Beautiful Bride Jill! [San Francisco Bridal Makeup & Hair]

Makeup Artist: Liz
Hair Stylist: Carolyn

Congratulations to Jill & Walter!  We feel honored to be a part of your big day!

Jill was referred to me by Manya K from Southern California who worked with Jill when Jill was a BM in a wedding down in SoCal! Because I was referred by Manya, Jill decided to forgo the trial - it was our first time meeting each other on her big day! :) The before & after was snapped while Carolyn was styling the hair for Jill's girls, and the photo of her girls was snapped before their hair was done! Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the 3 of them all done up, but  we will receive photos from JM Productions, the photographer & videographer! 

Jill was also so kind to write me a review on my Yelp page (copy & pasted below!):

"Thank you Liz and Carolyn so much for making us look so beautiful! Everything was perfect :) I got many compliments on my hair & makeup!! Best of all, it lasted ALL day and night. Most importantly, I let the tears run during our ceremony buy my face stayed intact thanks to Liz! 

Thanks to Liz and Carolyn I achieved the look I wanted and they helped make our day picture perfect :)

Our 8 and 14 year old daughters' hair and makeup was done, too, and they looked beautiful! They made their hair and makeup look just right for their age and they both loved it!" -Jill

We look forward to seeing their beautiful wedding photos! ^.~ 

June & Gary - Lifestyle/Commercial

Models: June (City Models) & Gary

Men's Grooming, Makeup, Hair & Photography: Elizabeth Chang (Skyla Arts)

Wardrobe Styling: Elizabeth Chang (Skyla Arts) & June

Finally an update! The photo above looks so weird resized - it looks like there's something on her cheeks but there really isn't! GrrrRrrr! Please click on the photos to view the full version! After receiving feedback from the agency, I decided to take matters into my own hands (the matter of improving my portfolio!), and called up June to ask if she knew any male models to add to our already planned lifestyle shoot on Saturday, and June also took matters into her hands and found me 2 great candidates, found the location, and then we told Gary what to wear ;) I really don't have a background in fashion, but was really inspired by a yellow umbrella and we were hoping to find one, but we ended up with a yellow hat, and its complementary color, purple - and voila! Spring is here!  Grabbing Peet's Coffee was totally spontaneous (Gary's Idea), and it was a great prop! :) Here is June's before & after photo for hair and makeup! It took me 1 hr - I'm improving my speed, so I was super happy.

I started a new picasa Lifestyle/Commercial Gallery. You can sneak peak my other recent project! ;)

Skyla Arts x Shasha

Client (and Model): Shasha

Makeup, Hair and Photography: Elizabeth Chang (Skyla Arts)
The Wardrobe was provided by the Model.

I have to say...When I picked up my camera to shoot Shasha, honestly I was a bit nervous, because it's been a while since I was behind the camera.  In the past, I've received inquiries about opportunities to "model for me" for my portfolio in exchange for some "free head shots" but while I am not a top photographer or anything to not 'test' at all, I am open to provide 'testing rates.' instead of going through the motions, since I am passionate about what I do. I haven't done makeup/hair/photography all in one since August or so, so while rusty, I got more energized as the shoot progressed! I am very happy with what we were able to achieve in an afternoon - I like more emotive portraits instead of straight off 'glamorous' looks.  I am happy that Shasha was super excited about the results as well! Enjoy the photos! :)

Marita's Before & After + Behind the scenes

Last Friday I had the pleasure to work with the talented photographer Gu Yifei, Stylist Michelle Tan, and beautiful models, Radilina and Marita. Yifei wanted to recreate the oil painting look - above is the before & after of Marita. I was in charge of the makeup for the two ladies and the other artist, Janet took care of the two male models. There was King, Queen, Prince & Princess! Michelle did most of the work with their hair and I assisted by curling and teasing the hair. At first we thought Yifei wanted big hair for both models, but it turns out for Marita, Yifei wanted more "princess curls." We tried our best to undo the teasing, and I think Michelle really saved the day (or the hair!) :) Because parking in SF was pretty stressful for me, once I sat down I got started with Radilina right away and forgot to take her before & after photo! Silly me! Below is a snapshot after she was done with her portion of the shoot. The redness on her nose is due to nose-blowing; so many people were sick on set! Flu/Cold season is really here! I was really proud of Radilina's makeup; my little Canon Powershot doesn't do it justice; I didn't bring my regular camera because I had too many things to carry! I can't wait to see the final photos! I'd like to thank Yifei & Radilina for letting me try out this look I've been wanting to try! I will post the photos when they come out! Until then...!

