Personal New Years beauty resolutions

I don’t usually do New Years resolutions because I don’t think just because it’s the start of the new year it’s going to make me more motivated than any other time of the year. However, some beauty issues really need to be adressed more regularly as one gets older. In your mid-forties you just can’t let it all hang out the way you did when you were in your mid-twenties, let’s face it people.

So here are a couple of things I’m going to try and be better about in 2012

1). Drink more. First of all, I don’t believe in involuntarily drinking more than 2 liters of water or any type of liquid a day. I do believe in listening to your body. When you’re thirsty you need to drink and that’s that. When you drink more than what your body needs, you flush out valuable minerals and vitamins + you waste a lot of time on bathroom trips.

I usually have gallons of black coffee in the morning, just because I’m a monster if I don’t, but I have been better during the day, switching from my usual cappuchino’s to herbal tea.
I’m even starting to like it. Well.. sortof.
So it’s less coffee and more herbal/green tea to cleanse more toxins out of my system. Oh, and I’ve also decided to make an effort to drink more champagne because I feel celebrations have been neglected in 2011. And we can’t have that now can we?

2). have regular manicures and pedicures. My hands are under scrutiny as a makeup artist, and I wash them a lot. Water is very drying to skin and it weakens nails. I have my nails done with either solar or acrylic and keep them very short and rounded/squared without polish most of the time. So what’s the problem you say? Well, I can never find the time to go for a fill and more often than not a whole week of ragged nails has gone by before I get to make time. Feet; well thats a whole other ballgame. I rarely wear open shoes or sandals not even in summer, but I do have to make an effort to go and have pedicures even though I detest anyone touching my feet. Given the choice, I would much rather go to the dentist than the pedicure, but unfortunately both have to be done.

So: make regular appointments for hand and footsie maintenance in advance. From now on there will be no more excuse not to go.

3). wear at least a little bit of makeup every day. Most people think just because I’m a makeup artist I would wear it myself every day but the exact opposite is true. I spend so much time working on other people’s faces that most of the time I can’t really be bothered to do my own anymore. So except for the occassional party/birthday/bash when I will use some mascara and concealer, I usually wear nothing at all.
Besides that, the thought of coming home late at night after a gruelling day of work and having to take it all off again, is enough incentive to stop me from putting it on in the first place. Laziness, I confess.

So: make an effort in 2012. Duely noted.

4). which brings me to eyelash extentions. A very good option for lazy people like myself who want to look bright eyed from the moment they wake up without the least bit of effort. Now all I need to do is find a good technician because I’ve tried them about 2 months ago and my lashes are damaged so badly I need to wait a couple of weeks before trying again. This time with someone who actually knows their stuff. Nuff said.

5). eyebrow upkeep. I’m trying to grow my brows back to their original fullness so I can have them threaded into perfect arches. Will report back in due time. In the meantime: step. away. from. the. tweezers.

6). upgrade skin exfoliation. As we get older our skin cells renew themselves at a slower pace. This actually starts at an age as young as 25, and by exfoliating you can keep skin younger and fresher looking. Right now I’m loving Paula’s Choice AHA gel exfoliator but I think I’ve reached it’s maximum potential by using it twice a day, so I need to look into some more heavy duty peels, and potentially a salon visit. Not my favorite pasttime, surprisingly. Exfoliating brings me to the logical next step:

7). wear sunscreen every single day of the year. I’m actually pretty good at this one already, for the face at least. So my goal is to extend that good habit to my neck and cleavage area (or whatever there’s showing of it at any given time) and my hands and arms. As we all know our neck, cleavage and hands show signs of aging quicker than any other part of our bodies so I will do my best to not stop at the jawline with my SPF 20.

There is probably a LOT more I can do but for now this is challenging enough I dare say.
Thanks for reading!
Have you made any beauty resolutions for 2012? Let me know, I’d love to read about them!

Monique

 

Happy New Year!

It’s 2012 finally and I hope you had a lovely and safe time celebrating the holidays!

2011 was a wonderful year for a number of reasons:

• we visited IMATS London in January to expand our range of products.
• we launched a brand new website in July.
• shortly after the launch we we able to start accepting all major credit cards, Mr Cash, and Direkt Ebanking for our Belgian and German customers.
• our team was expanded with Yvonne for accounting in the summer  and Barbara for marketing and PR in the fall.
• in September we had our own booth at the very first European Makeup Show in Berlin with the help of Debbie Bondar of FACE Atelier
• we added beautiful new brands to the catalog: BeautySoClean, Naked Cosmetics, Stilazzi and Royal & Langnickel 

Of course the work on the store is never ending and we are currently making it even better to navigate, with better images so you can really get a better look at what you are buying.

