Engagement | Make Up By Katy

Engagement Shoot–Yellow Polka Dot Loveliness

July 5, 2011 By Katy Messer Leave a Comment

This is the latest shoot I worked on with David McNeil. An engagement shoot in a gorgeous village called Robertsbridge. Harriet and her lovely Fiancee live in a really traditional old wonky house that I fell in love with . Also their super cute, stone chewing doggy. Harriet asked for a strong eye and a flawless base, something I hear a lot. It’s relatively easy to achieve but with Harriets gorgeous yet porcelain skin tone, it can be a struggle to get a base light enough. High street brands hardly ever cater for skin this delicately pale. I easily matched by mixing Face Atelier foundation in Porcelain with their Zero Minus shade enhancer. This created a continuous flow of even-ness from er hairline down to her body.

The eyes were a strong mixture of a Topshop Creme/mousse shadow in Tundra, pressed over with a dark Pewter Laura Mercier shadow and intensified with an Avon Gel Liner pencil in a super black shade. I deepened the crease slightly with a red toned plum just to bring out her eye colour.

I left before I saw the chosen outfit and I LOVE it! I don’t think there’s enough Yellow Polka Dot in the world.

I hope you enjoy the photos, note the last shot was on a bed set up in their own garden. Genius.

I hope you enjoyed these.

Katy xx

Filed Under: Engagement, Freelance, Make-Up, Photography

Engagement Shoot- Laura and Rhys

December 9, 2010 By Katy Messer 4 Comments

Hi All,

This is my latest shoot done with the ever faboo David McNeil. I love working with David, not only because I’m guaranteed to get amazing images for my blog and website, but because he really appreciates a make-up artist. I get full creative freedom, even though we both love a really great ‘Eye’!

Laura is naturally very strikingly attractive, so when I did her make-up I kept the base to a minimum. She is also uber fair and I needed to add in a little white base to really match her properly. Her look was all about strong eyes (of course) and I rocked my new Elf Cream Liner in Violet with my Avon Gel Liner pencil in Black. The lid colour was a mix of Benefit Gossip and Stiletto Cream shadow with a Laura Mercier Bronze pigment washed in and Yaby through the crease…I think! Lashes were by Eyelure. Lips were a mix of OCC Lip Tar in Memento with a neutral beige gloss. Oh, and brows were a la the usual – Yaby powder!

Aren’t they BEAUTIFUL?!

I hope you liked them

Filed Under: Engagement, Freelance, Make-Up, Make-Up Artist, Photography, Wedding Make-Up Tagged With: Benefit, David McNeil, Engagement, Eyeliner, Freelance, Katy, Make-Up, Make-Up Artist, OCC, Photographers, Photography, smoky eye, Wedding Make-Up

Engagement Shoot – Emma and Mike

October 16, 2010 By Katy Messer 5 Comments

Hi All,

Another Engagement shoot shot with David McNeil. This time it was nice and local in sunny Chiswick.

Emma and Mike are a gorgeous couple and what a dream face to work on?!

Make-up artists… do you ever walk onto a set or meet a client and take one look at them and a little voice in your head shouts “Woop!”? Because that’s what happened to me. And then to top it all off, Emma asks for a really strong, black lined eye look. Um..Yes ma’am, I can do that!

Again, another owner of near perfect skin so I just whizzed over a sheer layer of base. I contoured the cheeks slightly more than usual to keep it a tad edgier and did my usual thing with brows. Overall, a really fun make-up and I’m thrilled with how it turned out in the pictures. Emma and Mike are getting married next Summer so keep your eye out for it on David’s blog!

Until next time my lovelies

Filed Under: David McNeil, Engagement, Freelance, Make-Up, Make-Up Artist, Photography, Photoshoot, Wedding Make-Up Tagged With: David McNeil, Engagement, Freelance, Make-Up, Make-Up Artist, Photography, Photoshoot, Wedding Make-Up

Engagement Shoot – Sarah and Chris

October 13, 2010 By Katy Messer 1 Comment

Hi Girls,

A few weeks ago I went on a bit of a country wide tour with the lovely photographer David McNeil as we worked together on 5 engagement shoots.

This is one that was down in Bristol and once again, the couple were smashing! I had great fun working on Sarah, what with her beautiful skin and great eyes. I got to do my ‘thing’ with her brows as I felt they were a little too thin and I wanted them to frame her eyes a little bit more. I used my Laura Mercier Brow Pencil in Blonde to fill in with little hair strokes on the areas of skin and then I layered my Yaby Brow powder on top to set and tweak the shade. Sarah’s skin was, as I said before, really clear and so I kept her foundation to a minimum and literally buffed in a wee bit of Laura Mercier Foundation Stick and a dab of concealer. Lucky girl!

Sarah was really happy with her make-up and we were hoping to work together on her wedding day next year but unfortunately we weren’t able to make the dates work

Enjoy!

I hope you liked them

Engagement Shoot – Emily and Adam

September 13, 2010 By Katy Messer 1 Comment

Hi Girls,
An engagement shoot from Sunday with the fab as ever David McNeil. Shot in central London, another lovely couple who are getting married this December. Oh, and they’re not in any of these photos but I had a bad case of shoe envy from her bright blue suede killer heels.

Filed Under: David McNeil, Engagement, Freelance, Make-Up, Photoshoot Tagged With: David McNeil, Engagement, Freelance, Make-Up, Photoshoot

Engagement Shoot – Amy and Chris

September 12, 2010 By Katy Messer 5 Comments

Hi Girls

Another Engagement shoot with David McNeil and as usual, the photos are incredible. Amy has absolutely beautiful skin, so I kept in light and creamy and went for a soft, pewter smoky eye. I kept liner to a minimum and only did a flutter of mascara to stop it looking to ‘done’ and heavy. I gently groomed the brows with pencil. No need to contour as her cheekbones do enough by themselves! A slick of Melange Lip Tar mixed with a nude gloss finished off the lips.

Another really lovely couple who sound as though they’re going to have a cracking wedding day.

Shot in and around Borough Market. It makes me fall in love with London even more!

Enjoy, it’s a very picture heavy post but they’re too good not to share!

Filed Under: David McNeil, Engagement, Freelance, Make-Up Artist, Photographers, Photoshoot, smoky eye, Wedding, Wedding Make-Up Tagged With: David McNeil, Engagement, Freelance, Make-Up Artist, Photographers, Photoshoot, smoky eye, Wedding, Wedding Make-Up

Couple Shoot – Mark and Olivia

August 26, 2010 By Katy Messer 4 Comments

Hi Girls
You may have already read some of my previous posts about shoots I’ve done with the fantastic photographer David McNeil. I’ve shot weddings and pre-wedding shoots with him.
This couple were already married but wanted another shoot together, just because! Aw…
As always, David gave me free reign with the make-up but we plumped for striking eyes again because that’s kind of becoming a signature style. And all girls love smoky eyes
So, without further ado, I give you the lovely couple. Oh and, Mark really hates having his picture taken, not that you can tell here at all?!

Filed Under: David McNeil, Engagement, Freelance, Make-Up, Make-Up Artist, Photographers, Photoshoot Tagged With: David McNeil, Engagement, Freelance, Make-Up, Make-Up Artist, Photographers, Photoshoot

Engagement Shoot – Kings Road

August 13, 2010 By Katy Messer Leave a Comment

Hi Girls,

Another lovely Engagement Shoot, this time with the truly delightful Sarah Morton at the helm.

The couple, Lucy and John were lovely and I was so pleased when, after seeing the make-up, Lucy asked me if I was available for her actual wedding date. Thankfully I was! (I love Friday weddings for this exact reason!)

The wedding was last week and I’m waiting with anticipation to see the photos. Lucy wore a smoking hot slinky blue evening dress and was a sight to behold.

Back to this shoot… We executed the make-up in record time and literally ran out of the door into a cab and arrived at the Kings Road just in time. The location was the Love Bakery and, because it would have been rude not to, I sampled ~~one, a couple,~~ a bag of their de-frickin-licious cupcakes. Here are a couple of the pictures that showed the make-up at it’s best, for the rest of the shoot, click onto Sarah’s site here. Warning, graphic pictures of massive cupcakes straight away.

Yours, cupcakes on the brain

Filed Under: Engagement, Freelance, Make-Up, Photoshoot, Sarah Morton Tagged With: Engagement, Freelance, Make-Up, Photoshoot, Sarah Morton

Engagement Shoot – Hampstead/Islington

July 20, 2010 By Katy Messer 4 Comments

Hi Girls,
Once again, the fabulous photographer David McNeil and I worked together on one of his trademark Engagement Shoots. David is one of the best photographers I’ve worked with, he’s renowned for his non-traditional style. His work has been seen Professional Photographer Magazine, Cosmopolitan Bride and on Wedding TV and more. He’s also a sponsor on Kat’s Rock n Roll Bride which is a haven for the modern bride who doesn’t want traditional. If you’ve not visited her site yet, do. Just go after you’ve read my post as you’ll be there a while!
The engagement shoot is a relatively unique service and one I wish I’d had offered to me before my wedding as it really does help the couple to relax and learn how to work together in front of a camera. It also gives the chance to have some amazing ‘real life’ photos as well as the wedding photos. I’m blathering now, so let me talk you through the make-up.
Emma had one of those faces that was just a pleasure to do from start to finish. The cropped dark hair lent itself easily to a strong, geometric smoky eye. I asked her before if she was ok with letting me go for it, she was and so, I did… On first look, I think she was a little shocked! For someone who is generally a non make-up wearer, false lashes can take you back somewhat… However, the end result is that in the photographs, it looked perfect..if I do say so myself
So here they are, Emma and Lyndon-

I hope you enjoyed these,

Filed Under: David McNeil, Engagement, Fake Lashes, False Lashes, Freelance, Make-Up, Make-Up Artist, Photographers, Photoshoot, Wedding, Wedding Make-Up Tagged With: David McNeil, Engagement, Fake Lashes, False Lashes, Freelance, Make-Up, Make-Up Artist, Photographers, Photoshoot, Wedding, Wedding Make-Up

Engagement Shoot – 31/05/10

June 1, 2010 By Katy Messer 2 Comments

Hi Girls,

I was lucky enough to be asked to do the make-up for another Engagement shoot with the fab David McNeil who specialises in unconventional wedding photography. I adore his style and his engagement shoots are always so striking and really capture the relationship between the couple. This shoot was no exception.

Jen and Fraser are getting married in only 7 weeks and by the sounds of it, are having an extremely entertaining wedding! Giant Jenga anyone?!

Before I show you the pics, here’s a brief rundown of the make-up I used for Jen-

Laura Mercier Silk Crème Foundation in Soft Ivory, Secret Concealer 1, Translucent Powder, Peach Mosaic, Eye Basic Linen, Brow Pencil Blonde, Metallic Eye colours Burnished Copper mixed with Rose Gold, Black Caviar, Noir Eye shadow, Rose and Cashmere Eye shadow. Bobbi Brown Foundation Stick Warm Ivory. Kryolan Cake Liner Black. Yaby Blusher peach. Bourjois Volume Clubbing Mascara Black. Model Co Nude Illusion Lip Pencil. OCC Lip Tar Hush/Melange/Feathered mixed.