The Big Swirl

1. Start by sectioning off a square section on the top of the head. Clip it out of the way.

2. Pull the rest of the hair back into a tight ponytail. I slicked the sides back with gel.
3. take a section of the top and curl toward the direction of the swirl.

4. Continue curling, then tease each section. The more you tease, the more solid your swirl will be.

5. Take the whole section and curl it together.
6. Brush the hair to smooth it. Gather it together like the photo. Pinch it and then start the swirl.

7. Once you have the base secured with a bobby pin, pin curl the tip and roll in. This process
can take some time. Keep practicing. Spray with hairspray as you go. With all of the
teasing, it shouldn't take more than a couple of bobby pins to secure.

Old Hollywood Waves

1. Start with a deep side part. I like to line mine up with the arch of my eyebrow.
2. Take a small section of hair and spray with a heat protectant. Curl the hair and twist while
wrapping. I use a medium size curling wand. Curl in the same direction and try to keep the
size uniform.

4. Slide the hair off of the wand, but catch the hair so it doesn't stretch out. Spray with hairspray.
5. Pin to head like a stand up pin curl. This is so the hair can cool. It will make the curls
stronger and last longer.

6. Curl the entire head and let cool completely.

7. Carefully take out the curls and brush through with your fingers.
8. Brush through with a soft bristle brush and pull the hair down. This will help show the
natural places it wants to wave.

9. Working in sections, tug and push and put clips where the waves take shape. Spray with
hairspray.
10. I used a combination of large clips, small metal clips and finger wave clips where I wanted
to create a ridge. Spray, spray spray.

The final result. Be patient, it takes time to get it right. Work in sections and if something
looks good, pin it.

An alternative look is an updo. I separated the hair from the ears back and created a pony.
I then split the pony into sections and pin curled. I pinned the sides up and added a curl to each side.

Pink Bow City Magazine Pinup Contest

I'm in a pinup contest. The winner gets her photo in an issue of the Pink Bow City magazine. To vote, please click on this link: VOTE! or the photo below and like or share.

Concept Shoot: Winter

The winter/ice/snow queen.

One down and one more to go. So far Greyline Creative and I have completed Summer, Fall and now Winter. We were inspired by the seasons for these fun photo shoots. Sometimes we like to stretch our creative muscles and do some photos that are more creative, unique and more editorial. This shoot was no exception. For winter we tried to capture the ethereal feeling of a winter snow queen. We decided that pink would be a good accent color because we saw so much blue used for similar shots and we wanted to do something different. I made the pink collar out of coffee filters that I dyed pink. I created a cage and then filled it with the flower-like paper much like a parade float. The twig head piece was made by a local floral designer, Jules Design. The hair was a combination of white spray and a substance called angel hair. I had never used this before and it was wonderful. It was like a mix between spider webs and hair. It created really lovely puffs that mimicked snow.

We had a beautiful model, Morgan, who was very kind to allow us to do whatever we wanted. I covered her well moisturized face in white makeup from the Makeup Forever flash palette and contoured her face with ice blue eyeshadow. I added glitter to her eyelids and used Ben Nye white mascara on her eyelashes. I have her some rosy cheeks with pink powder blush and berry kissed lips with a combination of clear lip gloss and a dap of hot pink eyeshadow in the middle of her upper and lower lips.

Top left: dying the coffee filters, Top right: Morgan before
Bottom: Close up of Morgan becoming the snow queen.

The other seasons in the series.
Left: Fall  Right: Summer

Bangs or No Bangs, That is the Question

Women struggle with this all the time. We want to change our look and sometimes cutting bangs seems like a good option. But sometimes we immediately regret it. Some people are just bang people and some are not. I could go both ways, but I prefer to not have bangs. Cowlicks can be an issue as well as texture and thickness of hair.

But you really don't have to choose. If you only want bangs sometime or you just aren't sure if you can pull them off, get some fake ones. They sell clip in bangs now. I'm not going to put a link because there are so many places to get them. Buy the real human hair type so that you can use heat tools if needed. Also, to make them look more natural, get them in blonde and have your hair stylist color and cut them to match your hair. You can buy a few pairs and have all types of different lengths and styles without the commitment.

The bangs I have are not the right color and I cut them myself with clippers. Here is a good tutorial from Cherry Dollface on how to cut Betty bangs yourself with clippers.