The search for more great brands will also continue, with visits to IMATS London in February and The Makeup Show New York in May in our future.
So look out for show visit reports very soon.

Also in 2012 we will be launching a new shipping rate system that is much simpler and above all,  cheaper than the one we have now. We are still working out the details but it’s getting there!

We wish you a wonderful, prosperous, healthy and beautiful 2012!

Cheers!

 

 

 

FACEBOOK “Glamourous Holidays” makeup photo contest! Win great prizes!

We all love a good dose of glamour don’t we, and what better time to indulge than during the holiday season!

Here at Promakeupstore we are getting into the Holiday spirit and we would love to see what you come up with this year for festive makeup looks!
So post your most beautiful and glamorous party look for us right here on our FACEBOOk events page.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a look you’ve done on yourself or on a model.
It can be a snapshot or a pro shot, as long as the makeup is clearly visible, and posted to the EVENTS page here, NOT on our regular Facebook page.

You can win 2 prizes:

1. By sending your friends to “like” your photo and vote for your shot. Voting is open to everyone, you can vote on as many shots as you like and on your own photo as well.
2. By getting your photo picked by the Promakeupstore Team

CONTEST RULES:

1. Only 1 photo can be entered per person/artist
2. Photos must be medium or close up not full size so we can clearly see the makeup.
3. Post your photo until the contest closes on December 27th 5:00 pm GMT.
4. Winners will be announced on December 28th.
5. Voting is open to everyone and on as many looks as you like including your own.

1st Prize: the photo with the most likes will get a beautiful Royal & Langnickel brush set containing 12 essential brushes in a professional brush pouch, retailing at € 119,00. Shipping will be free with this prize.

2nd Prize: goes to the favorite look of the Promakeupstore Team and will get a € 75,00 “Glamour Kit”. Included will be Yaby Pearl Paints, Embryolisse Lait-Creme Scintillant , O.C.C. Loose Colour Concentrates and much more to get you sparkling your way into 2012. Free shipping is included in this prize.

Prizes cannot be substituted for €’s unfortunately.

We can’t wait to see the results, so get your kits and cameras out and

SHINE!!

 

Promakeupstore @ The Makeup Show Berlin!

Promakeupstore will be making it’s debut together with FACE Atelier on September 17th & 18th at the first ever Makeup Show Europe in Berlin.
We are very happy that this pro driven event is finally made it’s way across the pond, giving the makeup artist community from all over Europe a chance to get inspired and educated by attending seminars and hands-on workshops about the latest techniques and products. Network with your peers and develop new relationships to further your career and strenghten bonds with defining companies in the beauty industry.
And of course there will be plenty of opportunity to shop and take advantage of all the wonderful discounts on pro products available, to replenish your makeup kit for the new season ahead! 
Promakeupstore will be present in conjuction with FACE Atelier at booth 201, directly opposite the Seminar A area. Besides FACE Atelier we will be offering a variety of brands including Yaby, RCMA and ZPalette at show discount prices! 

Sunday September 18th Debbie Bondar President and CEO of FACE Atelier will be hosting the seminar “The Flawless Face for every Race”, 14:45 until 15:30 hrs.

FACE Atelier is a brand favored by makeup artists because it delivers flawless, smooth and extremely longlasting results with every application. Just the way we like it!
Come sit in on our seminar or stop by booth 201 and say hi, we love connecting with the makeup community and our customers!
See you in Berlin!!  

GossMakeupArtist: Cruelty Free Brushes

GossMakeupArtist: Cruelty Free Brushes

Makeup Guru Wayne Goss discusses cruelty free brushes from Cozette AND Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics for you!!

Zpalette vs Yaby palette + Koren Zander (EnKoreMakeup)!

Zena Shteysel, is the mastermind behind Zpalettes. She’s an award winning US makeup artist and member of the Emmy award nominated Dancing With The Stars makeup team. If anyone knows the importance of being ready and organised it’s Zena for sure. Besides being a real pro, she’s also a lovely and kind person and I’m glad to have the wonderful Zpalettes in the catalog of Promakeupstore.
Promakeupstore carries both Yaby empty palettes and Zpalettes, which you prefer is actually very personal. Below is a picture, courtesy of Zena from Zpalette, showing the 2 palettes side by side for your comparison.

