MAC Make-Up Spree in London

This post is now available at www.emmafarrellmakeup.com

Ok, so I managed to restrain myself a teensy bit, surprise surprise!

I went to the MAC Pro Store in London, which is located in the heart of West Soho. My visit happily co-incided with the Gay Pride Festival, so there was a fantastic buzz about the place. I really enjoyed the vibrant energy and taking a peek at the wild drag make-up. I managed to “drag” hehe myself away from the parade to pop into the store and buy a few bits and pieces.

I got me some pigments of course…soo hard to resist!

I bought Fuchsia, Neo-Orange and Gold. I am looking forward to using these bad boys! Have a photoshoot coming up which I think will be a good time to experiment, will post the photos later so keep your eyes peeled.

I also got a fantastic glitter pigment called Crystallized Lime, think this will be really cool with the Neo Orange pigment to create a neon raver look!

Of course I needed a medium for the pigments so I got the eyeliner mixing medium, because it is safe to use in the eye area and it has a nice thick consistancy, which I plan to use for some intense colour.

I was also loving their lipmixes, so picked up three of them, Burgandy, which I thought would be great to darken any of the lipcolours I already have. Crimson, because it is such a fantastic femme fatale red and Gold to go with the gold pigment I got…I feel a gold themed look coming up

And of course it wouldn’t be a MAC visit without getting some of the old faithful, face and body foundation. This is one of my favourite MAC products, I go through tons of this stuff. I tend to only use a bit of this in the summer as I like my skin to glow. Also alot of the models I work with have impeccable skin so I only have to use this with a teeny bit of concealer.

Ok it wouldn’t be a a MAC visit without getting a few brushes….hehe well you know what they say, a bad workman likes to blame his tools so I just make sure to arm myself with only the best. I picked up the 188 brush, which is very similar to the 187, but smaller.

This is great for the application of foundation, because its quite small it gives you more control and lets you get right into the inner eye etc, but with it’s duo fibre you are able to get that airbrushed effect and build layer upon layer if needed.

I also bought the 214 brush, this is a nifty little thing for applying eyeshadow without getting any fallout.

I love using it for intense colour and bulding darker shadows. Because of the short hairs you can use it for very controlled application which make it brilliant for applying shadow to the lashline and smudging for that sexy smokey look.

The 217 brush is another tool I added to my make-up belt, it is brilliant for applying creamy colour base and applying concealer under the eyes.

I use it to apply the Hush base that I bought in London and my old favourite Bobby Brown Concealer “Creamy Concealer Kit in Ivory”

I also bought the 219 Brush For precision shading on lid, this is absolutely awesome for any blending that you need to do. I can’t reiterate enough how important good brushes are. When I first started out as a make-up artist I bought cheap brushes from eBay…they did the trick at the time, but all I can say is that I have really stepped my game up in the last few years because I have invested in good tools which certainly make the job easier.

I also bought some other bits and bobs, but there is no point going into everything. Thank goodness for my MAC Pro card is all I can say, because it all ended up coming to about £300 but with my discount it only cost me £200. Still a lot of money, but  a bargain in comparison. Was around €250 with all the conversions.

Walking Dollar Sign

So I naively thought that Hong Kong was a culture shock, boy I wasn’t ready for the crazy quirky land that is Vietnam!! The minute a stepped foot outside the airport in Hanoi, I was mobbed by blood thirsty taxi/mini-bus/bus drivers vying for my business. Eventually after much to-ing and fro-ing and procrastination I got a mini-bus to Hanoi for a pre-arranged fare of $2.

The trip was like something out of the wacky races…beeping, weaving, breaking, speeding through all the traffic, past rice paddies and a huge truck crash(which was a little disconcerting seeing as I didn’t have much faith in our own driver).

Eventually arrived in Hanoi in one piece. I wanted to be dropped off at the Old Quarter near the lake, they off course dropped me way out, conveniently outside a hotel which I am assuming is their friends hotel. Then there was some arguing about the fare, they tried to charge me 300,000 dong which is around $18. Luckily I was a bit weary when I got into the bus so I took all my money and hid it in other compartments and just put $2 into my wallet, so when he demanded more

Temple of Literature The scholars of Hanoi used to come here.

money, I just told him that was all that I had and that was what we had agreed. After much arguing and smiling on my side, he eventually walked off in a huff with me calling after him that I hope he had a nice day…

I tried to get my bearings so went to a nearby green area to gather my thoughts and figure out where they had dropped me. As I was walking I had people shouting at me trying to get me to buy their postcards, fruit, get a lift, you name it they were selling it. Eventually I bought some post cards from a woman just so that she could give me some directions, not particularly enamoured with the Vietnamese culture so far! Turns out I was so far away from where I wanted to be that I wasn’t even on my lonely planet map. I had to walk for about a mile or two in the scorching heat with a 16kg backpack crossing roads with millions of Mopeds following no traffic laws heading straight for me, hoping and praying they would stop. Makes things more interesting, taking your life into your hands everytime you

Motorbike! You ain’t nothing in Vietnam without a Moped/Motorbike/Scooter.

cross the road. I eventually found a hostel run by two Ozzie guys called Hanoi Backpackers and booked myself in for the night for a sweet rate of $7.50 a night.

After the experience of the day I decided to just relax in the safety and comfort of the hostel…would leave venturing out into Hanoi for another day.

Made some friends in the hostel and for the next couple of days spent my time seeing the sights that Hanoi has to offer, including mouth watering fruit shakes, bowls of poh (noodle soup), honey sambos and an apple-like fruit/veg that I never got the name of. Also went along to watch some of the friends that I had made eat snake…it was an awesome experience. You go in and they pick out a live snake, they remove the still beating heart and offer it as a shot for the more brave of us…in our case it was an Ozzie called Brad. Then the others that were partaking got to have a shot of the snake’s blood followed by the bile….yummy!!! We were brought around the back to a hidden gem of a place, it was a beautiful dining area

Basket Case These poor ladies walk around all day with really heavy baskets, how do they do it! Some of their legs bend out of shape from years of carrying heavy loads.

made of bamboo, hovering over an inlet of water, this was a nice natural surprise as we were in the middle of the urban jungle. I have to say the spread that the guys received was well worth the $15 they paid for the snake. There was about five different courses all served in unique ways: Deep Fried Minced Snake, Steamed Snake, Snake Skin, Sauteed Snake and Snake Bones with Vegetables, nothing goes to waste.

I really began to embrace the craziness of the city and love the vibrancy that it brings. One of the highlights of the trips was sitting at the lake chatting to three Vietnamese girls to help improve their English and giving them a bit of a history lesson on Ireland in the process, was really good to get an insiders view of Hanoi and the culture. Hanoi got off to a bad start with me, but given a little time and culture re-adjusting I really enjoyed my time here.

On your marks, get set, go!!
Doesn’t even come close to describing how many motorbikes are in Hanoi, such a noisy city with all the beeping!

Little Boy
He was fascinated with us foreigners being in his backyard.

We were on our way to dine on snake, guess they don’t see many of the tourists back here.

Urban Oasis
The beautiful location for eating of the snake.

Street Food
Doing it like the locals we enjoy some honey toasted sandwiches

and coffee with sweet condensed milk.

Hong Kong

Finally arrived in Hong Kong today, feels like I have been waiting an eternity for this trip. It is like nothing I have seen before, a melting pot of cultures, walking around I was on sensory overload! Seems like old and new are haphazardly crammed into any available space. There are trendy bars beside tenement housing, old fashioned nail bars over classy restaurants.

I am staying in a really trendy part of town where all the “Filths (failed in London Try Hong Kong)” live. To get there you have to travel up the escalator….not a bad way to get up the hill! Daily traffic exceeds 55,000 people, its a brilliant way of moving lots of people fast!

