Did I mention that I'm going to London Fashion Week?!

You may have seen on my social medias that I'll be attending London Fashion Week (LFW) as a Makeup Artist (MUA) backstage. Yes. Little old me backstage at London Fashion Week. Whaaaaat?! I can't even type that without smiling! I think I'll be pinching myself for a while as it just doesn't seem real that I'm even going, let alone as part of the working team! The show I'll be working on is the House of iKons show, 18th-19th September. 

House of iKons run one of the largest shows during fashion week for worldwide designers, creating a platform to support new upcoming talent globally. Some of their recent designers have dressed Beyonce and Katy Perry and have been featured in Vogue. Their 2021 show will be running at Leonardo Royal St. Paul's London Hotel. This is such an amazing opportunity for any MUA and it's all thanks to Girl Meets Brush. 

Girl Meets Brush, founded by Celebrity MUA Lynne Mills, are the official Makeup Sponsors for the House of iKons LFW show and I joined Lynne's academy during lockdown. As the official sponsor, Lynne heads up and puts together her MUA team, and opens the opportunity up to the academy members. In order to put ourselves forward we were required to create and submit a makeup look following this brief:

Create a Catwalk Make-Up that is natural, but striking & focusing on one element in particular. We are looking for a simple & natural, but effective make-up that will translate well on catwalk. Explain some inspo behind your look & why you have chosen it.

We were able to submit two looks and for the first I chose to focus on the cheeks with a striking orange pop of colour. Skin prep, a fresh base, a very neutral eye & a glossy lip helps keep the eye drawn to the colour. I wanted to keep the line sharp underneath to create real contrast with the soft blend on top, into the skin & up towards the temple. 

For my second entry I focused on the eyes. I wanted to create a monochromatic, gender neutral look so used Pete (the ever willing husband!) as my male model to show how this look would work on both male and female models. 

I created a single wing with the white & black alongside each other to emphasise the contrast and drew the wing out sideways to elongate the eyes/create an almond shape, trying to stay away from a more classic flick angle.

I love editorial/fashion makeup but am definitely inexperienced in this area so when my creations got me a place in the shortlist I was thrilled! For final decisions to be made and a team put together all the shortlisted academy members had to answer a series of questions and submit three more images that best represented who we are as MUAs. I chose to use an image of one of the beautiful brides I've worked with over the summer and two looks with more editorial makeup.

I was absolutely thrilled (and shocked!) to be shortlisted so when I found out I was actually going to be joining the team I didn't quite know what to feel...apart from insane excitement obviously!! I'm so incredibly grateful for this opportunity, especially early on in my MUA career. 

I'm a very lucky lady. 

I have now received some more information regarding the makeup brief for the models, the kit list etc...but I'll be keeping that under my hat for now 😉🤐

I can't wait to share more with you when I can! 

Lots of love, excitement and gratitude, 

Clare x