I guess this photo shoot has been in the making for some time now. This past October I was the Makeup Manager for Louisville Halloween's Ultimate Halloween Fest. At the beginning of the season I assigned all of the makeups to the artists. Zoe Hall was one of my artists and she had worked with me before so Zoe knew what I expected. I was more than comfortable putting her at the other end of the makeup trailer. I also assigned her all of our circus performer's makeups.
The above image is my good friend Mary Proctor modeling my Circus Test Makeup.
The idea was to make the circus makeups look like they were in weather stage makeup. Not the prettiest but effective. Having assigned the makeups before the season sight unseen I had no idea who was getting what performer. One of the performers was an Aerialist named Olivia Storment. She was very impressive to watch and kind of intimidating to me atleast. I was disappointed I didn't get to do her makeup because I would see her at the opposite end of the trailer getting makeup and I really liked her look. There was one night we were short an artist and I had to reassign a few makeups and pick up slack. Needless to say I took that as an opportunity to do Olivia's makeup.
The above image is Zoe Hall doing Olivia Storment's makeup. Shot by Bret Griffeth
I remember vividly how Olivia was very quiet as I was doing her makeup. With her quietness and me being intimidated I was nervous to start conversation. I did what I thought was a very pretty Vee Neil/Tim Burton style makeup. I was super happy with it and it was the makeup I wanted to keep and probably should have. The directive was weathered stage makeup, which was my directive in the first place. Even though it pained me I added the poorly drawn on brows, heavy blush and the weathering. The makeup still looked cool for what it was and Olivia pulled it off. I was worried this would be the only opportunity I'd have to do her makeup and it was a "haunt" makeup, I didn't even get a photo.
The above image is Olivia Storment performing at Louisville Halloween's Ultimate Halloween Fest.
Fast forward a several months I had decided to redo and improve my Venom body paint. Danny Alexander had agreed to shoot the look as he shot the first one. I wanted to find the perfect model. Danny and I bounced models off of each other for a couple days. Olivia kept popping up in my head but I didn't think she'd be into it, plus she intimidated me. With Olivia being an aerialist having her model a spider-man type character body paint just made sense. I am so happy she agreed to do it and the photos came out amazing. We talked more during the body paint so I wasn't as scared of her anymore. Olivia has a beautiful face though so while it was a cool body paint, it still wasn't the beauty makeup I wanted to do on her.
Now fast forward several more months. I completely skipped over asking her to model a beauty makeup to asking her out on a date. I fully grasp asking her out was quite the leap from asking her to model but I am so happy I did. I honestly thought that would fall flat but I had to at least give her the opportunity to reject me, or say yes to be nice and then just be friends. Lucky for me she said yes. Things have been amazing since that first date and we are very happy. Well,… I'm very happy and I hope she is too. After spending a lot of time together I felt it was time to finally do a beauty makeup on her. Since Danny had shot the Venom body paint with us and knew Olivia from that I asked if he would shoot the makeup. Not to mention Danny is just a kick ass photographer.
In Olivia's words; This was my first time having more of a beauty style makeup done by Matt. All I can say is that I couldn't have been more elated with the outcome. To have that done by someone who's not only an artist to me, but also my boyfriend. It really means more than words can describe. To say I'm lucky is an understatement. He did such a beautiful job and I absolutely loved the soft-dark vibe this makeup portrayed. When I was told what the color scheme would be I got really excited. I loved the red/purple tones and really like red colors in general. I'm so glad I got to model this look for a person who means so much to me.
I originally set out to do this really dewy ethereal makeup with soft colors. A couple days before the shoot I saw a reddish eye makeup that changed my mind. Olivia has beautiful almost sage colored eyes and I knew the deep reds would make them pop. I added a subtle but razor sharp deep red wing and under that a soft wing to add some drama and contrast. It's a different feeling doing makeup on someone you love and I’m sure we will do it again sometime. I love how the images came out, it's fun creating with the one you love. Danny did a killer job as usual though and I am happy to share them.
"Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears."
-Edgar Allan Poe
