What can airbrush do? Contrary to what you might think, airbrushing is not just for applying foundation. In fact, if you're shelling out good money only to get your foundation airbrushed, then you just got ripped off. Any makeup artist that advertises airbrushing but only use it to apply foundation is technically false advertising.

Here's what you should get for the full airbrushing experience:

• Concealing (this may be done prior to foundation the traditional way using spot concealing techniques)
• Foundation (with further spot concealing using airbrush if necessary)
• Highlighting
• Contouring
• Blush
• 3-colour eye makeup (colour wash, shadow, outer corners)

Airbrushing can also be used to define brows and apply eyeliner. However, personal experience has found this to be too invasive on the sensitive eye area. Not only will the eyes be blasted with cold air, but there is a slight gritty sensation when product is sprayed on the eyes. Why make your model uncomfortable when traditional methods will work just as well (if not better)?

I love the airbrush for its endurability...if you use silicone-based products (aqua-based will sweat off instantly). Not only did my makeup survived a day of moving outdoors, eating, absentminded touching of the face, and other abuse, it didn't come off until I swiped it with makeup remover. As airbrushing uses such minimal product, there was a surprisingly little amount to remove.

Feedback from people with sensitive skin have reported slight rashes and irritation if airbrushed makeup is left on too long. However, I've had no problems so far on all my models (including myself), but I do recommend a test patch just in case. It is also never a good idea to keep makeup on for more than a day. While we all know how bad it is to leave your makeup on overnight, if you're desperate (5am starts, anyone?), airbrushing will definitely last the night (still not recommended tho!).

xxEva

Among the bottles of Skinfood Nail Vita polishes a girl friend lent me, I found this fabulous dark red with a subtle aubergine glitter. Unfortunately, it didn't go on as well as I hoped as the polish was drying up and the glitter was barely noticeable once applied. In fact, my OPI Rapi-Dry top coat covered up what little glitter that showed through and made the polish look goopy and black.

Oh well.

The design was inspired by waving, criss-crossing movie premiere spot lights against a purply night sky.

Products used:

• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
• Skinfood Nail Vita VI407 Puppy Purple
• OPI Rapi-Dry Top Coat
• Silver nail strips
• Silver 3mm rhinestones

xxEva

Ahh, here we go, this is what I've been waiting for throughout my course. Airbrushing! Some of you may think it's the HG (Holy Grail) of makeup, some may dismiss it as a passing fad. Whatever the case, airbrushing is a whole skill to itself and has its own pros and cons.

Essentially, you need an airbrush machine. Mine is the Temptu Pro S-One Compressor with an SP-35 airbrush gun. It's small, portable, and easy to use with a dual-action airflow. Hub Make Up has a whole kit for sale if you're interested in getting one for yourself. However, there is an even smaller (and newer!) system for sale, so if you're not thinking of using it professionally, I suggest getting a little one instead.

There is also an instructional DVD that comes in the kit. We had to watch it in class as part of their WH&S policies, but it's easy to follow.

Recreating Illamasqua's 'Throb' look with airbrush and brush makeup

Airbrushing is all about controlling the airflow of the gun (yes, it's called a 'gun'). The SP-35 gun has two settings: push directly down to expel air, and pull back the trigger to release colour. The further back you pull, the more colour is sprayed out.

It's good practice to test on paper when starting. This helps in getting familiar with the pressure and airflow of the airbrush. I commenced with drawing circles, writing words, and using a children's colouring-in book to practice accuracy and colour within lines.

The main things to remember with airbrushing is:

• Press gun trigger down before switching on compressor. This releases air and prevents build-up of pressure inside the machine (Supposedly. But I'm not going to test the theory).
• Press trigger down before switching off compressor to expel all air and prevent product blockages.
• If you can see colour coming out of the gun, you're over-spraying.
• Learn to listen to your airbrush machine. There is a distinctive 'spitting' sound when product is released from the gun (as opposed to only air being released).
• Be patient and let the product dry for a few minutes before spraying on another layer to build up the colour.

Oh, and do not mix aqua-base and silicone-based airbrush paints. Remember first year chemistry? Water and oil (well, silicon) doesn't mix and will clog your airbrush!

xxEva

Not that I'm queasy with blood and cuts, but it certainly makes them easier to look at knowing they're fake. Cut wrists, head gashes, severed fingers, stitches and burns. Enough to make any weak stomach heave, right?

