New Editorial - Blithe Spirited

So I got a really cool surprise yesterday night. I was just doing my usual browsing on the internet of some of my fav go to sites and low and behold there was one of my editorials! It's on Fantasticsmag.com (click link to see). I knew they were going to be showcasing an editorial I did w/ Todd before I left Shanghai but w/ Fantastics you never really know when it's going to be up on their site so it was a really nice surpise to suddenly see it there!

A lot of times Todd will shoot an editorial and submit it to a bunch of magazines in various non competing markets and waits to see who picks it up. So this specific shoot is actually going to be featured in 4 magazines in 4 different markets which is really cool. He actually shot it 2 different ways too so that means it actually looks like 2 completely different shoots - one is a very commercial editorial look and the other has a blurry cool editorial look. 3 mags picked up the blurry and 1 picked up the commercial. I have the commercial one too but I can't put it up till the end of the mth when the magazine comes out though.

It's also great for me b/c each magazine will choose different pics so it's like getting multiple editorials and I can pick and choose which pics I like from each editorial. I really like the pics that were featured in Fantastics and there's a lot that show of the makeup really nicely. This same shoot was featured in this Hong Kong magazine called Baccarat and to be honest - they RUINED it! Bad pic choices IMO and they added this weird graphic thing to it which totally messes w/ the flow and feel of the editorial. I've mentioned this issue before w/ Asian magazines...sometimes they just don't get the difference between cool and tacky.

Below is the editorial featured in Fantastics as well as the editorial featured in Baccarat (you'll see what I mean about the stupid graphics). To get a better appreciation for the Fantastics editorial I suggest visiting their website though.

Fantastics Magazine Editorial

Baccarat Magazine Editorial

YABY!!!

So yesterday I met w/ the lovely and talented Liz Yu. Fellow MUA, friend and creator of Yaby Cosmetics. Liz is not only an amazing makeup artist but she is also one of the most generous ppl I know right now...not just w/ product but also w/ industry knowledge and time.

Yesterday we spent literally 5-6 hrs at her Yaby office just catching up, gossiping and me picking her talented brain. As some of you may know I've been meeting w/ stylist agencies the last wk so I was just getting some info and opinions from her about everything from assisting (actually terrifies me) to portfolio layout - which btw she helped me w/ tremendously! Seriously my book looks a million times better now...sometimes you just need an outside industry eye to help clear away the crap you know. I'll talk more about agency meetings tomorrow after I make my final decision...EEEKKK - Fingers and Toes Crossed People! Although I do have to admit so far the agencies have been very receptive to my work which has been nice.

Anyway, what was also AMAZING about my meeting w/ Liz besides all the amazing tips she gave was the GRATIS I got :)!!! I mentioned Yaby in a couple of editorials and I know I'll definitely be mentioning them in the future (b/c half my kit is probably Yaby now lol).

Liz was beyond generous and I can't wait to try out the products she gave me on a shoot. I did try a couple out today on myself and let me tell you they were a DREAM! I got some powder foundation palettes from her as well as a highlighter palette and they are beyond gorgeous! The powder foundation (can also be used wet) is really smooth and great for both men and women. It's great for men b/c it's great at evening out their skintone w/out making them feel like they are wearing "makeup" and for women if their skin is great just a light dusting might be enough or if their skin is "less than great" layer it over the other foundation for another layer of coverage w/out making things look cakey. The highlighter palette has highlighters and bronzers for all skintones and it's the perfect amount of light shimmer w/out making things look like a 70's disco ball.

Liz's line is also great b/c it's small and compact. I'm all about keeping my kit small and as light as possible. I walk and take public transportation and I just use and over the shoulder MUFE pro bag for my kit (no rolling wheel kits for me) so it's essential I keep everything to a minimum. Yaby is great for not only condensing their products w/ her amazing palette system but there are also empty palettes which you can purchase and fill w/ your other makeup brands. I did this w/ my lipsticks actually. I bought an empty Yaby palette and some of the Yaby empty lipstick pots and cut and smooshed my lipsticks very neatly into the little empties. Now instead of going through a million tubes to find the right container I just open my very small Yaby palette and there are 35 (I think) lipsticks right at my disposal...and they look so neat and pretty too. All the models always ooh and aww over my Yaby stuff and how cute and small it is!

I also have A LOT of Yaby eyeshadows and pearl paints from before which are amazing b/c they are small but SOOO pigmented...seriously it will take forever to go through them...and really how many times do you actually get a chance to use that lime green eye shadow you used once for a shoot anyway. Everything is also really reasonably priced esp. for the quality and she offers a pro discount and usually has bi-annual sales.

To let you know how much I REALLY love Yaby I should just say I think I mentioned to ppl more than once at the CMS Toronto trade show this yr to go to the Yaby booth...umm did I mention I was working the Face Atelier booth at the time lol...don't get me wrong Face Atelier is another AWESOME Canadian brand (and not just cuz they give me gratis too ;) ). Seriously, they have some great foundations and I love their shimmers and lip glosses.

Btw any beginner MUAs - a great tip for when you actual start to do editorials try to use brands that offer gratis for editorial credits ie. Jessica Jean Myers using Yaby Cosmetics. A lot of times editorial pays very low to zero so a great way to make something out of it is to mention a cosmetic brand that you featured heavily in the editorial and at least get some free product from it!

Portfolio Printing

So yesterday I met up w/ the wonderful and talented Sian Melton in Toronto's beautiful Distillery District to print pics for my portfolio. First off what a perfect and gorgeous day yesterday. We started w/ some yummy lunch at Cafe Uno...my treat for her taking the time to help a computer reject like me print stuff. Great to catch up and gossip ;) w/ other artists about work, life and all that jazz.

Got my pics printed...lots of double pagers so it ended up being like 18 new pages for my book. On a positive note they look fabulous and on a negative note I NEED a bigger portfolio lol...not really that negative but I don't have the money right now to get one from House of Portfolios like I want :(

If you're in Toronto I highly recommend Pikto for your printing needs. You can rent a computer station for an hr to print your pics and make sure they are sized right and all that (if your pic order is over $25 the hr is free..reg $15/hr for station 1). See when I first started I was naive and I was getting 9X12 which I could actually print from the downstairs computers which were easy to use. Now I know better and I'm printing the professional size pics 11X14 but unfortunately the easy to use computers don't offer that size...damn them! So it's either bribe my computer savy friends w/ lunch and have them help me or pay almost $20/print to have pikto do it...btw if you print it yourself using the computers upstairs it's $4.75/print AND you get the pics that day...can't beat that!

Unfortunately for Sian she saved her pics wrong on her CD so she couldn't print yesterday...this sucks for her but actually works out better for me. I have like 3 editorials that I'm getting in pdf format next wk so I can just go w/ her again and she can help me again (maybe this time I can actually learn how to do it on my own so I don't need to harass my overly generous friends lol). Now the big problem is where the hell am I going to fit them in my book!?! Right now I have 40 pgs but I think in the next portfolio I'm going to move it up to 60 pgs...or I could start separating my Beauty from Editorial work...we'll see.

Next on my to do list - meet w/ agencies and get a new business card (kind of waiting on this one till I know about the agency thing so I could put them on the card ;) )

P.S. Someone commented about Todd wearing the same pants for all the shoots lol! Trust me this is an on-going joke between he and I regarding his "uniform". Just so everyone knows he has several camouflage cargo pants...it's not the same pair lol. As many of you may have noticed he really likes to get on the ground a lot when he shoots so you know he has to keep it practical and comfortable.

Back in Toronto - Aumnie Athletics Shoot

Sorry for my LONG absence but as you can imagine I've been a bit busy between my time in Windsor and now officially coming back to Toronto. But I'm excited to start shooting again and I can't wait for what lies ahead! This weekend I'm going to officially get my portfolio together and print some stuff w/ the help of Sian Melton another amazing T.O MUA...she's computer savvy...I am not :( After I get my book together I'm going to go meet w/ the MUA agencies in Toronto...eeek NERVOUS :S

Moved into my new condo DOWNTOWN :)...it's AMAZING and I'm so excited about it. I'll try and take some pics in the near future so you guys can see. Just the view from the rooftop is VERY cool....you know what that means - photo shoots at my place!! It has some really sick amenities too - indoor/outdoor pools, sauna, whirlpool, gym, game room, party rooms, viewing room, basketball court, squash courts (very excited to get back into squash), bbq patios etc.

So I mentioned before I left that I did a shoot w/ a yoga clothing company called Aumnie Athletics. Very cool brand and super comfortable and cute clothes. Owned by a Canadian but operates in China...actually not available in Canada right now. What was so cool about the shoot actually was how much of a full circle moment it was for me. It was my last shoot in Shanghai and it was taking place the day before I left.

Okay a little background info here - 6 mths ago I was in the visa office in Toronto getting my visa for China. Behind me there was a pretty, slim, tall girl...naturally I assumed she was a model - 1. b/c everyone else in there was Chinese 2. b/c of the description I just gave lol. Anyway, it turns out she was and she was going over there to work b/c her boyfriend Sean (Asian American) was also a model working over there. Crazy enough her boyfriend kinda knew my photographer friend Todd and she knew of Todd through her boyfriend...so small world moment there.

Anyway, fast forward 6 mths and guess who the male model just by coincidence is for the shoot - this girl's boyfriend Sean. I had pretty much forgotten about this model until I met him and he mentioned he was from California and mentioned his girlfriend was Canadian. Once he said that I had a lightbulb moment and told him about the visa office story and he texted his gf turns out it was her and she still had my card and everything. What a funny full circle moment eh? (haha getting back to my Canadian roots and bringing back the eh)

So here are some behind the scenes pics from that shoot. It's a good shoot for me to help expand my lifestyle and advertising work.

This is Hero - so CUTE!!

Me Behind the Scenes - much better angle then the last pic lol!