Eyes, Cheeks, Lips, Logos & Business Cards

Class last week was all about bridal makeup. My instructor has a large eyeshadow pallet of all neutral colors that she only uses on brides. The most important thing about bridal makeup is creating a timeless face. You don't want to look back at your wedding photos and you're wearing the eyeshadow color that was "in" at the time. That holds true for all aspects of your wedding I suppose.

We also completed our work on eyes, cheeks and lips. Here are some photos of the awesome models that came to sit in my practice chair.This is my linesister Anike. I only did eyes on her...I was practicing blending. Oh and her eyebrows. Them joints was incorrect when she sat in my chair. But look how lovely they are now. I had to pluck, trim and wrangle those eyebrows.You will know I'm getting down to the nitty gritty when I put my hair up like this. lol.

Next is Blair: I was supposed to be doing Bridal Makeup on her...I think it looks nice, but I don't know how good I did in the bridal arena. *shrug*


Next were Kali (again...lol) and Candace! I didn't do Candace's makeup, another girl in my class did, but they both looked lovely. Plus I love this picture of Candace.Definitely needed the practice on the lightskinned girls. So thanks for coming out!

Now on to business matters. Yesterday we had a whole day on the business of makeup. How to get started as a professional artist, paying taxes, registering names, and getting clientele. Very interesting and informative.

So everytime I do someone's face for an event, they always ALWAYS ask.... Do you have a business card? No friends I don't. I know its weird, being that I'm actually a graphic designer, and spend the majority of my day designing these things for other people's company's.
(btw. my online portfolio can be found here: http://klang.carbonmade.com)
But in reality, I'm sooooo indecisive about my own stuff. I can design something for someone else, decide that I love it, show it to the client, they love it...I can move on. But when I design for me, I love it for 3 days, sometimes, 3 hours and then decide, after staring at it, it ain't that hot.

This is where you come in. Since you all helped me to decide on a moniker (Keke Lang is the winner...shout out to the 2 people who voted for my real name, my mother will appreciate that lol)...I'm hoping you can also form an opinion on my logo and business card. Here are your 3 choices.
Choice 1: This is still a work in progress, and I'll most likely take the pattern off the background on the side that has my info. But the logo is my actual signature. Also the number and email address are hard to see, but that must be this jpg, because its quite bold on my actual computer.
Choice 2: Is the same thing, only square. I'm leaning towards a perfectly square card. I think they're cute...and different.
Choice 3: Is completely different. While the first 2 really fit my personality, style, and the LEO in me. For some reason this choice really appealed to the smidge of Virgo in me. Very...clean.Anyway, your feedback would be greatly appreciated. I know you guys will definitely come forward with you opinions. So I guess that means we need a new poll!

The foundation saga....continued..and ended?

When we last left off, I was turning black girls white with foundation. Right.

So day 2 rolls around, and I start work on yet another light skinned girl (different one though) and again start mixing some colors to start her foundation. Of course this time I was foundation shy. Basically I effed up so bad the last time, I overcompensated for that this time and mixed colors at least 2 shades darker than her skin.

I swear I'm not usually this bad...at anything. I'm not joking it looked like she had black face on. I got called out again, but this time the teacher used her face as a lesson of what you should never do. (I wish this blog provided me with emoticons...I'd have the ill side eyed scrunch face).

She says, if you can't get a perfect match, the safest bet is to go a shade lighter, because you can always make a face darker with powder. But if you go too dark, you can never bring the shade back down.

Basically, don't do what I did. Great.

Day 3 brought much better results however.

One of my best friends..and long time Forshadow follower, Kali, volunteered her face to be my model for the evening. Again another light bright was in my makeup chair. Let her tell it, I did a good job. However, good is not good enough for me and b) I felt like again the color was too dark for her, it didn't match her neck. Plus my instructor told me to wash it off and start again. That's never a good sign.

But here's what the end result was (disclaimer: its alot of flash).This picture is courtesy of Kali's mobile upload via her Facebook page. Them eyebrows is fieeerrrrce though. *patting myself on the back*

Anyway, after Kali left, I finally discovered what my foundation issue was. I can't do light skinned people. LOL. Yes I'm being predjudiced. I guess I'm so used to adorning my chocolatey skin, this light bright palette is all too much for me. And white people! Oh white people. I love ya'll but what am I going to do with your pastey faces??? I need to just invite like 5 white people to my place and get at it.

But I digress. I know its the light skin that's the problem, because after Kali left, I finally did one of my darker skinned classmates. I knocked her face out the park, with minimal effort. Even my instructor was like her face is EXCELLENT. Here's a pic...

