Seasons Greetings and published work

Hope every had a lovely Christmas!  I was in for a lot of eating like every other previous years, and definitely don't look forward to realising/admitting how much weight I have gained.

Just wanted to share some work from a photoshoot that was recently published and I'm still waiting for my printed copy of the magazine.  I have actually forgotten about this shoot, it was mainly just beauty shots so makeup was shown well.

Story. Magazine - Issue 1 - December 2013

Title: Colour Infusion 
HMUA: Mandy To 
Models: Rhiannon and Sophia @ XLR8 Models 
Nail Technician: Stacey-Dee
Jewellery: Mel Candish @ Unique Dezignz
Photographer: Alice Chapman


The first four are the ones that were selected for the magazine and the rest are extra with a few behind the scenes photos that I had found on my old phone.

Love.Life. Just the Way It Is

No life is 100% perfect and I wouldn't ever want a perfect life either.  How easy and boring would that perfect life be.  There will be no surprise, obstacles, challenges or goals that needs to be completed.

As busy as life gets, as hard and tough as things may be we should all accept things the way they are and face them rather than running away.

I love my jobs, my career and I'm happy I've made my makeup artistry world come true.  It wasn't easy and it definitely wasn't something I had much support in when it came to my parents.  They disapproved, opposed, worried, nagged, scolded and so much more.  It was very disheartening and very tough time while I was studying.  I felt like I couldn't make it happen, or I didn't have the talent or the will power to earn an income as a full time makeup artist.

I turned away from my parents, avoided their conversations, ran away from any confrontations and pretended everything was alright.  It wasn't alright and things won't go away and so I talked and I expressed what I felt and why I wanted to do what I wanted to do.  I wasn't young any longer and I'm behind a lot of other people who are a lot younger than me.  It was now or never and it was better now than late.

My parents are still worried and they still don't really approve, but they are slowly accepting the fact this was it.  I wasn't changing my mind and I don't plan on going back to being an accountant.

My brother gave me hope, talked to me like normal and even suggested certain things that would help me grow my business.  I was also blessed with some wonderful close friends who understood me and knew my passion and life was to truly become a professional makeup artist who works actively in the industry.

Thank you for everything I was given, for all the opportunities I gained in life and even for all the hardships I had to experience.  They taught me lessons and made me more mature and I definitely grew up in a better way.

For someone who is older now, 27 and nearly 28 in a couple of months time.  I realised many things I probably didn't know about when I was in my teens or even in the early 20s.  I know who my true friends are, those who are close and dear to me.  You don't choose your parents and they work hard to raise you, so it is always a wonderful thing to have time set aside just for them.  Enjoy life and stop restricting yourself so much, sometimes you just should treat yourself to something nice, pamper and relax even if it's a massage or a lazy day all to yourself.

For those who reads my blog, I thank you for your support, comments and encouraging words.  It makes a difference and I'm happy to be able to share a part of the journey in my life.

Have a great week everyone!

My latest obsession!  Sneakers and Wedge Sneakers.  Believe it or not I have 3 pairs on their way, but probably get them in a month's time since that's how long it takes for something to get to Australia from the US.

My Love... Food

As busy as I get and as crazy as wedding season is for a full time makeup artist who freelances.  I can't ever turn my back to my true love.  Food.  There is always time for me to go out and enjoy a good breakfast, brunch, lunch, coffee and cake and even dinner.  Being a child who grew up with parents as chefs, it's hard to not get fatten up and enjoy the rainbows of food that my lucky taste buds are always  experiencing.

For the past weeks I've been missing, I'm back to share with you what I've been eating and some new purchases and some hair work as well.  That's right hair is becoming a big part of my career as a makeup artist.  There are days I only have hair styling work and nothing to do with makeup at all.  To think I never really enjoyed doing hair, but I'm finding a new love for it and I'm just glad how much more confident and easier hair styling is becoming for me.

This client is actually a very close highschool friend who got married in October and this was just here admiring her makeup whereas I was busy taking photos of her hair.

Recent Photo Shoot

I did a photo shoot not too long ago and I'm in love with the photos.  They turned out so well and even though I was really run down and exhausted I'm so glad I jumped in and did the hair and makeup for it.  It was a great experience and I had a great team to work with.

I loved the photograher's work and I just could say no when he had contacted me in collaborating and working with a Perth Chadwick's model.

Credits/ Team Members
Photographer:  Thomas Wawrzyniak  http://www.thomaswawrzyniak.com/
Stylist:  Elle Giles http://www.eatfashionnotcake.com/
Model:  Rachel Maher @ Chadwicks Perth
Hair and Makeup:  Mandy To  www.mankimakeup.com

Wedding Season is no joke

It's been way too long since I've blogged and I thoroughly missed it heaps.  Unfortunately since becoming a working full time Hair and Makeup artist, means you put yourself in the Bridal industry.  Hence there is such thing as Wedding Season and that started in September for me.  It's only mid October now and I can say I'm absolutely exhausted and completely drained all the way down to my bones.

Weekdays I'm doing work for photography studios, shooting with designers and other talents and preparing for my future brides who of course wants a trial run.  Weekends is all weddings and more weddings and possibly if I can fit in trials and photo shoots too.

Of course among all the busy working hours (way too many hours), I still can't give up my food dates with friends and families.  I love food way too much and I would die if I was deprived of my love and journey to find good restaurants and cafes.

In between all of this on nights when I can't sleep because I'm so stressed and my mind just won't switch off, I've been slowly claiming territories in the house and the front lounge is pretty much my home studio.  My computer and work desk as well as all my hair and makeup equipment and products now live in there.

Alive... Just been busy!

So I got swamped with work during non-peak season, so technically when other Makeup Artists told me it's quiet during the winter... They LIED!  Now that wedding season started again (September to May is peak season), I am absolutely booked to the brim.  I mean it's a good thing and it means I'm in demand and I am making money, but I feel like I have no life.  Social life is very low and I'm starting to feel sad and lonely.  I hope I don't turn into a lonely old woman who only works.

Anyway even though I work heaps I still eat, I live without eating so I do have some good food porn to share with everyone.  I hope you enjoy looking at them and salivating over them too.

Off to work, more paper work to do before rushing off early in the morning for more weddings/bridal trials/hair trials/special occasion... then paper work again.

Did you miss my face?  Korean style selfie, because my skin was absolutely perfect looking here!

Hair Crazy...

Been over booked too much recently and not enough ME time, resulting in a very cranky, snappy and quiet Makeup Artist.

Also loaded in my intense 2 day hair workshop into the busy schedule and went a little hair crazy.  I swear when it comes to learning how to do hair I absolutely struggle and go nuts trying to shove knowledge into my brain.  However I survived and it was very rewarding and worth the time and money and all the craziness it gave me.  I'm now producing hair I've never though I would produce and learning the tricks of the trade had made life so much easier.  I work so much faster now in Studio work when it comes to hair and can whip curls out like lightning... ok ok probably not that fast, but seriously way faster than before.

Overworking... not much social life...

Here I am again after... yeah I don't even remember when it was the last time I updated the blog.  I swear I've been so busy that I'm feeling so tired and physically drained that... I just might be ending up in hospital again!  Hopefully starting this month of August I'll a little bit more "ME" time and actually go eat properly and get some decent sleep.  None of this cramming last minute bookings into my schedule and skipping lunch or dinner or breakfast thing that is going on very frequently.

Among all of this craziness with a charity event I did about a week or two back, which I must add was crazy and very time pressuring.  I managed to squeezed in a tad bit of a social life or break... I think.

I'm addicted to buying hi-top sneakers again and in particular Adidas ones too.  I haven't owned one since Highschool but I think from now on they're going to be many more of these type of shoes to come. 

Olive Farm Designs, New Collection

Sometime ago near the end of April I did a very last minute photo shoot for a lovely Hair adornments designer who goes by the brand Olive Farm Designs.  Liv the designer is extremely creative and talented in making hand made hair pieces just for weddings and other special occasions.  The fine details and the gorgeousness of her work makes me "ooo" and "ahhh" every time I see them.