Tony Yang x Skyla Arts x TingYi

About 1 month ago my admired photographer Tony Yang visited LA and I was lucky to be able to be involved in his projects that involved Xixi as well! Tony browsed through my portfolio and blog and asked me about TingYi and asked me if she might be interested to work with him as well. I was excited that I was able to match up model & photographer. :) This is when I discovered TingYi's post was accidentally deleted! It's so odd...! I must be more careful...anyways! Here is her before and after


When I looked at her before & after photo, at first I was worried since I chose a darker eyebrow shade considering the lighting. In the before & after it looks too dark, but in the photo results, it looked like what it needed to be. I just received the medium size photos recently and with TingYi's permission, I shared these! The size is slightly smaller than my normal image posting size so I had to resize it...sorry it's a little fuzzy!! For the rest of my "favs" from the set, check them out in my Makeup for Photoshoots gallery! :) Enjoy!

Ting Yi's Before & After and Photoshoot gallery [Re-Post]

I don't know how it happened, but I somehow accidentally deleted the 2 posts that had TingYi's photos and I'm freaking out! I need to re-post this and combine it into one post! I apologize if you have seen it already. TingYi had a beach photoshoot with photographer 291 and asked me to do her makeup and hair for the photoshoot. Below is what TingYi said:

Thank you for your time this morning, you did an amazing job! The photos turned out great! I'll send some over if you want/need them for your website when I get them.
Photographer commented on the nice eye shadow colors today, so we picked the right one after all ;) Thanks again.
-Ting Yi

I started with a deeper purple, but TingYi thought a lighter lilac would be more suitable so I changed the eye shadow colors - and it turned out to be the right choice! Here are some of the results! For more photos, check them out in my Makeup for Photoshoots gallery! :) Enjoy!

Jeah's Wedding!

I just got back from doing makeup for Jeah's wedding! I did her step mother and mother-in-law, but towards the end I was running out of time and didn't get to take the third before and after! They were running 1 hour late behind on schedule, and it was kind of hectic!! I can't believe I'm posting the before and after immediately! I am so efficient today! :) Jeah told me that the makeup I did for her engagement photo shoot lasted all day & night and that everyone loved it! That made me really happy! She said she'll send me the photos of her engagement photo shoot and also her wedding and I'll post it when it's ready! I apologize for the slight lighting difference in the two~ I shifted positions and of course, the sunlight changes with the time. Below is the before and after of her mother-in-law!


I wanted to do a lot more with the mother-in-law but she was in a rush to get out her seat and go to the wedding venue. I tried my best with the limited time given to me. I hope everything went well! I had a pleasure working with Jeah! :) Peace!

Kristy's Before & After (Office Look!)

I've been gone for two weeks! Did you miss me? j/k! I didn't 'work' during my vacation except this! :) Technically, Kristy is also one of my best friends, but it doesn't mean I cannot force her to sleepover so she can pay me to create a great office look for her! (I'm such a great friend, aren't I! hehe) She says:

"It was such a great pleasure to work with Liz. Not only was she friendly, kind, and fun, she was also skillful and talented! Even though I have mild acne scars, she was able to make my skin flawless. I felt so pretty after being made up. I received many compliments from my coworkers!I truly enjoyed working with her. I highly recommend Skyla Arts for you want to look and feel beautiful."

-Kristy

Anyways, I think Kristy is my biggest supporter (other than my husband, of course!) and regularly checks here to see my latest work. I've actually never applied makeup on her face before even though we've been friends for over a decade (Wow..now I feel old!) and she was laughing at first! and I had to ask if something felt uncomfortable - but it turned out to be my face, [you know, the concentrated-artist-face] and not my work! So it's all good. Before I posted this, I showed her the before and after photo just in case she wanted me to pick a different photo - and she asked if I used photoshop! I'm like: "NO!!.... do you want me to? But it defeats the purpose of the before & after photo!" So no! I did not use photo shop for the acne scars; believe me, it's my super concealing skills acquired from concealing my own acne scars!

:) Have a great weekend!

Jeah's Before & After, and crazy happenings!

