There’s been lots of posts flying around with people’s before makeup and after makeup photos this week. I always find before and after photos endlessly fascinating – I know the power of makeup and what it can do to change someone's appearance, so I’m more interested in it as the way people choose to express and present themselves.
I quite often do shoots where people are just meeting and getting together to try new things and network and these shoots sometimes won’t a theme. When I work on somebody else without having a specific brief, it’s up to me to interpret that person and make sure everyone involved is happy with the look. My model for this shoot was very young and fresh-faced, so I wanted to do something fun with a pop of colour but nothing too overwhelming or blocky.
Model, Becca Edwards. Photographer, Amir Dotan. MUA, Robyn Skinner.
This is the lovely Becca who I’ve had the pleasure of working with a couple of times and she is an absolute doll. The first shot is a no-makeup makeup look– a little blush, a little lipstick mixed with balm, some light foundation and concealer and a little eyeshadow just to help define her lashes. I groomed her brows slightly and added mascara and she was done. The second look is more full on and I didn’t change her skin too much (I added a very light contour and some more base) and did a nude lip, just the eye makeup and false lashes alone really changes her look – I used the Sugarpill Heartbreaker palette to do a simple cut-crease cat eye.
1st Photo, Photography by Nicole. 2nd photo, photography by Darren Flynn. Model, Francesca Love. MUA, Robyn Skinner.
These two shots are both the same model as well, and there was a specific brief for each of these shoots. The first one is an older shot from a ‘Creepy Dolls’ themed shoot we did a long time ago now! The second is from a recent shoot we did where I made all the accessories out of paper. The lighting is very different, obviously, and the retouching is different too (different photographers for each shot) but you’d never guess it was the same person.
Obviously the power to transform someone’s look in a photograph doesn’t just come from the MUA – the models, photographers and stylists all play their part – but I always look straight at the makeup in any shot! ;)
I don’t really have a closing point to this post… I just love ‘before’ and ‘afters’ and different looks on the same person!
