photo shoot with the very talented Twitch Photos. The concept which I'm guessing you are all very familiar with now was China Dolls. The shoot went very well and we had a great time doing it! So here are some pictures of the end product.

I was obviously doing the make up but it was lovely to get back in front of the camera and model. If you want to check out anymore work by Twitch Photos you can check her out on Model Mayhem: http://www.modelmayhem.com/twitchmcbrainfry

Earlier on in the week I went to this years Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park Corner. Had a great evening, spent a little more money then I wanted to! Winter Wonderland is a christmas bavarian style fair that is put on annually in london, it certainly brings the christmas spirit out in everyone, but if you are to visit I suggest that you prepare yourself for a lot of crowds, tourists and rather expensive prices! Other then that it is well worth it. There is lots of food to be had, german sausages, mulled wine and sweet treats. Remember to wrap up warm, I was freezing by the end of the evening! It's free entry into the park and it's open from 10am to 10pm. (http://www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com/)

The added bonus of the evening was the photo opportunities, I took a camera a long and took MANY pictures. Here are a few to give you a taster of the fair:

Now for the song of the day, I've chosen this song because I'm a rather big fan of this band, but the song that I am going to post up is a cover from one of my favourite films. I watched this film for the first time on the way to the philippines and was hooked. I made everyone watch it, some liked it, some loved it and some were not so impressed. The film is Across the Universe, the whole sound track is Beatles covers. I found it interesting the way they interpreted the songs to fit around the story. This is one of my favourite scenes and possibly the most beautiful cover I've heard, the harmonies are tight and the song flows smoothly.

 'Because' - by The Beatles.



Enjoy!

HTML Time!

Hello bloggers!

So if you're reading this you'll probably have noticed the new blog layout! Like an idiot I spent most of yesterday trying to come up with something cool, I'm a total HTML virgin and I really don't have a clue what I'm doing! So after countless websites and templates and all this messing around it turned out to be a lot more easier then I thought! I didn't realise that if you click edit on the header of the layout you can just simply upload a picture from your computer to replace the title and discription......DUH!! *MAJOR FACEPALM* I hope you like the new layout, I think it suits me more.

I spent time in superdrug and boots today with a friend walking down the make up section, I could honestly spend hours in that place, testing out the make up and wishing I could have all the money in the world to buy the whole make up counters. It truly does give me pleasure just to draw streaks of lip stick and eye liner across my hands! I'm such a make up addict it's ridiculous! I could spend even more time in the MAC store chatting to the make up artists about shades, colours, matte or shine, I think i'm developing quite an obsession!

I'm in a bit of a Johnny Cash mood today so my 'Song of the Day' is obviously going to be one of his tracks. This video is crazy, this is Johnny Cash performing live at San Quentin prison!

Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues Live at San Quentin Prison



Enjoy!