3rd ICON Magazine Cover

This is my 3rd consecutive cover and editorial with ICON magazine. I am a lucky girl!

Without further adieu, here are the pictures:

Makeup for Link Magazine: Behind the Scenes Video

So a photographer called me up and told me that needed me for this shoot he dreamt about. In it we were all in his studio, the model, the wardrobe stylist, the hair stylist and myself, in the dream the shoot featured the model in silver, with wires and tubes coming out of her. This all sounded awesome so I said "I'm in." without even thinking about it.

(This was a shoot for the cover of the magazine's first issue)

The model's hair took almost 4 hours! She has enough hair for an army!! Luckily the makeup was pretty simple, paint her silver!

Here's a behind the scenes video the Photographer made.

Matte People

I've been doing a lot of work recently with Matte Mag and they asked me if they could do a "Matte People" on me. It's basically a little info on you so the people know who you are when they see your work.

Makeup for Erika Peña: MOYA Collection

For this shoot we went into this gorgeous reef in with a huge wall of rock, it was probably 20 feet high. Though we had to walk a bit it was worth it, the scenery was amazing and the perfect place to showcase Erika's new collection, MOYA. Inspired by rocks and nature.

The makeup I did was actually the one I had worn the previous day. The stylist once again said "Do the same look you had on yesterday". It was perfect because I only used a couple of colors and it went well with the earthy tones of the jewelry.

"Amazonia" : By Ecliptica

Once again I was doing makeup for the beautiful sisters that make up the fashion line Ecliptica.

This time was a little different, than before. Mainly because instead of having 15 models, there were 34. I have to admit I was a little scared at first because it is a large number of models and Javier (the head makeup artist) was racing against time trying to find other makeup artists to help at the show.

Bacanal Magazine Cover

Finally I get to see the cover!

If you're afraid of blood and gore please stop watching this right now and don't you dare scroll down!

Last Warning!!!!

EOTD: Purple Glitter "Pin-up"

Yesterday I went in for a second interview at a makeup store and I knew I had to do something to stand out so I decided to do pin-up eye makeup but with a dramatic, modern twist. I kept the colors in the browns and purples. My favorite thing to do when it comes to eye makeup is use all matte eyeshadows and then on the lower inner corner use a shimmering contrasting eyeshadow to make the look POP! (so to speak)


I posted the full face picture on Twitter first and it was all good and dandy. That was until I posted the close-up pictures and everyone started asking what I used. But since Twitter only allows 140 characters I thought I'd "blog" all about the eye makeup.

Matte Mag Photo Shoot #2

Remember when I said I did makeup on 2 girls for Matte Mag? Well here's the second one. It's all about ruffles.

For the makeup the stylist wanted me to do Lady Gaga's makeup from her Vanity Fair cover shoot. I wish the model had the same eye shape, but she had smaller eyes.

(I took this picture with my phone so sorry for the quality)

Makeup for Miramelinda Jewelry Fashion Show

I was approached to do makeup for this show by a model who's makeup I've done on numerous occasions. She gave the designer my number and it was all done from there.

The show was at this expo for local artists, some were doing graffiti, some were doing oil paintings, others hand made vases and Paola had her jewelry. I was really impressed by the fact that she only started making jewelry in April and already she had her own fashion show, granted it was at a small venue but that's pretty impressive for someone who hasn't even been a year in the business.

EOTD: Glittery Plumage

The only reason I did this was because my Plumage eyeshadow was broken and I had to use it before I lost it, so I did a smokey eye with it!

EOTD: Colorful Cut Crease

When I went in to hand my resume at a makeup store a friend who worked there told me "honey BEAT THAT FACE! Make them remember you."

So this is what I did:

Matte Mag Photo Shoot

For the Matte Mag I did makeup on 2 models but just for now they've posted the ones with the pin-up look. This was a shoot for a trends post, this one is turbants, the other one is ruffles.

Here's the picture:

Check out the entire post here: Matte Mag
Thanks for reading!

- Carolina

ICON Magazine Cover

This is HUGE for me, my first magazine cover!!! Here are the actual pictures from the magazine!

Quickie! Behind the Scenes Pic from Gore Shoot

From the gore photo shoot.

As you can see I was also covered in mud and blood. Thank goodness for Clorox or I would have lost this shirt!