I also did her lips and eyebrows. I'm can't take credit for the eyelashes, them gaudy things were all her. So ends the foundation saga. However, if you know any white people, or are white people (Lauren...I'm looking at you..lol) please volunteer to come down to the class. We would love to have you!

Overhauling

So...I don't know who reads this besides my followers, because no one ever really comments (hint hint) but you will notice, us here at forshadow got a new look. YAY! I'm actually a graphic designer too, so I threw a little something together to spice things up.

I know the ending to the foundation saga is highly anticipated, but I'm putting that on hold for right now to get some opinions. I need a name for myself. To put on my business cards when I'm done. My real name is Kenan Afi Langston (the middle name being pronounced Ahhh-Fee). And while that name is certainly unique...does it scream makeup artist? I'm not sure. So I'm taking a poll. Here are my options so far...

Keke Lang
Kenan Afi
or my regular name Kenan Langston

Please give me some feedback on which one you like best or make another suggestion. I'd really appreciate it. The poll is to the right -----> see.

Taking me down a peg

When it comes to doing makeup, my confidence is not easily shaken. I've been putting on makeup for years...since I was 12 and doing the ill black liner on my lips with gloss in the middle. Ya'll remember that look?

I reference that to say...last night...was hard. The hardest class I've taken thus far and I'm not going to lie, it rocked my cockiness a bit.

Last night, we started learning foundation. Deciphering a client's undertones, mixing colors, creating a flawless base, and contouring. Let me break it down for you...

Undertones:
Everyone has a color under their actual skin color. Most black people are yellow or red. Some are a combination of the two. However, depending on your race you could have a yellow or red or green or purple...so on and so forth. For example, have you ever been to M.A.C. to buy foundation? They may hand you a studio tech that says NC45...well the NC stands for Neutral Cool and is for people with yellow undertones in their skin.

Anyway, our instructor told us the easiest way to decipher skin undertone is to look at the inside of the ear or on the chest area. Whatever color you see in there...is usually your undertone.

Mixing Colors
Most folks skin color is not out of the bottle. Meaning the majority of folks can't go out, buy foundation, slap it on and BAM it matches. That's where mixing comes in. Basically we had to pick 2 or more foundation colors and mix them to come up with someone's perfect shade.

And cue horrific story music....

So I have my model sitting in the chair in front of me. Light skinned chick. I take a foundation and swipe some on her jawline (that's how you pick a color btw)...too light I think. I take another shade and swipe again...too dark. I pick a 3rd color and swipe...still very very wrong. So I say...okay lets mix some colors. And I do. (Now in my defense the lighting where I was was bad and I think I got the bottles mixed up..lol) So I mix this color, looks right to me I say...so I start spreading it all over my model's face.

And her face turns white.

Like white white. I'm talking...baby powder in the hand...slapped across the face...been pimpin since pimpin been pimpin...WHITE.

Okay so the first rule of makeup (or life in general) never let em see you sweat. So I don't say anything. I'm thinking, I can fix this. So I, Harrison Ford frantically, start mixing all types of darker colors together trying to salvage the mime mess I had on this chick's face. When all of a sudden I hear from across the room...Damn girl, your face is whiiiiiiiiiiiite. Spot, officially blown up. Thanks.

My model hops off the chair and runs to the mirror, screaming what did you do to me the whole way. In an effort to diffuse the situation, I'm like, "calm down chick its just makeup" but in my head I'm like..."wow she looks baaaaaad."

Whatev. I wipe it off and start over. And with the teacher's help I mix a more appropriate shade of foundation and finish with powder. This chick's face was looking good. Flawless base. Oh but we're far from done, because then I had to highlight her face with lighter powder. Again I picked a color that looked right to me. So I start hitting all her "sunspots" with highlight powder to give her face some life. Ya'll her face started to turn gray. I know you think I'm exaggerating, and I wish I was. Nope. Cheeks started turning charcoal gray like I threw ashes at her. Totally screwed the flawless base I had achieved. At that point I was done. Sooo over it. The instructor told me to wipe it off and start over but by that time class was nearly over. Plus I had neither the energy nor the heart to begin again.

This saga is far from over...please stay tuned for foundation day 2. LOL.

-Keke

Duo glue disaster and fake me outs

Last week along with brows, we learned how to apply strip lashes. I wasn't anticipating being any good at putting on lashes. I, myself, don't wear them at all, and I think I've put them on someone else...maybe once...and not very well.

Our instructor demonstrated the process on a student in the class (sidebar: the chicks in my class are pressed to be the demonstration model for the teacher...I NEVER volunteer for demonstrations...how can you see what the teacher is doing, if she's doing it to you? bleh end sidebar), then we paired up and got to work.

