Portfolio Building W/ Studio Allure Photography

My awesome photographer friend Dwain helped me out recently, I have yet to have my work photographed professionally and he fixed that! So grateful for his help. He has always been one of my favorite Columbus, Ohio photographers he does awesome work. So I asked my boss if I could use her daughter as one of my models and a close friend (may as well be family) let me use one of her daughters as well for the shoot. These are some of the photos from the day. The finished product pics are the last two.

MUA: Me
Photographer: Dwain Thomas with Studio Allure www.studioallure.net

Before and After : My mom

My mom has MS and has had it for years, she fell asleep probably 15 times during the 40 min I did her makeup. I took the before picture after I had already started highlighting her face with foundation hence the light spot on her forehead haha. I used RCMA foundation, ben nye banana powder, a darker shade of powder foundation for setting her contour, nars dolce vita blush, mac dip down gel liner and elf brow powder on her brows, I used a brownish lip liner and mixed 3 dif lipsticks to get the color it is,  I just smoked her eyes out some with black track gel liner and a brown makeup forever shadow. Lorac bronze shadow from the pro palette on her inner corners. 

Monaharay's Graduation Makeup :) Before and After

Im so proud of Monaharay. She worked really hard all through school. Yesterday she graduated and I got to do her makeup :) We used Nars foundation in macao. Makeup forever full coverage concealer in shade 14. Ben Nye Banana powder to set the her highlights and Cover Fx setting powder in deep for the rest of her  face. A MAC highlighter I cant think of the name right now but its a loose golden powder.  Urban Decay anniversary palette shades on the eyes, Makeup Forever blush in color 22. A brown lipliner and a deep pink lip stick with buxom pink lady on top. Anastasia brow wiz in carmel and brow powder in a med shade. It came out pretty :)

Sephora Client.

A quick prom look I did today on a client at Sephora she didnt want to wear and foundation which she really didnt need her skin is gorgeous, so I just dusted some light powder on her, some bronzer blush lips and eyes. My cell phone camera didnt take the best pics but it works :)

Lexi.

Soft makeup look I did the other day:

Before and After Time!

So I mentioned a couple weeks back that I was going to start freelancing in edition to what I do at Sephora. Since my blog is listed on my business cards and comp card, Im gonna start posting before and after pictures of my clients :) First is my beautiful friend Crystal! I will never forget the help she gave when I first had my daughter, I was soooo tired and she came over so I could sleep. Sleep is more valuable than diamonds and gold when you have a 2  year old and a few day old baby. Now shes 5 months preggie and I cant wait to be able to hold her little bundle of joy when he gets here! Yesterday I got to do her hair and makeup and here are the before and after pics. My favorite era is the 50's and 60's  that old hollywood glam is beyond gorgeous to me. I had that in mind as I did her hair and makeup. She said she had never wore a red lip before so we played with that and it turned out amazing!

I filmed a "Get Ready With Me" Vid!

Im on a roll now that Im learning how to use Imovie!

Work Look Of the Day

I snapped a few pics before work today. I didnt have as much time as I did yesterday and I didnt wear lashes but my lashes look really long still thanks to my buxom mascara again! I didnt wear lipstick in any of these pictures just the fresh clear lip treatment (which I love) Sooo the Makeup Forever translucent powder and the flash on cameras dont work to well together. I have a white cast under my eyes on some of the photos due to the translucent powder.

Face:

Murad oil mattifier

Urban Decay pore minimizing primer

Nars Sheer Matte foundation in Syracuse

Nars blot powder in Mountain and Beach 

Makeup Forever Hd concealer 

MUFE translucent powder

Nars Blush in Dolce Vita

MUFE powder in #17 for contour

Eyes:

Urban Decay smoked palette I used mushroom, asphalt, kinky, and blackout

MUFE #17 

Urban Decay Naked palette virgin

Stila waterproof liquid liner 

Buxom Amplified mascara

rimmel eyebrow pencil in dark brown and the shade right below dark brown

Lips:

Fresh lip treatment in clear

Look for the day! Work Flow

I didnt have to be at work till 6pm tonight! I loved it! I got plenty of time with my babies and had time to do my makeup fun. I normally have to sacrifice one or the other. Since my babies mean more to me than makeup I usually just do something quick easy and natural looking. Today though I had plenty of time to have fun with it! I watched a video on youtube that inspired the eye. Ill link it here .  I took pictures before I left for work and then I also took pictures when I got home from work about 5 hours later. Im pleased with all my primers and products! Everything but my lipstick stayed in place! The pictures after work are at the bottom.  I didnt use any filters or fixes to these pictures so please excuse my pores!

Face:
Murad oil control
Urban Decay primer
Nars Sheer Matte in Syracuse
Benefit Erase Paste in Med
Nars powder in Mountain
Nars powder in Beach under eye area only
Makeup Forever translucent powder under eye only
Makeup Forever shadow in #17 for contour
Nars blush in Dolce Vita


Eyes:
Urban Decay primer potion original
UD shadow in Evidence
UD shadow in blackout
Stila waterproof liquid liner
Buxom Mascara
Lashes off ebay from japan
Smashbox matte shadow in a creme color under brow

Lips:
I used nars powder in beach on top of a nude/coral lipgloss. (not a good idea I hated it)

A few amazing (and not so amazing) discoveries since Ive began working at Sephora...

