Makeup Artist Madness

ALEXYS FLEMMING: MADEULOOK By Lex

December 12, 2013

Lex is probably one of the youngest, most creative and unique artists out there. I discovered her in July while I was looking for Halloween tutorial ideas (yes I was getting ready for Halloween in July). I came across her Joker one and was completely stunned by it. I didn’t even realize the joker suit was PAINTED on until I watched the video. That got me hooked.

View the tutorial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blH1FE9Hltw

Body painting is something I’ve never done, let alone just carry a makeup down anywhere past my face. I thought “There’s no way I could ever do that.” But Lex makes it LOOK so easy, and let me tell you, it is definitely harder than it looks!! Harder yes, but not impossible. I decided to play around with it at Halloween time and boy did I have SO much fun, plus I learned a hell of a lot about pushing my boundaries as an artist besides just doing the usual beauty stuff (but we’ll get to that in a bit).

This year Lex was a finalist in the 2013 NYX Face Awards. Last year it was won by Charis Lincoln (CharismaStar on YT). I have to say I didn’t like the way it was set up this year but it was cool to watch all the artists on stage with their models. Lex didn’t take home the title, but she didn’t leave empty handed. Her work was astounding as usual!!

Other than her talent, one of my favorite things about Lex is that even though she is still young at 20 years old, she is so involved with charities and awareness groups/months (breast cancer, diabetes, etc). As a diabetic she has raised awareness and money for the cause. You can tell it is something near and dear to her heart and she truly does care about it. When Lex does something, she puts 110% into it. Here’s a few of her awareness looks.

Lex’s Awareness looks

But let’s get on it and talk about what Lex is really known for. Her ability to come up with characters that are not only beautiful, but ORIGINAL and make you go “Erhmergerd!” I’ve been doing makeup long enough now that my husband knows what is good makeup, bad makeup and amazeballs makeup. Every time I show him one of Lex’s looks he’s like “Whoooaaa! No way!” haha. 🙂 Here are a few of my favorite looks from Lex as well my favorite Halloween ones I recreated. Not as perfect as hers, but since it was my first time doing anything like this I think it turned out alright lol.

The way more badass version of the Pumpkin King. I have not attempted this look because I just don’t want to ruin its sanctity! lol

I tried 3 times to do the spider on my lip but it just wasn’t happening, so I quit while I was ahead lol. The spiders were easy but hard at the same time, but very fun to do!

Jason: I totally messed up on this, but I scared the crap out of my husband when he got home from work! lol

This was seriously super fun and I felt way creepy!!! She did this look with no latex or Special FX which made it nice and easy for people to follow at Halloween and it STILL looks awesome! I know right?

I didn’t have a Freddy glove so I used real knives and held them between my fingers and took selfies. Probably not the smartest/safest idea looking back…haha. Still fun!

She is super involved with her fans/subbies which is always nice for people. They won’t watch keep watching you if you’re rude and never respond. Speaking of rude, that’s one thing that Lex does NOT put up with. With so many likes and followers, you can’t monitor every little comment made, but I’ve never seen a person try harder to keep crap like that off their page than Lex. There will always be mean people on the internet who have nothing better to do with their time but Lex tries her hardest to keep that off her page and channel so that everyone can enjoy it. Her channel encourages originality, creativity, awareness as well as a learning curve.

And as if that wasn’t enough….this girl has her own line of makeup brushes!!! I’ve been dying to get my hands on a set sooooo bad but I haven’t yet! Don’t get me wrong I LOVE all of my brushes, but you can always have more right? Yes people, yes you absolutely freaking can. I would have 5 different sets if I could lol. They just look so soft and fluffy, I just want to cuddle them!

Its so fluffy I’m gonna die!!!! Me want, me want!

