YYZ Living Magazine - Behind the Scenes

YYZ Living Magazine is one of the newest and definitely coolest magazines to hit the Toronto Fashion Scene! It's a mix of Fashion, Art and Culture and it'd done in a beautiful, really high quality print magazine.  When most magazines are going the way of online YYZ is breaking the mold and are confident  enough in their product and it's uniqueness to come out from the very first issue in print.  I don't know about you but I still LOVE seeing editorials in print...it's so much better than online.  It goes a long w/ why I still love to update my book and see my pictures printed and in person where I can touch them (w/ a protective covering over them of course lol). 

Their premiere issue came out back in Dec. and I was actually contacted by one of the editors Annie Lam to work on it.  Her and I had worked together previously on an editorial w/ Dexter Quinto which you may remember - Go Ask Alice.  Unfortunately, due to the editorial getting postponed I couldn't end up working on it b/c it ended up getting scheduled to shoot the night I was leaving for Europe back in Oct...I was soooo disappointed and made Annie pretty much promise me that I would get a chance to work w/ the magazine again lol. 

So fast forward to last wk.  I was on set at Studio Kaizen w/ Dexter Quinto when he got an email inquiring whether he'd be interested in shooting an editorial for YYZ.  Of course he was...and being the awesome friend he is of course he brought on his fav. Toronto Makeup Arist ;).  Plus he got Nadia Pizzimenti to style which is awesome b/c she's a really cool girl and we've been working together a lot lately.  Also, Dexter brought in a Hair Person for this shoot...yes you heard me right a SEPARATE person just to do HAIR!  OMG do you realize literally the FIRST commissioned editorial I have ever worked on where I didn't have to do BOTH Makeup & Hair!

So we did the shoot yesterday and I can honestly say it went really really well!  I never realized how easy and relaxing an editorial can be when all I have to do is Makeup & Nails and NOT worry about the Hair!  Yes, I'm getting a lot better at hair but it's still a lot to do on a shoot and it's a lot to watch during the shoot.  Dexter brought on an excellent Hair person - Earl Simpson...Nadia and I had both worked w/ him in the past so we thought he'd be a good addition to the team and he was.  He did a great job creating some big, beautiful and boucy curls...even when they were continually getting hit w/ wind (big, beautiful, bouncy curls worst enemy).  Our model that brought our beautiful vision to life was Ksenia (Elite).  Gorgeous girl, legs for days, great cheekbones and glowing skin...plus really nice...ugh therefore I can't hate her lol!

The concept for the shoot was sort of lingerie as outerwear and involved a lot of loose, flowing fabrics and ruffles.  Lots of sheerness in the materials and overall the clothes just had a really romantic and 70s sort of feel to them.  As I mentioned above the hair was big curls.  The makeup was rather clean but did involve some very strong accentuated cheekbones which is totally something I love!  I'm all about the cheekbones...which I think I've mentioned before.  I mostly stuck to browns and taupes for the overall colour palette but did work in some peaches and pinks as the shoot progressed.  I wanted the skin to look luminous and the eyes to be defined but the shadow to be well blended and soft w/ no harsh lines.  It totally wasn't what I thought the direction of the makeup was going to be at first but I actually really liked it in the end and Ksenia wore the look really well.  Plus, a lot of my other editorial work can be very bold, dark or avant garde so it's good to mix it up w/ some really soft and clean but still strong makeup sometimes. 

Earl doing hair...I'm so stealing his idea about standing on an apple box...why the Hell did that NEVER occur to me before!?!

 Always so serious while I work lol!

 GORGEOUS...CHEEKBONES!

 Nadia setting out her shoes...I won't even get into the stress the shoes caused her yesterday lol!

 Gorgeous Accessories...I LOVE Cuffs and Bangles!

 Finishing Touches Before the First Look!

 Hey Photographers...I'm NOT just good at Hair & Makeup...I'm also an Awesome Wind Machinist!