oh, make me over

after I completed my hairdressing apprenticeship and had been a hair stylist for a few years, I decided to become a make-up artist, so I signed up for a course at Napoleon Make-Up Academy. it was 1996 and Napoleon had just opened his own school of make-up which took place in the basement of his oxford street store in Paddington, Sydney. Napoleon and his brother Emanuel taught us make-up and Napoleon's wife, Soula-Marie sold us the myriad of brushes, foundations, blushes, lipsticks, eyeshadows, fake eyelashes etc from the glamourous store that we absolutely needed to buy be budding make-up artists.

Napoleon has come a very long way from those days and is now quite famous. He's appeared on Australia's Next Top Model, amoungst other tv spots has built his empire of make-up concept stores throughout Australia, and sells his products throughout Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US and his latest venture - a make-up line in Target in the US.

it was lots of fun, and I went on to do freelance hair and make-up for photo-shoots, catwalk, and a few Aussie celebrities - it was a fun job hanging with all the beautiful people... but then I moved away from Sydney (for my ex-husband's job) to Canberra (Australia's capital) where the pace is much slower, and the demand for hair and make-up artists much less... so I started my own business doing weddings - which was quite exhausting, lugging all that stuff around, working every weekend and dealing with bitchy bridesmaids, but so rewarding watching the bride's face when she saw the final product. I gradually stopped doing it altogether though, once I got an office job that paid a lot more money for much less work!

these days I just cut Bryce's hair, and do my own make-up, and whenever any of my girlfriends ask me about doing their hair or make-up I cringe because it honestly has just been so long... I feel like I just wouldn't know how...

that said, on friday night I went to have my make-up done at the MAC Store. I've been feeling frumpy and in a bit of a rut with my style (or lack of) and thought they might be able to do something different and fun...

I documented how it went...

first she made me take off any make-up I had on

dark eyes were in order apparently

then the fake eyelashes (which were a bit Twiggy'esque)

I ended up feeling a bit like a drag queen, but since I was heading out straight after with the gang, I just had to go with it... if nothing else it showed me that I still have what it takes to do make-up, so next time someone asks I might just say yes... and also that I want this lighting in my bathroom when we remodel... :)