Guest Makeup Artist: Rae Elise

FALLing for Makeup

It's easy to fall in love with makeup.  There's no denying that makeup palettes, brushes and other tools created for the art of painting faces are as tempting to women as candy is to  a child.  For budding California makeup artist Rae Elise, it's not just infatuation; it's her passion.  "When I was young I had some unfortunate skin problems," she says.  "Sadly, I did not have the makeup necessary to camouflage them.  That's how I developed the drive to learn more about makeup and use my knowledge to help others."  But pursuing her passion was never easy as she had to face her fair share of challenges.  She admits that the trial and error process has been her best teacher.  "Growing up, I was told by people around me that I could never make a living out of the beauty industry.  Everyday I try to prove them wrong.  Right now I am happy to be doing what I love and make a living out of it."  

Besides being a makeup artist, she is also a skin therapist at the Queen Mary Spa in Long Beach, California where she often works on brides and bridal parties.  

Time is always of essence to Rae as she teams up with photographer and graphic artist Jaclyn Morris in building her portfolio whenever her schedule allows it.  They invited me for a photo session one Tuesday night and Rae shares some tips for creating these fall makeup looks.

Rae Elise at work. 

GLAM SLAM

"In achieving this look, prepping the skin is always necessary.  I used a waterless moisturizer that helped create a natural glow.

I then applied a matte eye primer, mixed it with her correct foundation color and applied it all the way up to her brow bone. To match her skin tone, I added neutral eyeshadow and a highlighter underneath her eyebrows to provide contrast. I used just a little bit of eyeliner on her top lid to give a sexy yet romantic look.  I wanted to intensify her eyes even more and added Ardell Demi Wispies. Next was the foundation application.  I went past her jawline and down her neck, keeping everything even and natural. It is always beneficial to contour your face before moving to your cheeks. Make sure you define or hide certain areas on the skin where needed. For her cheeks I used a shimmery highlighter on the cheek bone and an ashy gold blush underneath, showing off her gorgeous skin tone. With the lips it is always best to use a cream primer, lip liner and then apply your color in this case a red hot color and a hint of gloss on the middle of your lips." 

PALETTE BALLET

"It's a dance of several bright colors on the face and her hair is tied back in a pretty, sleek ballerina bun. With her second look, I changed her eyeshadow to an aqua blue gold that brought out her rich, brown eyes.  I added a warm rose blush and used light pink lipstick to balance this feminine look."

ON 2010 FALL TRENDS

According to Rae, fabulous eye colors of dark grey violet, deep rouge lips, paler shades of pink and peach to offset soft smokey grey eyes dominate this year's fall trends. Contrasting hues of soft lips and heavy eyes with chocolate greys, deep plums and smoldering khakis alsoe rule. "All in all, it should be a gorgeous looking makeup this fall!" she concludes.

For makeup/skincare appointments with Rae, please contact her at divinebeautybyrae@gmail.com. 

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It Started with a LUSH Kiss

LUSH keeps giving us more and more reasons to love them and this time they're in the form of lip tints! Ahhh!  They're famously known for their handmade bath and body products and I personally feel this is a sign that they are crossing over to makeup.  Their first ever color lip balms arrive just in time for winter when our lips become dry and pale.  

It Started with a Kiss and ended with...(I'll leave it up to your imagination).  This is one of their new range of luscious vegan lip tints.  It carries with it the sweet and spicy smell that many of us are familiar with during the holidays, cinnamon apple.  LUSH describes it as a 'ruby red lip balm' but I think it looked more like a cherry pink on me.  When you put it on, you hardly feel it's there.  It's one of the few lip tints I've tried that gives your lips instant color.  It's best to use your ring finger when applying it so you can control the amount of color.  It also makes it easier to spread all the way to the lip corners.  This multi-purpose tint can also be used on the cheeks, perfect for days when you're rushing or for quick touch-ups.

I'll give 'It Started' an A+ for color and its moisturizing benefits.  Even if you're not wearing much makeup elsewhere on your face, the bright color pops and still makes you look put-together.  I think it's best to exfoliate your lips really well before using this because if you have dead skin cells on certain parts they seems to draw clumps of the balm and retain more of the color.  It's like tanning--you'd want to exfoliate first before applying tanning products to achieve an even color all over.

I noticed on their website that they have an icon telling us that the product may melt. I had it in my purse while I was out in 92 degrees LA weather and I had difficulty trying to pop the container open.  When I finally did the contents had tipped over to one side.  Oh well.  Guess that's why they are releasing it for winter.  What I really, really do love about it is that it plumped my pout and I definitely could feel a slight tingling from the cinnamon leaf oil. 

Ingredients: Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (Cocos nucifera), Fresh Red Apple Infusion (Pyrus malus), Japan Wax, Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Icing Sugar, Carnauba Wax (Copernicia Cerifera), Flavour, White Chocolate, Organic Rose Hip Oil (Rosa canina), Glycerine, Vanilla Absolute (Vanilla planifolia), Sweet Wild Orange Oil (Citrus Dulcis), Cinnamon Leaf Oil (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), Red Currants (Ribes rubrum), Titanium Dioxide, *Cinnamyl Alcohol, *Cinnamal, *Citral, *Eugenol, *Benzyl Benzoate, *Limonene, *Linalool, Polyester-3, D&C Red 28, D&C Orange No. 4, Iron Oxides, D&C Red No. 7, Methylparaben

I added lip gloss to it and for some reason it gave my lips a peach color.

I think 'It Started' would make a great stocking stuffer for friends or girlfriends for the holidays because it's so deLUSHious. :) QUICK TIP: Use as a cheek stain too for an all natural glow! Check out LUSH if you're in Manila since they don't have a store in Cebu yet.

(This was sent to me for review.)