Random Outfit Post

Random Outfit Post

I have no explination for this post. I just felt like showing off the fact that I dress like a 10th grade art teacher.

You're welcome

-SamanthaK

Kit Essentials: The Japonesque Palette (and how to use it)

Kit Essentials: The Japonesque Palette

So imagine you're packing your makeup kit for a job. You've got the shadows, the eye liners...and then you start packing lipstick.

You pack a couple reds and then you're thinking, "But I should get a warm toned red too." Then you're picking your pinks and you're thinking, "Well, I need more options. What if they're warm/cool/tan/pale?" So you throw in some more pinks. Lastly you get to neutrals and you're like, "Well this color blanks out lips completely...and this one is slightly pink so it won't wash her out...but then this one is more of a TRUE nude..."

Suffice it to say, before you know it you have 800 lipsticks and you're trying to shove them in one bag.

Let me blow your mind right here:

It's called the Japonesque pro lip palette and it is amazing. It's intentionally meant for lipsticks, but it actually works great with cream concealers or cream foundations too. I put my RCMA foundations on the bigger welled side and lipstick on the other side with 3 rows. 

Basically when it comes to my makeup I'm really anal. Considering how easy it is to get pink eye or herpes, I don't think it makes me a crazy person to be a little intense when it comes to sanitation.

Like most people I work with, I am what people would consider an "artist" and when it comes to color mixing, I prefer to create a shade based on my color wheel and theory then to go by what's already in a tube.

Are there certain colors I love to use straight from the container? Of course. (My example is Airy Fairy from Rimmel. That color looks good on EVERYONE). 

So this palette is pretty great for me. Not only does it allow me to mix up a color, but it keeps my lipsticks generally organized and it takes up little to no space in my kit. 

Did I mention you could use the divider for a palette to mix on and that you can easily wipe it off with alcohol to sanitize it? YOU'RE WELCOME.

You can buy the palette on amazon, but when I factored in shipping it was actually pretty expensive. I bought mine from one of my personal mentor's (Debra Dietrich) website. She owns her own company now and there's A LOT of really great stuff on there. She comes by my school periodically to do classes and they always have a booth at various hair shows, so I try to stock up to avoid shipping.

http://www.musebeauty.pro/japonesque-pro-lip-palette.aspx

You can also find her personal facebook page and bug her if you'd like, she loves stalkers- Tell her Samantha Weis sent you. 

So now let's talk about how to use this thing. 

For me, because I'm still pretty new and don't have an expansive kit yet, it makes the most sense to put cream foundations on one side and lipsticks on the other. Now because I'm spacial, and things have to be put away in an order that makes sense to me, I split the 3 rows into warm, neutrals, and cools.

Now I know you. You're probably thinking, "How can I tell if my lipsticks are warm, neutral, or cool?"

And to that I say, "Good question."

The best method that I've used is actually marking the lipstick on white paper and holding it near natural light. Try to avoid fluorescent and incandescent light because it'll tint your colors cool and warm. Natural light is the most realistic. 

Ok so see this red? I realize it's tomato red, but look how it looks on the paper as opposed to the tube. It looks watermelon red doesn't it? So in natural light this red is actually cool.

Most of my shades are cool. I find I use more of those.

Most people would be find slapping those colors in no problem- 

-but I am not most people. I separated my colors into warms, neutrals, and cools, AND THEN organized them from light to dark.

See? Doesn't that just work out nicely?

Wind up your lipstick, and using a sharp knife or spatula, cut off the top.

LEAVE SOME OF IT STILL IN THE TUBE, and put that tube in a container or a ziplock. When you run out of a color, all you have to do is find your tube later and match up the colors so you know what to buy. Isn't that smart? Debra taught me that. She's so fab.

Now press the lipstick into the well with a wet wipe. The moisture is going to help the lipstick to not stick and slide around and get all crazy.

See? So nice.

Neutrals done.

And here's what I've got so far. Now I know you see that coral on the left and you're like, "Samantha, what are you doing, that looks cool-toned." Ok, calm down. When you swatch it, it's actually deceptively warm. So...whatever, be cool guys. I know what I'm doing.

I hope that helped. I didn't see this palette really until I started school and I wished I had seen it earlier. It makes traveling with makeup so much easier. Realistically, you could go crazy and put foundations, cream blushes, concealers, and lipsticks all in there and go on vacation with only this, mascara and powder. 

Isn't that amazing?

I love organizing.

