Replenished Hues - YYZ Living Editorial

New Editorial Out!  I'm VERY happy to announce I have a new editorial out...what's even BETTER is that it's actually in PRINT!  Nowadays w/ so many magazines going online or even worse out of business it's a lot harder to get published in magazines that ACTUALLY have a print copy of them available in stores.

A few mths ago I wrote about some behind the scenes stuff for the editorial I was shooting for the Summer issue of YYZ Living and it's FINALLY out and it looks so PRETTY!  About a wk and a half ago YYZ did a big launch party at Ultra's rooftop patio for the Summer issue which was nice b/c not only do I get a new editorial out but I get to go to a party that's featuring my editorial :)

Only thing that was a bit disappointing was originally the story was suppose to be used for the cover as well but last minute it got cut from the cover and another editorial was used :( ...really would have liked to have had a COVER too although I'm not going to lie the image that did use for the cover is stunning as well!  But the story still looks great (although they spelled my name wrong...ugghh not MEYERS...happens so often!)  But nothing I can do about it now so I might as well just enjoy the beautiful editorial and hopefully I'll get a chance to work w/ the magazine again...and maybe do a cover ;)

Here's the editorial...it's not the actually tears w/ the credits b/c I don't have them in PDF format yet but here's the pics they used (and the ones they didn't use that I like...it's funny 2 of the pics they cut are actually 2 of my fav from the story...always the way lol).

REPLENISHED HUES

Photographer: Dexter Quinto

Styling: Nadia Pizzimenti

Creative Director: Annie Lam

Makeup: Jessica Jean MYERS

Hair: Earl Simpson

Model: Ksenia (Elite)

Location: Studio Kaizen

 This is the Opening Image

 I LOVE this Image!

 

 This was the Original Opener...I like it better b/c it features the makeup better...what can you expect I AM a Makeup Artist after all lol!

This was the the image that was going to be used for the cover originally...very pretty so sad it was cut :(

Here's a pic from the launch party - it's me on the right, Dexter in the middle and my friend Svetlana was my  +1 lol...Dexter had just returned from Europe literally the day before I think

Torlys Web Commercials!

A few wks ago you may remember I got to work w/ a great new team on some web commercials for Torlys Smart Hardwood Flooring.  Well today I got my hands on the two commercials we did and I have to say they are pretty cute in a tongue in cheek sort of way.  Great thing is the client LOVES - YEAH!  Thanks again Signature Video Group can't wait to work w/ you guys again in the future!

So here they are below...check them out!

Video #1


Video #2 - This one is my fav out of the two.  I think the ppl playing the married couple did such a good job...funny thing was they actually knew each other from before b/c they had been hired to play a newly dating couple for a dating website commercial previously and the director had no idea about this when he brought them on for this job - crazy eh!  Apparently, they must look like a good match or something lol!

Sol y Mar - Photos

Here are some of the photographic stills from the Sol y Mar Video Editorial for Lilogi.

LOVE this picture I just WISH there wasn't a GIANT piece of grass cutting right through her face :(  Would have been an amazing addition to my portfolio if it wasn't for that...makeup looks gorgeous!

 This ones pretty HOT too!

Some of these I can't believe they were shot in Ontario

Sol Y Mar - Video Editorial

Last wk I told you about the AMAZING shoot I did out in the middle of nowhere for the AMAZING new fashion website Lilogi .  Well the ppl at Lilogi are so awesome they already have the video done and up for viewing! YEAH!!!

It's beyond gorgeous and I'm so proud of all the work the whole team did to make it possible that day.  It really was a collaborative effort by everyone and it really shows.

Enjoy!


Sol y Mar from LILOGI on Vimeo.


CREDITS:

Directed by Renée Rodenkirchen, renee-rodenkirchen.com

Produced by Lilogi Inc.

Styled by Alexandra Loeb, alexandraloeb.com

Model: Genevieve Pantano at Elmer Olsen

Hair & Makeup by Jessica Jean Myers, jessicajeanmyers.com

Production Assistant: Blair McGregor

Music by Sunol - Pendleton Waves, sunolmusic.com

Photographs by Renée Rodenkirchen

Featuring Lizzie Fortunato Jewels. For select styles visit shopbop.com & charmandchain.com. For information please visit lizziefortunatojewels.com

Btw tomorrow I'll post some of the photographic stills from the shoot...don't want to overload you w/ too much awesomeness in one day lol!  Also I'm exhausted...got up at 4 am for wedding and a bunch of other jobs and finally got home at 8:30 pm...Yes, my life is GLAMOROUS!

