Friday, October 23, 2009

Howard's Homecoming Fashion Show

On Wednesday, my makeup school sent out an email to those who took the fantasy makeup class that Howard was looking for makeup artists to do "dramatic" makeup for their homecoming fashion show. I immediately responded as I needed to get some actual work experience under my belt. I called the show coordinator and she simply told me that there would be 9 other artists, 25 female models and the theme was Alice in Wonderland.

I'm not going to lie. I was nervous, this was my first real show and I knew my box wasn't completely equipped with everything I needed. So I went shopping; I bought some foundation colors, some duo lash glue (my glue of preference) and a crapload of lashes. I went to three different stores and bought crazy lashes in all of them. The show coordinator said she wanted crazy lashes!

The show started at 7pm and the call time for artists was 2:30pm. So Thursday I packed up my box with makeup and packed my separate duffle bag (my pitiful little box is too small to fit the big essentials) with my spritz bottle of water, makeup remover, cotton balls, moisturizer, hand sanitizer...etc. And I drive to Howard.

I arrive at Cramton Auditorium, and the street right before it, the police have blocked off. "What do you mean I can't park in the auditorium parking lot???" I scream at the fluke ass campus police. How did he expect for me to get all my stuff into the building? He didn't really care. Sigh. So I found a parking space like 5 million miles away, throw everything on my back like a pack mule and start hoofing it...up hill. Fifteen minutes later and way sweatier, I get to the auditorium, and the coordinator tells me I'm the only one here so far and she'll get us all situated downstairs in the dressing room when the other artists arrived.

Cool...I pull out my book (I'm reading Midnight by Sistah Souljah) and cop a squat in one of the auditorium chairs. An hour and several chapters later, I ask the coordinator what's good? No one else is here, can I get started while you wait for people to arrive? So she takes me down to the dressing room and I begin to set up. As I'm pulling stuff out of my box, I realize...my 88 shade palette...remember:I left it sitting right on my bathroom counter...DOH! I was so upset! I mean I have my individual shadows...but what, I have maybe 16 or so MAC colors. How could I pack EVERYTHING except that??? But in that moment I channelled Tim Gunn and made it work.

The 2nd coordinator then arrives in the dressing room, with a box full of lashes for me to use (THANKS and I'll be returning mine today...lol) and I ask her what kind of thing would she like to see on the girls faces. The night before I researched (I like to be prepared) Alice in Wonderland characters and their makeup. It was all pale faces and heart shaped lips. So I describe to her what I had seen. She says, "oh no nothing like that...just dramatic" Womp Womp....what in the hell does that mean? She then tells me she has pictures of what she wants, however the entire night came and went and those pictures never materialized.

At that point, I was still the only makeup person there, people were looking frantic and so I was like forget it, I'll do what I want. So every girl who sat in my chair, I asked them what their outfits were looking like and based their makup off that. Here are some quick pics I snapped of a couple of girls..I didn't have time to do all of them:


This is the girl who wanted absolutely no lip liner on...lol. She said her mother used to put it on her and she hated it. Usually I'd be like shut up and take it, but I didn't have time to argue. I did a bright green smoky eye on her and a shiny pink lip.
Ironically this is my best friend's cousin. As I was doing her makeup, her family came to visit and one of the girls asked, Do you know a girl named Krystle McClain? I'm like uh yeah that's my bestie...she was like I thought I recognized you from her facebook pics. Small world I tell ya. Anyway, this young lady was the first face I did and she's shiny in the eye, because I was experiementing, with putting lipgloss over her shadow. It worked, I liked it.
This girl right here was sweet as pie. I really liked doing her face, she was Alice in the show, so I made her delightfully girly. Super pink eyes, pink cheeks and pink face. I also did the girl in the background.

I'm hoping that I'll get to see/access to the professional pics taken during the show. If I do, I'll definitely post them on here.

So about an hour before the show is scheduled to start, 2 more makeup artists show up. My girl Michelle from my class and her sister. Then about 15 minutes after they arrive 2 more girls show up! I was relieved, I thought I was going to have to bang out all 25 faces...and that just isn't possible.

At that point I had girls waiting to be next in my chair, but once the other artists arrived, I start telling them to disperse to the other artists. However, once 3 of the artists did faces on their first set of girls, I started getting more people in my waiting line. So I say, hey there are other artists...and they say, No we want you. Now that's extremely flattering and I appreciate it, but I can't do EVERYONE. But the models insisted, they would wait for me. At some point, those in the opening scenes didn't have a choice but to go to someone else, and as soon as they left the stage, they asked could I do them over in time for the 2nd show. Basically the level of expertise that I had wasn't there with the other artists. Actually I take that back...there was another girl there (I met her in the fantasy makeup class) she is very good, but she's slow. I had cranked out 2 girls and a quarter and she was still working on 1.

By the end of the night, I was exhausted. Not only did I beat and touch up my original faces, I had to redo several faces of girls who already got done. But you know I loved it, and even though I cursed out this rude ass security lady, I'd do it again. The models were super nice and the clothes were amazing. Good times good times.

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