Wednesday 20 June 2012

Astalift Jelly Aquarysta on Sale


Lovely Debenhams in the UK are currently having a sale with Duty Free prices! Included in this promotion is the the skincare beauty item of the moment the beauty world is buzzing about, the Astalift Jelly Aquarysta, Rejuvenating Concentrate from Fujifilm, yes I meant to say that :-)







You can purchase the 40g Jar for £57.50 (instead of £69), but wait just a minute, you can also buy the 15g jar for £17.50 (instead of £21) Debenhams Astalift Jelly 15g, which means you can buy 3 x 15g = 45g for £52.50.

So for £5 less you can get 5g more - rock on!  Even better, using smaller jars, will mean the product and all it's expensive ingredients will have less exposure to the air over the time that you are using it, which will help keep them stable and potent for longer.

To read more about it, here is a link to where I first heard about it from Lisa Eldridge; http://www.lisaeldridge.com/blog/24330/lisa-loves-photo-tech-meets-anti-aging/.

Here is the blurb on this product which is an excerpt from Debenhams website:

An innovative patented, intense beauty rejuvenating concentrate that contains ceramides that perfectly match ceremides in the skin, multi types of collagen and Astaxanthin. Ideal for anyone who is concerned about premature ageing, dehydrated, dry skin and those who wish to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. The nano ceramide delivers long-lasting moisture for a dry skin. Skin will immediately appear smoother, with luminosity increased. The various types of collegen will promote cell regeneration and retain water. Skin's resilience and elasticity will be recovered and younger looking skin will be revealed. Astaxanthin will counteract free radical damage preventing further damage to collagen and elastin, the cause of lines, wrinkles and sagging; resulting in facial features looking restored. Lastly, Astaxanthin is the highly effective anti-oxidant, 1,000 times greater than CoQ10, which prevents free-radical damage.


Of course I ordered, how could I not!?!  I have to try this much touted "hero" product and I'm looking forward to it.  Will you be joining me?


Diane


Sunday 10 June 2012

Body Painting - AOFM Advanced Makeup Course - Day 2

Day 2 was a creative day learning some basic body painting techniques.  Our tutor had amazing skills and has won several prestigious competitions around the world to prove it.  She made it look so easy but trust me it isn't.

I thought I'd taken pictures of my work but I only have one, in my defence I really wasn't feeling very well, lame excuse I know, shame I think I did a decent job of a swinging chain (which was something that the tutor had demonstrated for us, she also did a design on an eye and a shirt with a collar on someone else).

We were given free range to do whatever we fancied so I also decided to have a crack at creating a shirt cuff and button.



It's a very interesting medium with the products, brushes and most importantly the various brush techniques and the results you can achieve with them, trying to put in shade, light, illusion of texture and movement, I'm sure we just covered the tip of the iceberg.

It's very much an art form I feel and I have new appreciation of the skills, patience and artistic talent it takes to do this and do it well.

Diane x

Thursday 7 June 2012

AOFM Advanced Makeup Course - Day 1: Period Makeup

So today is the start of the advanced section of the AOFM Freelance Professional Hair and Makeup certificate course I am attending.

Half our class has gone as they were on the Foundation course only and we gained two new students, a smaller class but thankfully even numbers so we all still have a partner.

Fun day learning about 1920s to 1980s makeup.  Our tutor was Lina Dahlbeck, I really warmed to Lina, impossible not to she has such a lovely, fun and friendly nature.  We were given lots of useful and interesting information about the industry and tips.

The demo for today was a 1960s Twiggy look, Lina decided to do this look as it is still very much requested (or versions of it) today, which is why I decided to have a go at creating this look too.

We were also showed how to block out eyebrows if we wanted to do a 1920s/1930s look, I was very tempted as really wanted to have a go at the technique but Twiggy was a calling :-)

Here is the look I created on Laura, hope you like it.






I wish I had false eyelashes to play with, would have loved to amp up the look with top and bottom lashes, but alas had to stick with trying to draw on bottom lashes with gel liner, fyi liquid liner and a firm fine pointed tip brush is best, neither of those I had to hand, I know I could improve on this but still for a first try I'm happy.

Another very fun and informative day :-)

Diane x

Tuesday 5 June 2012

AOFM - Day 6 - Makeup for Photography - B&W

Hello folks,

Day 6 of my AOFM Freelance Professional Hair and Makeup Certificate course was the last day of the Foundation level part of the course.

We spent the morning learning the fundamentals of makeup and lighting for photography and in particular focusing on makeup for black and white photography. We then watched a demo as usual then after lunch it was our time to experiment. 


Just for a bit of fun, can you guess which colours I used to create the contrasts?  More pics below but don't cheat and scroll there just yet.


I had fun as always working with Li, as you can see he really is a good sport.  


I was definitely experimenting with colours and textures, (as you will see clearly below...) to check the level of contrast, if any, they would achieve in black and white photography.

Our tutor today was the very talented Valentina Creti, a lovely lady and she gave us such an interesting and informative class.  It's wonderful to watch the tutors at work and to receive their guidance, they really do have an amazing eye for detail, very inspiring and I really enjoyed the whole day.

Each day we get a different makeup brand to work with, we had one of my favourites today, Make Up For Ever and I used their HD foundation, HD concealer and eyeshadows on Li.

The tutors on the day liked my choices of colour gradients and I was complimented on my blending by one and told that I can definitely blend by another, music to my ears, I can't you how lovely it is to have such support.

OK I guess it's time to show you the colour photos....










Gotta love that electric blue gel liner, which incidentally was from Inglot and really stays put!  I wasn't sure it would show up in the black and white photos but it does indeed show up as a black liner.

Did you guess the colours?

I am so happy to have the opportunity to work with Oriental features.

A thoroughly enjoyable, interesting and informative class.

Diane x