Zpalettes are empty freestyle palettes with a magnetic base to hold makeup pans, made out of recyclable cardboard which makes them extremely environmentally friendly and lightweight as well. They come in 3 sizes, small square and large rectangular, and the even larger Pro version which is brand new to the collection. They also come in funky designs like leopard, zebra, pink and always stylish all black.
Zpalettes have a see through lid so you can see in one glance what’s in them.
Sometimes pans of certain brands won’t stick to the  magnetic base as much as you’d like. For that we have magnetic stickers, either from Zpalette or the grippies from Yaby. The Yaby’s come in 2 sizes, 13 and 23 mm round, the Zpalette stickers come in one size squares.

Stick them on the bottom of the reluctant pan and voila!

The Yaby palettes are all white and the same size, but come in a different variety inside: 6-well (for powder foundations), 8-well (for creme foundations and blushers), 20-well (for concealers and lip colors), 40-well (shown above, for eyeshadow, pearl paint and cake liners),  freestyle with no wells for all shapes and sizes, and 21-well custom for all of the Yaby refills. Obviously the Yaby freestyle is the one to compare to the Zpalette and they each have their own merits, with the Yaby being in between the small and large Zpalette sizes, and featuring a stainless steel mirror/mixing palette. It’s up to you to decide what you prefer in a palette. I personally carry both in my kit for different reasons and like them equally.
Of course you can use Yaby empties in 3 sizes to fill with your own creme products to use in your Yaby palettes or your Zpalettes.

This is what Youtube and makeup guru Koren Zander has to say about Zpalettes:

Hope you enjoyed!

Wayne Goss on Yaby Cosmetics

Wayne Goss, popular Youtube reviewer gives his honest opinion on Yaby Cosmetics Eyeshadows and Pearl Paints!

Yaby Cosmetics was developed by Canadian makeup artist Liz Yu.. She developed the brand with her peers in mind, knowing first hand how we always have way too much stuff in our kits and everybody is always trying to condense. Yaby is actually the reason I started PROMAKEUPSTORE in the first place in 2008! I had the pleasure of meeting Liz for the first time at IMATS London in 2010.
I already used Yaby as a makeup artist before I started selling the brand and I have never seen shadows so pigmented in my entire career. A lot has been said on their small size, but for me that’s more an advantage than anything else. Yes, I want to have every color under the sun in my kit, but I don’t want my kit to weigh a ton. And that’s exactly what you can achieve with these palettes. After all I do want a bright yellow and an acid green shadow just in case I might need it some day, but I don’t need them to be the size of a dollar (or a euro for that matter). They would last me my entire career AND my back would go out from carrying all that stuff around.
So before being put off by the size, think about the advantages. With this kind of pigment you aren’t likely to run out of a color any time soon, even though they are small.
If you need to replace a color in the palette, just press down on one side of the pan until it flips up, take it out and replace it with a full pan! It’s that easy.
Another plus is that they are vegan!

The four eyeshadow palettes each contain 40 shades of eyeshadow.
The “World of Pearl Paints Palette” contains all 40 Yaby Pearl Paint eyeshadows. Of the 2 kinds of shadows, these have the most pigment and they are all shimmery, and waterproof after application.
They go on like paint and then dry to a powder that won’t budge. I use these even on the waterline instead of pencil. Mixed with FACE Atelier Transforming Gel the possibilities are endless!
The Pearl Paint palette is 115 euros and refills are 2.80 including tax.

The “Dramatically Neutral Palette” contains a collection of 40 nude, brown, grey, blue, pink and black shadows in both matte and sheen finishes. For clean commercial and bridal looks you can’t go wrong with this palette.
The full palette is 95 euros.

The “Something Bright Palette” contains 40 bright eye shadows in a range of colors varying from blue greens to orange/reds, pinks and purples.
Palette is 95 euros.

Finally, the “Best of Both Worlds Palette” contains a selection of  40 best selling pearl paints and eyeshadow shades. This one is a great starter palette for first time Yaby users as well as those people who are serious about condensing their kit.
Full palette is 100 euros, refills are 2,25 for the eyeshadows and 2,80 for the pearl paints.

Of course you can always buy an empty 40-well palette and start your own custom Yaby palette as you see fit!

A new start for our store and a new blog name!

Hi everyone!

It’s been a while since the last post on the Oscars and a lot has happened in between.
Our new website for Promakeupstore is about to launch and this blog will become a part or the new setup. All new updates will be shown at the bottom of each store page as they are published and as always I welcome readers to participate, comment and discuss the topics and the store.

Sales, promotions and give-aways will be announced on Twitter, Facebook obviously, but there will also be special blog promotions, the first one being around our 3 year anniversary next September.