Love When My Brides Show Me Pictures After the Wedding!

You may recall me talking about a Sat. a little less than a mth ago where I had two weddings that day (May 14 th to be exact).  The first bride that day Lori was kind enough to let me know that her photographer Marlen James had posted some pictures on Facebook from the wedding.

I always LOVE when my brides send me photos after the day 1. B/C I sometimes don't get to see them all done up 2. It's a nice way to make sure they looked beautiful throughout the day and the Hair & Makeup held up 3. It's great to add those pics to my website.

The pictures are beautiful and it's so great to see that everything held up that day esp. b/c at some points on that Sat. there were torrential downpours...not the best thing for Hair & Makeup lol!  I contacted the Lori's photographer Marlen James to see if she would mind me using a few of the pictures for publicity purposes (I of course agreed to include her name and website) and she was nice enough to send me some of the pics - Yeah Thank You So Much!  She also said that the Hair & Makeup...esp. the Hair held up beautifully the entire day which of course made me super happy.

One thing I was super excited about was the fact that Marlen took a lot of great pics that specifically featured the Makeup & Hair...unfortunately (for me) that's not always the case w/ pics from the wedding day.

So enjoy some of the pictures from Lori's beautiful day!

Lori & Her New Husband Doug...Such a Beautiful Couple!

 I Love this pic of Lori & her sister Patricia (who I also did Hair & Makeup for)

 Such a Pretty pic of the Hair!

Beauty & Braids

Today I got the chance to do a little beauty creative w/ photographer Sian Melton in my apt.!  Do you know how nice it is to not have to lug my kit around and just wait for ppl to come to me.  Her and I had been talking about shooting a Beauty story for a long while now but she had been super busy, I've been busy, the model we wanted was busy and then there was the issue of where to shoot it b/c she's in Oakville and doesn't have a proper studio out there.

So about two wks ago now I approached her again w/ the idea of a creative and I offered up my apt. as the shooting space to lure her in lol.  Apparently, my amazing apt. is the perfect place to shoot a small beauty creative b/c it has lots of natural light, blank walls and high ceilings.  Sian then approached Vienna, the model we wanted to use before and she was totally game so it was set and I was super excited!

I've had this one concept in my head for a beauty story literally since I was in Paris and bought these amazing magazines.  There was this one article about this one runway show and I just loved the Hair & Makeup so I was dying to create something w/ a similar feel but of course put my own spin on it.  I'm just so happy I finally got to shoot it b/c these concepts sort of have expiration dates and of course they lose their appeal after awhile.  Sometimes it's hard to get a photographer to agree to a beauty story when it's not even their concept to start but Sian is totally laid back and loved the concept so that was great.

I wanted to do something w/ a very ethereal feel to it so I can't wait to see want Sian is going to do in post b/c  it will look totally different then the pics she took today...which were already pretty cool!  I wanted the makeup to be mostly underneath the eyes and blended and faded out but I also still wanted it to have a bit of a messy feel if that makes sense.  For the hair I wanted to do an awesome braid story again but this time I wanted to crimp the hair first which I did w/ a really tiny crimper.  Time consuming but SO WORTH IT b/c it just gave the hair this amazing texture and gave so much volume and bulk to the braids.

I know I already have a braid story and I do love that one but it's getting a bit old so I wanted to update it w/ something new.  Plus that was in black and white so not the most useful to me and the makeup was super clean in it and being that I now have some new amazing clean beauty the story is not that useful in my book even though I still think it's really pretty.  Sometimes it's hard to get rid of a story even though you still love it b/c it's either a little stale or you just have a better story that represents a similar concept.

So I'm just giving you a taste of some of the looks...you'll have to wait and see for the real things ;)

After the crimping everything else went really quick...even after the 1st look was done all the changes were fast!  What a great team!

 Sian & Vienna doing their thing!

Bronzed, Beautiful & Back to Nature!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to work on a project that I'm REALLY excited about!  I was excited before the shoot but after seeing some of the results from yesterday I CAN'T WAIT to see the end product - which thankfully will be out by June 17th (don't you HATE when you have to wait FOREVER for stuff to come out).