Yesterday afternoon, I worked with lovely Jeah for her bridal makeup trial, and above is the result! We were just chatting while I was taking care of her eyelashes, and we heard a lot of yelling and shouting outside! At first I thought it was just people arguing, or they are playing a game outside, but as I was touching up her eye makeup after the false eyelashes, I saw SMOKE across the street and then I ran to my kitchen window to view outside, and a car that was parked in the garage one street across my building had caught on fire! I dialed 911, but they had already called the fire fighters...but the fire got to the car's gas tank and sort of exploded; not your Hollywood car explosion, but just pieces of metal falling apart and flames. It got really scary when the heavy smoke was coming - thankfully Jeah stayed really calm and told me to grab my important documents - after I did so, I grabbed two small towels and wetted them; we ran towards the stairs and ran into our apartment manager, who suggested that we stayed indoors due to the smoke. She offered us to stay at her place upstairs, but we'd have to go through the open corridor and face the smoke, so we DARTED into her apartment! After staying there 10 minutes, she was planning to leave but I haven't finished her face & lips! By then the firefighters had put out most of the flames, so we DARTED downstairs and back into my place to finish her look. I think it was the scariest hour of my life! The wet towels really helped us maneuver through the corridors, and we were OK! It doesn't seem like anyone got hurt either since we didn't see any ambulances going by...

The moral of the story is...Please, DON'T FIX YOUR CARS IN YOUR GARAGE! ...It's dangerous! as the oils and chemicals can ignite easily..and this is what resulted...(view directly from my kitchen)



Jeah said, "Well at least this is very memorable!" Oh - what a day! But please don't be scared to come over...!!! My building is still safe!!!!

Marissa's Before and After

This morning I worked on Marissa's makeup and hair for a beauty shoot with photographer Stan Tran. Again, to reduce my load, I didn't carry my "camera" with me - but my little Canon Powershot S80 for the before & after photo so it's not as detailed. I thought we would do a makeup change, but instead they preferred the very natural looking makeup and light eyeshadow. The look they requested was inspired by Drew Berrymore's CoverGirl ads. I did end up changing her hair, but didn't manage to snap a photo. But below you can get a glimpse of it - I snuck a "behind the scenes" shot with my iPhone below!


Her skin was a little dry, so we were talking about moisturizers and then! She was really excited when I told her there's The Face Shop here in Koreatown, LA! She just returned from living in Korea, and loved the Korean products. :) Can't wait to see her photos!

Xixi's Before & After

Yesterday I did Xixi's makeup (and hair) for her shoot with my admired photographer, Tony Yang! I just straightened her hair a bit (nothing fancy!) ^^ She had a smiling 'before' photo but unfortunately it was a little blurry! Sorry! I didn't mean for it to me smiling in one and not smiling in the other~! She left me a note:

Hey Liz!

You rock!!! The photos turned out great!!! I'd love to work with you in the future!...Have a good day!! :)

Your Fan,
Xixi Yang

I hope Xixi picks me again for her next shoot~ ^___^v Stay tuned for her photos from the awesome shoot when she gets them~ :) For now, you'll have to enjoy a photo I took of her slightly arched eyebrow! haha this was for the after pic but I didn't want you to think I did her eyebrows uneven!

Jocelin's Before & After

This morning I worked on Jocelin's makeup for a photo shoot with photographer, Mandy. I was really happy Mandy picked purple for the eyeshadow color because I'm a purple monster! Hairstylist Michelle did an amazing job braiding/styling her hair! I didn't carry my "camera" with me - but my little Canon Powershot S80 for the before & after photo so it looks a little different! She also changed seats to get her hair done~ ^__^||

I took the after photo when Michelle was still in the process of styling her hair~ The final result looked similar to the photo below~ I can't wait to see the photos from this shoot soon! Until then - stay tuned!

Simi's Before & After + Portraits

Simi wanted a makeup look inspired by Aishwarya Rai for her photo session. I also did her hair too - we agreed that she would do her own her but then I arrived earlier than expected (my bad! I thought it would be much further+traffic!) so I did her hair...which took much longer than I anticipated~ ^^||....Simi was stressed out from exams and was breaking out. She requested that I photo shop out her scars~ it was a time investment and a challenge. As a result I learned new techniques~ ^^v yay for me.

Simi says:

"It was an absolute pleasure working with Liz. She is very charismatic and I felt extremely comfortable shooting with her. I had a clear idea of the types of moods and poses I wanted her to capture, and Liz found my best angles and captured everything artistically.

