Chola Latina for Kruv Magazine - By Emma Miles

My Kruv inspiration was obviously from the stylist mood board, seeing the very bright and vivid clothes, colours and textures.  

The initial make up was taken from a 70's cartoon character and progressed from there. Taking inspiration from the neon colour's on trend and the Chola Latina culture. (They usually have thin, arched, penciled-on eyebrows, brown or dark red lip liner, lots of gold jewlery, crunchy gelled hair either down or up in a high ponytail) and new age traveller-est, combining this with past Dior shows under the reign of John Galliano. 

Follow Emma on Twitter here.
See the full story here.

'My first Strip Bar experience !' in the Topshop Beauty Rooms - By Eli Wakamatsu

I went to the Re-launch of the Topshop Beauty Floor yesterday. Even through it was almost evening, Topshop was buzzing with people and atmosphere as if it was midday on a weekend, and I was invited into the closed off section of Topshop Beauty Floor in the-2.

The area offers all sorts of beauty treatments under one roof with perfection, fashion-forward style, and at an affordable cost. 

It really is the ultimate beauty destination in Central London. There is Tattoos and Piercing, Bleaching, Manicures and Pedicures, Waxing and Eyebrows and a Blow Dry Bar.

In Hershesons Blow dry bar, You can choose your desired style from the photos on the wall. You will be washed and styled in just 30 minutes and ready to go. What a great idea!

You can see the selection on their website tells you how long it'll take, together with short and beautiful video of the style and you can  also book your appointment !

I try the stip waxing at the Stripbar for the first time in my life ! I know some of you do this regularly and I get to hear educational stories from models I work with about this all the time but I never done it for myself, so I thought I'll have a go. An experienced and friendly therapist named Alison immediately made me confortable in the boutique, hotel-like room and answered all my questions about it.

It was a wonderful treat, and now has me hooked, I'll be back for regular visits now.

Here in the Stripbar, they do all waxing for men and women, Spray tans, and a tailor-made eyebrow called 'HD eyebrow'. I can highly recommend them for their hygiene, high standard and quality service. I did my patch test for my HD eyebrow so that I can make sure there is no allergy to have them done.

I loved this picture in the treatment room 'smother me in berries'

Follow Eli on twitter here.

See Eli's website here.

When STYLIST Became Art by Leigh Keates

I arrived at Stylist Magazine head offices at 7.45am for a cover shoot and all I'd been told was that I had two girls that needed to be made identical, 15 minutes per girl with a car picking us up at 8.15am, to take us to the Saatchi Gallery.

It's not often you get to shoot in places like the Saatchi gallery, but apparently the girls were 'to become the art'. As we were shooting them from behind it was decided that we go for a Pony, keeping the sides sleek and adding slight volume on top, effective but not ideal with such time restrictions.

I popped a touch of mousse on the hair line and dried in. Once dry, I layered with Redken Quicktease and back combed the top section with a Kent backcombing brush. I gathered into a pony with my Mason & Pearson, ensuring that the back and sides were sleek without compromising the volume at the top. I tied with a 'bungy' and wrapped a piece of hair from the pony to conceal the bungy elastic.



I repeated on the second model and we jumped straight in the taxi.  At the Saatchi gallery the cleaners were still going about there morning routine as we set up. Every one knew what needed to be done and we was wrapped by 10am, just in time for the gallery to open .

To follow Leigh on Twitter here.
      

'Opium' - 1883 Magazine - How to get the look By Leigh Keates

My first print shoot with 1883 magazine and I've got to say I really am chuffed, I love the darkness to the story, fitting perfectly with title of the issue 'A dark romance'.

The Dries Van Noten collection was stunning, and not to mention the the jewels that were escorted in by their very own minder and  worth more than my house, or possibly my street!

I loved what we did with the hair,  I pin curled and set each of the three girls using my Cloud Nine wand, then one by one shook the curls like a mad man creating a much looser texture. 