So what was this amazing project I was working on yesterday you ask?  Well I was doing the Hair & Makeup for a really hot video editorial for Lilogi - a new Fashion webzine.  It's so cool b/c I've wanted to work on a video editorial for awhile b/c they are so popular right now but unfortunately hadn't had the chance then my good stylist friend Alexandra Loeb came to me w/ this project and I wasn't booked so of course I jumped at the opportunity!

We literally couldn't have asked for a better day yesterday...we were a bit worried about rain but where we were shooting it was literally perfection all around us!  We were shooting in the middle of nowhere - literally about 2 hrs East of Toronto out near Picton!?! or something like that at this Beach/Sand Dunes area.  It was gorgeous but boy was it far away...like closer to Kingston than Toronto which when you're doing a one day shoot makes for a LONG day!  Thankfully, it was SO WORTH IT!

It was a Beach themed shoot about a model getting back to nature.  Very sexy and earthy - bronzy, natural, glowing, a bit disheveled - you get the idea.  They wanted these really natural beachy waves - w/ lots of texture and even frizz and it was the PERFECT opportunity for me to use my RSessions Naluwaver which is great for creating that perfect beach wave...afterwards I just teased and tousled it a bit to give it that worn in, messy look.  For the makeup it was all about the Bronzed Beauty.  Very natural and bronzy on the eyes, bronzed glowing cheeks and just some gloss on the lips.  I also used a bronzing gel on her body although she was already pretty tan (note it was NOT a self tanner - just a bronzing gel by L'oreal - worked well - not too much shimmer which I was worried about).

One of the coolest things about the shoot was it actually brought me back to my Shanghai roots.  The model Genevieve and I had actually worked together w/ Todd Anthony Tyler in Shanghai during my 1st trip to Shanghai (I didn't even have the blog then).  I was there for 2 mths in the Summer before I spent 6 mths there and Genevieve was a model we used for a shoot we did that ended up in PUSH it Magazine.  Lovely girl - GORGEOUS FACE!  Seriously, she has a really unique look to her and I'm just in love w/ her cheekbones and lips and her eyes are the most piercing blue eyes!  Her skin barely needed any foundation. I used a bit of Yaby concealer and Face Atelier Foundation b/c I wanted to give her that really natural dewy look plus of course lots of highlighting/contouring and bronzing!  And OMG her body...that's all I have to say - HER BODY!

So we shot in 3 different "main locations" and all over those 3 locations.  It was a really laid back group and so much fun b/c it was ALL GIRLS!  I don't know if I've ever been on a fashion shoot where it's been ALL GIRLS - Model, Stylist, Editor, MUA, Videographer/Photographer & Assistant - Yeah Girl Power!  The light looked beautiful on Genevieve esp. w/ the reflector added in and it just gave her the most airbrushed glow.  Seriously, when you see the pics I got just off of my little digital camera - they are amazing and obviously not retouched or anything AT ALL!  Seriously, I don't get jealous of models that often but I was jealous lol!

We alternated between Video & Photographic stills and also did some macro shooting of the jewelery that was being featured in for the shoot.  The jewelery designer is this awesome sister duo and the company is called Lizzie Fortunato and they really have some STUNNING costume jewelery pieces - seriously breathtaking...and for the amount of labour and detail reasonably priced too!

So here's a taste of what went down yesterday...I know you'll be dying to see more!

Alex doing some last min. adjusting

 Me Bronzing Up the Babe!

 Thankfully it washes off :)

 I can't believe this was taken w/ just my digital camera...so gorgeous!

 What trooper..the water was not that warm despite the HOT temps out!

 I wish I looked this hot w/out trying...I mean she's not posing just standing there lol!  Who am I kidding I wish I looked this hot WITH trying lol!

 Not Retouched...how is this POSSIBLE!?!

 End of the Day!

So Fresh & So Clean - Now THIS is Clean Beauty! UPDATED

Adamo is back from his wedding (Congrats) and of course like the AMAZING professional he is he went straight back to work and finished editing the one clean beauty shot he couldn't get to before the wedding  - Sarah (Elite). She was actually the first model we shot that day.  She's from Elite and such a pleasure to work w/ - So Fresh, So Soft and So Young!

So here's the finished pic of Sarah!  Stay tuned for other shots from this day b/c there are literally SO MANY!  I will be posting stuff about this epic shoot for mths probably lol!

