Cape Town’s “Southern Ink Xposure” tattoo convention brought an assortment of alternative inked models to the mother city, and we all know that there’s nothing quite so inspiring to photographers as a uniquely beautiful girl. Southern Ink Xposure was painfully timed to compete with the birthday weekend of yours truly, so alas there was not much model grabbing and photo taking on my behalf, but luckily one or two of the beauties stayed behind, and I was given the opportunity to work with a suicide girl and official suicide girl photographer. Lumo Suicide (the name of this particular Suicide Girl) asked me to curl her hair and make her look a mix of classically beautiful and interesting. The pink heart is obviously not present on the purchased set.

Photographer: TaLamia Photography

Model: Lumo Suicide

Hair and Make-up Artist: Samantha Laura Kaye

Pro Tip: To get the structure behind these curls I lightly finger-combed “Grip” Mousse  (from the OSIS range by Schwarzkopf ) through her hair, then slowly, section by section made tight GHD curls. While the curls were hot, as soon as I released them from the iron, I rolled them neatly into a tight curl and pinned them with a grip clip and some tissue (to prevent tension marks where the clips grip). I then added hairspray, left the curls for around 45 min, and then took them down and combed away any stray hairs. Finally I used the Loreal “Play Ball” shine serum (which is a spray!) to bring out the texture and colour.

“Looking though the window at life. You look amazing to me” is the title given to this photograph by the model, Kira Wilkinson. Kira and I shared a chalet whilst touring Jo-Burg with Madame Zingara and when she finally returned back from the UK I felt privileged to finally work with her on a test. I really love the ambiance of this photograph, the lighting, the reflections in the glass and the neutral colour palette. I hope to work with this team again soon!

Main Make-up ingredients: MAC: Face and Body in C6, brow-gel in clear,  eyeshadows in “brule”, “embark”, “cork” and “shroom”, technakohl liner in “graphblack”.

Pro Tip: When you’re applying your make-up with a clean, natural or matt look in mind use a non-reflective eye-shadow like MAC’s “brule” and then apply a colour like “shroom” (which is basically the same colour in a more reflective texture) in small doses under the arch of the brow or in-between the eyes on top of the bridge of the nose. Doing this helps to contour the face, draw attention to specific areas and sculpt the face – and the application of a non-shiny version of the colour first allows the eyeshadow to “dilute” making blending and subtelty easier.

Main Hair ingredients: OSIS “upload”, rollers and hairspray.

Photographer: Anton De Beer

Model: Kira Wilkinson

Make-Up: Samantha Kaye

Hair: Samantha Kaye

Stylist: Kira Wilkinson/ Nicky-Anne De Beer

Location: Houtkapperspoort, Constantia Nek

2009

The beautiful Gabi-Lee from Boss Model Management.

Main Make-Up ingredients: MAC: Face and Body Foundation finished with mineralize skinfinish powder and Prep+Prime Transparent finishing powder , brow pencil in “lingering“, eye-shadow “shroom”, “vanilla”, “malt”, Pro Longlash mascara in “PitchBlack”, lip pencil: “Redd”, lipstick: “Lady Danger“.

Main Hair ingredient: A great blow-dry, OSIS “magic”. I simply tied a pony, sectioned off the “fringe” part, and then combed the front into a “swirl” rather than “teen-punk’s” signiture girl-do.

Photographer: Stphane Santinelli

Model: Gabi-Lee Smit from Boss

Hair and Make-up: Samantha Kaye

Location: Cape Town

2009

My first shoot with Anton De Beer. We shot Bridal Boudoir looks at a guesthouse in Cape Town and it was lots of fun!

Main Make-Up ingredients: MAC studio sculpt foundation, MAC eyeshadow: “brule”, “shale”, “bronze”,”garcon grey”, “embark”. MAC pigments: “lily white”, “dazzleray”.PlushGlass “big kiss. “ ProLongLash mascara, YSL Touche Éclat.

Main Hair Ingredients: OSIS “upload and “magic”.

Photographer: Anton De Beer

Model: Samantha Laura Kaye

Make-up and Hair: Samantha Laura Kaye

Stylist: Nicky-Anne De Beer.

On Location in 2009

Kira Wil­kin­son is a South African Actress who I felt pri­vi­le­ged to work with. She has an amazing body, accompanied by a powerful face and powerful soul. She pulls off this shot fantastically!

Main Make-up ingre­dients: MAC: Face and Body in C6, brow-gel in clear, MAC eyeshadow in “brule”, “woodwinked” “embark”, “cork” and “shroom”, tech­na­kohl liner in “graph­black”.

Pro Tip: When you’re appl­ying your make-up with a “natu­ral  look” in mind – where you want to sulpt the face with colour (ie a light colour under the browbone) but without frosting or noticeable shimmer  in mind use a non-reflective eye-shadow like MAC’s “brule” and then apply a colour like “shroom” (which is basi­cally the same colour in a more reflec­tive tex­ture) in small doses under the arch of the brow or in-between the eyes or apply a dollop of “woodwinked” – (a veluxe pearl and especially shiny eye-shadow in a colour fairly neutral to people with tanned skin) to the center of the lids. Doing this helps to con­tour the face, draw atten­tion to spe­ci­fic areas and sculpt the face — and the appli­ca­tion of a non-shiny ver­sion of the colour first allows the eyesha­dow to “dilute” making blen­ding easier and turning the shimmer into “amazing” lighting or bone structure.

Main Hair ingre­dients: OSIS “upload”, rollers and hairspray.

Pho­to­grapher: Anton De Beer

Model: Kira Wilkinson

Make-Up: Samantha Kaye

Hair: Samantha Kaye

Sty­list: Kira Wilkinson/ Nicky-Anne De Beer

Loca­tion: Hout­kap­pers­poort, Cons­tan­tia Nek

2009

Fashion Work – 2009

Main Make-up Ingredients: Studio Fix Fluid Foundation, MAC “Hello Kitty” half lash, cremeblush in “brit wit” and Mineralise skinfinish in “light, medium and medium-dark”.

Main Hair Ingredients: Rollers, OSIS “grip” (mousse), LOREAL “Play Ball – Silky Sunrise”

Pho­to­grapher: Mark Freeborough

Model: Robyn Hobson

Hair and Make-up: Samantha Kaye

Clothing: Nuc­leus Clothing

Assis­tant: Frank Moody

Loca­tion: The Barn­yard, Tokai, Cape Town.

2009

James  wanted to focus on texture and light, monopolizing the unique set he designed for the shoot which utilized strategic channels of natural light with the help of an accompany assistant and his board, so it was important for the make-up to look “soft” and “fuzzy” whilst still sculpting Colette’s face. By using Colette’s natural colour palette ( the colours in her hair and skin) I was able to keep this look “simple” and “uncomplicated”

Main Make-Up ingredients: Blending! I used MAC’s #224 brush to really “fuzz down” her shadow and enable me to apply shadow from very light to dark without any tell-tale lines or patches. MAC eyeshadow: “brule”, “cork”, “garcon grey” lips: pencil in  “stripdown”  lipglass in “majestic”.

Main Hair ingredients: Rollers, “upload”, Bobby pins and hairspray – I applied OSIS “upload” to her roots, set her hair in rollers for some volume and height, and then brushed it down to keep it voluminous yet natural.

Photographer: James Strack

Model: Colette

Stylist: Caroline Olavarrieta

Hair: Samantha Kaye

Make-Up: Samantha Kaye

Location: One League Studios

2009

James  wanted to focus on texture and light, monopolizing the unique set he designed for the shoot which utilized strategic channels of natural light with the help of an accompany assistant and his board, so it was important for the make-up to look “soft” and “fuzzy” whilst still sculpting Colette’s face. By using Colette’s natural colour palette ( the colours in her hair and skin) I was able to keep this look “simple” and “uncomplicated”

Main Make-Up ingredients: Blending! I used MAC’s #224 brush to really “fuzz down” her shadow and enable me to apply shadow from very light to dark without any tell-tale lines or patches. MAC eyeshadow: “brule”, “cork”, “garcon grey” lips: pencil in  “stripdown”  lipglass in “majestic”.

Main Hair ingredients: Rollers, “upload”, Bobby pins and hairspray – I applied OSIS “upload” to her roots, set her hair in rollers for some volume and height, and then brushed it down to keep it voluminous yet natural.

Photographer: James Strack

Model: Colette

Stylist: Caroline Olavarrieta

Hair: Samantha Kaye

Make-Up: Samantha Kaye

Location: One League Studios

2009

Main Make-Up ingredients: Blending! I used MAC’s #224 brush to really “fuzz down” her shadow and enable me to apply shadow from very light to dark without any tell-tale lines or patches. MAC eyeshadow: “brule”, “cork”, “garcon grey” lips: pencil in  “stripdown”  lipglass in “majestic”.

Main Hair ingredients: Rollers, “upload”, Bobby pins and hairspray – I applied OSIS “upload” to her roots, set her hair in rollers for some volume and height, and then clipped it back with some bobby-pins in a relaxed upstyle.

Photographer: James Strack

Model: Colette

Stylist: Caroline Olavarrieta

Hair: Samantha Kaye

Make-Up: Samantha Kaye

Location: One League Studios

2009

This is one of my favourite portraits. It’s from my first shoot with Robert Miller, where I was doing the make-up and modeling with a variety of costumes and wigs for a “pin-up” style shoot. This photograph is in fact a crop of a photograph of me relaxed and momentarily unaware of the camera, walking across the studio to fetch a new hairdo, my hair was disheveled from the violent way I’d pulled off the last wig.

Main Make-Up ingredients: MAC studio fix fluid, mineralise skinfinish “lightful”(ltd. “Corps de ballet“), bronzer “golden”, sheertone blush: “blushbaby”, lipstick “House Wine” and “Kinda Sexy” and “Honeylove”, Lipglass (clear).

Main Hair ingredients: Frustration and Apathy.

Photographer: Robert Miller

Model: Samantha Laura Kaye

Make-Up and Hair: Samantha Kaye

Location: Snap Studios, Woodstock, Cape Town

2007