I had a pretty busy schedule that Sunday and had gotten a bit of a urgent missed call message from the lovely Liv.  Luckily I checked my phone halfway through my second job and had listened to the message while doing some touch ups for the then client.  Their original makeup artist had ran into some situations and wasn't able to make it at a very last minute.  I managed to fit in the shoot, though not the whole shoot, but most part of it before having to rush home to see another client.  It was close to where I lived so that was a bonus giving me a little more time to spend on the location shoot.

Anyway enough boring talk, here are some photos finally released. You can check out more of her work on Facebook as her website is still in the process of being made.

~CREDITS~

Shoot - Olive Farm Designs 2013
Hair pieces & Styling - Olive Farm Designs
Photographer - Jason Tey Photography
Model - Penny Slawinski 
Dress - Schofield Designs
Hair - Dez D'Souza Hair
MUA - Mandy To - Makeup Artist
Furniture Hire - Pretty Willow

My poor skin.... product testing...

The title says it all.  I may not have had absolutely perfect skin, but I have to say my skin was fairly good and hardly ever really had anything wrong with it beside a few little break outs during my... time of the month.

Recently I bought Physicians Formula Super BB cream and thought about some of the good stuff I had heard about it.  I should have known better to get it.  First it only comes in two shades light/medium and medium/dark.  It certainly does not suit everyone.  The light/medium is what I got for myself and it a tad too light but the medium/dark is too dark... already a fail yet I thought, it's winter in Perth so it should be alright and I can warm it up with Bronzer.

Getting over the hurdles...

 Finally with this starting to pick up and look brighter I'm back.  Being MIA is so hard and missing out of reading favourite bloggers was even worse!

Got my new computer up and running!  It's super fast and I got it at a cheaper price than I had expected.

Been flat out working and working and some more working.  Mum went away on her long long holiday for 7 weeks and when she came back it was like my body gave up and I went crashing.  I can't live without Mumma Bear!  Been feeling so good that I'm not cramming in my work life, social life and house sitting/chores life all at once.

Got loads of photos to share, sadly not much of my own work as I'm still waiting on some photos from a shoot.

House lemonande at The Precinct, it was so yummy and refressing!

When everything comes crashing down at once...

I swear when ONE thing goes wrong a whole series of things decides it is time to go wrong all at once.  I've had the most horrible couple of weeks that I'm really over it and I don't even want to think about it anymore. However I do want to share with you why I went MIA.

My mother embarked on her well deserved holiday, which means I had to start house sitting and doing house chores and making sure my father stays alive (yeah I'm not exaggerating either).  So that was added onto of my work/career and I wasn't complaining much beside a bit of frustration here and there and being driven up the wall by my dear old man.

I had bought 2 spare portable 1TB hard drive ready to to do back up on a day off.  Like every other night I turned off my computer and would start it up again the next morning.  Yep you can probably guess what happened.  My computer decided to DIE.   When I say die, I actually means it died.  As in there was no way of fixing or repairing it in anyway.  The motherboard decided it wanted to die and move on and make my tiring life a miserable one.  Hahaha, looking back now I was cussing so much at a dead computer actually does look rather stupid.

So here I was with a dead computer and have not yet backed up either.  OMG!
I had full on 7 full days of work and no time to buy a new one or even attempt to save my crap that was still on my hard drives inside the computer.  BLOODY HELL!

Knocked down by a Cold

I got knocked down by a cold and is on the road to recovery.  It was absolutely hell trying to do loads of makeup and hair jobs throughout a day, with a horrible cold and then getting home and collapsing straight onto the bed or sofa.

Now left with a gross itchy throat full of muscus I'm constantly hacking up phlegm and it's no fun at all.

Any way let's not talk about my gross sickness/cold.  I have some pretty photos to share with you and some food porn too.

Before and After Makeup

I'm going to start doing some Before and After makeup on some friends/model/clients and will be sharing them on my blog.