Parting the hair to the centre I then mixed Tigi serum and Tigi wet look gel in order to decrease the gels stickiness and enhance the serums hold- a perfect consistency to slick down the girls hair from the crown to the tip of the ear. To keep the glimmering finish of the gelled area, I went to town with the Tigi shine spray.

See the full story here.
Follow Leigh on Twitter here.

'Fighter' - 1883 Magazine by Leigh Keates

I worked on this shoot with the lovely Holly (Ounstead) from 1883 and talented photographer Neil Francis Dawson.

The inspiration for the hair in this story came from the iconic Chanel 'Underwater' show.
I piled on the mousse and added Tigi Styling cream to prevent the mousse drying to crispy. Using a wide tooth comb I gathered the hair, leaving a side part, and tied at the back before loosely twisting into a wetlook chignon. Adding a touch of Tigi wet look gel to hairline to stop it from drying fluffy. A final douse of Tigi Weightless shine spray shine spray for extra sheen and the first look was ready.

For the second look we let the hair down, staying within the 'Chanel' theme I lightly spritzed with water and added a little more styling cream. We had fun playing around with this look, switching from having the hair, strategically placed over our models face to slicking it behind her ears.

We finished with the hair up and off the models face again, but this time went for a super sleek wet look top-knot, spraying almost point blank with shine spray to finish.

A last minute shoot that resulted in working with a great team, producing great results.

See the full story and credits here.
Follow Leigh on Twitter here. 

Institute Magazine - by Sophie Harris-Greenslade/The Illustrated Nail

For this beautiful editorial by Hollie and Grace Carlin in Institute Magazine I made sculptural 3D nails to look like pieces of nail jewellery. 

I filed the nails to a sharp point and covered in gold metallic Minx. I then cut folded and shaped gold foil to sharp points and attached to the nail. 

I think the nails make a great statement and I absolutely love these shots. It was a great team to work with and I had so much fun shooting that day.

See the full story here.

Autumn's Urban Uniform -Blog and Styling Sarah Clark & (Make-up) Eli Wakamatsu

Eli and Sarah worked on the make-up and styling respectively for the Autumn's Urban Uniform story in the September issue of Red Magazine with the photographer David Mandelberg.

Sarah: "I really loved the Topshop Unique show back February (in fact, it was one of my favourite London shows). I never thought a Topshop show would provide the inspiration for one of my shoots, but with Kate Phelan at the helm, it was a very different show. 

I loved the way she deconstructed the military looks to make them cooler and more wearable. I thought this was a great take on the (huge) trend for Red - not too young or gimmicky, but still stylish and cool. 

I wanted to style the clothes in a way that was really effortless and easy for every day (but without being boring). My favourite pieces were the Topshop coat (amazing, although not sure I'm tall enough to pull it off myself), the Margaret Howell navy wool cap, and the Joseph skirt. And I was also completely obsessed with the Pringle boots! 

I wanted to shoot the story in a really simple location, (and definitely didn't want any military references), and I just love Hyde Park. It's so beautiful, and so photogenic. So we shot one day there and one day around the streets in Shoreditch and Brick Lane (to balance out all the green!)."




Eli: "We had such a lovely location shoot, a day out in both Hyde park and  in the East end of London.

Our model Claudia Raba at Models 1 was well cast to do this shoot which needed someone cool, effortless and stylish.

She was all that before I started make-up!

The make up was totally aimed to do just that as well, nothing too 'statement', just beautiful skin and with her gorgeous smile just shined. And showing her independence and determination by filling her eyebrow well.

All colours were in the pallet of urban tones, well worked into the skin.

I used  Dior skin Nude as a base. 

Her eyebrow was defined and shaped with Becca  Cosmetics Brow Powder and Brow Shaping Gel.  

Her nails were painted in Nars polish in the 'Desperado' shade. 

See the full story here.

Follow Sarah on Twitter here.

Follow Eli on Twitter here.