one... Kat Von D foundation is amazing for women of color.
two.....benefit they're real mascara is def a good one.
three....makeup forever HD foundation is horrible. as well as the MUFE primer....my face looked a hotmess...I have yellow based super oily skin.
four....Nars Sheer Matte has to be my all time favorite foundation. hands down.
five....I highly advise you don't put testers on your face in stores......you have no idea how many ppl come through and use them straight out of the bottle, from mascara to lipgloss to creams etc...
six.....although I do love the brands Sephora sells.... I do not like sephora brand brushes....
seven....Urban Decay remains my favorite eyeshadows...
eight....Too Faced lip injection is def more potent than Buxom plumping glosses. I literally watched a girl try one on her top lip and the other on her bottom and her top looked like she had lip injections a few min later. It was crazy.
nine........UD 24/7 liquid liner is no joke! I put some on my hand showing a client the color, and literally HOURS later and tons of hand washes and sanitizing and that line was still on my hand! Its crazy! The applicator brush sucks but its contents are no joke.

ten...if you wear cover fx its 25 percent off in the stores because its getting new packaging so nows the time to buy it up if thats your brand.

My Current Fave Beauty Products

I have a for sure love for beauty products. I am always browsing through sephora, makeup counters, and drug stores. Even if I've seen it all a million times before I never get tired of seeing it all. Lately these are the items that I have been grabbing the most.

In no particular order:

Josie Maran Argan Oil

Elf eyebrow powder

Nars Danmari Palette

Nars Casino Bronzer

Urban Decay Naked Palette

Urban Decay Smoked Palette

Urban Decay All Nighter Spray

MAC Pro Longwear Foundation NC 42

Benefit Erase Paste Med 2

Smashbox Photo Finish Primer

Loreal Lineur Intense liquid liner

London Soho beauty sponge which is amazing and only 8 as compared to the beauty blender

Makeup Forever Hd Concealer

Makeup Forever lip liner that I use as an all over over color and its amazing a little drying but stays all day. 

MAC paint pot in painterly 

Buxom Mascara which is pretty awesome

Philosophy lotions in  mangos and cream and cabana girl. 

As for the lotions I am in awe... I had never used philosophy lotions till these really and they are so moisturizing. I started using the cabana girl when I was about 8 months pregnant and my skin felt so soft and moisturized even the next morning. The smell is good and not too strong but just enough and they have pretty good ingredients. I didnt see any mineral oils in them. Which for me is a big plus.

Ive been using all of these things for a little while now and Ive actually used them more than I have just about anything else Ive bought. I usually use something a couple times and Im over it, but these have been my go to products regularly now. I def think they are all worth checking out.

Sephora Interview

Hello world. (click to read and view whole post)

So for people who know me, they know I've been a stay at home mom for a while now. Yesterday I had an interview at Sephora inside JCP. Sephora is my second home. I love being in that store. Even if im not shopping I love just looking at everything. Even though Ive seen it all many times before. I never get bored or tired with it all. I've loved makeup and beauty items since I was a little girl. So to be in that field is just a natural fit for me. My friends and family have already been coming to me to have their makeup done for events. Ive thought about going to aveda to be licensed but I just dont have the time for full time classes right now. So I applied online Saturday, I was called Sunday, I had my interview Monday (yesterday). I was super nervous because I want this job and I hate failure. I feel like if I dont get a job offer after an interview I'm failing somehow. I have yet to have that happen.....but I still havent been called back by Sephora yet so...

Anyways. I tried to take a picture of my outfit for my interview but theres toys all in the background and my face is blurry. The outfit is a little blurry. Its not the best photo taking by far but now that I have a computer again I'll get back in the swing of taking better pictures. The one with no tights was the night before trying it on to see if I wanted to wear that. The one with tights was walking out the door to the interview. The car shots were on the way there. Yes my child is in the car haha the whole family went and walked and played around the mall while I interviewed. 

Nars Danmari All About Cheeks Pallete! Swatches and Pics :)

I have so many different eye shadows that I think I'll be fully stocked for a loooong time. The only thing I dont have a lot of choices with is blush! I have been wanting to get Nars Orgasm for a while but couldnt bring myself to pay that price for just ONE blush...

CLICK BELOW TO READ MORE

Finally smokey eye tutorial is up!

Face of the day: Smokey eye (pic heavy)

Im uploading a new makeup tutorial right now, its gonna take forever. Here are the pictures from the look (click read more for the rest of post)

Face of the day

So this is my first time doing a face of the day....and I have to admit..it feels a little vain. However here it is! Were about to head out to texas roadhouse to eat, I am in LOVE with the free butter and rolls lol. Sooo tasty! I hope everyone has had a good sunday!

Makeup used:
Foundation :A mix of mac studio fix liquid in nc45 and nars sheer matte in syracuse
Concealer: Benefit erase paste in number 2
Bronzer: Nars Casino to contour cheeks
Blush: Wet n Wild mellow wine and Mac Dainty
Lips: Mac impassioned lipstick
Eyes: Mac paint pot in painterly, Mac shadows in wedge and brown down, Revlon matte shadow in vintage lace and lined them with bobbi brown cavier ink cream liner ( i cant remember if its a called or cream or gel, its just like fluidlines but bobbi browns version) mascara loreal collagen.

So who am I??

Hey everyone! Im sophia, on youtube im www.youtube.com/sophiams85  to my besties and family im phia to my son im mama, to my husband im babybaby. I love fashion, I love big gorgeous natural hair, I love love LOVE makeup :) I love fitness and high heels, purses, and kindness. My blog is going to be an extension of my youtube channel. A little bit of makeup, some tips and techniques, and of course, natural hair info! I'll be doing product reviews, swatches, likes and dislikes. So stay tuned!