Anyway, special effects can be messy, but these classes were definitely some of the most fun. The products used were mostly the same, though:

• Wax
• Greasepaint
• Stage blood
• Scab blood
• Latex
• Vaseline

Again, these should be modelled after real wounds. For me, that meant a few hours researching the most horrific injury images Google could find. Good thing I did it all before dinner.

For burns, it's working with latex again (mostly on arms and hands so it does't hurt as much to rip it off later). The latex should only be applied on areas to be worked on, with the 'raw' areas coloured in with greasepaint.

Blisters are also easy to recreate. It's really just drops of Ben Nye Flesh Effects on the latex 'skin', set with translucent powder.

Have fun horrifying people. Word of warning though: unless it's halloween (and even then, use discretion), never ever allow a model to wander the streets with a bloody head gash or any other crazy SPFX makeup. It's all fun and games until the police gets involved...

xxEva

Clearly I come up with the most exotic names for my nail designs. Not. Anyone want to volunteer? At least it's descriptive, right? :P

In any case, here's my current nails using OPI mini 'Red Lights Ahead...Where?' from the Holland Collection. I absolutely love love this red. It is a bright, coral-red creme that applies smoothly and is fully opaque with one coat.

I've avoided orange for years, but ever since finding out that orange colours suit me (from doing my 7 Deadly Sins: Gluttony shoot), I've been going nuts for anything in that shade spectrum.

Just goes to show it's always good to keep an open mind...

And just to spice things up a bit, I've gone for a flakey top coat. :)

Products used:

• OPI mini Red Lights Ahead...Where (Holland Collection)
• Australis Crystal Colour Top Coat 51077 Speck-tacular
• Black & silver rhinestones (~2mm)

xxEva

It's been about 10,000kms since I've last got my car in for servicing and I've been putting it off week after week due to my busy schedule. But finally, there was no more excuses and it was either get it in for service or gamble with it breaking down on the road somewhere.

Since my mechanic has his garage on the north side and my sis and her bf came along, I thought we'd drop by Chermside to see what we can grab from the Queen's Birthday public holiday sale (on top of all the stocktake sales!).

Here's what I picked up:

• Valley Girl black and white lace dress with flared waist and belt
• Collette black glitter clutch/shoulderbag
• Collette gold necklace with glass beads
• MOR Lychee Flower rollerball perfume oil
• SugarBaby rollerball fragrance in Pink Grapefuit

Hrm, I didn't realise it at the time, but I pretty much bought a whole outfit. I've always wanted one of those waist-flare dresses, but never found any styles appealing until I came across this one. Plus it can easily take me from office to evening.

Despite the sales, I didn't find any super good deals and I probably shouldn't spend any more money if I'm pending another Estee Lauder warehouse haul in June. Definitely anticipating a huge influx of cosmetics left over from the June stocktake sales coming into the warehouse. :D

xxEva

Another one from the Skin Food range, but part of their Nail Vita collection that I borrowed off a girl friend. One of the more gorgeous blacks I've managed to come across, with a subtle midnight shimmer. However, my top coat kinda hid the shimmer and made it just look plain black. Disappointing :(

The polish was a little old, so it was a bit thick to apply, but I managed to smooth it out with the top coat.

I also bought these really nice, swirly stickers and the resulting nails made me think of those ancient Grecian urns with the black prints. :)

Products used:

• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
• Skin Food Nail Vita BW701
• Gold swirl nail stickers
• OPI RapiDry Top Coat

xxEva

Bruising is about the easiest thing ever! The only trick is to make it look realistic. To do that, the best way is to model a bruise after real injuries.

Why not reference pictures of other fake bruises? Because like photocopies of a photocopy, details and realism are lost with every duplication.

Bruises change colour as they age. Fresh bruises are usually bright red from broken capillaries, then as the blood coagulates after a day or two, they turn blue and purple. As bruises heal, they will fade colour to brown, green and yellow.

In order to create my bruise on Mel, I used multiple colours of greasepaint, including dark red, purple, blue and yellow (around edges). It's also best to sponge on the colours and stipple in some broken capillaries.

