My new make-up inspiration

My MUA recently posted this pic from the red carpet, and I fell in love:


Uber pale skin, slightly smokey eye, and rockin' a berry lip? Absolutely fabulous. We did a trial run during my b-pic shoot, and came up with this:

Whatcha think? To much for walking down the aisle?

Primp and Pretty, Round II

I think I have officially found a make-up artist.

I had originally thought of booking with Heidi McKenna and had arranged a trial with her. The trial went well; the make-up looked good, but I wasn't entirely thrilled with it. Plus, Heidi used a lot of coppery colors on my lids and apparently I have an allergy to the red dyes in a lot of make-up colors, including coppers - my eyes were entirely swollen the next day (totally NOT Heidi's fault - I had no idea I was allergic to red dyes).

In any case, when we had our recent epic session, my photog recommended that I check out Nancy with Brideface as a possible alternative. I had researched Nancy before, and had concluded that she was probably a tad bit over our price point. That being said, when my photog confided that Nancy was the ONLY person she let touch her own make-up, I decided it was worth at least a trial.

The trial with Nancy went FABULOUSLY. I am VERY fair and matching foundation to my skin is always a challenge. Nancy managed to do it perfectly. And the lashes - oh, my. I have naturally long lashes, but I was still infatuated with the falsies that Nancy applied. If you're on the fence about whether or not they're "necessary," they are! ;) If you want that nice, fluttery look when batting your eyes at your fiance on your wedding day, you'll definitely want these. Just make sure that your MUA uses individual lashes, not strips, and BLACK glue - my photog recently shared that some MUA use white glue to attach the lashes, and it shows irl, and in pics.

Also, Model in a Bottle is a godsend.

My trial was at noon, and I didn't remove the make-up until 11:00 p.m. This stuff is amazing!

Anyway, here are the shots. The first was taken right after we left the trial. The latter two were taken ELEVEN hours later. Were it not for the shine (damn you, oily skin!) and the lack of lip gloss, I could swear they were taken at the same time.

Did I mention how much I loved the false lashes? ;) So watcha think? Wedding worthy?

And we're done!

Whew! That was one marathon photography session.

We just got back from our engagement photo session w/ Steph Carson and we're exhausted. I can't imagine how Steph and her photojournalist feel after shooting a wedding all day Saturday in the heat, traveling back into the city on Sunday, shooting a warm-up session, then doing ours....

The day started out w/ a marathon shoe shopping expedition this morning to find the perfect fuschia shoes to go w/ the new Herve Leger dress. After scavenging through about 12 stores on Broadway this morning, I finally found them at The Shoe Box - a pair of Courtney Crawford, fuchsia patent leather slingbacks with 5" heels. THEY ARE AWESOME!

After finally finding the perfect shoes, it was time to head out to to prettify myself w/ nails, hair, and make-up (to clarify, I'm not REALLY a diva - if I had any make-up or hair skills myself, I would have done them on my own. Sadly, I don't. *sigh*).

I won't mention the hair place b/c my experience was less that stellar there, but I will talk for a minute about my MUA - Amy Eidelman. She was fantastic! My make-up was amazing, and it stayed put even in the sauna that was NYC yesterday evening.

Then, when a scheduling snafu on my part (apparently I was too busy to remember that the Met would be closed on Sunday evenings so we couldn't do pics on the rooftop garden :( ) meant that we had to switch locations, she stayed for the entire shoot, trekking w/ us around the east side and into Central Park, helping to carry our bag, touching up lipstick that had rubbed off (everything else stayed put - amazing considering how hot it was), and helping me transfer between shoes and flip flops (I didn't want to ruin my brand new Courtney Crawfords walking through the mud). Again, this woman is amazing! If you're still looking for a MUA, definitely give her a call - her work is phenomenal and her rates are very competitive.

And Steph was, well, simply amazing. I knew we loved her work, but I didn't know exactly how it would be to work with her. Once we actually got started though, I was immediately put to ease. When the scheduling snafu happened, Steph suggested we just take some pics around the area instead of travelling somewhere else, so we were able to get a few "grittier" urban shots before heading into the (semi)dry park. Her eye for lighting and creative angles just can't be matched - I'm getting antsy sitting waiting for our proofs already!

And for those who are wondering whether or not to do e-pics, definitely go for it. We've haven't seen our proofs yet (just a few shots that Steph shared w/ us via her digital camera), but we are soooo very glad we did it. We had a lot of fun, we got to know Steph really well, and she got to know what does and doesn't work for us photographically-speaking - which will hopefully help us get better pics on our wedding day.