Category: Uncategorized

This week the wonderful curator at the Makeup Museum has written an article about me and some of my work. Bringing culture and makeup together in one place the Makeup Museum has a huge host of articles, links, images and ideas. A great place to discover and think about the history of makeup, the huge range of products and the massive links to culture that these have.

Check out the article about little old me here 

 

Art has always been in my life. I still have some of my cartoon images and doodles that I would draw as a child. Sketches of my parents and friends. School projects that would be very image heavy rather than text!

My mum and grandmother always sketched, my brother has restored furniture wonderfully and my beautiful late Cousin Naomi Wise became a qualified Art Therapist the year that she lost her life to Cancer.

Naomi’s 3 sons, my cousins (probably 2nd cousins but that gets too complicated!) are all very creative and talented too so it’s certainly something in our family!

I am a qualified registered Sign Language Interpreter. Another visual and creative line of work. I love my interpreting work and the beauty that Sign Language can be. However in 2007 I developed a repetitive strain injury from interpreting and since then I have had to manage my actual interpreting time very carefully. During my time off work I realised I needed an outlet. Sometimes this was through written reflection, or spoken. But often for me I was drawn back to my art. Initially I used chalks as these were gentle in the recovery of my arms. As I got stronger again and learnt how to manage my interpreting hours I realised that painting, sketching and creating didn’t affect my RSI.

Over the next couple of years I created Art for me, and for gifts to friends. Then in 2012 I decided I wanted to exhibit my work. Starting with Facebook and to those I knew and whom were less frightening, then eventually I had my first physical exhibition in Putney Arts Theatre. Much of my work you can see here on my website in the gallery or on my Facebook page. https://m.facebook.com/SbmArtwork

You may notice that much of it features women and especially pregnant, labouring or breastfeeding women. Since having my own children I have also supported several families as a Birth Doula. Through this privileged role I saw a strength and beauty in women that I had not previously known. It has strengthened my feelings hugely on women’s rights, feminism and questions on societal norms. These issues feature heavily in my artwork because they inspire me so much.

Since then I have gathered momentum and as my interpreting time remains limited I am able to spend many other hours in my week on my art.

Since last year things have really started to take off. I was approached by a wonderful author Starr Meneely, and created illustrations for her book ‘What A Lovely Sound!’ Which was published in December. Since then I have had illustrations published in a second book ‘Blue Jeans’ by the beautifully descriptive author Veronika Robinson.

I have now had several commissions for paintings and sketches, I’ve had cartoons published in the AIMS journal, I’ve exhibited twice more and I’ve also produced some images for charity cards which will be used by AIMS.

Alongside this I was so excited to create the street art last year and see it produced into the gorgeous film by Ashley Meneely and be permitted to use the amazing music by The Glass Child. I felt truly blessed to see how far my art has come. But there is so much more ahead!! I have created more images with Veronika Robinson for a new book, I am working with three more authors on illustrations for their children’s books and I am planning to submit several images this year for use by The Mother Magazine.

I’ve also finally created a small studio space in our home which feels fantastic.

So a week after finishing my makeup free month I went to a fabulous party. Some friends were celebrating their wedding anniversary by having a wedding themed party in the style of a wedding reception. Several of us wore our wedding dresses and it was a very fun night of dressed up silliness!

I received my homemade makeup order the day before so I decided to try it on the night. The makeup I received included a tub of loose translucent powder from potato starch, two solid eyeliners in tubs, one cocoa and one charcoal. Two powder blush tubs, one hibiscus and one beetroot. I also received a mascara, lip balm and lip scrub.

My skin is naturally quite dry so the translucent powder wouldn’t sit on my skin without something under it. This product would be good for greasy skin/patches. I use oils on my skin most days so it will work well to give a matt finish to my nose.

For the party I realised I wanted a base so that the powder and blush would have a product to sit on. As I didn’t have anything of this nature I used a small amount of my old foundation mixed with coconut oil. This worked well and allowed the powder and blush to sit nicely on my skin. They felt light and smelt lightly of their ingredients. The blush was quite light on my skin and this allowed me to build up a nice colour slowly.

I love emphasising eyes with makeup and I found the eyeliner and mascara didn’t have the effect I was looking for. The mascara is nice for during the day, a subtle look, but the eyeliner I need to practice with. I need to try a few different ways of applying it from the tub as my eyeliner brush wasn’t effective. I admit here that I dug out my old eyeliner and mascara in this instance too. What I did find though was that the natural eyeliner dabbed on with my finger made a lovely eyeshadow! So I placed this in the outer corners of my eyes and set it with the translucent powder.

Finally I wanted strong lips so I used the lip balm as a base and then applied a red lipstick that I already had.

Here is the end result 🙂

So I need to add to my gentle products! This look was definitely not chemical free but it was a big improvement to my previous makeup use.

I’m now on the hunt for an organic/natural foundation or concealor style product, a stronger look mascara that is still less chemically dependent than my usual product, and some lip tints- which I previously mentioned from Burts bees.

Putting makeup on felt very strange to me, I felt like I was cheating! However once it was on I really enjoyed playing with it and the character I get to play with it on. Today I am at work and still makeup free, and most days I find this better than putting a ‘little’ makeup on. Yesterday I wore the hibiscus blusher (sat on coconut oil) and the homemade mascara. It gave a subtle change which was nice but I don’t feel I need it everyday now.

As for homemade makeup, I think there is real potential for changing to these, but as with anything it will be trying a few different products, getting used to using them and finding what works best for you. If you try any yourself, let me know!

A reminder of the link to the homemade makeup I bought
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ABHOMEMADENATURALS

And if you still haven’t checked out my street art video ‘Skin – painting using cosmetics’ and shared it please can you!