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  1. The...The...The......THE GRINCH

    Sunday, July 14, 2013

    Hello readers and Pinterest pinners!

    First off, I must apologize for my long absence. I was busy getting engaged/married/honeymooning/moving twice/changing careers. But, I am back as I always intended.

    Last time I posted I promised some Halloween enthusiasts posts, and I am here to FINALLY deliver. Last October, Matt (my husband) and I won "Most Elaborate" of the biggest costume contest in Seattle.
    PULSE at EMP

    Most Elaborate is not an understatement, I made almost every piece of both of our costumes, including Matt's facial prosthetic.

    It all began with a Christmas party in 2011... It was a Christmas character costume party.



    Matt and I chose The Grinch and Cindy Lou Who. It was sort of last minute, but I of course stay fully stocked in special effects make up (Why? Because Im obsessed.) So decided to just paint Matt's face to look like the grinch instead of trying to find a mask. It turned out pretty awesome... see for yourself.


    I didn't spend nearly as much time on myself as I did on him, but I managed to pull off Cindy Lou Who alright.



    After that night, Matt said he would be the Grinch again, and that set me on a crazy path to make this an outrageous Halloween costume. If you know me at all, you know I live and breath for halloween and anything scary. So my twisted mind turned good ole Grinch and Cindy Lou Who into a horror story. 
    A dirty, decaying Grinch with a deadly virus bites Cindy Lou Who. The once cute and innocent little girl begins to turn into a horrifying zombie Who. 

    Painting Matt's face again wasn't enough for me anymore, I decided to make him a facial prosthetic. Step 1, Face cast. If you are interested in doing one for yourself, you can find life casting supplies at most pottery supply stores. I had to drive to downtown seattle to find ours. It was worth it.



    Isn't he a good sport?! Silicone goes first. Then I created a hard cast to support the silicone mold. Make sure you use a model who is clean shaven and LOTS of barrier cream. 

    The silicone mold goes into the hard cast, now you have a mold to pour your stone. The mixture goes in, let it dry completely, and now you can start sculpting.




    I didn't want it to be a full mask, just enough to give him exaggerated Who-like features. Since I wasn't creating a typical grinch, I let the clay stay imperfect and took away his button nose and replaced it with  skeleton like features. Molding over the stone cast allows you to get a perfect fit on your subject. If you want to be super perfect, make 2 stone casts so the fit snuggly with the silicone of the molded cast. Next I covered my finished sculpture in the same silicone and placed it in the hard plaster cast so I could pour in the liquid latex.

    This part takes A LOT of PATIENCE. I mixed the liquid latex with a little green and brown paint until it reached the hue I liked. **If you do this at home, please note that the color dries MUCH darker than when liquid, you really don't need a lot of paint.** Pour in little bits at a time, rotating the cast to make sure you cover all sides and allow to dry before you add layer after layer until you reach a sturdy thickness all around. I used a blowdryer to speed up the process. Once dry it will peel off the silicone as long as you used a Vaseline of some sort.



    I cut out the eyes, chin and bottom lip, and fit it to Matt's face. 

    Unfortunately we were so pressed for time while we got ready for the party that I didn't stop to take photos of how to apply the prosthetic. My tip for this, though, is to use thin layers of tissue with Elmer's glue to blend the lines of the prosthetic into the face. I painted over his entire face and glued cotton "hair" to his eyebrows and neck. 


    We used a mixture of fabric paint and colored hairspray to cover his hair and hands.  


    We previously made his "Beast" pants and sprayed them down with the same spray to match.
    Add some lizard contacts, a santa jacket, slippers and BOOM. Scary Grinch!


    Once again, I took so much care with The Grinch that I ran out of time for myself! I did manage to make my clothes and order some Black Sclera contacts. 

    My Eyes water just LOOKING at this photo. These contacts are extremely uncomfortable!
    As I was saying, I ran out of time while getting Matt ready so I had to do my makeup in the car on the way to the party! I could have done a much better job had I not been in the dark, in a moving vehicle, and rushed. I somehow managed, though :)




    There were over 1,000 people in this competition, the judges decide who goes into top 3 for each category and the rest is up to the audience. There was this great Buzz Lightyear up against us and seeing his costume made me a little nervous, but when a heard the crowd ROAR when the host announced us, all the hard work I did was validated, and we took an awesome bag full of prizes home.