Makeup for Bacanal Magazine Cover

While I was doing the shoot for the ICON cover, a friend photographer told me he had an idea for a shoot. It was a gory, dark, bloody shoot. I was excited because it'd been a while since I'd played with theatrical makeup, scars, blood and fun stuff like that.

He told me he wanted 5 different scenes but the makeup had to be gore-tastic! We arrived at his house and shortly after that I started working. It looks really simple and easy but it actually takes time to do this kind of makeup. I started by making the bruises in her face, neck, shoulders and back. Then I started the big cut on her shoulder with some spirit gum and scar wax, after I molded it in, I colored it and added fake blood that tastes like mint, after that a few touches of gore here and there and I was done.

We were going to shoot in this little creek under a bridge and that would have been fine had it not been raining that day. First of all, since it's a creek the soil around it is soggy, add to that rain and you've got mud. Second, the place was full of bamboos, most were still standing but also a lot had fallen down and made it almost impossible for us to get through them, it was all very "Mission Impossible". I was wearing my trusty Vans which I love but were the wrong shoes for this shoot, their rubber bottom made me slip like crazy so while the photographer the model and her boyfriend took the pictures at the creek I stayed behind safe and sound. Hey, I don't have a health plan, I'm already accident prone I don't want to tempt fate ya know?

(If you get scared easily don't look at these pictures)

(Last chance....)

The guy with the model is her boyfriend so don't worry he was gentle =)

The shoot went on smoothly, nobody had real scrapes, just the fake ones I created. When we got back to the house we had to hose down the model before she went into the house because apart from all the blood and makeup she had mud and grass all over her, poor thing!



Here's a few snippets of some videos I took during the shoot.

Makeup for ICON Magazine Cover

I was SO excited when I got the call to do makeup for this magazine and I was ecstatic when the stylist told me it would be for the cover as well!

ICON Magazine is a new, up and coming magazine in Puerto Rico and it's been getting a lot of positive buzz here. I've seen the magazine a couple of times and I love it, so the fact that I'm now a part of it is pretty amazing! The awesome stylist Natalia Collazo got me this job, we've worked many times over the past few months and we always have so much fun!

The day of the shoot I arrived with my best friend at hand, she was gracious enough to help me out (cleaning brushes, handing me things). We did the shoot at this place called "La Respuesta" (The Answer). It's this really cool loft that serves as a bar/club and the decoration is really random, there's some Bob Marley here, a little Day of the Dead over there. I loved it all. I'm very random myself and prefer decoration to be eclectic and that's what that place was.

The look that Natalia and the photographer wanted was very defined eyes, big lashes and soft skin. The model was this stunning little petite girl. She had great features: high cheekbones, full lips, defined eyes, great eyebrows; she looked like a doll!




I saw that the photographer was using a flash that used a lot of light, so much so that it washed out colors and lines so when I was done doing the model's makeup I asked him to please take a picture of her so we could see just how much it washed her out. Even though I did sort of a dramatic contour on her face the flash still washed her out so I went back, re-contoured and the shoot went on without a hitch.

(See the huge flash!)

There was about 5 changes in clothes and makeup-wise all that I changed was the lip color. We went from a natural/nude lip to purple lips.


What I was most excited about was the photographer said that he kinda felt like doing a beauty shot. He said he'd never done one in his magazine (he's the owner and photographer) but with this shoot he wanted to do it. I felt so honored that the combination of the model and my makeup work inspired him to do his first beauty shot!

(This is a picture I took of the screen on the photographer's camera. She looks so beautiful!)

(The stylist looks on as the photographer and the model work it!)

As soon as I get the pictures from the magazine I'll post them up.


Thanks for reading!

- Carolina

Makeup for Music Video: Yomo

Last Tuesday I did makeup for Yomo's new music video called "Soledad y Confusión". My call was at 12:00pm. When I arrived there most of the crew was there, they set up everything in 2 beach houses: there was the one where we shot everything and one where there were 2 rooms which were used for wardrobe and makeup separately.

Shoot with Plus Size Models Coming Soon...

I've always wanted to do a shoot with real plus size models but I'd never been able to find plus size girls that looked like models. Sure, there's many that claim to be models but at the end of the day you know who's a real model and who just thinks she is.

