Candace & Jason, Nestldown/Los Gatos Wedding August 2010

Candace & Jason, August 9th 2010

Makeup for Bride & Bride's mother: Elizabeth Chang (Skyla Arts)

Hair for Bride & Bridal Party: Caroyln (Swirls N' Curls)

Photography: FC Wong Photography *All photos on this blog is courtesy of FC Wong Photography!

Venue: Nestldown

I had the pleasure to work with Candace! It seems like forever but it's only been a few months! ^^" I did makeup for Candace & her beautiful Mommy (they look so alike! ^^) and Candace also hired me to stay 4 extra hours for touch-ups. It was so nice of Candace to invite me to the ceremony since there were some extra seats in the back, and it was really sweet to watch the beautiful ceremony.  

At the beginning of the day, I did something uber embarrassing! I always leave home and get there earlier than expected and sometimes earlier than the bride or even the staff member that was supposed to put a block to prevent guests and unsuspecting vendors (like ME!!!) from going down the wrong path! Even though I followed the instructions given to me by Brooke the coordinator, without any other cars parked, I thought I had to go further down the winding tree path, and turned out to be just GRASS so I had to back up in a curve and scratched my car against some trees! :( poor car..  Anyways - it was pretty embarrassing! I believe they were Candace's baby cousins watching me get stuck there!  ^^|| Oops!  The good news is I arrived earlier and budgeted enough time because they were fixing the high way and so there was only 1 lane! Phew~ but everything went smoothly and on-time! :D 

It's a really beautiful venue - kind of a hidden piece of eden in Los Gatos! The Bridal Cottage is where I set up to do the makeup! Candace has very sensitive skin but very very beautiful skin! As Carolyn (hair stylist) said: "Aren't we lucky? She has perfect hair and perfect skin!" ;)  After the trial, Candace & I actually had a meeting in San Francisco to discuss some feedback Candace had on the makeup, and she wanted more 'glow' on her skin, so she opened up her laptop, and showed me some photos she found...and I was like: "I KNOW THESE PEOPLE" and she was like: "Whaaat? Really??"  It turns out, she found some photos of my teacher Kelly's work~ I knew the models on the photos during my internship at Ra Beauty Core learning from my teacher Kelly.  I had GOOSEBUMPS, and suddenly felt emotional because I missed my teacher, and that Candace had unknowingly connected us just by our makeup style.  I think it was pretty amazing...and touching at the same time!  The "glow"/dewy look is very popular in Korean makeup and so I guess it was very logical to google Korean salons! What a small world! :)

I was waiting for Candace to send me some photos, but right after their wedding, Candace & Jason went on an extended honeymoon trip to Asia, and decided to relocate from San Francisco to Singapore!!!  Yay!!  I haven't heard from Candace recently, but they must be busy settling in, and exploring the exciting world of SE Asia!! :D  So for now, I will have to share the facebook photo gallery sized photos that Candace generously shared with me, and also some that I grabbed from the photographer's blog!  Enjoy the photos, and read a side-story on the bottom! :) 

I wanted to share that Candace's mommy is not used to wearing makeup, but she also had beautiful gorgeous skin like Candace (it's genetics!!! ^^) and was peacefully enjoying her application here, until she realized the photo was being taken!!! At that point (her reaction was priceless and adorable!!!) she told the photographer: "No no no please don't take a photo of me!!!!!!!!" and Candance was on the side getting her hair done: "It's OK mom! Don't worry!"  After she saw herself, she thought it was really dramatic, like the Chinese Opera makeup! And I assured her she looked great~  My favorite photo is the b/w above - it looked like a really heart felt moment~~~ and those are usually my favorite photos from weddings! 

Behind the Scenes Editorial Photo shoot

Photography: Pam Sta Cruz

Makeup & Hair: Elizabeth Chang (Skyla Arts)
Designer & Wardrobe Stylist: Phuong My
Models: Lauren Fletcher @ City & Chrissy

Last time I tried to work with Pam & designer Mymy, it happened during the freakin' GIANTS parade...I'm sorry - while I'm happy that they won the world series, I don't appreciate the parade making me miss the photo shoot completely!!!  I was moving 2 blocks per hour, and at that rate, I would have never made it to the shoot since I had to take a 10+ block detour (at 2 blocks per hour!! the sun would have set and it was an outdoors shoot!!!) so I had to just get out of San Francisco...Pam & Mymy were so nice about it~ I was really touched...and  I am just so happy that finally I got to work with them this time and two amazing models, Lauren & Chrissy.  Phuong My is a super talented, confident & young designer - even though I'm not knowledgeable in clothing and couture and won't pretend to be, watching her work and make these clothes and the hats (Yes! she made them herself!) is really really remarkable & inspiring!!!  My favorite one was a purple hat that I unfortunately didn't snap a photo of!! But I was like @o@!!!! AWESOME!  WOW!  lol~ literally.