Last weekend I caught up with a wonderful friend of mine.  She had finally passed her last CA exam!  Congratulations to my lovely friend Astrid.  Well done!

I bought dinner from a trusty Malaysian hawkers on my way to her house with my loaded ready to give her a makeover and my DSLR with a Speedlight attached ready to capture the difference.

The following products were used:

MAC Face and body Foundation
Eve Pearl Cream Foundation (as a concealer)
Napoleon Perdis Translucent powder
Napoleon Perdis Eyeshadow - Trenchcoat (Contour shade)
Napoleon Perdis Eyeshadow - Skinny Dip (Highlight shade)
Smashbox blush
Eyeko Mascara
Inglot Brow Powder
Eve Pearl Lipgloss

Melbourne Easter Break.

 Over Easter break I treat myself to a 4 nights trip to Melbourne.  Somewhere close yet a good place to get away from all that working I've been doing.

I didn't shop as crazy as I normally would, but I didn't really find much I like and I spent more money stocking up my professional kit than on myself.  Anyway a friend and I who is also called "Mandy", my partner in crime when it comes to shopping and eating, flew off on Good Friday night and arrived super early on Saturday morning (Melbourne is 3 hours faster than Perth).  Being super early we had to wait to check in so we dumped our bags and walked around in the dark early morning.  I know crazy.  Nothing was even opened but we were looking around and familiarizing ourselves with the streets so we knew how to find places easier.

First stop on the first day... met up with my highschool friend who had just moved over at the beginning of March and ate breakfast at one of Melbourne's top cafe and still number one on Urbanspoon.  It was delicious!  I had baked eggs with Chorizo and it was so good I ate the whole thing.  People line up for ages sometimes just waiting for a table, but being super early we got there as soon as it opened.

Menu at Hardware Societe

Back to Reality...

I had a wonderful Easter Break where a girlfriend and I took a 5 days, 4 nights trip to Melbourne.  We were both tired and just wanted to get away from work for the long weekend and a bit more.  I had thoroughly enjoyed the trip and even though I miss it greatly, it is back to reality.

Here is a quick update of what had been happening since I've gotten home from my little vacation.  Stay tuned for a future post on my Melbourne trip.  I promise you it includes some food porn and crazy shopping purchases!

Belated Birthday Present from my cousin.  Absolutely loving this Palette by Stila and had been using it in the morning.

Before the Easter Long Weekend.

Back again and thought today I would post a bit earlier the photos from the photo shoot I did about a month or so earlier.  I won't be showing all the photos are that is just going to overload this blog because there were heaps on the disc I have gotten from the Photographer.

This Friday is the start of our Easter Long Weekend and I'll be away from Friday until Wednesday next week.  I'm taking a short break from work and enjoying myself for a bit in Melbourne with a friend and I'll be stuffing my face once again with loads of good food.  I'll have plenty to share!

Anyway... onto the photos.

Photographer: Daniel Price
Dress By: Petra Vanessie 
Accessories & Bouquets: Tamara Harrison 
Model: Monica Fruzynski
Hair: Sarah Corrigan 
Makeup: Mandy To

Instagram life...

More Instagram and just general photos from my phone.  Been way too long and I'll be posting again shortly with some updated photos from a shoot.  Only just got the photos on disc from Photographer on Saturday so I'm still in the process of going through them.

Lebanese food was delish!  Also it had been so long since I had baklava!

Complimentary

Photo Shoot: Jet Empire Look Book

Sometime last December I worked with a great team of talents on a Photo Shoot for a look book.  Jet Empire is a local Jewellery Designer in Sunny Perth Australia.  You can find out more information on them on the following links.

www.jetempire.com.au

A look book was printed and it was also uploaded online here:

http://issuu.com/hides1970/docs/jet_empire_look_book_spring_summer_2013-14?mode=window&printButtonEnabled=false

Today I'm here to share a few of my most favourites.

