I thought it was time for me to retire my makeup skills but it seems like I am now getting more calls to do makeup jobs again and they seem to be jobs I can't say no to.   I took a couple of years break to work on my own projects and re organize my life so I felt like I missed out on all the new makeup technology that has been happening over the past couple of years.  I thought it might be a good time to go to the IMATS  at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto to see what new products are out there these days.    Years ago I used to do some work on the Makeup Awards which had a trade show attached to it but they had to discontinue the show so now the IMATS have stepped in to fill the Trade Show void.

I think I got there a bit too late in the day because there were massive lineups for some of the vendors and when I went back after seeing Jordan Samuel and Michael Key  from Makeup Artist Mag speak it seemed like a lot of the things I wanted to purchase were already gone.  

I remember Jordan and Michael from the CNOMA Makeup Awards shows.  Jordan had a bust from the Carrie film on stage with him and explained the new stenciling technique for blood effects which sounded really impressive.

I missed the View's Eve Pearl's session but stopped by her booth and watched her do a couple of demos and picked up her Pro Palette which should nicely restock my makeup kit.

One of the reasons I stopped doing makeup was two fold.  The first one being that when I moved from a house to an apartment I had to downsize everything and I went through my makeup kit and tossed out all the old or not very good makeup which left me without a full stock of foundations and other products that don't last very long.  Because these are the most expensive items I didn't want to go out and spend the money to stock my kit all over again unless I had enough work to justify it.  The second reason I stopped was that I was starting to get tired of hauling around a ton of makeup and began working on my own short films so I got sidetracked and the makeup calls weren't worth the effort it takes to pull my kit together.  

I decided to go check out the IMATS to get inspired again.  Truth be told I have stayed away from a lot of makeup stores because I get a bit carried away buying all the new makeup.  But this time it was necessary.  I am going to re organize my kit to day to streamline it and make it easier to do quick shoots on the fly.   The last couple of shoots I carried 6 bags and kits.  That's too much packaging so it's time to re think my kit.

So here are some of the pics I took at the IMATS yesterday and I hope that they inspire you to do more makeup.

I recently worked on a short film where the makeup was generally less is more but in one instance more was less than.  The director wanted to cover a large arm tattoo and I was told  about it about 2 days before the shoot.  I had already done a makeup run to get some supplies and didn't have time to go back downtown so I went to Sephora to see what I could find.  I went with the intention of getting Kat Von D's waterproof tattoo cover but was recommended  Benefit's Boing instead.  Well it covered the tattoo with a little effort and some creative blending but the problem was that it wasn't waterproof or smudge proof and as I had hoped it wouldn't transfer onto the bed sheets that the actor was laying on it did.  So much for the white sheets and the tattoo cover.   I had to take the whole thing off.   I am going to do a little research now and experiment to find a better fix for that.   The actor had mentioned a product someone had used on him before but I don't think it's easily available in Canada so I am going to investigate and if I get my hands on some I will do some testing and post the results here.

As for the rest of the shoot.  I had packed really light...meaning I had less things than I thought I had in my kit since I have been re organizing everything.   But luckily I did have some castor oil and an eye dropper for a last minute crying effect.   

You never know what you will need so pack more but sometimes less is more when it comes to applying the makeup.  I took a minimal approach to the rest of the makeup to make sure it didn't look like everyone was made up.   Hopefully the results will look good in the completed film.