I'm also posting the other pics again just so you can see everything together in all it's glory!  Plus I just think they look so cool together b/c each girl is so different in her features - some sharper, some softer, different ethnic backgrounds, different hair colours etc. but I just love how the same concept looks so different w/ all these different girls!  They all do their own thing and look gorgeous but each still looks very natural.  Such a skincare ad I swear!  I'm not going to lie my only bit of sadness is that we didn't get any girls w/ darker skin tones...c'est la vie you can only work w/ what the agencies are offering you :(

On my website I have them laid out Alex, Sarah, Andrea, Bea - kind of goes from Light Hair to Dark and I really like it!

I'm An Addict & Shoppers Drug Mart Is My Dealer!

Anyone who knows me knows that it's near impossible for me to walk into Shoppers Drug Mart w/out dropping minimum $50.  Seriously, every time I go in even if it's for something simple like toothpaste the lure of their great sales and Optimum points get me.  I'm an Optimum Point fiend (for those that don't know you can save these pts and redeem them for free merchandise)...and let's not even get me started on the 20X the Optimum Points days lol!

So yesterday I innocently stop into Shoppers to pick up a package at the post office section (my Model 21 Eyelash order came in :) ).  I walked into the doors of my neighbourhood Shoppers at Yonge & College which I might add is also a Beauty Boutique (meaning that it carries a wider array of high end beauty products - Benefit, Smashbox, Guerlain, Lancome...to name a few).  Right there in the front were these bins marked $1.99 or $4.99 and they were FILLED w/ AMAZING hair products!  I don't mean the crappy kind either - I'm talking Marc Anthony, John Freida, L'oreal Elnett...some reallly good stuff!

Of course like the addict I am I grabbed a basket and just started loading it up w/ Elnett Hairspray ($4.99 reg. $14.99) and other various hair products for ridiculous prices.  Seriously, ppl were staring b/c I was just grabbing away afraid that others would get to something before I had a chance.  And of course like any addict I can always justify such purchases, "It's for my kit, I'm a Makeup & Hair artist" I say to the strangers staring at my almost overflowing basket.

After I loaded up my basket, picked up my eyelashes and roamed the store I went to the cash where the manager asked me how many Optimum pts I had.  I knew they had a special program going on this weekend where if you used 80 000 pts you got to spend $200 on almost anything in the store (you just have to pay the tax).  Normally, 80 000 pts gets you about $136 or something so it was like an extra $64 free!  I knew the sale items at the ridiculous prices wouldn't be around on Sat. for the promotion so I just figured I'd buy them that day and come back Sat. to get my $200 free merchandise of my choice (btw it's actually not THAT hard to get that many pts esp. if you shop on the 20X the pts days).  Then the manager informs me b/c that particular Shoppers is such a high volume Shoppers they are actually starting the promotion a day earlier on the Fri.!  That means not only do I get these AMAZING hair products for at an AMAZING DEAL...I actually get them for FREE!

Well once I found that out they agreed to hold my transaction and items aside while I continued to roam the store.  I literally spent another hr trying to figure out how to spend another $135.  I'm very indecisive and whenever these redeem your pts days come up I only like to spend the pts on things I would never normally purchase or things I hate to spend the money on in the first place (which usually means things for me b/c it's harder for my guilty self to justify it when it's for me and not my kit lol).

After much deliberation and walking around I finally settled on a new Hoola Bronzer by Benefit b/c mine is almost done and it's my Fav. contouring product, Boots Protect & Perfect Serum b/c I like it and haven't bought it for myself in awhile, some hair colour cuz man my roots are getting bad lol and my BIG purchase that I have been WAITING to get but didn't actually want to spend the money on RAPID LASH - it's like $60!  Not b/c my lashes are short or anything - in fact I have great very full and long lashes but for my BROWS!  Which of course if you read my last post you know are lacking and it's a very sensitive issue w/ me.  I've heard great things about this product so I'm really curious to see if it works and helps fill in some of the holes and gaps in my brows!

My order ended up coming to $200.50 how amazing is that!  I planned that too perfection so w/ tax I paid just over $26...can you believe it.  The receipt also says how much you saved and on all the hair products I saved just over $192!!! So that' means I basically got $400 worth of Makeup & Hair products for $26 Yesterday!  Sign me up for Extreme Couponing b/c I think we have a new WINNER lol!

Here's my amazing purchases in all their glory!

Here's Everything!

 Elnett $4.99/bottle you better believe I stocked up!  Esp. the way I got through hairspray lol!

 All of these hair products were $1.99/Each - Insanity!

 My Splurge on Myself Purchases - Funny the Rapid Lash at $60.00 was only a few dollars cheaper than ALL of the Hair Products together lol!