-SamanthaK

25 Things You Didn't Know About Me (TAG)

25 Things You Didn't Know About Me (TAG)

So I saw this tag on youtube, and while I normally love youtube and videos and all- I just couldn't imagine me doing this on a video and NOT have it be half an hour. 

I'm a talker.

So let's try doing this as a blog post.

1. I'm a horrid sleeper. I'm not even kidding. I sleep so badly. I wake up every few hours, I get overheated, I have confusing dreams, etc. I always laugh when my friends say they're tired. I just laugh so hard.

2. I had a tumor removed from my boob. This is something few people know about me. It's not something I hide, necessarily, but how often do you really talk about your boobs? It was benign but the doctor said I'd either have to come in every year to check it because it would eventually become cancerous- or I could take it out. I removed it, obviously. However, it is a source of embarrassment for me because now one is bigger than the other and it will always be that way. Thanks body, for making me lopsided.

3. I left high school a year early. My anxiety levels were so bad in my junior year and I was missing days of school just from panic attacks. It all came to a head when my mom finally ACTUALLY saw me having one, and the discussion of taking my GED finally became a real discussion. Going to college early was actually one of the better decisions I could have made. I set my own schedule, I did my own thing, and in the long run it made me a better person. 

4. I was a pastry chef for about a year. Yeah, this one is weird actually. I used to bake for the people I worked with when I was a bus-boy at one of the nicer restaurants in town. I was trying to become a waitress so I could make more money but about that time, their prior pastry chef disappeared. He basically went off the rails. They only had me to cover for awhile but what happened was that they never hired anyone else. I basically moved into a better paying job with small hours and only because I happened to, on occasion, make s'mores cake.

5. I lived in a flat, in England, below a Duchess for about a month. I was 16, and I begged my mom to take me to Europe. My friends had all done the study abroad thing (where you see a city every 2 days and you're gone for about 2 weeks) but I didn't want to go to all the cities- I only wanted England. So we saved up money for a long time, and did many yard sales but eventually we did it. We stayed in a flat my aunt's aunt owned, which was next to an elementary (primary) school. Every morning I watched the parents drop off their adorably dressed children while I drank English Tea... I still dream of going back and never coming home.

6. I actually have no birthmark. Yeah, I was born with freckles. I'm not sure how that works.

7. I'm horrible at science. Math, sure. English, duh. Science? I flunked so badly.

8. I've never worn extensions. To be fair, I have a lot of hair, but I've never worn extensions of any kind.

9. I've been to the following places: California, Florida, Nevada, New Zealand, England/Scotland (UK), and I've had layovers in Louisiana, Arizona, Texas, and Georgia. My dream is a road trip to Louisiana.

10. I've been living away from my parents for almost 5 years. I was married at 19, and moved out in the same year. I haven't moved back except for a small stint when I gave my old house to my brother and the other place wasn't move in ready yet.

11. I hate cilantro. I HATE it. Blech.

12. I was married by 19, divorced by 20. This is something I don't want to talk about, for obvious reasons but it was a big part of my life and not a lot of people know it.

13. I love to go shooting. My family is comprised of all farmers, so, I shot guns pretty young. Top Shot is one of my favorite shows. Eventually when my riding gets good enough, I want to do Cowboy Mounted Shooting as a sport.

14. Cooking competitions make me so angry. If you watch something like Hell's Kitchen, or Chopped, with me- expect me to yell at the screen. 

15. I rarely scream. My body just doesn't do it very often. I have to be surprised by something that hasn't happened to me before. And once it's happened, I can't scream about it again.

16. I love musicals. I love them. I like watching them, I like singing to them... I like everything about musicals. There are VERY few that I don't enjoy.

17. I have anxiety. We touched on this a little before. It's still there, it's just manageable. Crowds get me sometimes. Anything where I have no control over the outcome but the outcome effects me gives me extreme anxiety.

18. I have a torn muscle in my knee. I ripped a muscle in my knee when I was riding horses and when I went in for surgery they told me the muscle tear was too small and they couldn't do anything about it. They had to wait for it to tear more or for it to heal up on it's own. To this day neither of those things have happened and my knee swells up any time I do too much running or twisting movements. 

19. I hate being young. Everyone has this thing with being old. They're scared of it, or don't like the idea of being old and ugly or something. I am totally excited to be old. I want to be a granny in the worst way. Bring on the wrinkles and the grand kids.