I pulled out a pair of lashes... measured them to my partner's eye... cut to fit...applied the glue....waved them around to ensure tackiness...and dunh dunh dunh...placed it on her eye!

Success!!!!

Uh...not quite. The left lash wasn't tacky enough and started to slide down her eye onto her cheek. To avoid that happening again, I overglued the right lash and ended up gluing the lash, the corner of her eye and the top of her cheek together...lol. Poor girl couldn't even open her right eye. Don't ask.

When I finally got them both on and she was able to actually open her eyes, I didn't get them close enough to the lash line. Sigh.

I however, was not to be discouraged. I ripped them lashes off and kept practicing. That night I had applied lashes 7 times on 3 different people. But by the end of the night...by golly I think she's got it!

Victory can't only be mine however. I also had to be practiced on...and believe me when I say I wasn't looking forward to that at all.

I don't wear false eyelashes. Ever. And it isn't because I was riding the short car on the lash train. I have unnaturally long eyelashes. Seriously, it's freaky. They're crazy long and thick, so I never had a need to glue on what's already there. Furthermore, I'm afraid that gluing stuff to my eyelashes will pull them out and cause extreme baldness all up and through the eye area.

But the other night turn about was fair play, and my partner got a chance to practice on me. So she follows all the steps and glues the eyelashes on my lash line and tah dah! First try, on the mark!

"Good for you," our instructor says.

My partner, cheesing to herself, goes on to say, "Yeah, I didn't think I could get them this spot on, on my first try! Especially since I had to apply the lashes over the set she already has glued on."

Hold the phone.

I say, "Wait whaaa?" This chick thinks my real eyelashes are fake ones already glued to my eye. After the instructor and I explain to her that the "fake me outs" are indeed "grow me outs" a good chuckle was had by all.

Below is a photo of me and the lash job my partner did. She only did the corners, and she used super long "show" lashes..so you can see how long my eyelashes are in comparison.

Oh and when I went to remove the lashes that night, I ripped out at least 2 of my own eyelashes, so little Miss I did it right on the first try, wasn't really all that.

LOL. I swear that's not hate. LOL.

Eyebrows can be sisters, but they can never be twins

No two eyebrows are the same. Try as you might you'll never get them to look identical. Class tonight was all about eyebrows. I've been doing my own eyebrows for at least 2 years now. I used to get them waxed, but when the Asian woman who did them kept going thinner and thinner, I knew it was time to quit. From then on I've been tweezing and filling them with shadow...you know to make them look perfect. So I've always heard from people, "I love your eyebrows" or the most extreme, "You have Princess Jasmine eyebrows" lol (I guess that's a compliment).

However, after class tonight, I'm not afraid to admit, I haven't quite been doing them correctly and I learned ALOT tonight. But that's why I'm there, to learn how to do it right.

First of all I've been going way too dark in color for my eyebrows. I definitely need to go lighter. When people look at me, my eyebrows shouldn't be the first thing they see.

I learned to just fill in the blank spots, not the whole eyebrow...which, ya'll, I have been felony guilty of. It keeps the eyebrow looking natural...and not at all like a Disney cartoon character lol.

Finally I learned concealer is my friend...and a best friend to my eyebrows.

This young lady below is in my class, she was my tester model for the day.Eh I'm not really all that happy with the brows, but it was my first time doing it "correctly". Plus her eyebrows were waxed really thin and her arch was naturally in a weird place. I tried to move her arch over to the right spot, but it's hard to really change what you're working with already. But they DEFINITELY look better than when I started.

Anyway, I'm going to continue to practice on myself, and anyone who doesn't mind me practicing on them. Tomorrow in class is intro to strip lashes and more brow work. I feel confident I'll be the queen of brows soon.

Today I signed up for some additional makeup classes. Advanced courses, if you will. First of all the classes cost $150. So I clearly need to construct some kind of fundraiser, as I'm still unemployed. But I thought it was worth it.

The first class is fantasy makeup. We will learn how to do all that crazy makeup, with feathers for eyelashes and gluing glass and beads on a model's face. So that should be good knowledge for doing fashion shows and photoshoots. Stuff like this:


The 2nd class is makeup for print, film and hd tv. Apparently this is a whole other genre of makeup, because we will learn how to make faces so flawless that even high definition television can't pick up a single pore. I figure if I'm planning to do celebrity makeup, I'll need to learn that. The instructor for that class is Monifa Mortis. She is a celebrity makeup artist and has done makeup for Jill Scott, Fantasia, Missy...etc. Her faces have been on the covers of countless magazines, including Essence. Check out her website: http://www.monifamortis.com/
I'm super excited to be taking a class taught by her, I swear I can't contain myself.