    That, my friends, is how you go all out for Halloween. 
    Any Questions?







  2. McGaffee Wedding, Sonora CA

    Tuesday, November 6, 2012



    Use hair as an excuse to come to California and party at our friend's wedding? Yes please! I'm not going to lie though, I was a little nervous going into this one. Kara was too far away to do a run through, and I had never ever done an updo on someone with as crazy curly hair as hers. I would never let her have her big day looking anything less than gorgeous, so I was determined to get that mane of hers managed, without making her look like a completely different person.

    Here is what Kara's natural hair texture looks like
    BEFORE

    In order to keep it looking like her natural hair but make the curls bigger and more formal looking, I took small sections of her clean, dry hair and wrapped it around a 1 inch iron piece by piece. This process takes more time, but in the end Kara still looked like herself with her awesome crazy curly texture. We just polished it off. Had I gone through and smoothed out all of her hair, it's just not Kara any more and her hair also has a tendency to frizz back out later anyway. Some of the ends I had to clip into the curling iron to get them uniform with the rest.



    Once everything was curled and set, I started pinning, I did not comb through any of the curls. Pinning takes a lot of practice and I will some day get a tutorial up on here with some tips and tricks. I pulled Kara's hair off to one side and kept it relaxed, we also added a clip behind the ear.


    Of course, the most important thing is that the bride is happy. Kara was so easy-going and happy she was getting married that I probably could have put her hair in a pony tail and she wouldn't have cared. The second most important thing: That you can party all night and your hair stays beautiful!

    Mission Accomplished :)


    Bride: Kara, Photography by: Mle Jayne Photography


  3. Cassidy asked me to do her hair for her wedding at Lake Chelan, Washington and I LOOOOOVE doing wedding hair so I was happy to be there for the event. She wanted long, loose curls and as we all know, curling your hair brings your hair up shorter so Cassidy purchased some simple clip in extensions to add length to the curls for the wedding. Clip-ins are the way to go if you want to leave your hair down but aren’t happy with the length once it’s curled. You can put in the extensions the morning of the wedding and take them back out afterwards, no harm and no damage done to your scalp or hair unlike regular track or bond extensions. I refuse to do any other type of extension on my clients because they are too hard to maintain for the average woman, and they cause more damage to your hair and scalp than good.


    Back to the wedding hair… Cassidy had ideal hair for a wedding style because she had highlights and lowlights, which capture well in photography so you can see the texture of the hairstyle. I highly recommend getting some type of highlight and lowlight in your hair before your big day so your beautiful hairstyle can be captured in your photos and it does’t look dull or flat. This is especially important for brunettes.


    I used a 1 inch curling iron on Cassidy and curled all her hair on the outside of the barrel, rather than using the clamp. She wanted some of it up and we added a small braid for an accent as well as a clip. I always use a flexible hold hairspray while curling and pinning until everything looks perfect and then use a firm hold hairspray at the end.


    I also did her Maid of Honor’s, Mother of the bride, and sister of the groom’s hair.


    Bride: Cassidy, Photography by Sarah Hart Boyd







  4. Fewkes Wedding, Enumclaw WA

    Wednesday, October 31, 2012

    For Leilani's wedding, she wanted an elegant look that incorporated her natural texture so I loosely curled over her natural curls and spritzed them with a sea salt spray before pinning it all up in the back. She wanted lots of volume on top so a pinned each curled section separately with a little back combing. I didn't want to have to smooth out the curls in order to hide any tangles so I did minimal back combing. 


    Here you can see me pinning in Leilani's hairpiece made by bridesmaid Whitney.

    Bride: Leilani Photography by Andrew Fredrickson

  5. My first Blog! Well, second if you count my attempt at starting a blog on tumblr, only to find I didn't like it so here I am making the switch. I am here to share with you my many adventures and talents in the trade world of hair, makeup, all things food, health, holidays, and much much more! I have so much to share both successes and failures, advice and funny stories, how to's and recipes. Feel free to request for posts on certain subjects and ask questions! That's what this is for!

    -Julianne