As a general rule, makeup bruises should generally not have straight edges. But as long as the bruise matches the story of how the injury was obtained (seatbelt bruise from car accident, stick bruise from domestic abuse), straight edges can be acceptable.

xxEva

Final ageing with latex look for my makeup assessment

By far, this is one of the more painful experiences of makeup I've had to do. As a makeup artist, it wouldn't be fair to subject clients to things I've not even tried myself. So I underwent what could be described as a face peel. Ouch~

Putting liquid latex on the skin and having it removed afterwards, all in the name of ageing and special effects was. not. fun. Not only does liquid latex gives off strong fumes that actually stung my eyes, but it was the actual purposeful wrinkling of my face that had me crying inside. We girls spend decades trying to preserve our youthful looks and here I was actively creating wrinkles!

Then there was the removal process, where we were possibly removing a layer of skin from our face in trying to unstick the dried latex.

1st attempt at ageing with latex on Cassie

To make matters worse, the skin retained temporary wrinkles after the latex removal. Being young, it unwrinkled pretty fast, but I can't help but think how many years of youthfulness this would have taken off me in consequence. :(

Thank god my assessments for this was over! Given I know how this made me feel, I'm wincing for the pain of others every time I had to put this on someone else.

The process itself wasn't that hard. I ripped a hydra sponge into little pieces and dipped them into a small dish of liquid latex. After sponging it on my hand to get the desired thickness, I then applied it to sections of a model's stretched face. The model continues to hold their skin taunt while I dry the latex with a hair dryer set to cool air, and set it with translucent powder.

2nd attempt at ageing with latex on Mel

Wash, rinse, and repeat for each section of the face.

After the whole face was covered in an initial layer, a second and potentially third layer would be done to give the wrinkles a more pronounced effect.

The powdery effect would be wiped off with Castor Sealor, blotted, and then foundation applied over the top. The look is finished off with dots of age spots, broken capillaries, whitening hair, and drying lips (toning down the red in lips).

If done well, this sort of makeup can work for film and TV. However, it's a lot hard to do wrinkle young skin, it's not as effective working on a 20yo as on a 50yo, trying to get them to look 80.

I also ruined two of my lovely powder brushes because I stupidly dipped them in the latex bowl instead of the powder bowl that was right next to it. *cries* Sure, they're just brushes, but to a makeup artist, they were my babies... :(

xxEva

Bought my first Orly nail polish at Price Line recently. They were having a clearance for $4.99 and I spotted this gorgeous pastel purple and gold dual-tone.

It turned out with more of the gold than purple, and the gold shimmers made the polish apply streaky. But nothing a good top coat can't blend out.

As always, I had to do some nail art to spice things up. I applied a stripe of OPI's Gettin' Miss Piggy With It (love the name!) from the Muppet's collection, and sandwiched it between gold striping tape on either side.

I found the 'Miss Piggy' polish a little gluggy, but 1 coat was enough for the stripe. Plus I absolutely loved the glittery effect! In my opinion, this is how a true glitter polish should be.

Products used:

• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
• Orly Golden Halo
• OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It (Muppets Collection)
• Gold stripping tape
• OPI Rapi Dry Top Coat

xxEva

I don't think I've ever spent this much on makeup since buying my initial kit! In my defence, there were irresistible discounts to be gained from a two hour raid of the Estée Lauder corporate warehouse.

A friend of mine who works for the Estée Lauder group gave me access tokens to the corporate store. As I've never been before and have heard raves about the discount, I was really excited to see what I could pick up. :)

The Brisbane store was adequately sized and I was like a kid in a candy store. However, the colour range was disappointingly lacking (mostly only the darker colours were left), which made me think they're probably sold out already. I will have to make a mental note to go during end of season stock changes.

Here's what I picked up:

Product	RPP	Price
Estée Lauder Pure Colour Gloss To Go	$65	$39
Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Serum (50mL)	$150	$90
Estée Lauder Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator (50mL)	$150	$89
Estée Lauder Limited Edition First Signs of Ageing Trio	$100	$63
Estée Lauder Lipstick Luxuries Collection	$75	$45
Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Lipstick (Stay Magnolia)	$45	$27
Estée Lauder Pure Colour Long Lasting Lipstick (Coral Fantasy)	$42	$27
MAC Dazzlesphere Smoky Berry Ornament	$65	$39
Total	$692	$419

The samples were obtained later from YSL at David Jones. They are the Forever Youth Liberator Serum, Creme, and Nutri Creme.

