Happy Holidays!

...and Happy Hanukkah!

Well, the holiday craziness is finally over and I've survived another one.  Did you?  I don't know about you, but I was a little "anti-Christmas" this year.  I couldn't help but think up new and exciting ways to maim elves, poison reindeer and maybe even slow Santa down a little bit with some "special" snacks.  Exlax brownies, anyone?  Ok... I gotta admit, any holiday where I'm able to receive makeup gifts can't be all THAT bad.  And even though I was a very, very, VERY bad girl, Santa still visited me anyways.  :)  Gotta love that little porker. 

Here's a super wonderful gift from my husband/Santa.  It's a window sticker advertisement thingy.  It even has little website stickers on the side windows.  (Can anyone tell me the real word??)  He had to keep it a secret for a whole month and find a way to get it in the garage overnight without me seeing it.  I thought he was keeping a pony or something in there.  I just love it.  I'm a walkin', talkin' billboard!  :)

Of course, you know I would put the brakes on Christmas all together if the Santa man didn't bring me at least a little bit of makeup. And he sure did!  I received tons of  new MAC eye shadows, eyeliners & lipsticks.  I can't wait to reorganize them into my palettes.  (Aren't palette's the best space saving invention out there??  Another day we will talk about my new Z-pallettes that I found at IMATS in Toronto in November.

OHHHH.... and a late Santa present to myself... zebra seat covers!!!  I love them!  After I saw the new car sign thingymajiggy... I was inspired to chickify * my wheels.  I was lucky I could find them in our little city... but the makeup gods (Kevyn Aucoin, Max Factor...etc) were with me.  Now... can anyone tell me where to find a zebra print steering wheel cover?

*Chickify:  verb. meaning to make girl-like.  To de-masculate a vehicle or other man like item.

Alright... another year is done.  Let's celebrate it with a video from Kandee Johnson.  :)  She's so awesome... I know she'd 

appreciate my zebra print.  :)

Happy Holidays, everyone!  

Hope you all have a great new year!  

Debby

Max Factor: The Holy Father of Makeup

Oh my... I read this book nearly all in one sitting.  I looooooooved it!  I found it on www.bookcloseouts.com and snatched it up for a couple of dollars.  It is now my favourite book of all time.  It told of Mr. Factor's tumultuous  life in Poland, Russia and eventually the US.  It was good enough to be fiction, but it wasn't fiction.  This was Max Factor's crazy life!  Please, somebody... make a movie from this bio!  Ron Howard, are you listening???


Here's the outline from the book "Max Factor: The Man who Changed the Faces of the World" by Fred E. Baston.


Not so long ago, nice girls never wore make-up - in fact, the word itself was taboo! Only stage performers and prostitutes painted their faces. But that was before a man named Max Factor revolutionized the concept of beauty. Born in Poland in 1877, Max Factor worked as a beautician and wigmaker to the Russian imperial family, the Romanovs. In 1904, a year after Czar Nicholas II ordered the Jewish pogroms, Max Factor fled with his family to America. He first settled in St. Louis, where he had an exhibit at the World's Fair, before moving to Los Angeles in 1908. There he opened a shop selling cosmetics and wigs. Located in the theater district, the store catered to stage actors. But the birth of a newfangled entertainment called the "movies" changed everything. As film technology advanced - from silent films to talkies and ultimately to color motion pictures - Max Factor created the make-up to keep up with it. Soon women everywhere wanted to look like their favorite glamorous stars, and Max Factor was more than happy to oblige. He invented false eyelashes, lip gloss, foundation, eye shadow, the eyebrow pencil, and -every girl's friend - concealer, among other things, and he began selling his innovative cosmetics to the general public. Make-up madness, like movie madness, was here to stay. The right to rouge was seen as a symbol of freedom from social restrictions. The father of modern make-up, Max Factor quite literally changed the faces of the world and created a cosmetics empire that launched the multibillion-dollar beauty industry. This is his extraordinary story.

Another year under our Santa belts...