Through Lex’s page I have met some amazing makeup artists. We support each other and our work and continue to grow and improve our skills, whether just starting out or if we’ve been doing it for years. If its one thing I’ve learned being in the beauty business is that you ALWAYS have room to grow and to learn. The second you stop,  you’re done, your passion dies and there’s no point in continuing. Even Ve Neil still learns things….maybe….she’s kind of a goddess so she’s an exception. 😉 But you get my point. Lex you are awesome through and through, keep doing what you’re doing. Your fans will always follow you and you will always gain new ones throughout what is surely to be an amazing career for you. I can’t wait to see where you are in 5 years! Thank you for everything!

If you’ve enjoyed this and seeing her work at all, you HAVE to subscribe to her YouTube channel, FB, etc….here is the links to everything, including where you can purchase her makeup brushes!!!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/madeulookbylex
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/madeulookbylex

Instagram: @creativeboss

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MadeYewLook

Tumblr: http://madeulookbylex.tumblr.com
Blog: http://www.madeulookbylex.blogspot.com

CORA: VINTAGE OR TACKY

Vintage or Tacky, just be yourself. That is the motto of YouTube beauty guru Cora! Can we all just take a moment please…..this girl is SO AMAZING and my November Makeup Artist Madness—.

REASONS WHY I LOVE CORA:

1.) HER HAIR. Dude. COME ON. I always go back to my pink and purple peek a boos at least once or twice a year and she has been ROCKING this hair for a long time now and I just flipping love it as a hair stylist. That is all.

2.) Her clothes. Seriously. She always has the cutest stuff! Doesn’t matter if its for every day or Halloween. I want it all.

3.) Her makeup skills and personality, obviously.  Let me elaborate.

This is why I feel like we would be really good friends. 

Yes I know she’s making a funny face. I love it! She’s just being fun and silly and not giving a damn about what anything else things. She is totally 110% herself and inspires her viewers to be as well. She is so sweet, and makes me giggle when I watch her videos. She randomly just sings when doing reviews and its because she’s excited about it. Or she just feels like singing. Seriously though, who cares why? She just goes into everything guns blazing and her brushes ready to go.

Not only is she fun, but her videos are also educational. I’ve been following Cora for about 2.5-3 years now. She walks that line between it being almost too much but its not, and its still wearable which I LOVE. I love seeing a super dramatic colorful smokey eye that you can still rock in the daytime. No, not everyone would want to but if you wanted to you could. I totally would. 

She explains what she’s doing and why. They’re super easy to follow and not mention her videos aren’t crazy long. If its one thing I cannot stand is when people yabber on in their videos. She keeps it short and sweet but long enough so you can understand what she is doing. After 10 minutes people start to get a bit bored. I will watch a 12-15 minute video if what they’re doing requires that amount of time and detail and contains enough information. Cora just recently uploaded a 16 minute haul/review and normally I just skip over hauls because they don’t interest me but I watched every minute of Cora’s (Makeup Geek is the only other one with haul videos I watch, and Cora has lots of MUG tutorials which I LOVE…but that’s for another time). I could watch all of it because she was informative and sang and was silly and I didn’t get bored watching it. Her videos are NEVER EVER EVER boring! I just stinking love her and everything she puts out just amazes me!! Her blending skills and creativity are neverending it seems! Here are some of my recent favorite looks of hers.

Sleeping Beauty inspired. Just look at the colors!

Halloween 2013 Steampunk tutorial: ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS! I would seriously wear this makeup all the time.

An oldie but goodie Halloween mask look. I feel like peacocks can be overdone but this is amazing!!!

Close up of the Steampunk look.

This girl can do pretty much anything. For November she said she will be uploading videos Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week. YAY! Since TV is so crappy these days, as pathetic as it sounds, I ALWAYS look forward to videos from any of the people I am subscribed to. Especially if its holiday season because its so interesting to see the inspiration people have (even if its all the same) and they can come up with something totally different. I learn something new every time and I NEVER get bored. Here’s another favorite I recreated except I decided to not go as bright with the lips.

Fall Pretty Rebel palette look by Cora

If you haven’t gotten by now why I love her so much, you’re crazy.

Cora-Thank you SO much for keeping my makeup addiction healthy.  I wouldn’t know what to do with all my makeup sometimes if it wasn’t for you.

Vintage or Tacky, random singing (“I’m in a store and I’m singing, I’m in a store and I’m singing, I’m in a store and I’M SINNGGGIINNNG!!!” You fail if you don’t know that movie.  ) random dancing but always professional and real and fun–just be yourself.

Cora you keep those videos coming strong! Don’t ever change and you will always have true supporters and followers and people you inspire. Thanks for all you do woman, I hope you know how much you’re loved!

PS. If you ever wanna do a meet and greet in NC, that’d be awesome. Kthanks. 

If you want to see more of Cora’s awesomeness be sure to check out her YouTube Channel and follow her on Facebook:

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/vintageortacky?feature=watch

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vintageortacky

OCTOBER 9th, 2013

With her blog and YouTube channel known as the happiest place on the internet: she’s super fun, giddy, girlie, entertaining, educational, quirky, bold and beautiful, ladies and gentleman please meet Kandee Johnson!!

ABOUT KANDEE

Born in LA, the lovely Kandee has become an international superstar, mostly due to her Youtube channel (insert link here). She started blogging in 2008 and shortly after her fame exploded! Tutorials, DIYs, Makeup/Fashion hauls, recipes, you name it Kandee has everything! Did I mention she has 4 kids? She has 4 kids. They are all so cute! I love that she includes her kids in her videos. Her little cuppycake is so cute! I just want to squeeze her!

Kandee also worked as a makeup artist on the Conan O’Brian show (LOVE HIM!) as well as movies, TV and commercials and celebrities. Seeing how she is a young 30 something year old and already done all this, how awesome is that? I’m 25 and I only dream of doing those things! Pretty much amazeballs.

 

WHY I LOVE KANDEE

Bubbly. just like her personality!

SO many reasons why I love her. I first discovered Kandee when I decided to go to Cosmetology school in 2008, although I didn’t actually attend until 2010. During my husband’s second deployment something in me snapped, and I had started loving fashion, makeup etc. I wasn’t on YouTube as constantly as I am now back then. Once I started playing with makeup I just thought “Hey, I’m kinda good at this. Maybe I should go to school for it.” I ended up doing Cosmetology so that I could have hair as an extra skill. I loved doing hair but I was really disappointed and sad we didn’t focus on makeup very much so whenever I got the chance to play I did. I got a student MAC makeup kit which was pretty amazing. There was no turning back after that! Since we were stationed in England at the time and I had gone back to the States for school and lived with my parents, I was always on the computer Skyping with my hubby. When I wasn’t I was watching Kandee on YouTube.

I don’t remember what I searched for but Kandee’s video was first to come up. I watched it and was hooked. There are things they just don’t teach you in cosmo school about makeup. You have to read and practice. I feel like I learned all my basics from Kandee (and others but Kandee was first). I learned how to start filling in my brows (I was SO surprised at what a difference it made!), highlighting, contouring, blending, etc. People at school started complimenting me on my makeup. I’d tell them thanks, I learned it from a Kandee Johnson video. They’d reply “What’s a Kandee Johnson?”

You can imagine how crazy I thought they were for not knowing who she is!! Seriously. How do you NOT know who KJ is? She’s only one of the most bubbly people on the internet. But ok. I forgive you. On the board in the back of school I remember me and another girl made Kandee MUA of the month and her picture was back there for a month and then people started watching her videos and realizing how awesome she is.

I started Cosmo school Feb. 2010 and graduated in November 2010. For Halloween we shut down the Academy for half a day to have a Halloween party. If you’re familiar with Kandee at all you know she has sooooo many awesome costume tutorials. And since I was in hair school I figured, what better costume to be for Halloween than…..Edward Scissorhands.

This was my first super crazy makeup. I walked into school and people were like WHOA THAT IS SO AWESOME. They told me I looked sad all day but I wasn’t! haha! Its just Edward has sad eyebrows! For my first attempt at something like that I was pretty proud of myself (I watched it about 594683 times before I did it! haha!). Kandee, you’ve turned me into a monster. 🙂

Left: Kandee Right: Me 2010

I feel like after that her fame just went through the roof. At the time I think she maybe the only, or very few, Edward tutorials on YouTube. I was SO excited when I saw a new Kandee video on my feed. “Oh boy what is it today? What I am gonna learn?” She helped make me feel good about myself. I never felt bad about myself or anything, but she just did in own little Kandee way. Oh, AND she has Disney Princess Halloween looks and that was it. This woman knew her stuff. And obviously I love Disney so I was like “I like this lady” hehe.

She’s the type of girl you can just hang with. Your virtual best friend ‘sending you hugs through the internet.’ I would love to just go get girly drinks with her and go shopping and have a slumber party. I have to say during Cosmo school when I went shopping I would think “Would this be something Kandee would wear?” LOL ok its pathetic but seriously, she always had the cutest stinking clothes! Yet again, turning me into a monster. My husband thanks you. 😉 hehe. For real though, he does. Because I had NO style at all before school. Jeans and a tank top or shirt all the time. Nothing wrong with that except I’m sure it got a bit boring to look at. 😛 Not a creeper, you just got great style Kandee!

One of her older looks but one of my favorites I do all the time in fall!

Now she travels the world doing interviews, meet and greets, classes and of course her blog and YouTube. I’ve never met her (I always miss her at these events dang it! lol). I think I would probably just smile and tear up and hug her and awkwardly ask if I can have a picture with her and where she got her outfit at lol. She’s actually doing a class in Vegas next month that lasts for 3 days, that I totally wish I could afford to go to. I’m sure learning from her and chatting with her in person would be the most amazing thing ever. Actually I’m not even sure if I’d learn anything from her because I’d be sitting there all giddy like “OMG that’s Kandee Johnson” over and over in my head.

I feel like my makeup career has grown with hers even though I haven’t been doing it as long as she has. I always wanted to do what she does. Just have fun, make people feel beautiful and play with makeup.

Kandee thank you so much for being such an inspiration for me and so many others. You started it all for me. Thanks for letting your fans be such a part of your life and being happy and fun and amazing to watch and teaching us new things. Maybe someday I’ll be lucky enough to meet you and tell you in person. I think everyone of your fans has a little bit of Kandee in them somewhere. Thank you for inspiring me to want to be a better makeup artist and to always remember to be cheerful and to enjoy life and my ‘job’. Love you so much lady! (And PS…if you could maybe do a meet in greet in NC that’d be AWESOME. 😉 )

Seriously Kandee, thank you for everything! ❤ From how to clean my brushes to Edward to cooking to weddings to following your dreams, thank you.

The hearts are kinda made with nail polish because I didn’t have any colored sharpies….lol

Wanna leave Wonderland and go to Kandeeland? Visit Kandee’s blog:

www.kandeeland.com Go go go!! 🙂 This is her personal blog.

www.kandeej.com Is her makeup/youtube stuff blog.

YOUTUBE:

www.youtube.com/kandeejohnson

YOUTUBE DAILY VLOG

www.youtube.com/kandeeland

FACEBOOK:
http://www.facebook.com/kandeethemakeupartistTWITTER:
http://www.twitter.com/kandeejohnsonINSTAGRAM:
http://www.instagram.com/kandeejohnsonVINE:
@kandeejohnsonPINTEREST:
http://www.pinterest.com/kandeejohnson

_______________________________________________________________________________

This amazing part of the blog will be dedicated to my favorite makeup artists from YouTube to Hollywood and include a little bit about them and why I LOVE them. I am going to try to feature at least 2 artists a month. Just my ode to other people who have the same passion as myself, who keep me motivated, teach me new techniques, and are fun to watch. That goes for everyone, not just makeup artists. 🙂

COMING SOON

1st Allyson Wonderland Featured MUA

*drum roll please!*

 Kandee Johnson! 

*applause* YAAAY!! How cute is this picture? If you don’t already love her, you’re wrong.

(Who else would be first!? I’ll explain why she is and had such an impact on me in the post. Stay tuned! 🙂 )