I LOVE themed parties! Give me an excuse to get into costume and play a character for the night and I will be there with bells on; and in this case Swarovski crystals as well.
On this occasion the theme for the party was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The look I wanted to go for was an “ethereal woodland fairy”, much like the mischievous characters from Shakespeare’s play.
I designed the outfit myself. The top was made out of a satin and organza skirt that I shredded into panels and draped strategically over my torso, leaving my back and most of my midriff bare. The flowing, long, white skirt complimented the baby pink top and I painted my toenails with a shimmering polish and went barefoot.
For my hair and make-up, I called in the professionals.
Slajana Spaseski is the founder and owner of the Perth based business, Make-up by Design. She arrived at my house equipped to completely transform me, and efficiently went about turning my bathroom into a salon.
♥ Slaj gives me the tip “during the day it’s always best to work in a room that has natural light”.
Julia before makeup.
Julia after makeup.
Over the next 3 hours, we planned and executed the complex transformation as you can see from the before and after photos. Slaj deftly moved from product to product and so I asked her to give me a rundown of just how she created this design.
Here is a step by step guide you can follow yourself:
Base
♥ Always begin with a clean canvas (baby wipes are best to clean the face because make up wipes often leave an oily residue which can make the base unstable).
♥ Apply a primer to the skin with a foundation brush. The primer will prep the skin for the foundation and will also make it last longer. I used Jemma Kidd Primer. It has light reflecting particles in it which give the skin a youthful glow.
♥ Next I applied Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation (Available online at StrawberryNet) all over the face.
Cheekbones
♥ Julia is naturally gifted with very chiselled cheekbones (thanks Slaj) and so I merely accentuated them by using a peach powder blush on the apples of her cheek.
♥ Then, from my Smashbox Contouring Palette I used the darkest colour powder in the hollow of her cheek and my Smashbox Mosaic Highlighter Palette to accentuate the cheek bone.
The Eyes, Eyebrows and the Mask
♥ I began by lightly dusting the entire eye area, up to the mid forehead, with a baby pink loose pigment.
♥ I then drew in the cat eye with a M.A.C eye crayon, extending the wing to the temple.
♥ The eyelashes were then curled using a heated eyelash curler (I loved this! I am going to pick one up from Priceline for about $12, much nicer than the old school eyelash curler!), following by lashings of black mascara.
♥ I applied false eyelashes with a pair of tweezers and Duo Glue.
♥ While we were waiting for the glue to dry, I gave Julia her dramatic eyebrows using my Benefit Brow Kit . I used the eyebrow wax to set the hairs into place and plot the desired shape. When I was happy with the shape, I accentuated the brows using the darker brow powder applied with a 266 Mac Eyebrow Brush.
♥ The mask was given some depth by drawing in both silver and black streaks using Kryolan paint.
♥ I then glued Swarovski crystals randomly within the mask using Kryolan Spirit Gum.
♥ The feathers were glued on the outer corners of the eyes using spirit gum to accentuate the winged eye make-up.
Lips
♥ The lips were lined with a neutral pink lip liner by Napoleon and filled in with a shimmer lip gloss by Modelco .
The tool kit!
Hair
♥ The hair was roughly blow dried and lightly sprayed with hair spray. Each section of hair was sprayed again prior to rolling with with Babyliss hot-rollers.
♥ When the make-up was finally finished it was time to pull out the rollers. Each section was carefully removed so as to not disturb the curl. Each individual curl was then sprayed to hold.
Body
♥ Julia’s body was bronzed and glowing thanks to the application of Chi Chi Solarium in a Bottle.
It was a wonderful experience to get pampered at home and Slaj was very conscious of the time and making sure that I was able to get dressed, have something to eat and take lots of fantastic photos before heading out. The look was very dramatic and caused quite a stir at the party.
♥
People were surprised at how completely unusual I looked. I have never had curly hair and so I was very excited to get the ringlets.
If you want to learn how to create theatrical or natural looks you can attend one of Slaj’s workshops. Find out more here: http://make-upbydesign.blogspot.com/
Make-up by Design is a completely mobile business so Slaj can come to your home or hotel to prepare you for a big event. She says that now is the busiest time of year with parties and weddings in the warm weather.
She does everything from weddings to photo shoots for clothing labels.
Check it out on Facebook or contact Slajana on: 0433967900 or Slajanamake-upbydesign@hotmail.com. She is on call 7 days a week.
Review by Julia Hern, personal trainer and event junkie who loves to swim, but doesn’t need water to make a splash!
Be well,
xoxo
I love theme parties too! Had been to quite a few over the past year… hooray for have similarly fun loving friends 😀
Great theme, will definitely be shortlisting it for my 30th celebrations. Next year. It’s never too early to start planning for a party 😀
Oooooooh! And what type of food would you serve at such a party? Little cakes shaped like twigs?!