Christmas Present Ideas for the Pin Up in Your Life

Do you have a pin up girl in your life? Not sure what to get her for Christmas. Here are some ideas.

You can't go wrong with a Sephora gift card: http://www.sephora.com/

She will love anything from Pinup Girl Clothing:
http://www.pinupgirlclothing.com/

Every true pin up girl needs proper undergarments:
http://www.whatkatiedid.com/en_us/

For the extra special girl, go big with the Whirling Turban:
http://whirlingturban.com/

She will love this vintage hair styling book:
http://www.hrstbooks.com/vintage-hairstyling

You could also buy her a subscription to this pin up magazine to give her inspiration:
http://www.pinkbowcity.com/

Marilyn Inspired Glitter Eyes

For this look, I was inspired by Kevin Aucoin's version of Marilyn Monroe. It's actually Lisa Marie Presley. It's from his book "Making Faces."

Here is my before and after. I didn't have a Marilyn wig, so I just went with a blonde wig that I had from when I was Miss Piggy for Halloween.

I started this look by moisturizing my face. I use EmbryoLisse Lait-Crème Concentrè. I then contoured my face using Makeup Forever flash palette white (because I'm so white that I need a white for a highlighter) and Makeup Forever concealer palette in dark for the shadows.

You can see here where I added the highlights and shadows. I blended it all with my foundation, Makeup Forever HD in 117 and a Real Techniques blending brush. You don't want the contouring to be obvious. It just add dimension.

Next I worked on the eyebrows. I use Anastasia Brow Wiz pencil in caramel. I created a strong arched brow for this look because Marilyn was known for her brows. I also used the flash palette white again to highlight the brow bone and make the eyebrow sharp around the edges.

To add more dimension to the brows, I added a golden brow gel on top. I then primed by entire eyelid with Urban Decay eyeshadow primer.

Next is the part that really makes the look. You may have noticed the Marilyn has a distinct eye shape. Especially her eye lid. It's a large lid with a crease that starts high on the inner corner and tilts down on the outside. This is one of the reasons she had such wonderful bedroom eyes. I copied this shape on my own eyes. You can use shadow and highlight to alter the shape of your eyes.

Again, after applying the primer to help the eyeshadow last longer, I used the three colors below circled in red. The white on the brow bone and the inner corner of my eye, the brown to create the shape and the yellow on the lid and to blend them together.

This is the shape that you want to achieve. It will seem strange at first and you will even feel like you are making a mess of your eyes, but try to keep the line clean and blend upward. You can use a lighter brown to help blend. Just keep blending. I used MAC brushes 230 and 217 for this.

One you have the right shape, time to apply the glitter. I used highbeam highlighter to make the glitter stick. I applied it to the lids where the lightest area was located and then packed on the Makeup Forever diamond powder on the left. It is a very fine glitter. I then applied a nude shimmer, not sure of the name or where I got it, to all the areas with brown. I then applied a heavier clear glitter on top of the first diamond powder and a copper over the nude shimmer. Finally, I applied the diamond powder to the brow bone.

You can see the effect it creates below on the left. It really helps to highlight that large eyelid. I then applied a MAC liquid eyeliner starting at the outside lower lash line and extending out to create a cat eye. I also added just a flick of black underneath on the outside to help give the illusion of a shadow. This will help with that heavy lash look.

I applied lots of mascara, Eye of Horus, and some glitter eyeliner around the black eyeliner to help define it. And I added false lashes to the outer corners of the eyes. I finished the look off with rosy cheeks and Makeup Forever HD powder.

Here is the look before lips. I added a few photos of the eyes so that you can see the shape from different angles.

Marilyn's lips were also one of her signature features. I used five different lip products. I started by powdering my lips lightly to help make the color stick. I then use a MAC lip pencil in beet to line the lips. I lined them a bit outside of my natural lip line and rounded them to make them look more like Marilyn. I just filled the liner in on the corners of the lips though leaving the middle bare. I then took a dark red lipstick and went over the outside corners. I took a lighter pinky red and filled in the middle. I then took a nude and put ad dab of that right in the middle of my upper and lower lip. I finished it off with just a bit of gloss in the middle as well. All of this helps create that dimensional pout.

Here is the final product with a blonde wig and a beauty mark, because you can't be Marilyn without those.