It’s over for another year……

Can’t believe it’s over for another year!  All the planning, effort….planning.  It went by so fast.

This year the International Spa & Beauty Expo Face 2 Face make up artist competition was co-ordinated by one of my favourite people, Becca Gilmartin.  Becca just has it all together.  Such an inspiration.

This year I entered two categories.  The “Photographic Beauty Editorial” and the “Modern Bride” category.

For the Photographic Editorial Category, Make Up Artists submitted two beauty shots.  There was no brief, apart from make it beautiful!  I wanted to shoot metallics. I chose two models.  One African Model, Neo, who was a top ten finalist in Australia’s Next Top Model, and Ellie, who is a beautiful blonde.  I wanted them to be against black staring straight to camera.  One silver, one gold.  The photographs were shot by Kuva.

The competition was incredibly tough, with just about every single entry worthy of a magazine spread.  The entries were all hung in a gallery at the expo ready for judging.

The prize was an incredible week with make up guru, Rae Morris, as well as a 4 page spread in Professional Beauty Magazine.  Amazing.  The winner was a Brisbane Make Up Artist, Vivianne Tran.  Here is the winning entry.

How amazing is that.  I was sitting next to Vivianne when the winner was announced.  Just before she was announced the winner, I could see tears running down her cheeks and her hands were held to her face in prayer.  She REALLY wanted this.  I’m so happy for her that she won.  Very well deserved.

So onto the live event.  I’m always surprised at how completely nerve wracking this is.  This was my third time entering this competition and have to say that it doesn’t get any easier.  I first entered the awards in 2010 in the “Brides through the Ages” category and I was so proud to have one that one.  Last year I entered “Runway” and came runner up.

I arrived at the make up hub at 9.30am to prepare for the competition to start at 11.00am.

The tables are TINY so it was hard fitting everything I needed on.  Rachel, my model arrived soon after.  She is so beautiful and such a gorgeous girl.  I loved working with her.

I took my inspiration for my modern bride from Rachel’s incredible tattoo.  I wanted to show that, in the past, brides always hid their tattoo’s, or covered them with make up, but now, brides are embracing their tattoo’s and showing them off as this is who they are.  This is a modern bride.

There were some incredible looking brides in this category.  Check out that headpiece in the background!!

All the artists had 45 minutes to create their Modern Bride.  I can’t tell you how fast that 45 minutes goes.  Nerves really had the better of me on this day and my shaking hands really effected my straight lines.  However, I was so proud of my finished result.  Rachel looks beautiful.

Once the make up was completed, all ‘brides’ and artists lined up backstage to be announced on to the catwalk for a parade and for the artists to talk about their inspiration.

I can tell you I was a very proud make up artist!  All the brides looked amazing.  I thought any one of us could have won that day.  The look that won was an indian bride inspired by International brides.  Beautiful.

After the winner was announced, professional photo’s were taken of the girls and then it was back to the make up area to re-pack our kits and get incredibly valuable feedback from the judges.

While it’s always nice to win, I gained so much experience, met some other amazing make up artists and got some invaluable feedback from some talented judges. My feedback came from Make Up Artists, David Cranson from U Beauty Agency and Diane Dusting.  While, to be honest, I found it a little hard to take the feedback from the judges straight after the awards I can look back now in hindsight and make more sense of it. I find it so important for me to enter these awards each year, win or lose, you leave having learnt some incredible lessons and pushed yourself completely out of your ‘comfort zone’ and into a whole other zone all together!

Right, 12 months till next year.  What should I do this time………

Chat soon,

michelle x