She is also a very skilled makeup artist, and used exclusive products purchased from Japan. She was patient and responsive to my makeup requests, and gave me better advice about my acne-prone skin than my dermatologist. She was punctual and never complained.

I love the finished products! Her touch ups and color schemes make me look like a character from a fairytale.

-Simi

Simi has such gorgeous eyes~ and with her hair length, it reminded me of the gal in Boticelli's "Birth of Venus"~! Enjoy three of my favorite from the set, and you can see a few more in my Portraits gallery!

Alex's Before & After + Portraits

Alex was on her way to a special event - hot date! (well, after the portrait session of course).

Alex says:

When I went for my appointment with Elizabeth Chang, I knew from the way that she herself looked that I was going to come out looking like a diva. She was both thorough and efficient, tactful and fun, and best of all, both traditional and a visionary. I've had my make-up done at high-end salons and in department stores, but the look that I had by Skyla Arts went above and beyond anything I'd ever experienced. I had a wonderful date the night after Elizabeth Chang made me up, and my date was proud to be with the most beautiful woman in the room. I strongly recommend the services of Elizabeth Chang at Skyla Arts. If you're looking for a beautiful, dramatic look by a gifted professional, then Skyla Arts is the place for you. Thank you, Liz!!!

P.S. THE KITTEN WAS TOOOOO CUTE!!!

-Alexandria Hicks, veteran make-up wearer

Alex works at an animal shelter and the scar on her hand was from a dog at her workplace! Skyla (my kitten) loved Alex's attention and was happy to cameo in the session! Enjoy three of my favorite from the set, and you can see a few more in my Portraits gallery!

Michelle's Before & After + Portrait/Shopping Trip

Pretty Michelle initially came for a short make-up lesson~ at first she wanted a natural look, but once she saw my turquoise eye shadows, she decided to go with a dramatic, glamorous look akin to a porcelain doll! I tried my best~ ^^ and she selected the most dramatic pair of false lashes I got~ it was lots of fun!

After our first meeting, I also accompanied her for a makeup shopping trip! Michelle was super organized! She did her research online and I told her: "That's exactly what I would do!!!" and she was able to get the products she had hoped to get and remained within her budget! Fabulous!

Michelle says:

"My experience with Liz was fantastic! Of course I felt very pretty after being made up but I also learned a lot. Not only things like new products but also new ideas for applying things like eye shadow, lipstick and even foundation. I'm a pretty no- fuss girl when it comes to doing my own make up, so it was nice to see myself all done up properly and I learned several tricks to add to my daily routine. So on one hand the make up advice is worth the time, but seeing many of Liz's photos and seeing a friend's photos, she is also a very talented photographer and will really work to make a beautiful picture of you. Unlike other photography services, Liz doesn't try to pose you too much or come to set with a specific idea of what she wants, instead she works to create natural shots which really show who you are (all be it with much better make up!). Great girl and fantastic service, would recommend to anyone but especially those who are nervous about getting a stagey photo or not feeling like themselves in the make up."

-Michelle

I took this portrait and gave it to Michelle as a gift! I also sent her a version of this photo that made her skin looked very porcelain~~! I hope she liked it!

Kelly's Before & After + Portraits

This makeup & photography session with Kelly happened right after K & J's couple's shoot! So..I got backed up and couldn't work on it until recently! So sorry Kelly!~! Kelly chose the "Single basic natural head shots and portraits Option B with Makeup Application"~ we were going for the pretty Korean celebrity look!

She says:

"Skyla Arts made me feel "comfortable" with the occasion. Liz was great with her brushes. I almost fell sleep! She was accommodating and made sure she understood the look I was going after, and that it was "right". And she did! I had a great time at the party that evening, and loved the more "natural" feel to the job she did! I also loved talking to her. She was really sweet, and seemed to have a genuine interest in simply talking to me. =)

Thank you Liz!"

- Kelly

=) Enjoy two of my favorite shots from the set, and feel free to look at the other ones in my Portraits gallery!

K & J's Couples Photoshoot

K & J chose the package of Lifestyle Engagement/Couples with Makeup Application: $375. The location they selected was beautiful and of course, they are a beautiful couple! As we were shooting, K & J received lots of compliments! =)

K's before and after:

Please enjoy some highlights from this shoot: