Naughty and Nice....

Let it snow, Let it Snow, Let it snow!!!...Even if it is fake snow sprinkled down from a ladder above a fabulous set at Starlet Photography for a Vintage Pin Up Shoot with my friend and partner, photographer Karen Marie Taylor!

We have been busy taking classic images from Pin Up greats, like Gil Elvgren, and re-creating amazing sets and scenes with adorable outfits and props, with Karen behind the camera, and moi behind the hair and makeup!

How fun to have your hair styled a la 1945, and to don the classic makeup that the beauties of the war era did, posed just so to reflect the times where beauty was realistic, curves were sought after, and red lipstick was de rigueur!

Contact me at www.christireynoldsmakeupartistry.com to book YOUR Holiday shoot!

How I discovered my inner blue eyeshadow.....and orange lipstick.

I must have been about six. My mom picked up my Flintstones coloring book, and when she flipped through the thin black lined oatmeal pages, there were only dashes of blue, and blots of red. Not one lip or eye had been left unembellished. I made sure that Wilma and Betty were beautiful on every page.

And then came along Beauty itself, in the form of perpetually ready-for -stilettos arched feet, patent shiny lips, and the most spectacular makeup job I would ever see.

They were perfect arcs of blue, symmetrical and to my eyes, beautiful. No need for blending or buffing these babies out! And below this most divine of all makeup application, masterfully crafted by the skilled paint brush wielding hands of the spectacular artists at the doll factory, My First Barbie's eyes glowed unblinkingly. Confidence. That's what this girl had. She so pulled it off.

Barbie and her friends, with their tan lines, and Pepto Bismol- pink smiles, cruised around in their purple convertible, and lounged around the Dream House, all along setting the makeup standard for me and all my friends. THIS, to us, was what it was all about.

Until along came a box tucked among some neighbor's hand me downs, full of random toys, and to my delight, a Barbie Doll! But upon further inspection, I came to realize that this doll wasn't a Barbie.... She was a fraud! Some weird knock-off, maybe from some other country even. We did live on an Air Force Base, after all, and hand me downs from neighbors were often a bit, well, hit or miss.

Weird, yellowy-pink skin, fluffy rust colored hair, and a beige belted frock, this doll would have been tossed right back into the box if it weren't for one thing. She had shockingly orange lips. Orange lips!!..??. Orange. Like construction zone cone orange. I fully expected to not see the beauty in this stranger, this monochromatic alien among the pastel beauties, but I found that I felt quite the opposite. I found that I actually loved this particular doll for her uniqueness, and I was bound and determined for her to fit right in. Now, she he is the one doll among the many, many Barbies of my childhood, (...and pre-teen hood. Yours too! Admit it!!), that I can truly remember.

Welcome to my beauty blog. I hope to share with you many more memories and musings, and how MAKEUP was bound and determined to fit right into my life. The red and blue crayons were my first clue!