I was scheduled to do hair, but unfortunately the hair stylist could not make it - and due to time constraints, it was very stressful and Mymy and I had to brain storm really quickly to come up with a solution that works with the outfits and the time constraints.  Mymy described that Lauren will have the softer smokey look with red lips, and Chrissy will have the darker smoldering look for the "bad sister" whereas Lauren is the "good sister" (never done anything bad in her life).  I just tried my very best, had fun with it, and I am happy with the results! Armed with more experience between the last editorial I worked on, I am just keeping my fingers crossed about this fashion story getting published!!! :D I was sharing that sentiment on set, and Mymy said: "What are you talking about; OF COURSE it will get published!!!"  ;) *fingers crossed*  Since we are still waiting to hear, the final images won't be shared until ...after we know! :)

These images  on the blog are taken with my brand new canon s95! I love it!! It was very dim/dark at the hotel in SF so I'm so happy to have the Canon S95!!

Lauren is smiling at me, the photo stalker! ;) I LOVED the lines on the back of her dress

Chissy working it on top of the fire place!  Loved the jacket!!

Pam taking the photos~ Mymy watching on the side!

@ The lobby~ Lauren looked really stunning

This was before Christmas and Mymy found a X'mas ornament that inspired her; although...I don't think it worked out! Lauren is thinking: "omg I have a x'mas ornament on my head!"

Behind the scenes! This shot was REALLY AMAZING! One of my fav!!!

LOVED this outfit too! The skirt part of the dress looked amazing. Mymy adjusting her outfit~ The vintage phone was super awesome! 

Last scene before the big wrap for the evening! Chrissy had a small change in lip color, and their cheek colors were intensified a little! :D

Super proud of our team work!!!!  Yay! Until next time, everyone have a great holiday and new years! :) 

Breast Cancer Awareness "Hope is in the Love of Self": My bravest, most beautiful client M.P.!

Client: M.P.
Makeup, Hair, Photography: Elizabeth Chang (Skyla Arts)
Second Photographer: Liliana Aranda

I've been waiting for an opportunity to blog about this!  In October I was contacted by my client M.P. sharing with me her interest in shooting boudoir. If you didn't know already, October is also Breast Cancer Awareness month!  I have done boudoir photo shoots in the past as Makeup/Hair, but it was my first time wearing all 3 hats as Makeup/Hair/Photography for boudoir with my client. This is definitely one of the most meaningful projects ~ when things get hard, like yesterday, when I discovered some of my photos were posted outside my blog/website illegally without my consent with my watermarks cropped out (that's a violation of copyright - very disrespectful), all I have to do is remember my client M.P. and the courage she displayed to me and Liliana during this photo shoot, the world is immediately a better place!  M.P. was diagnosed with breast cancer in recent months, she told me she would love to remember her body, the way she loves it, the way she appreciates it.  This is certainly where my deepest PASSION for the industry lies - loving yourself, and loving your body. 

My mother and my mother-in-law are both breast cancer survivors - there is nothing more powerful than the courage people have to overcome adversities and have a positive outlook on life - and that's the only way to beat and conquer anything in life!!!  M.P. said she would love to inspire other women with the photos we took, and so I am so proud, and so thrilled, to share these photos with you!  :) The pink ribbon was M.P.'s idea!  Liliana and I loved working with M.P.~ she is so beautiful!  Inside and out!!!  It was truly truly inspiring!

M.P. also has a special gift for you - she made a slideshow of her Journey or how she experienced our photo session into a Narrative! These are the un-edited previews I sent to her for client viewing~ She titled it Hope is in the Love of Self.

Hope is in the Love of Self

My first magazine cover! Jewellery Business December 2010 Issue

Today was a very emotional day for me.  This afternoon I discovered my makeup/hair work was published!!!!! What a great way to end 2010...my very first publication and it's a magazine cover!  You might have read my blog post about this photo shoot here here and here! (Behind the scenes, reels, and final photos).  Literally, I cried from tears of JOY and AHH~!  Finally printed work!!! *TEAR*

In my final blog post sharing the final photos, I was saying how much I appreciated Laura Tillinghast Photography & Yael Designs for hiring me, and believing in me and pushing my abilities as an artist...especially with the Hair Styling portion of the job.  The only thing I could do is try my very best, and hope that I will not disappoint anyone, and that hopefully it will also be published at a magazine somewhere, and then...6 months later, and BAM!!!!  Here it is!  And of course, I also want to thank Khrystyna @ Look Models for her amazing performance/top modeling talents and ALWAYS bringing it! 