The store couldn’t do so well without all its loyal customers (yes that would be YOU) so I think it’s only fair to give something back and share whats going on behind the scenes, in the office, on my jobs as a makeup artist (not nearly as glamourous as you might think trust me) and in what little spare time I have left.

A new start justifies a new name, and what better name than what sums up this life.

It’s a beautiful life everyone, let’s celebrate it together.

Thank you for joining and have a great day!

Monique

Oscars 2011: Best and Worst Hair & Makeup

Old Hollywood glamour, grandeur and all that good stuff.
Oscar Night 2011 is the grand finale to Award Show Season and the last chance to get it right.
First off, congratulations to all the teams working Oscar Night. I’ve done my share of red carpet in Holland which is by no means as glamorous as Oscar Night, but still.. It’s crazy, it’s insane, it’s madness so to all who worked it: HATS off to you!

Now for my favorites and not so favorites:

Mila Kunis: much has been said about that gorgeous lavender Elie Saab dress although I had to look twice to make sure she actually had her breasts covered by those see-through lace panel inserts.
Gorgeous eyemakeup and the lip colour was the right side of neutral. The hair: what can I say.. I do like my updo’s a little more polished and less “textured” than this. To me it just looks a bit unkempt for red carpet, but I do appreciate there is a fine line between polished & effortless and prom queen and that it’s hard to get it right. Good thing team Kunis didn’t go for the latter. I did catch her continually trying to sweep the lock out of her left eye, and it kinda bothered me too.
Oh well. I do love Mila so she can’t do much wrong really.

Jennifer Lawrence: one word about that red Calvin Klein.. WOW! it takes a brave woman and a good body to wear a dress like that when the whole world is watching, and she does it so expertly from ALL angles. It’s minimalist in shape, bold in colour and as unforgiving as a dress can come. Again.. WOW.
This is the kind of red carpet hair I love to see. Beautifully conditioned, wavy, polished but not so polished it doesn’t move. Effortless and GORGEOUS.
Makeup: Love the eyemakeup, but in the pictures it looks like her face is a tad darker than her body. Shame. I would have liked a lighter skin tone with a tad more blush.
The lips could have benefitted from slightly more colour too. I realize red lips with a gown like that would have been overkill, but this a wee bit too neutral.
As much as I love a neutral lip, this washes her out.

Jennifer Hudson: Loved the tangerine colour of the dress on her, the taffeta and the cleavage, not so much. Nuff said.

The hair is nice and polished but also for some reason a bit, well, dated? Maybe it’s that wave going up in the front. I do appreciate the effort and the not going for “texture”. Ugh.

I feel her face could have used a bit more blush.

Eyemakeup: nice and clean but with this kind of minimal look Iwould have picked an eyeliner that reads deep-dark-blacker-than-black on camera. This one looks kinda greyish..

Love the lips with just the right amount of colour and a touch of glitz.

PERFECT brows btw. Well done!

Scarlett Johansson: what can I say, I’m speechless at this one. Well almost anyway.

SJ rarely gets it wrong in my book but when she does.. wow.. trainwreck imo.

From the weird two-tone and not matching colours in the Dolce & Gabbana dress to the unflattering ashy hair colour to the clashing eyeshadow.. I really don’t know what to address first.

Ok.. I’ll try:

Orange/earthtone eyeshadow with a burgundy dress.. not so hot. I do get that it brings out her eyes, but it also brings out the redness in them.

Lips look like she had some colour on but it wore off, and it reveals some patchiness underneath.

Combined with the hair that is textured-but-not-in-a-good way, it looks like she had a quicky in the limo on the way over. Although I don’t see how that could have happened in a dress THAT tight, so we will have to assume this was what team Johansson was going for.

Oeps.

SJ is probably letting out her wild child after the break up from her husband, and I can appreciate that, so I will stop now because I do love her lots.

Good luck to you girl.

Michelle Williams: do love the dress, but no so much on her. The light colour and the minimalist shape is lovely, but it kinda made her look a little eeh.. big?

And I don’t think she is. Or is she? eehh…

I do appreciate the elfin look with the short (LOVE) blond hair and the pale silvery/blue eyemakeup. Such a nice change from the obvious dark smokey eye. Glad she kept the look fresh.

Lovely pale porcelain skin although again, with a dress that pale she could have used a bit more blush.

The lips on the other hand were lovely and pink which is good on her.

Again good brows. Kudos!

