I had the pleasure if doing these lovely boys faces before Christmas. What a lovely way to spend the day! To shop the collection, click here.

I love a good makeup illustration, like these gorgeous eyes created for Max Factor by artist Kathy Wyatt. I’ve always loved art but I never really had the patience to practice and become really good at painting or drawing. I could sit in front of the mirror doodling on my face for hours but paper never really had the same appeal. One thing I did love to draw however was eyes, or more accurately the makeup on the eye.. these were not realistic anatomical illustrations but merely cartoon makeup. Even my attempt during life drawing class would consist mostly of eyeliner and a saucy arched eyebrow! Maybe these lovely watercolours will inspire me to master painting after all!

I recently shot an editorial with the wonderful Masatoshi Hamanoi in the beautiful woods of Bow Cemetary park. Stylist Ib Kamara used pieces from the recent London College of Fashion graduate show, including the jumpsuit pictured above which is designed by amazing new talent Ya-Chiao Rexy Sung. I feel in love with this Organza and rusty nail beaut and the blouse worn underneath. Below are some images of Rexy’s collection and the design development illustrating how the industrial revolution influenced the designs. Simply beautiful!

You can view more images of Ya-Chiao Rexy Sung’s graduate collection on the London College of Fashion Showcase website.

Image from @britneyspears twitter

Watch out Brit brit, that might not be such a good idea. I’m sure this memory is one of those unfortunate events that drove me to become a makeup artist from my overwhelming need to control the makeup! When I was about 8 years old my sister and her friend decided to do my makeup. I was extremely excited at the prospect; not only was I receiving unbridled attention from my older sister (instead of the usual “get out of my room, get out of my room…” song), I was going to be transformed into a glamorous grown up lady! So, while I patiently sat on my sister’s bed, she and her friend set to work. Blusher brushes flew around my face, lipstick was used in unconventional places, I think there was even some purple eyeshadow involved. I ran to the bathroom mirror to unveil the masterpiece amid cheers of delight from the two 12 year old artistes. Unfortunately I don’t have evidence of the traumatic vision that faced me in the mirror. Rachel’s rebuke “What? It’s the sun blazoned look!” should suffice as describtion enough…

Image: ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com

Ladies, youz look only gorgeous and check out the middle parting water waves; inspired! It’s so nice to see how real people wore the extravagant hairstyles of times past instead of the glossy Hollywood images we’ve grown accustomed to. There are so many 1940′s wartime shows and movie, Mad Men is giving us a taste of “real life” 1950s/60s and Boardwalk Empire is taking care of the 1920s so fingers crossed a show set in the 1930s is in the pipeline somewhere. It’s arguably my favorite decade purely for the absurdity of it all! I vote they stick these babies up on Yearbook Yourself so we can try on the hairstyles!

Image: flappergirlcreations.wordpress.com

Image: http://bobbypinblog.blogspot.com

Annie Leibovitz for Vogue. Image: vogue.com

The other day I voiced my apprehension at seeing Michelle Williams play Marilyn Monroe in “My Week With Marilyn” (see article, with pretty pictures here) Well, I can only apologise. Not only is the film fantastic but Ms Williams does an amazing job portraying the legendary bombshell. She has chosen just the right amount of breathiness for Marilyn’s voice without sounding too cartoonish and her mannerisms are perfection, complete with “the face that responds to everything like a flower swaying in the breeze” as The New Yorker’s David Denby so eloquently puts it here.

If I’m brutally honest, the fact that Michelle’s face is clearly NOT Marilyn’s face did irk me some… but then again I am pretty much face / Marilyn obsessed so it’s something I’ve vowed to ignore. There are moments of true genius with the makeup and costume choices and the wardrobe team reference numerous famous photos of Ms Monroe throughout the movie. The various images of Marilyn looking sad in a black turtle neck, the “graduation photos” she made with Milton Greene in preparation for “The Prince and the Showgirl” (which this film is about), her famous terrycloth bathrobe and the very risque pool shot from her last and unfinished movie “Something’s Gotta Give” all appear in different guises. They even drop in a copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses for good measure. See if you can recognise how these shots inspired scenes in the movie!

Why always a black polo neck when sad?? Marilyn announces her divorce from Joe DiMaggio in the first 2 shots. Method acting emotional turmoil in the rest.

Marilyn asked Milton Greene to create a fake graduation photo for her because she missed out in high school. Poor dear...

The quite famous leaning out window in bathrobe shot

Movie still from the unfortunately named "something's Gotta Give". Marilyn died before the film could be finished

Marilyn reading Ulysses, looking ever so punk rock!

