Easter break week 1

This week I have collaborated again with Sofia Mazzolini for her FMP, as the teamwork really paid off last time and she produced amazing work. I was really enthusiastic about the collaboration with her team because I knew there has to be something really good out of it, they were very professional and respected their agreement to produce some images that I can use as well.
I have done two make-up and hair looks in a day and I have managed to produce two "projects" out of it for my website portfolio.
The first look was inspired by the representation of the Devil in Tarot cards and I wanted to create a dark, mystical look.
This is the moodboard inspiration for the first look, The Devil, as done by Sofia:

And this is an image I used as reference to create the final outcome:

For the second look I had to create The Death, or as I renamed it for my project "I died for beauty, but was scarce", after a poem I really like by Emily Dickinson. 

http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/445/

I was visually inspired by the moodboard sent by Sofia along with some other make-up and hair images I found on instagram or sources like Pinterest:

And here are some behind the scenes images:

I did not expect this shoot to go bad at all, and it did not disappoint. I am very happy I have collaborated with such talented people that not only encouraged me to be creative with my looks but provided me with the opportunity to produce work of a better quality and different from what I normally do. 

Week 9 - Midway formative presentations

I think that I have not prepared very well or this presentation... and I think my tutors though the same too. due to lack of time management skills, I have postponed the presentation until the night before and then spent all night working on it, but I could not explain very well what i was trying to achieve. This has made me extremely stressed and emotional, and when I saw myself in front of everyone at the presentation I panicked a bit and almost cried.... It was very embarrassing. When it comes to the feedback, I don't really know how I should have interpreted it as I wasn't in my best emotional state at the time due to sleep deprivation. But what conclusion I got out of it is that I was indeed trying to tackle too much and therefore wasting my potential of creating great work, missing the opportunity to take on a more conceptual approach. Although I have made clear that I was doing an industry-based project, I don't think this convinced the tutors. I was feeling very upset after the presentation although Sharon has been very supportive and nice to me, but I was feeling upset because I knew I could do better but I just wanted to experiment something different from what I have done in the previous uni years. I wanted to see how it is to create social media content and youtube videos that I always thought I couldn't do. For me, this was like stepping out of my comfort zone, and the feedback just reinforced my worries that maybe what I am doing is not good... I have to admit that although I am grateful for it because it has pushed me to do way better in the future shoots I had, I was feeling very disappointed by me after it and lost much of my motivation to continue doing what I already started. Hence the decline in instagram posts... and my decision to not edit and post my youtube tutorial that I have filmed. I just thought of it like it was useless crap. And I am still trying to think of it like it is not, because in the other tutorial session I had with Kat, she was encouraging and she loved what I did, which really gave a boost to my confidence.

Week 8

Week 8 was another fruitful week, having managed to be more active on instagram and produce a new look on myself, along with doing make-up for two collaboration photoshoots with different people, filming my first youtube tutorial on someone else and doing a mini-photoshoot at home on the model that was filmed with my new photography gear.

The first make-up of the week was done for Danielle Evans FMP project and was inspired by the 80s crazy style of make-up, hair and colours. After discussing with the photographer about her theme, we both decided that going for a crazy colourful look would suit the overall aesthetic, so I researched online for make-up examples from that period and current ones that took inspiration from it in order to bring together our original look.
Some of the most relevant inspirational images were these ones:

Behind the scenes:

I personally enjoyed working for this shoot although I feel like the photographer has not prepared herself well enough for it, as there were no stylists or assistants involved and the outcome was not how I expected, although I have managed to save two images that were kind of meeting my expectations. Initially the photographer wanted to shoot only on location but I had convinced her to have a go in the studio before going outside as well, because the weather was very wet and I really wanted to have a good image of the make-up look. I consider I had done very well because the image I liked the most was the one in the studio, as it had better quality and lighting, as opposed to the location one that was hardly good of being used without a bit of photoshop. But I enjoyed it because of the experience and because I have got to known the model which was very lovely as well, I think it's going to be good for when I am looking for models in the future. 

Update

This shoot was presented on the website under the title of 80sVibes. 

The second collaboration photoshoot was done with photographer Kazmin Fiaz and I have been asked to recreate a bronzy glam look with vampy lips. Again, she chose Lia as my model which I was personally happy about because she's my best friend and I love working on her beautiful features. For this look I also got to use the new Anastasia x Amrezy highlighter which will be a plus when I plan on posting them on social media later on. 

Here are some behind the scenes images:

I think this shoot went well enough, better than the one from the previous day but I have still been a little disappointed that some of the images I liked the most weren't in focus. Apart from this, everything was good, from the communication between me and the photographer to the actual shooting day. 

UPDATE:

This shoot is included in my website portfolio under the name of "Reverie"

For filming the tutorial I got inspired by the colour of the year 2018, ultraviolet and of course by the model's violet hair. The images that inspired me into thinking about creating this look were these ones, although I have tried to incorporate other colours into the make-up look as I really liked the way playing with contrasts on the model's eyes looked.

Here are some behind the scenes images:

Update

My idea with the tutorial was to either use it in a short clip for instagram with before and after or post in in full on youtube, but I have chosen to exclude my youtube channel and therefore this film from the final outcome of my FMP. After the feedback from both my presentation and other tutorials, I have understood that it was best to focus on building the website and quality images for it instead of trying to tackle every single aspect at once. Just like replacing my whole make-up kit with cruelty free items and trying to post daily on instagram was a unreasonable, starting a youtube channel could have distracted me too much from actually achieving better quality of work for my portfolio, so I chose to focus on that. This tutorial was not posted and the other video that was planned was not filmed, but it will be once my portfolio is ready and I can move on with the development of my brand. 

What I have chosen to include as a separate "project" for my website is the images I took of the finished look. I had named the project "UltraViolet".

When it comes to instagram posts and talking about the products used, I have managed to share on social media a new make-up look:

Week 7

So this week was a very successful one where I managed to do two gorgeous looks (The Moon & The Sun) for Sofia Mazzolini's styling FMP. The images were shot both digital and analog and I have received them on time, the communication between me and the stylist was fabulous, very lovely models and photographer, I absolutely loved working with these people. They had no problem about taking some time to do some special shots just for me and they turned out aaaahmazing!!!
So this was the moodboard for the general theme of both shoots, just to get a glimpse of what I could design make-up wise.

I designed the make-up for both shoots with these images in mind along with some guidelines from Sophia, saying that for The Moon she wants to add gems around the eyes and for the sun glitter on the body.
For the moon I decided to to a half moon cut crease on the model followed by star-galaxy-like gems around the eyes, and for the son I decided to go for a bronzy, golden-goddess type of look for the skin and eyes, hot red lips and fine glitter on the chest.
Here are some behind the scenes images:

This week I have also bought a new set of cruelty free lipsticks that I absolutely loved as they were very high quality, non drying and pigmented and I spoke about on instagram under the images of myself using them. I have took images of myself testing the new lighting kit and camera and then prepared them for posting later on in the month. Apart from the self portraits for instagram I have experimented with some still life images of the Anastasia x Amrezy highlighter, talking a bit more in detail about it on my page. I have received really good feedback for the images from my followers and I have gained new ones using the appropriate hashtags and experimenting with posting on different days and times during the month. 

Later in the week, I wanted to test the lighting kit and camera for filming as well, and make a setup in my home for filming my future make-up tutorials. Apart from this, I have made some kind of primary research using instagram's story features, asking my followers if they would be interested to see make-up tutorials from me. I wanted to see what people were thinking about this and if they's actually watch me, considering the amount of material that is already existent. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraged me to go further with this idea.

Pictures of the setup and video test: