New Year: All About Beauty

I am not very good at keeping up with my blog as you can tell from the date of my last post. But as a resolution, I will try (key word try) to keep updating this page.

If you didn't already know I am a fan of colorful, dramatic, editorial, avant garde makeup with big glowing highlights. Lately I had been doing just that and I thought that since we're starting a new year I should do the opposite of what I'd been doing. I wanted to do a beauty photo shoot.

I contacted Abnel Gonzalez, a great photographer with whom I work with often and he said he was in. From there I contacted my go-to hair stylist for photo shoots, Belky Cabrera and the rest was a peace of cake! Abnel sent me an image as inspiration and we both thought of picking out 3 models who had exotic faces but  blue/green eyes. We found a russian girl with intense blue eyes and two Puerto Rican beauties with incredible features.

(Leslie)

(Ariana)

                                                                       

Makeup-wise I knew I wanted to color just on the lips with the rest of the face to remain glowing and fresh. For highlight I used 4-5 different products, ranging from liquid, cream and powders. All 3 of these girls have sharp features so my jobs was pretty easy when it came to framing their faces. I used loose shimmery pigments on their eyes. Since I put individual and a band of false lashes I didn't line their eyes. Their lips were the fun part, lots of colors. For Leslie with her green eyes and Rihanna-like features I used 3 lip tars from OCC doing a gradient from purple to pale blue. On Ariana I knew I wanted pink to accentuate the green in her eyes, so I used 4 OCC lip tars going from hot pink to baby pink. Since Oxana has such striking blue eyes I wanted to use a complimentary color like orange so I used 4 OCC lip tars going from orange to yellow.

Belky did an amazing job with all the girls' hair. They were all different but with 1 thing in common, lots of volume!

Here are the final pictures

I was so happy with the end result, the girls looked stunning, classic yet modern. It's the perfect way to start a new year!

I hope you liked this and thanks for reading! 

- Carolina Rufat

Well it sure has been a while since I've posted. Don't think I haven't thought about you (however many of "you" are reading this), I've just been so incredibly busy I barely have time for me. I'm working 4 jobs, which means all I do is work.

To make due for all the time I've been gone I'm going to post a few entries with pictures of editorials I've done since I've been absent from the blogging world.

This was published in El Nuevo Dia as part of a "fall/winter makeup trends"article. I was asked to do a makeup look that translated into all holiday parties. Being the fan of color that I am, I didn't want to do just a red lip and a winged liner. Normal things bore me to no end. Instead I chose to do a gold/olive smokey eye with a bold purple lip. I mean, if you're going to say Hello to a new year, you might as well look good doing it!
Link to the Article
Link to Photo Gallery


Last May I did the cover and 2 editorials for Matte Mag's summer issue "Youth in Revolt" and "Wrap Around". I had so much fun on both editorials but of course my favorite was "Wrap Around". Why? Because I was given creative freedom, and any artist can tell you that is the best feeling in the world.

The concept behind the cover's editorial was just young people being wild and free, while looking very stylish, of course. The concept behind "Wrap Around" was basically that of a butterfly. She starts off all wrapped up as if she were a caterpillar, then slowly but surely she evolves into a beautiful creature. We shot this on the roof of a 3-story building at noon. This poor girl was burning up but you never would have known it, she took it like a champ and worked the camera.

Link to Matte Mag issu


 Last fall I did the cover and editorial of Magacin. I had the pleasure of working with Zoila Algarín, a model who I always dreamt of making up ever since I first saw her. The look for this was very dramatic, very much like the models in Robert Palmer's now iconic video "Addicted to Love".

Zoila has incredible skin to begin with so I didn't really need to use many products. To take this look from 80s to the new century I used a Senna Cosmetics' Tinted Moisturizer and Liquid Ice for that glowing and dewy finish.

 Link to Article
 Link to Photo Gallery


I have done many other things this past year but I can't upload them all here. I welcome you to visit my page on Facebook where I have all my recent and past work. Thank you for sticking around after all this time, I appreciate your support.


Thanks for reading.


- Carolina

Reviva Labs Review, Part II

The wonderful people at Reviva Labs contacted me once again to review a few more of their products. Having already loved the products they initially sent me I accepted.

So here I am, ready to tell you about these 3 products I tried. The first is the Organic Cleansing Milk.

($9.50)

"A herbalist's cornucopia of wonders that not only deep cleanse but also help improve skin tone and add antiseptic and antibacterial action. Today's pollution gets deep into pores. So, Reviva Labs newly formulated Organic Cleansing Milk contains certified organic herbs, floral water, aloe vera plus aromatherapy oils and a complex of vegetable extracts that penetrate deeply to flush dirt from pores. Leaves skin feeling fresh, moist and immaculately clean. Creamy, soothing, it's also an excellent makeup remover."

Ecliptica: Caposhi

Once again I was with the Ecliptica duo doing makeup for their Fall/Winter 2011 Collection called "Caposhi' . The look and clothes of this collection was all about the 70s.

Javier Romero was, of course, the head makeup artist and he showed us what the makeup would be like. Golden eyes, nude/pink lips and healthy glowing skin. The event was sponsored by L'Oreal. We received powder foundations, lip liners, eyeliners, lipsticks, primers, blushes, mascaras and makeup removers.

The look was pretty much simple but I ran into the trouble that one of my models had broken out 2 days before the show. I had to cover up those bad boys without making her look pasty, which was hard because she's so pale (picture of both of us below), but makeup does wonders!

"Hello Abu Dhabi" Editorial for Matte Mag

This shoot was a lot of fun. I got to do 2 of my favorite things: dewy skin and color. Of course, I would have liked to have used more colors but that isn't up to me, it's up to the stylist, who on this shoot was Mr. Christian Ramirez.

I came in fully stocked with lots of eyeshadows and pigments but in the end I only used MAC's Orange. Now, I know I said above that I got to use "color" but remember that on shoots, I have no control over the makeup. Yes, I apply it but I don't choose the looks or colors and most of the time stylists want simple makeup because they don't want it to take away from the clothes so the fact that I used an Orange eyeshadow and a purple liner was pretty sweet.

It was because of this shoot that I made 2 pretty amazing discoveries The girls' skin had to look glowy but I have the problem that although the foundations in my kit are pretty damn great, they tend to dry out quickly and I don't have enough time to blend them out on skin. The first thing that I discovered is that when I mixed the foundation with my beloved Argan Bronzing Oil it went on the skin like butter! It blended effortlessly and the end result was glowy, dewy, beautiful skin! The second thing was that when I asked Christian if he wanted the cheeks to look really contoured or slightly flushed he said "contoured". What he did next I'll never forget, he chose MAC's Blue Green Pigment was the blush/contour. I put it on thinking "Ok, he's insane. This is going to work. Wait.... this is working. Wow!" The end result was a gorgeous kind of orange/brick-red color that worked perfectly as a contour and blush.

(Here they have the Blue Green Pigment as contour already. Also to give their arms and chest a glow I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

Mega Electronic Fest Makeup 2011

This was the toughest job I've done to date. I was contacted to do makeup on MEF (Mega Electronic Fest) just 3 days before the show. MEF is a 12-hour festival where DJs from all over the world came to play their music for their fans. I was told that I had to do makeup on 26 performers. As soon as I heard that I freaked out a little because I had called all the makeup artists I knew but none could do it on such short notice.

EOTD: Golden Jester

This "eye of the day" is the product of me taking a look at my necklace collection, seen below...



And this one caught my eye. I'd been wanting to do some more eye makeups and this necklace had just what I needed: contrasting colors and fun shapes.