I work at a store that sells plus size clothing for girls and I see many beautiful women coming in and out daily. I spoke with the wardrobe stylist that I've been working on in my last few shoots and she told me she was IN for the plus size shoot and that she had been wanting to do the same thing too but couldn't find the models as well! So in working where I work I've taken the liberty to talk to a few of the girls at the store and they also told me that they wanted to do shoots but couldn't find photographers. I was really surprised! It was all a great act of serendipity!

The girls are gorgeous, confident and plus size! I cannot wait for this to happen! =D

- Carolina

Miss Puerto Rico Universe 2011 Candidate Selection

Remember Giovanna? The girl who's participating in Miss Puerto Rico Universe 2011?
Well yesterday was the selection of the finalists for the pageant and I had the pleasure of doing her makeup.She wanted to have a glowy, dewy look, very J-Lo. I asked if she wanted matte eyes and dewy skin and she said "I want my eyes to shine!" so that's what I gave her!

I stayed with warm colors: bronze, browns and corals. I wanted to take a good picture of the makeup but she had on rollers and that wouldn't have been too cute haha!

Here's a picture of her taken at the event. I think she looks gorgeous, a natural beauty!

Makeup for Trade?

This is a touchy subject for me because I get asked a lot to do makeup for free on shoots, short indie films, etc. Believe me, if it were up to me I'd love to do makeup for free always because I love it, this is my passion but I can't live off of passion.


Let's look at the scenario where this is most seen: a Photo Shoot.

Eye of the Day: Splats Galore

Another eye of the day that I wanted to do for a while. This was inspired by a dress that my mom has, it's black with splatters of bright colors.

Photo Shoot: Karla Alegria

Today I had a photo shoot with a girl named Karla Alegria, she is a Merengue singer. She's got some LUNGS on her, what a great voice!! She's so funny and sweet too!

I was actually talking now to her assistant and he told that she said she loved the makeup so much she wasn't going to wash her face till tomorrow, that she was going to be sleeping in her makeup! lol I told him to tell her that she has to wash her face, we don't want her gorgeous skin to start developing acne because of an unclean face!
Her assistant has the pictures from the shoot already, without any editing of course! So I'm gonna post a few here! Hope you like it!

Eye of the Day: Zebra Liner

It had been a while since I had any inspiration whatsoever when it came to makeup, but last night out of nowhere my muse came back!

I had the idea to do a really thick black line and then do tons of tiny silver lines, but then this happened.

Review: Josie Maran's Organic Argan Oil

If you follow me on Twitter you know how much I love this oil. I was first introduced to this product because of Eily. She said it worked wonderfully on her and I was always so jealous of her skin, it looked so smooth, but this was years ago and I never really thought much of it. That is until I went to Sephora about 2 months ago and I saw that Josie Maran had a cosmetics line and in that line she sold Organic Argan Oil.

Pictures from the VANS Fashion Show

They posted some pictures of the fashion show and I grabbed the ones where you could kind of see the models' makeup. Since this was a fashion shoe for shoes the pictures were taken from a low angle to showcase the VANS. At least in some pictures you can see the makeup.

ENJOY!

Busy day! Photo Shoot & Vans Fashion Show

Today was a busy day, as the title says. First of all, today I had a photo shoot with a model named Giovanna. She is going to be participating in the Miss Puerto Rico Universe 2011 pageant. This girl is so gorgeous and so humble. I did pretty natural makeup on her, kept it warm with the browns and red tones.

Here's some behind the scenes pics

Review: E.L.F Mechanical Eyelash Curler

I've been a fan of E.L.F. makeup for a long time. Good quality makeup at an insanely reasonable price: everything for just $1.00!

This here is a review for their Mechanical Eyelash Curler.

Ecliptica: 10 years in Fashion

I was approached by fellow makeup artist (and great friend) Javier Romero to see if I wanted to do makeup on Ecliptica's Fall 2010 show called "Ecliptica: 10 years in Fashion". When he asked me this all I could do was gasp and stare in shock. I'd seen their show last season and they were my favorite out of everyone at Puerto Rico's High Fashion Week so to be asked to work with them was an honor.

I was approached by fellow makeup artist (and great friend) Javier Romero to see if I wanted to do makeup on Ecliptica's Fall 2010 show called "Ecliptica: 10 years in Fashion". When he asked me this all I could do was gasp and stare in shock. I'd seen their show last season and they were my favorite out of everyone at Puerto Rico's High Fashion Week so to be asked to work with them was an honor.

