check out the new issue of Fora, along with my makeup tips!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Much Mommy
one of my favorite faces is Erica Ehm. I say this in a broader sense than just doing her makeup; i say it also because i grew up watching her as one of the first VJ's for MuchMusic. as a teenager i was glued to the tv watching that channel, and watched Erica interview some of my music heroes. growing up in small town British Columbia, i yearned to have a career like hers: wear cool clothes, talk to rock stars... i mean, come on. but Erica was different than so many of the other women i saw on tv at the time. yes, she was smart, and gorgeous, but there was something unconventional about her. she really brought her own personality, her own quirkiness to the screen. as someone who felt out of place a lot of the time as a teen, she subconsciously encouraged me to just be myself, and be so fearlessly.
fast forward a few years, and i see that Erica has created a new empire. no, that's the wrong word... she's created a community. it's for mothers. yummy mummies, to be exact. i love hitting up yummy mummy club because, in my opinion, it's not just for moms; it's for all women. and being the smart cookie she is, Erica didn't follow the paths others had laid out for her, she created her own. i'm going to guess it was by following her heart.
now, i have the pleasure of working with Erica on a regular basis, doing her makeup while she hosts Bravo! At The Concert Hall. she's everything i thought she would be when i used to watch her on MuchMusic, and now even more. she's smart, funny, gorgeous, compassionate, personable, professional, one of the most open people i know, and now i can also say that she's become a mentor.
Erica has featured articles i've written on her blog, and even mentioned me in a few of her own. (i promise i'll get around to writing a post about that whole Bono/The Edge thing in detail...)
just another reason why my job's pretty sweet.
fast forward a few years, and i see that Erica has created a new empire. no, that's the wrong word... she's created a community. it's for mothers. yummy mummies, to be exact. i love hitting up yummy mummy club because, in my opinion, it's not just for moms; it's for all women. and being the smart cookie she is, Erica didn't follow the paths others had laid out for her, she created her own. i'm going to guess it was by following her heart.
now, i have the pleasure of working with Erica on a regular basis, doing her makeup while she hosts Bravo! At The Concert Hall. she's everything i thought she would be when i used to watch her on MuchMusic, and now even more. she's smart, funny, gorgeous, compassionate, personable, professional, one of the most open people i know, and now i can also say that she's become a mentor.
Erica has featured articles i've written on her blog, and even mentioned me in a few of her own. (i promise i'll get around to writing a post about that whole Bono/The Edge thing in detail...)
just another reason why my job's pretty sweet.
Monday, June 14, 2010
When God Made Me He Broke All The Rules
when i was a little girl, around 6 or 7 years old, i was obsessed with KISS. while other little girls had posters of unicorns and rainbows on their walls, my room was decorated with posters of Gene Simmons with his eyes rolled back in his head spurting out blood with that...tongue... wagging around. the first thing i ever purchased with my own allowance money was "Love Gun". i remember being in the store with my mom and she looked at the record and said, "are you sure?"
my brother had an 8-track in his bedroom, and i had found the cassette for Destroyer amongst his music collection and was immediately intrigued. i used to play that thing all the time, until i could afford to buy my own KISS album. Love Gun is still one of my favorite karaoke songs.
my little 7 year old friends were terrified to sleep over at my house on account of my Gene posters. i guess i saw through it all a bit, but i loved the theatre of it all... the makeup, the costumes, the pyro. i also loved, even at that young age, that my parents just didn't get why i loved this offensive band. my 7 year old self also secretly wished that the members of KISS really did have powers befitting to their characters. around this time i also became curious about religion, so i remember praying to god at night for forgiveness because i just couldn't help liking KISS, and they were clearly evil.
so one day at work, Gene Simmons came in. let me remind you that this is grown-up me, and i work for a television network, and my job is touching the faces of celebrities and music icons on a regular basis. no one ever really "throws" me... not to my face. i let them walk away from me before i have an "oh my god!!" moment. except that day.
when Gene walked in to the makeup room, he came flanked with a photographer (who happened to be my friend Telma) and a cameraman. we were introduced, we shook hands, and Gene and i locked eyes. say what you will about this man, that he's a douchebag, a sleazeball, a money grabbing opportunist... (and grown-up me agrees with all those things- although i am guilty of enjoying Family Jewels) but, he is ONE INTENSE MAN. i felt like i was locked into him. he's so tall and, well, intense.
then things immediately turned into a shitshow. i said, "Gene. So nice to meet you." and he pulled me in and bear hugged me. then he sang, "Fairy tales do come true... it can happen to you" as he snapped my bra strap on my back over and over. i think i turned 50 shades of red. he stood back, still holding my arms, and proceeded to "poke" my armpit with his finger, making this weird squeaking noise as he did so. i could not stop laughing. i turned into 7 year old me in one second flat...not that that kind of behavior had anything to do with my childhood, but you know what i'm trying to say. then he hugged me some more and held my face with his hands and put his nose on my upper lip, and sniffed. "i like how you smell" he told me. then i sat him down to do his powder, and he asked me for hairspray. so i helped him spray that helmet of hair he has... the whole while he blew kisses at himself in the mirror. i said, "Gene, you are a handsome and powerful man." he liked that. then he opened his pants a bit and pretended to hairspray his crotch. i told him if it needed hairspray, he clearly needed to trim.
as he walked out, i noticed his back was covered in some red fuzz, so i stopped him and was using the lint roller on his back... he stuck out his butt and said, "feel that." so, i did. he said, "not bad, huh?" and i said, "surprisingly, rock hard!" "you think that's hard?" he said, and took my hand and put it on his schmeckle. yup. i'm not kidding. i said, "wow, that's big. is that where you keep your money?" he did a huge belly laugh, hugged me again, and walked out.
so weird, but i was totally laughing and having fun even though it was kind of creepy. and i was blushing. a lot. oh, and a plastic severed hand that i had stolen from a hallowe'en party somehow made its way into the hugs...
the whole time Telma was snapping away on her camera.
it was quite the day at work. i met a childhood icon. wow. now, if you will excuse me, i have to go pray.
my brother had an 8-track in his bedroom, and i had found the cassette for Destroyer amongst his music collection and was immediately intrigued. i used to play that thing all the time, until i could afford to buy my own KISS album. Love Gun is still one of my favorite karaoke songs.
my little 7 year old friends were terrified to sleep over at my house on account of my Gene posters. i guess i saw through it all a bit, but i loved the theatre of it all... the makeup, the costumes, the pyro. i also loved, even at that young age, that my parents just didn't get why i loved this offensive band. my 7 year old self also secretly wished that the members of KISS really did have powers befitting to their characters. around this time i also became curious about religion, so i remember praying to god at night for forgiveness because i just couldn't help liking KISS, and they were clearly evil.
so one day at work, Gene Simmons came in. let me remind you that this is grown-up me, and i work for a television network, and my job is touching the faces of celebrities and music icons on a regular basis. no one ever really "throws" me... not to my face. i let them walk away from me before i have an "oh my god!!" moment. except that day.
when Gene walked in to the makeup room, he came flanked with a photographer (who happened to be my friend Telma) and a cameraman. we were introduced, we shook hands, and Gene and i locked eyes. say what you will about this man, that he's a douchebag, a sleazeball, a money grabbing opportunist... (and grown-up me agrees with all those things- although i am guilty of enjoying Family Jewels) but, he is ONE INTENSE MAN. i felt like i was locked into him. he's so tall and, well, intense.
then things immediately turned into a shitshow. i said, "Gene. So nice to meet you." and he pulled me in and bear hugged me. then he sang, "Fairy tales do come true... it can happen to you" as he snapped my bra strap on my back over and over. i think i turned 50 shades of red. he stood back, still holding my arms, and proceeded to "poke" my armpit with his finger, making this weird squeaking noise as he did so. i could not stop laughing. i turned into 7 year old me in one second flat...not that that kind of behavior had anything to do with my childhood, but you know what i'm trying to say. then he hugged me some more and held my face with his hands and put his nose on my upper lip, and sniffed. "i like how you smell" he told me. then i sat him down to do his powder, and he asked me for hairspray. so i helped him spray that helmet of hair he has... the whole while he blew kisses at himself in the mirror. i said, "Gene, you are a handsome and powerful man." he liked that. then he opened his pants a bit and pretended to hairspray his crotch. i told him if it needed hairspray, he clearly needed to trim.
as he walked out, i noticed his back was covered in some red fuzz, so i stopped him and was using the lint roller on his back... he stuck out his butt and said, "feel that." so, i did. he said, "not bad, huh?" and i said, "surprisingly, rock hard!" "you think that's hard?" he said, and took my hand and put it on his schmeckle. yup. i'm not kidding. i said, "wow, that's big. is that where you keep your money?" he did a huge belly laugh, hugged me again, and walked out.
so weird, but i was totally laughing and having fun even though it was kind of creepy. and i was blushing. a lot. oh, and a plastic severed hand that i had stolen from a hallowe'en party somehow made its way into the hugs...
the whole time Telma was snapping away on her camera.
it was quite the day at work. i met a childhood icon. wow. now, if you will excuse me, i have to go pray.
The Hills Aftershow Finale 2007
the first time we were invited to LA to do The Hills Aftershow Finale was back in december 2007. we all had SUCH a good time on this trip!!
the weather was gorgeous, and we shot the finale at Area nightclub. we stayed in a boutique hotel (the name of which escapes me) but it was beautiful, and had a huge rooftop pool and deck to enjoy the sun on.
Jessi was wearing a gorgeous Greta Constantine dress, which i loved, but it almost caused me to have a nervous breakdown!! Dan and Jessi had a trailer at the location to get ready in, and just as i was doing final touchups and there was a knock on the door yelling "FIVE MINUTES" (this was their US debut, no presh) Jessi's dress suddenly went POP! POP-POP!! and those cool square gold attatchments around the neckline of the dress came flying off.
we looked at each other in a moment of panic. i grabbed her face and said, "It's going to be fine." (i think i was telling myself that as much as her!) then i grabbed some double-sided tape and stuck those suckers back on. worked like a charm, except my stress level through the entire (live to air!) show was through the roof, worrying that one of those things was going to pop off on air. thankfully, they didn't. let's just say i had a BIG cocktail shortly after we wrapped!!
When work was done, we went to Les Deux (at the time, frequent hangout of The Hills cast) and The Roosevelt Hotel, and danced and had fun... maybe a little too much fun!! We hung out with UFC fighters that night... random.
i kept telling Jess not to leave her coat anywhere. the last pic is Jessi looking for her stolen coat at Les Deux. she never did find it.
the weather was gorgeous, and we shot the finale at Area nightclub. we stayed in a boutique hotel (the name of which escapes me) but it was beautiful, and had a huge rooftop pool and deck to enjoy the sun on.
Jessi was wearing a gorgeous Greta Constantine dress, which i loved, but it almost caused me to have a nervous breakdown!! Dan and Jessi had a trailer at the location to get ready in, and just as i was doing final touchups and there was a knock on the door yelling "FIVE MINUTES" (this was their US debut, no presh) Jessi's dress suddenly went POP! POP-POP!! and those cool square gold attatchments around the neckline of the dress came flying off.
we looked at each other in a moment of panic. i grabbed her face and said, "It's going to be fine." (i think i was telling myself that as much as her!) then i grabbed some double-sided tape and stuck those suckers back on. worked like a charm, except my stress level through the entire (live to air!) show was through the roof, worrying that one of those things was going to pop off on air. thankfully, they didn't. let's just say i had a BIG cocktail shortly after we wrapped!!
When work was done, we went to Les Deux (at the time, frequent hangout of The Hills cast) and The Roosevelt Hotel, and danced and had fun... maybe a little too much fun!! We hung out with UFC fighters that night... random.
i kept telling Jess not to leave her coat anywhere. the last pic is Jessi looking for her stolen coat at Les Deux. she never did find it.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
The Hills After Show Finale 2008
this was back in 2008. the canadian crew of The After Show went to LA for the second time to host The Hills season finale. i remember it was colder than it was in Toronto in LA, and it rained a lot. we shot the finale at a huge mansion in the hills, and the Goodyear Blimp flew overhead advertising the show. Usher was a special guest, and just as he was supposed to go on, no one could find him. panic ensued. turns out he was on his phone and didn't hear the knock on his door. i remember he performed "Love In This Club" and sprayed champagne over the crowd... mostly on me.
after we wrapped, we went to Chateau Marmont for some food and cocktails, and the The Bachelorette girl was there with her new husband. this was before the finale of The Bachelorette had aired so it was a big spoiler for all of our crew who watched that show.
after we wrapped, we went to Chateau Marmont for some food and cocktails, and the The Bachelorette girl was there with her new husband. this was before the finale of The Bachelorette had aired so it was a big spoiler for all of our crew who watched that show.
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