                                              Jewellery Designer: Jet Empire aka Heidi Atchison 

https://www.facebook.com/jetempire

Photographer: Alex Bell aka Sundaysunset.images

https://www.facebook.com/sundaysunset.images

Model: Zoe Marson

Stylist: Meg Gill 

https://www.facebook.com/meggill.co

Photo Shoot Co-ordinator: Raychael Case 

https://www.facebook.com/msmysterycase

Hair Stylist: Sarah Corrigan 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Your-Image-hair-design

Makeup Artist: Mandy To 

Clothing Supplied by: House Of Zaccaria

I'm just your regular girl...

I had girls think I live a high life as a makeup artist, unfortunately I'm just your regular girl.  I work hard and long to make a career out of makeup artistry and I pay my bills with it.

Everyday I'm grateful for where I am and I'm happy that my work is something I love doing.  My heart flutters when I hear great feedback from photographers, stylists, hair stylists, models and even more satisfying is your everyday normal clients.  When someone tell you these following phrases (or what I've been told), it makes my heart flutters:

"I feel so beautiful, I can't believe this is me.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You did a wonderful job with Gemma today, she was stoked"

"Wow, I love it"

"Your work is amazing"

Simple phrases can help me boost my confidence and it motivates me to want to further improve my knowledge and skills.  It drives me further and want to really do the best I can in this field of work.  I love my creativity, however I do love my beauty work too.  Sometimes the tiniest amount of makeup makes a big difference.

Makeup artistry isn't the only thing I love and it's not the only thing I'm grateful to have in my life.  I've been blessed with beautiful parents.  Hardworking and amazing chefs, so I'm always happily eating and getting fat. I thank my friends who are always there for me and supporting me.  I love my close girlfriends who makes me run after my dreams.  Of course I love my furbaby, Miss Coco for being just the way she is.

I want to thank everyone who follows my blog, facebook page and my makeup work.  You guys had given me a lot of support and knowing that people actually looks at my work makes me a happier person each day.  Thank you for every comment left on my blog, I truly enjoy reading them all.

Now to share a few photos to finish up this post....

I am far from being perfect when I wake up.  I'm naturally grumpy and my hair is like hell.

Been a Busy Bee...

Been a long time since I've updated or shared photos on this blog.  I've been so busy I hardly have time to even relax.  I'm constantly feeling tired and exhausted to the point I just want to shower and crawl into bed.  I recently starting working at another photography studio so my diary been jammed pack since.  I'm happy at how more work I am getting booked for and how busy it is.  It only means I am improving in terms of makeup artistry skills and my business is taking off.  Freelancing as a Makeup Artist had made a much happier person and I'm very glad I had the guts to take that leap off the cliff.

Anyway here are loads of photos that I had shared on instagram.  Even photos from Chinese New Year, which was a complete whirlwind for me with juggling work and family celebrations.

I am waiting on some photos from a photo shoot and can't wait to share them!  I am beyond excited and hopefully I'll be able to post and update on it.  However for now please stay tuned...

Mumma's CNY Orchids and decor.

Photo Sharing for the week

I am back with some Instagram photos or just photos in general.

A Quick Behind the Scenes

Just popping in to share some quick BTS (behind the scenes) that was given an OK to share.  I did a shoot last year before the Christmas and it was for a new jewellery brand that will be launching late February early March.

The stylist/co-ordinator was also able to get clothese from a local designer called House of Zaccaria.

Petra Vanessie's Look Book - Photos released!

Hope everyone is having a great start to their New Year and may 2013 be awesome!  This is going to sound weird but I do not have any Instagram photos to share.... that's right I for once don't have any of those daily lifestyle photos I'm constantly taking photos of to share........ OMG it's so WEIRD!

Anyway back to the main topic.

Last year I had mentioned I did a photoshoot with a great team of talents for local fashion designer Petra Vanessie late October.

I had gotten an OK yesterday evening that the photos had been released by the photographers and it is now alright to use/share/etc by all team members.

So today I am here to share you some of the beautiful photos that were taken that day.  The amazing dresses and the whole themed looking absolutely great.

Let me know what you guys think?