So all up, that was a saving of almost $300. Probably because I spent so much, the counter lady gave me another token to revisit in June. Oh dear...

Reviews to come~

xxEva

The young-at-heart Bridgitte being made up to look like an 80yo old lady

The name is a bit deceptive here, as I didn't use cream, but mostly greasepaint and powder to achieve an aged look. Seriously. No latex, no prosthetics; purely drawn on lines and shading. The powder of makeup...

I will have to point out that this look mainly works for a theatrical effect and in no way will stand up to HD film and TV scrutiny. The lines are too obvious and over the top.

To achieve this look, I started with patchy foundation, to give the skin an uneven appearance.

Contouring is applied strongly through temples, hollow of the cheeks, smile lines, under nose and the 'jowls' of the jaw.

Next, I went spastic with wrinkle lines. Basically, the model is instructed to wrinkle every part of their face and these are exaggerated with powder shadow and greasepaint.

Don't forget that between every contour is a highlight, so use a cream shade to brighten between wrinkles.

To make the lips appear dry and wrinkled, the model pursed her lips and I gently sponged on some blue and white mixed greasepaint.

Lastly, I coloured the front teeth using Ben Nye Tooth Colour and used a mascara wand dipped in Ben Nye Hair Colour to comb through the front of the hair.

The resulting effect has turned the gorgeous 21 year old Bridgitte into an old lady. She actually got kinda depressed over this. Awww :(

xxEva

About 2 months ago, Myer hosted a free express manicure outside the store for a Revlon promotion. Jia and I just happened to be shopping in the city, so we lined up to get our digits pampered. :D

Now I've not tried Revlon polishes before, but have heard good things about their Top Speed range.

The manicurist told me that, apparently, you have to use the Revlon Top Speed Top Coat with the Top Speed polishes or they won't dry. Have yet to test that theory, so not sure if that's just a sales gimmick. Anyone tried?

Much to the manicurist's delight, I chose to wear 'Grape'. She said the 5 girls before me had all wanted to wear the same, boring, red. Glad I could spice up her day.

Jia's choice was 'Jelly' - a gorgeous coral-red, which happens to be the brightest shade she's ever worn so far, but she loved it.

The colours came out exactly as per the bottles and we had 2 coats applied.

I can never tell when nail polishes are completely dry, so we spent a good 30 minutes being totally precious with our digits.

The solid colour look got boring after 2 days so I made an accent nail on the ring finger with my new, flakey Australis Crystal Colour Top Coat. The polishes kept up their 'wet' look for a few days, and mine lasted a full week before starting to really chip. Jia's lasted longer as she doesn't abuse her hands as much. :)

xxEva

Alright, I hope no one's offended with my pictures of facial hair on women. But with a class full of females, we didn't have much of a choice when it came to gender-appropriate makeup.

Anyway, this was a fun class with a no-brainer application. We used crepe 'hair', straightened with steam, blended, and stuck to the face with Spirit Gum. The hair was applied one small tuff at a time, trimmed and shaped as desired.

I had to blend the blonde hairs with a bit of brown and grey to match Samara's natural colour. The result is pretty legit, ya? Plush she can pass as Brad Pitt at a glance.

xxEva

If there's one thing a makeup artist can't have enough of other than makeup, it's makeup brushes. Seems like no matter how many brushes I have, the work will always expand to use up all the brushes I have.

So I've been looking for a decent, personal travel brush kit that includes all the essential brushes and I think I've finally found it in Bobbi Brown's Party Collection Deluxe Travel Set (what a mouthful, right?).

Not only does it come in a compact silver clutch that's super shiny and super thin, it contains 7 basic brushes to create almost any look!
The brushes came packaged in plastic with an individual plastic wrap for each and a cylindrical cover over the bristles. The small covers are almost impossible to put back over the bristles once they're removed. I suggest to chuck them anyway as it will prevent the bristles from 'breathing' once the brushes are used.