20. I'm terrible at remembering things. Dates, names, what I had for lunch. Jae makes fun of me because when he asks if I have plans, I have to check the calendar on my phone. I can't remember things like that off the top of my head. Now, ask me about the stranger who sits in my chair to get her hair done and I can tell you all about her- dates and names? No idea.

21. I'm a Christian. A lot of people don't seem to know this about me for some reason. It kind of surprises me actually. I think maybe people expect Christians to be obnoxious or something.

22. At one point, I was looking into moving to Denmark or the Netherlands. I was an English major and I was going to teach abroad. I still want to do it, just at the Paul Mitchell level.

23. I make jewelry. I actually have a facebook page for it. It's called EdelWeis Jewelry, and it's all made by me and my mom.

24. I run extremely hot. Roger hates it. I feel like a werewolf all the time. 

25. I want to retire or move to Louisiana. I've always been in love with it. I know enough French to talk to the Cajuns. I will probably live on a swamp. I am ok with this. 

Well hope that was interesting. It was actually hard to come up with 25 things. 

Time to go house hunting,

-SamanthaK 

A Style Evolution

 A Style Evolution

So we all know how I dress right?

Which is to say, adorable and wish a side of whimsy?

It wasn't always like that.

Allow me to take you through the wardrobe that got me through being in Core and Protege. 

This was day one. No joke. 

Day 2 was when I realized that I could wear whatever accessories I wanted.

And yet I still wore the same necklace set. What was I thinking?

Blazers, am I right?

And then came the pictures of the outfits that were horrifically similar. This was also the point when I thought scarves were the answer. HOWEVER, I only had one scarf to go with til my paycheck came through.

I wasn't kidding about that scarf. I thought I was so dang cool.

For reference, here is an outfit I wore outside of school. I DO DRESS NICE SOMETIMES.

It was at this point I was tired of my hair and was like, "You know what this needs? Purple."

To be fair, this was probably the best time in my life in terms of my hair. Seriously, look how good it looks! I will probably never get it back to that.

Free dress days at school are usually when I look my best, I will not lie.

Yeah, that scarf.

And then on lazy days, I dressed like I was going to move sets backstage at a high school drama production.

These are my pajamas. You're welcome.

It was about the time I started working on the floor that I was like, "I should probably go shopping."

WHICH LEADS TO THIS BEAUTY RIGHT HERE. This is the infamous "rap video" dress- named such because it makes my booty look divine. I love this dress but it's hard to wear through summer because of the long sleeves.

Hopefully soon I can compile some photos of my AMAZING STYLE as of late.

But you know, don't judge me if it takes awhile. I tend to recycle outfits.

-SamanthaK

Review Time: RCMA Foundations

Review Time: RCMA Foundations

Remember when I was assisting on So You Think You Can Dance and the makeup artists had this foundation called RCMA?

If not, go read my other blogs. 

It's cool, I'll wait...

...Ok we good? Cool.

So of course after playing around with them on set, I decided I wanted to give them a shot. Adam quickly told me the best idea ever.

"The foundations are like, 30 bucks for 1oz. There's a website that sells sample sizes of them so you can give them a shot before you commit."

This is why he gets paid the big bucks.

So on Camerareaadycosmetics.com, you can buy sample sizes of them. BE SURE to do some research first because their numbering and palette names make little to no sense.

Here's a little cheat sheet I found:

https://camerareadycosmetics.com/content/Foundation-Comparison-Chart.pdf

YOU ARE WELCOME.

So for reference, I'm a neutral/pale girl. At MAC they usually try to sell me a NC15 which is a smidge too cool and slightly too pale (in my opinion) for me, but I'm not tan enough to go up in shades. So it's pretty accurate.

I ended up ordering Ivory and F1- which ended up being a perfect blend. Ivory would be great for me in the winter, I think, but F1 tans it up just every so slightly. If I were outside more often, F1 would look fine too. So basically, the cheat sheet I used worked out perfectly.

First I stuck them on a palette and did a few swatch tests, then I went ahead and mixed them.

I used a slightly damp Beauty Blender to put it on. Notice the giant face demon on my nose- this is how you know I didn't edit any of these pictures and there is no filter.

Here's the before and after. PRETTY GREAT RIGHT? I know. This is just one pass with the RCMA and the damp beauty blender. It covered the acne spots pretty great too. All I did after that picture was take a tiny bit more RCMA and conceal the hardcore areas like that one spot on my cheek and under my eyes.