You can check out the online version of the magazine here: Jewellery Business Dec 2010 !

Men, Men, Men! Ian Maxion x Skyla Arts

Models: Ryan Guzman @ Look (left), Thad @ City Models (right)
Makeup: Elizabeth Chang (Skyla Arts)
Photography/Hair/Wardrobe Styling: Ian Maxion

I hope you are thinking finally some hot men for a change from hot women?? :) Oh...I am still so backed up with my blog posts...You are probably tired of hearing me say this, but I feel a bit stressed out when I see other photographers or makeup artists keeping their blogs very up to date and current!  I don't know how the bloggers do it (especially the beauty bloggers!  That's a lot of images to organize!! I guess you need to be uber-organized on your computer, and right now my desktop is just CHAOS! My husband saw it and his jaw dropped because if his desktop looked like that, he would freak!)  Anyways!

This photo shoot happened middle of September, and to my pleasant surprise I saw Ryan at the Tommy Hilfiger event! Did you spot him? It was nice to see familiar faces like Ryan and Allie and meet many new people as well.  Thad is shooting a Hyundai commercial today and I'm excited for him!!!  He is going to sell lots of cars for Hyundai!!!! This is my first time working with the talented Ian Maxion upon referral by Janet Mariscal.  Ian has a great eye for creative direction, and I was so impressed at how organized Ian was with the clothes! Compared to the state of my closet, um...let's not talk about how messy my closet is right now~! lol.  Ian was going for the "Mad Men" look for Ryan, and the "Risky Business" for Thad, but since I was told my my 3 of my mentors that I need to EDIT EDIT EDIT for my portfolio, I selected my absolute absolute favorite photos to post for my portfolio and blog.  They say to me: "Take that out. You don't need that." or "Perhaps one image from the shoot...since you don't want to post repeated looks!"  Since this is my BLOG, I can post a few more photos! ;)

It was my first time working with everyone, and I am happy that I was a part of this great photo shoot.  The part that made me most nervous was the roof top shoots because I had to climb up there! The ladder that I was climbing was So Scary and I was wearing sandals!   @o@ I was like @o@ How am I gonna get down?? But I was fine..just like "PHEW" when I got back down! hahaha.  The versatility of Ryan and Thad's performance blew me away!  I've seen their portfolios, but it's nothing like watching them perform and do what they are really really good at. It's really easy to think that all models have to do is get their body to look great/work out and maybe study some poses from magazines and just stand there.  To be at Ryan and Thad's level, you really got to bring it each time. Ian is really great at giving directions, but when Ian puts the clothes and accessories on Ryan and Thad, they know what to do with it. I hope I'm making sense !  But it takes a lot of practice and perseverance, and not being afraid to try different things and communicate with the photographer to get these shots, and to help the shoot run so smoothly. So!  Enjoy the photos!  I really loved the results and was really happy to be a part of the shoot with such a talented team!!!!

My journey so far...

Tammy asked me how I got started in my profession...I tried to write a response in the comment area, but it started getting long and I guess I just thought that I would just put it in a post to just document it, and perhaps in a year or so it might be fun to look back and see how I narrated my journey so far!  Everybody's story is slightly different (with regards to how they became a makeup artist) and the path you can take to get going is very diverse.  You can start off working at a counter/company, and then move towards something else, or be involved in a related industry and just transition, or do youtube! However, I hope to distinguish "beauty guru" with "makeup artistry" because what you do most of your time in your profession is fairly different.  Except for the 'beauty guru' category, when I hear stories about how makeup artists began (the TRUE/BEHIND the scenes version, not the TV version!), I can immediately empathize with them in their process. Not that everybody needs to 'suffer,' but paying your dues is a large part of the artistic world for most people, and not just makeup artist.  Makeup Artist - I underlined Artist because perceptions of makeup artists somehow change because our medium is makeup! What I mean specifically is - insert all the stereotypes relating to the "starving artist" and "the struggling artist" and chances to succeed or so slim that the process is grueling (oh..it is still grueling for me! Believe me).  But this is how I began.....!  Click to read the long/text-heavy/personal blog....