Did some touristy stuff like get the Star Ferry to Kowloon and walk Hong Kong’s equivalent of the Hollywood Boulevard, go up to the peak of Hong Kong on the Peak Tram, Kowloon Park and Ocean Park.

One of the nights I went to a Szechuan Chinese restaurant, this is definitely one of the best things that I did in Hong Kong, it has completely revolutionized my opinion of Chinese food, gone is the bland MSG infused crap we get at

New Olympic Sport
Looks interesting

home and in with a tasty, well seasoned, flavour full delight. Szechuan cuisine often contains food preserved through pickling, salting, drying and smoking, and is generally spicy. Most dishes include the Sichuan peppercorn a numbing fruity spice. There are three varying degrees of spicyness, generally you start with the coolest finishing with the hottest dish. We had broccoli, sweet potato, aubergines, vegetarian dumplings and my favourite, a mixed veg with shredded crackers lettuce wrap, yummy! My friend Fabian who I was sharing the meal with got the restaurant’s special, which was obviously VERY spicy as he was absolutely sweating buckets! It was a wonderful experience, really authentic Chinese and something that I more than likely wouldn’t have had unless I was staying with someone from Hong Kong.

After the wonderful meal I finished the perfect day with a visit to the “Take Out Comedy Club” which was absolutely brilliant. One of the couchsurfing community performs there every Saturday. There was about ten different acts with really different styles of comedy, some I thoroughly enjoyed. It was all based around experiences with Hong Kong and after being there for a couple of days I really felt like I could relate

Escalator
Getting up to Soho is a breeze

to it! Just there are so many funny idiosyncrasies that occur when east meets west in such a obscure and mental way… Went for some drinks afterwards with some of the performers so it was good fun.

Also went to Ocean Park, this is a theme park that is favoured by the Hong Kongers, wheareas Disneyland has been somewhat shunned. It was a great idea to go on a Monday as we(myself and a girl called Edel from Cork I met randomly at the peak tram) didn’t have to queue for any of the rides. Some of them were just pure adrenaline rushes, never been on the one that drops you from a crazy height at break neck speeds before….I nearly shat myself!!!

Luckily I was able to get my Vietnam Visa in one day, so would be leaving Hong Kong as planned. Left the next morning at 9am.

Making-Up my Way Around the World

I am just recently back from a tour around part of the world. I kept a blog on www.travelblog.org which I thought I might share here, so I shall copy the excerpts over. I really wanted to write a book about my experience especially the make-up side of things and call it “Making-up my way around the world”..but somehow with all the exploration and excitement I forgot about it! Hopefully one day I will get around to it as I haven’t quite finished travelling yet. Perhaps someone out there would like to sponsor me?? I could even do a documentary style TV series spin off if you like

This is a girl that I met up in a mountainous region in Sapa, Vietnam. She was suffering from Alopecia and her eyebrows had all but disappeared. She decided to pencil them in so she wouldn’t look different to the other girls in her village. I thought she was gorgeous, but she said she hated her freckles and she wanted light skin like mine. She had gotten the sun damage from picking rice in the fields. I always find it fascinating that Caucasians spend their time trying to be darker with fake tan, bronzers etc and Asian people try and make themselves lighter with brightening creams! I guess its a case of you want what you can’t have. Oh and while in Chang Mai, Thailand I even saw nipple pinkening cream! Bizarro!

Pencilling in Eyebrows in Sapa

Aboriginal Body

Painting in Australia

While in Australia, I had the opportunity to meet an Aboriginal Elder. I bit of a sign of the times, he had a nice round belly and was playing his didgeridoo to dance music rigged up to car batteries. I guess you have to make a living somehow! Love the body painting though.
Anyway that was a far as I got on the book, pretty pathetic really I know, but I promise there will be more in the future. In the meantime I am going to put up the other blogs from my travels.

Enjoy xx