Well, ho-ho-hodey-ho.  A big thank you to my makeup team: Tanya, Melissa and Lia.  These ladies were a huuuuuuuuge help at the Living Christmas Tree performances in the makeup department.  We had a total of 7 shows this past week and we ROCKED IT!!!  Everyone was makeup complete by the end of the first half.  Way to go, makeup divas!  It was such a pleasure to work with the cast and crew of the LCT, as well as our special guests: Elizabeth & Scott Rhyno and Jay Calder.  They are a fine bunch of people!  And talent! Boy did we have a talented bunch of cast and crew.. not to mention over 300 volunteers to make this thing happen.  Everyone... give yourselves a pat on the back!


This week:  I have a great bunch of folks that I'll be working on... a few Christmas party gals, a good friend that knows the value of good makeup ;^), and get this.... ELVIS!  Yep!  Thane Dunn and I will be putting our little noggins together and improving his Elvis look (makeup wise... you should see him... he's the real deal!)  for an upcoming concert.   Thane is an award winner and I will be pleased to work with him on this project.  (Can't wait to see his costumes, too!  They're totally fab!)


So... I'm off to slip into a post-Tree coma now for a few days.  If you are looking for me, I'm under a pile of makeup brushes waiting to be cleaned.  


D.

Living Christmas Tree Cast Makeup Schedule

CAST MAKEUP CALL TIMES


Please take note of your makeup time. If you miss your call time, you run the risk and responsibility of possibly not being able to get your makeup done for the performance. Please be respectful of your cast & crew’s time. Also, please be sure to come in with a clean face, this saves a lot of time. Thank you & we look forward to seeing you!


Pastor Buckingham  6:00
Don Ingersol  6:00 
Kathy Shanks Dummy 6:00
Paul Unger Ventriloquist 6:00 
Erica Murray Violinist 6:15 
Rebecca Gildart Mary 6:15 
Joel Gildart Joseph 6:15 
Jason Muir Guitarist 6:15 
Child soloist Solo/actor 6:15 
Jay Calder VIP guitarist 6:30
Kings (3) Three kings 6:30 
Nativity Shepards (2)  6:45 
Arabic drummers (5)  6:45
Elizabeth & Scott 7:00 

Makeup Heaven...

I believe that one day I am going to die.....And when I die I will go to heaven.....makeup heaven.  Makeup heaven will have Max Factor at it's gates waiting to invite me in.  I'll meet all my beloved artists and Kevyn Aucoin will be my guide.  Together we'll do makeup on the angels and create lip gloss that doesn't budge and mascara that will never flake or run.  

I just got back from "Burlesque" starring the statuesque Cher and the multi-talented and flexible, Christina Aguilara.  I loved it and it's the closest thing to makeup heaven I am going to get to this week.  The makeup was superb...the dancing and costumes amazing.  Cher's character even gave Christina's character a makeup lesson.  How awesome is that?  

Oh the sparkle... the shimmying... the sequins... this would make Max proud.

D.

So..... this is a blog.

Debby

So....... this is what a blog is.  Please everyone, welcome me to the 21st century.  If it wasn't known before, it certainly is known now that I AM NO TECHIE GEEK.  Can somebody say "obvious"??  In any case, this is where I am going to mouth off every day.  OK.  Let's be honest here, there's no need to lie on a blog... I'm probably not going to write EVERY day.  I tried the whole diary idea when I was ten, and if it didn't work out then, welllllll........ it's probably not going to work out now either.  HOWEVER!  I will do my best and TRY to post every day.  :)  There.  That's relatively honest. 

So... what will I be writing about?  Well, considering I am a professional makeup artist, I will be writing mostly about makeup.  I ABSOLUTELY LOVE MAKEUP.  I can honestly say it is what makes me smile EVERY single day.  Oh.. and you know... I'm super opinionated, so I'm pretty sure you are going to see some ranting and raving going on here as well.  You may want to just skip over that part. 

OK.  I'm done.  This officially concludes my first posting ever on a blog.  Somebody wish me luck.

Debby