This is the RCMA, natural light, no filters, after 10-11 hours of wear. Pretty great, I know. The only part that really wore down was under my eyes and that's because I have a terrible habit of rubbing my under-eyes when I'm frustrated or annoyed...or my eyes are itchy.

I also wore the foundation for another 3 or 4 hours after this picture and it was still where I put it.

I don't even... what kind of voodoo is this? Seriously? 

I'm pretty convinced RCMA is one of the best things out there.

Some things I should mention:

My skin is quite dry, and I only powdered this in the morning around my forehead and nose. For people with oily skin, you'll probably have to set this with a little more powder, since it is a cream consistency, but you should be fine.

What I used on my skin before the RCMA was a healthy dose of Embryolisse moisturizer (which is exactly what I use every single day of my life and before every foundation I use. No special treatment).

I am a picker, hardcore. If there is something on my face to pick at, I will do it- which is why I'm amazed that the RCMA held on for that many hours.

I plucked my eyebrows, that arch is pretty sick right? I have Lauren Becall's eyebrows.

So in summation, RCMA is pretty great, and the color ranges are pretty dang extensive. I know the pots and palettes are expensive, but they're really amazing and the tiniest bit goes a long way. I'm pretty sure I could use my sample sizes every day for an entire year before it runs out.

-SamanthaK

That Time I Assisted on a TV Show... (no seriously, I did)

That Time I Assisted on a TV Show... (no seriously, I did)

So remember when I said I did So You Think You Can Dance?

I did it.

And it was amazing.

I had to wait until they posted the Top 20 dancers before I could put up my pictures- just in case I took some of them by accident. I did my best to avoid taking too many pictures because I didn't want to get kicked out or get in trouble.

For those of you who don't know- this kind of work is something I'm really interested in, so when I got to do this I was drying. I know it was just assisting, and I realize it was a lot of me following dancers around with powder puffs and tissues, but it was really important to me. I met a lot of amazing makeup artists, who I've been texting ever since we went and I'm excited to say maybe LA is REALLY going to be in my future.

So the trip started with Erica (my fellow Phase 2 member) and Stephanie (we know Stephanie right? My teacher/mentor?) driving through the night to LA. I should say this was probably one of the best car trips I've ever had. We basically spent the entire 5 hours talking about school and life. It was very cathartic for me, and I got to dump out a lot of nonsense. It's amazing what a bitch buddy session does sometimes.

We did our best to sleep that night BUT OF COURSE IT WAS VERY HARD TO DO.

 So basically what we did was a series of different photoshoots-some were moving video, some were stills, some were group shots, etc.

I hope they don't mind me posting pictures of them. WHATEVER, OH WELL.

Also, I don't know what Erica is doing with her face, but Stephanie is rocking that water bottle, am I right?

The makeup set up.

On the ends is Abe and Melissa, who are Paul Mitchell hairstylists. They were the ones who called Debra Dietrich, who called Stephanie, who invited Erica and I. They're really amazing and absolutely adorable people. I'm hoping they hit us up again because they're really fun to work with.

This is Erica and Adam. Adam was the makeup artist she assisted for. He's done all kinds of stuff like Ant Farm, Happily Divorced, 10th Kingdom (a personal guilty pleasure of mine). He was a really cool dude and he let us go through his kit and pick his brain. Erica has pretty much declared him her new mentor.

Not pictured is one of my new mentors and also one of the makeup artists- Amy Harmon. She's such a cool lady, and watching her was kind of like seeing a future version of myself. I've been texting her ever since with questions and she's been nice enough not to block my number.

The kraft (craft?) services there were insane. Check out this jerk chicken. Amazing. Also, not pictured was the enormous breakfast burrito I got.

Then we played around with Adam's RCMA foundations. Erica is a beautiful model, yes?

She's gonna hate me for throwing in this picture.

Then we got lost on set for awhile and found a New York street THAT HAD A WEIRD FAKE SEPHORA ON IT.

Then we realized it was set up like some weird drugstore? Like, what kind of Sephora has liquor and immunizations? Seriously?

Erica posed while I sang, "On the Street Where You Live". I'm pretty sure anyone that could hear me thought I was crazy.

Apparently, Stephanie and Erica have this pet peeve about dirty wind shields? I don't even get it.

All in all, this was pretty much the most amazing thing I've probably done. It's amazing to me that as school keeps going, the opportunities I get are more and more insane. 

I promise when I move to Hollywood, I forget you little people. HAHAHAHAHHAA. (insert obnoxious laugh)

-SamanthaK