Anyway I'm off to practice creating the perfect brow...Damon Roberts watch the hell out.

-Keke Lang

88 colors, an Epiphany, and the Black Collection

In class on Friday we finished up facials and received a gift... An 88-color eyeshadow palette. Yes friends, 88 different eyeshadow colors all contained in one convenient box. Here take a look:

Awesome right? I have two. Yep, 176 colors all for me. Please don't tell anyone. Let's keep this between us. Don't want anyone thinking I have...a problem.

Saturday was Heather and Brian's wedding. Yay! Let's clap it up for them. So I did the makeup for 4 bridesmaids, 1 mother of the bride and 1 bride.

Three straight hours of creating the flawless skin base, defining eyebrows, shadowing eyes and lining lids. I was exhausted, my back hurt and so did my feet. But I would have sworn I'd died and went to heaven.

I loved every minute of it.

And then I had that wave of purpose sweep over me and I knew that I had found what I'm supposed to do. It feels amazing. If you've ever felt like that, please co-sign. And if you haven't please find it. You deserve nothing less than that. To find a passion and pursue it.
Moving on...

The black collection: Much anticipated (at least by me..lol), is MAC's new collection that will be released on September 24th, 2009. It's simply called, the Black Collection. Here take a look:


Yes friends, its all black. I know what you're thinking....wtf and how depressing. But I think its gorgeous. Also included in the collection are mineralize eyeshadows with jewel tone colors that will mix well with the black kohl colors. That black lipstick, with a high shine gloss over it will be dramatic but it's hot. The goth kids will piss themselves over this one...as will I.

Only downside is I won't have my MAC Pro card before then. Unfamiliar with the MAC Pro Card? It's the card that professional, licensed make-up artists get. It allows you to get 40% off of any and all MAC products. *Ahem* Let me repeat...40% OFF OF ANY AND ALL MAC PRODUCTS. You think I had a makeup hoarding problem before...I really will have one after they hand over my card. There is a MAC Pro store in Vegas...located in Ceasers. I heard it was amazing. And I have future plans to burn that bitch up. LOL.

-Keke Lang

Facials and Train Cases

Three months ago, I got laid off from my job. I was kind of upset, until I realized what I was doing was not what I should be doing. So, a couple of thousand of dollars later, I'm enrolled in beauty school, getting my makeup artists license.

I thought it would be interesting and fun to chronicle my days as I hopefully become a highly paid/celebrity makeup artist. I will eventually turn this into a blog, but right now its on facebook. Please follow along, and you can say you knew me when...

So yesterday was the first day of class. Myself and my 5 other classmates didn't do much. We got to know each other, talked about the syllabus and what we would be learning, and what our goals were in the future of make-up. I have high aspirations. And not to sound cocky...but I'm good. I'm really good, and I feel like I can achieve celeb status. I want to do Patti LaBelle's makeup. Not just a celeb's makeup, but Patti specifically. I feel like my success will be measured by achieving that goal... lol. Trust no one will be able to tell me shit, if I get to beat Ms. Patti's face. I also want to be her best friend, and adopted surrogate child...but more on that later.

Let's fast forward to tonight. Tonight we got our makeup kits. So. EmEffin. Awesome. Think of something you love more than anything. Be it tennis shoes, candy, money...hell monkeys...and someone hands you a huge metal train case, you undo the latches...and BAM its full to the brim with the object of your obsession. I fell in love and got married tonight. To my makeup case full of makeup. We're registered at MAC.

Anywho, tonight we did full facials and skin care. I got demonstrated on by our instructor...I fell asleep in the chair. She is good. Tomorrow I get to practice on someone else. I've been told I have magic fingers, so I suspect I'll do lovely.
At the end are pictures of everything in my case, once i carefully dissected it. Enjoy! Keke Lang <3>

Total Mac Whore

Lip liners, eyeshadow palettes, eye liners, two tweezers (1 purple 1 pink...do they know me or what), lipsticks, powder, mascara, pigments and gloss.








Brushes out the ass. I went from applying makeup with my fingers to having too many brushes to count.










More eyeshadows, and 6 pencil sharperners...why so many?









Eyelash curlers, 3 sets of eyelashes, more lipstick











And the rest..lol (Hmm, there's a color wheel in there ((very cool)), oooh I have 2 heavy duty foundations for acne scars, concealer, a drape for clients, sponges, liquid foundation, powders, lipstick brushes, mascara brushes..etc.)