Reese Witherspoon: I did like the 60′s/Duffy/Adele inspired updo but again, not on her. It only accentuates her most prominent feature and not in a good way. Chinny, anyone?

I do like that she looks well groomed but not too prom queen (but she always does) and the makeup is lovely.

Would have liked to see a little more colour on the lips with all that paleness going on, and her upper lip needs lining in a big way, but I’m really just splitting hairs here, pardon the pun.

Anne Hathaway: the hostess of the night, and I thought all of her gowns were forces of fashion nature, except for the entrance dress, the red Valentino (ill fitting on top and too much bustle going on in the back) and the Lanvin tuxedo (it seemed a bit too large on her, would have liked to have seen it more fitting).

I didn’t see the makeup up close in print until later and I thought it worked really well for the telecast, but looking at it right now, hmm I dunnoooo…

The new highlights seem somewhat contrived on her, I like her way better with her signature dark locks.They are just too light and ashy and make her look older.

I do applaud the hair team behind the scenes at the telecast for their quick and wonderful changes. I know how stressfull that can get with wardrobe changes going on at the same time. And those dresses are not the easiest to get in and out off.

Great job!

Makeup: I like the eyes, but the eyebrows are too harsh on her. Don’t know if it’s just me but it looks like a ton of foundation and powder on her. Does she really need that much?

Again, aging.

Love the matte red lip, not easy to pull off on lips like hers.

Halle Berry: this girl can do no wrong in my book. She’s not very daring and sometimes (dare I say it) even on the safe side with her choice of dresses, but she just does red carpet very very well and consistently so.

And anyone who can sport hair that short and spunky/punky with a red carpet gown and get away with it has my vote.

Beautiful makeup, glowing skin. What can I say. Lovely.

Saving the best for last, the lovely and only 14-year old

Hailee Steinfeld, ingénue personified.

I don’t know, if this is what she can do at 14, heaven help us when she’s 18.

Team Steinfeld just got it ALL right. Not an easy job on a girl this young. Or as we say in Holland, between napkin and table cloth.

This could have easily gone SO wrong.

Lovely, lovely lovely innocently pale dress. That tea length full skirt is soo good on her, appropriate for her age (a floor length dress would have been way over the top)

Those heels make her look just grown up enough without looking like she’s playing dress up in the attic.

The hair is just gorgeous, not too done, yet not too textured either and the slim tiara is just right and keeps it young.

Good makeup (and LASHES haha), not too much gloss and how wonderful they left her beautiful brows alone.

She just looks like an Oscar princess. Period.

Good job Team Steinfeld!

So, I hope you enjoyed my take on the looks of the Night of Nights, and I hope you’ll stop by again soon!

Illamasqua press materials from IMATS London

Even though I didn’t bring back any products from Illamasqua when I was at IMATS London, I did attend the demo by Alex Box on Sunday and upon entering the main stage we all got a little black bag with some promo materials.

Now, on that demo… it was called “makeup as a performance” and while I do “get” that
 concept (she was doing makeups to specific music that she liked, mostly classical) I have to say the end result was dodgy at best. I totally respect her as an artist and I think she has done wonders with Illamasqua, but I personally would have liked to see (and hear) more of her actual process instead of a quick paced “performance” to music screaming out of the speakers. It’s probably just me but the big screens set up in the room made some things painfully obvious. Like the tears running down the poor girls eyes (with no cleanup) and well there was something else I would have taken care of beforehand but.. well..
It all seemd haphazard to me, but then again I’m no theater makeup lover per sé.
The music dictated the pace of the makeup and I think that didn’t help.
Alex said up front she didn’t know what she was going to do but she had some props and wardrobe and wigs ready.

Anyway, on to the press materials:
I was really impressed with the quality and the beautiful creativity of the pictures, so for those of you who haven’t seen it, I took some snapshots.
Excuse the glare of the flash in some of them, it’s impossible to take pictures without flash in this weather and the glossy finish of the brochures wasn’t helping.
I hope you enjoy anyway!

This is a poster that came with the brochures:

2 brochures and one leaflet (bottom left). Picture on the leaflet is so wonderful, it reminds me of Clara Bow from the silent movies.

I only added the photos from the top brochure because they impressed me the most, the light blue one is just a small catalogue of the new spring/summer collection.

Inside the brochure:

Back:

Side of the black bag they came in: isn’t that lovely!

It’s obvious that Illamasqua stems from a theater makeup company (Kryolan) and they’ve taken it to the max. I’m not sure about the products yet, there was way too much buzz around that booth for me to go in and try it all. I hate fighting for a spot. I will order some online with my 40% discount soon though.