They day of the fashion show I was so nervous, I mean this was a real fashion show with real, professional models. Javier called me and asked if I could stop by Sephora and get a gel liner from there because he only had 1 for all the models and it was getting a little hectic. Of course, I stopped at Sephora and got the liner. After wards I made my way to the show and got backstage. There most of the girls already had all their hair done and guess what? They were eating too! Whoever said models don't eat never met a Puerto Rican model haha! Javier told me to set myself up and so I did. The look he wanted for the show was youthful skin, dramatic purple gel liner and a hint of purple on the lips, it was all about the purple. I The first girl I did makeup on had the most amazing eyebrows I've ever seen, long, thick, arched eyebrows; just beautiful!

(Aren't her eyebrows gorgeous? Love them!

I did makeup on 4 of the models and what I did was really simple. First I applied MAC's Painterly paint pot all over the lid as a base and then I applied Jesse's Girls' Champagne eyeshadow to give a bit of a frost to the eyes. For the liner first I applied some Blacktrack Fluidline (MAC) and set it with black eyeshadow. Then came the fun part: LINER! The purple glitter iner looked stunning over the black, it was perfect. For the lips we simply put just a little bit of "Up the Amp" by MAC and some clear gloss.

Some of you know that I store most of my lipsticks in a pillbox, it's just more convenient this way. Everyone was amazed by the idea of it and wanted one for themselves. Even Mariana Vicente, Miss Puerto Rico Universe 2010 took a look at my kit and wanted to see the pillbox. She thought it was a great idea, she jokingly said "Hmm, see today is a Monday, so I'm wearing my Monday lipstick today. Today's Tuesday so I'm gonna wear my Tuesday lipstick. Today's Wednesday but it feels like a Friday so I'm gonna wear my Friday color!" She was so funny! =D

After all the girls had their makeup done then came the frenzy. They all had to change and get into shoes that were either too big or too small for them. The ones that had shoes that were too big stuffed them with paper towels! Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? Some of the models started to sweat a bit from all the running around and changing so there we were all 4 of us makeup artists to tend to them and powder them down. Before the show began the models lined up and that's when their nerves kicked in. That's also when I was running around as well making sure they didn't sweat.

One minute before the show began Javier and I made our way to she floor where we could see the runway from the photographers' perspective. We scooted down there and looked at the girls walk the runway, they looked beautiful! The show went on without a hitch. I tried to take pictures of the models but my camera didn't work too well. I was able to get a short video of the girls doing the final walk and the designers coming out on the runway.

All in all it was a GREAT experience that I hope to repeat again and again.

Pictures and video:

Thanks for reading,


- Carolina

Makeup for Stephanie

Today I did Stephanie's makeup, she wanted a simple, natural yet sultry look. She will be submitting these pictures for a chance to be the face of the Puerto Rican magazine IMAGEN. I could only take one picture of her and it was a blurry one but at least you get the idea of it.

P.S.
I had to do her hair. As some of you know, I do not do hair (I only work on my own). It was hard for 2 reasons: she's got dead/straight hair which means it's merely impossible for it to hold curls for long & it's also been raining here for 2 days and the humidity in the air is insane so no matter what I did the curls just fell haha!

Makeup Artist =/= Hair Stylist

Every time someone approaches me to do makeup for a shoot they always ask me Do you do hair as well?", my answer to them is no. It gets on my nerves that they think that all makeup artists are hair stylists as well.

First entry.... What exactly do I do here?

Well hello there!

I guess an introduction is in order. My name is Carolina Rufat(Roo-fat). I'm 24 (until June 18th haha) and I'm from Puerto Rico. I do makeup, yep!

First of all let me start by saying that I think the word "blog" is weird. I think it's one of the main reasons why I hadn't created a blog for my makeup work before. The word just reminds me of clog, blob and other words that don't really define good or pretty things. I, literally, cringe at hearing the word"blog". Because of my weird pet peeve with a "blog" I'll be calling this my "site", cause really that's what it is haha!

Here I'll be posting quick pictures of shoots I do, interesting ideas for makeup, inspiration, and anything makeup related.

See ya on the world wide web!


- Carolina Rufat

P.S.
What do you think of the Header? It's just a mock header for now but I would like to know your thoughts. Comment away! =D