Quentin Blake is one of my artistic heroes and his many collaborations with Roald Dahl are a great source of nostalgia for me and my sister. I remember being absolutely THRILLED to read the following passage in Roald Dahl’s “George’s Marvelous Medicine”:

On his mother’s dressing-table in the bedroom, George found yet another lovely aerosol can. It was called “Helga’s Hairset”. Hold twelve inches away from the hair and spray lightly. He squirted the whole lot into the saucepan. He did enjoy squirting these aerosols. There was a bottle of perfume called “Flowers of Turnips”. It smelled of old cheese. In it went. And in, too, went a large round box of powder. It was called “Pink Plaster”. There was a powder-puff on the top and he threw that in as well for luck. He found a couple of lipsticks. He pulled the greasy red things out of their little cases and added them to the mixture…

This image has stayed with me my whole life. The idea of actually PULLING a lipstick OUT of it’s packaging was shocking and invigorating to my young impressionable mind. I’m so so lucky, now I get to do that every time I buy a new lipstick!!

Image by Mario Testino for Chanel

I absolutely adore this ad for Chanel Coco Mademoiselle. The lighting, the gold background, the glistening smokey eyeshadow and most importantly, Keira Knightly’s gorgeous skin! She just looks divine, it’s the type of image I aspire to create. This idea of Keira Knightly as Goddess was happily residing in the back of my brain for the past few weeks while I went about my business in London town. That is until the other day, when I found this version of England’s most model-y actress plastered around the tube:

Image: Micheal Birt

Now there’s no denying that Ms Knightly is still lovely in this shot, her hair and makeup are well done and the photographer is very talented but I can’t help but be distracted by her skin. Once I considered the photo for a while it actually did make me feel a bit better about my little lumps and bumps. I am older than Keira and have the same amount of wrinkles, yay! It’s not that much of a shock that Chanel get their perfume ads photoshopped and this entry to the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize did not. Unfortunately, my initial reaction to this shot was not of relief or empathy, it was of disappointment. I love that Chanel image so much that I had literally been carrying it around with me in my memory bank of inspiration. This image by Micheal Birt just came and quashed the beauty of the Coco Mademoiselle fantasy.

So the question is, do we only want to be fed images that make us feel better about our own insecurities? This seems to be the general tabloid consensus. The “unrealistic standards” argument is wheeled out every time Madonna airbrushes an armpit hair, but what happened to the idea of art as beauty? Did people complain about The Birth of Venus’ completely unachievable body shape or The Mona Lisa’s unrealistically perfect skin? I certainly feel that Mario Testino‘s work should be viewed as art whether its an advert or otherwise.

She doesn't even have pigment in her lips! How am I meant to compete with that!?

Clearly the two images of Keira Knightly have very different purposes. Chanel’s ad is designed to make people buy Christmas presents (hence the gold) and Micheal Birt’s portrait is trying to tell us something about the real woman behind the fantasy. The portrait was originally shot as the promotional image for “The Children’s Hour” a West end production starring Knightly and Elizabeth Moss (i.e: Peggy Olsen in Mad Men, the best TV show in the world). When I first saw posters for “The Children’s Hour” I was struck by the lighting and the two ladies’ serious expressions and I really wanted to see the play (which I never did, oops) but again, the poster for the play is expertly photoshopped.

In order to create a more stark portrait of the young actress who is so often idealized, Birt has deliberately left out the post production step. It works to great effect but I think this is something we need to keep in mind when we feel the urge to moan about Photoshop’s over use: not Photoshopping something is going to make it appear stark. Nearly every image we see now is shot in extremely high-resolution making every single imperfection visible. When a face is going to be blown up to 6 times its normal size, imperfections are not a good look.

There is no doubt that Photoshop has many misuses. When Kate Winslet publicly complained about her unrecognizable figure on the cover of GQ Magazine in 2003 we were all delighted to see someone being outspoken about it. Weirdly, looking at that image now it doesn’t seem that over processed in the grand scheme of things, but it was definitely unnecessary to slim down Kate’s thighs. She looks perfect in the original shot, she doesn’t even have any cellulite!

Image: OMGdaily.com

Personally, I’m all for Photoshop, but like everything it depends on the skill of the Photoshopper. When every pore and wrinkle are blended away you are left with a very surreal image that is no longer aspirational but just wrong looking. Photoshop is essential to remove imperfections like pimples but when it removes natural texture or morphs someone’s body shape it’s just too much. I will keep you informed of any Photoshop crimes I witness in the future. Please feel free to post a link below if you find any images that bother you!

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theporgiepig/ Design: Kate O'Reilly

On a recent shoot, our male model pulled out some green tea bags and popped on the kettle. Seemingly, drinking green tea has sorted out his skin problem in no time so he carries 3 bags with him very day! Needless to say, I nicked a teabag from him and have been drinking it ever since. My skin does feel lovely and clear, I wonder if it works that quickly!?

According to Harvard Medical School, the antioxidants found in green tea are “more powerful than vitamins C and E in halting oxidative damage to cells”. Top tips include;

1. Drink 3 cups a day.
2. Allow tea to steep for three to five minutes to bring out the “catechins” (super-duper antioxidants).
3. Adding lemon or milk to your tea will help you to absorb iron, as tea has been shown to impede iron absorption.

Happy sipping!