We had several things planned over the week including lectures, meet and greets and makeup demos. These are the 3 events I have decided to describe..
Wednesday 23rd September
Illamasqua Lecture and Workshop
Before my course commenced the week after, Sharon (Spob) O'Brien, a makeup artist who has 30 years experience in the industry, working for film, tv, commercials, theatre and many more, came along to Solent University to give a talk about Illamasqua. (Spob is Illamasqua's head of professional development). As well as Sharon, Helen Roche attended, who also works for Illamasqua. The lecture started with them talking about how the company started and Spob telling us that she has worked for the company since it was a slideshow presentation back in 2008 (which is pretty amazing). We were given the opportunity to watch a slide show, showing us some of Illamasqua's collections and products. There was an opportunity for all the students to ask questions about makeup, the industry and Illamasqua itself. During the lecture, Spob said that she would recommend all the students to check out Charlie Brooker's 'Black Mirror' to look at the makeup and style and creativity.
They showed us a new product which they are launching in December called 'Broken Gold' which was a gold metallic eyeliner and when applied looks dewy and wet but dries into a really nice bright matte gold colour and looks amazing on top of eyeshadow.
During the lecture, Spob asked the students whether they wanted to go either into Fashion, Theatre or Tv and Film! The majority of people raised their hands for Theatre to which she said it would be quite easy for them to get a job! The next most popular choice was Tv and Film to which she said it would be hard to get a job in this industry but if you work hard enough then you could get a job doing this! The next choice (to which I raised my hand) was Fashion! Her response to this was 'good luck!' Fashion is the hardest part of the makeup industry to break into, but I see no boundaries nor no reason as to why I can't be one of those makeup artists working right now for London/Paris or even New York fashion week. 'Personality is everything' Spob said during the lecture, and with enough hard work, perseverance, knowledge and a personality that stands out I will do what it takes to push myself to reach my goals and be the best I can be.
After the lecture, we went upstairs to the make up studio and both the artists did a demonstration on providing a creative makeup look. Spob talked about some of the makeup she had been doing recently and it was fascinating to know she is working on the new Jamed Bond film 'Spectre', she also did the makeup for the Sainsbury's 2014 Christmas ad campaign and told us she has just finished working on a shoot where it was based around colour and so she was researching Holi Festival of Colours and similar results and came up with lots of ideas on her Pinterest board for makeup looks to create.
(Holi Colour Festival - not my images, both are from Google.)
Each artist went through step by step of the products they were using and how to use them. It was really interesting to find out different ways of using products as one artist may use a product completely different to someone else.
As Spob O'Brien said in the lecture 'you are constantly learning!'
The workshop lasted for one hour and was my favourite part of the whole week. I really do love Illamasqua and after using their products for the first time around 2 years ago, I quickly fell in love. I like how verstaille all the products are, for example how a 'blush' doesn't have to be just that, it can also be a lipstick and an eyeshadow as well. The packaging is so lightweight and designed so well, and basically just everything about this brand I love.
This was the final look created by Helen Roche. I love the spiked up brows and the quirky multicoloured eyes which work so well with the half pink lip, lining up perfectly with her nose and gap between her eyebrows.
This was the final look created by Spob O'Brien. She went for a more glossy eye look with slightly less bright colours on the eye. Her look also consisted of spiked up brows and a half pink lip.
I really enjoyed both the Illamasqua lecture and workshop and it made me really excited to start getting creative and doing my own makeup looks. I also learned a lot of new techniques and gained some new ideas. One of the ideas I liked the best was the blocking of the brows, for this they taught us a technique of using purple glue and creating layers of this on top of the brows (leaving it to dry in between layers) and combing through with a mascara wand to create a blocked effect - which is very popular in drag makeup. I found the talk really helpful and enjoyed meeting both women who have inspired and influenced such an amazing, powerful makeup brand.
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