My Beauty Blogger Goals for 2012

Last year was phenomenal! I took blogging serious and turned my hobby of makeup into a part time job, earning me income and discovering a whole new level of passion for the beauty industry.  I learned a tremendous amount about the business with workshops, conferences and books. I also met some life changing friends, like fashion analyst Zakia owner of Z*Boutique and my Polished & Pressed Image Agency business partner, fashion stylist Marcelous Daniel. The launch of Polished & Pressed on 11-11-11 brought on new gigs and work that took us to a whole new level and lead to the expansion of our team with hair stylist La Jauna Hardin.  Together the three of us put together a dynamic photoshoot with model Kristen Lowery and photographer Keith Luellen of SYGUProductions at Jermaine Sheppard's NV Studios (1600 S. Halsted, Chicago, IL).

All of this has encouraged me to keep pressing towards my goals.  Since I met all of my 2011 goals, I had to make new ones... So I created a 2012 Vision Board of all my goals for this year on Pinterest. Check them out!

Also, watch my new uncut vlog series I Want to Be a Celebrity Makeup Artist... Follow me in my journey to become a celebrity makeup artist.  My area of interest is print and live performance (tours and runway).  Episode One is only an introduction to many more videos to come, on the business and artistry a makeup artist needs to build a great portfolio, become agency represented, and work with celebrity stars.  

Here is my 2012 Vision Board - Have photos of your goals where you can see them and stay motivated.

Some pics from the shoot...

11.11.11. Polished & Pressed Image Agency Launch

It's 11.11.11., a special day for me and my partner in style, Marcelous Daniel of The Yearbook Club. We wanted to share our celebration with Blushing Ambers followers as we launch our new image and branding agency, Polished & Pressed. We will be providing customized services in beauty, fashion, prop styling and more to advertising agencies, public figures, and rising stars. Please take a look at our new site at www.polishedandpressed.com, find us on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, and comment if we can count on you to spread the word about this new endeavor.

The Look Book FREE w/ Subscription

My latest product is free to subscribers in honor of Blushing Ambers 1st birthday! Fill out the form on the left hand side and your copy of The Look Book will be sent to you.

3 Recent Blushing Ambers

Party girls:

Wedding Party:

Before and After Prom Pics: Tahite'

Tahite' - Rich South High School
For this prom, Tahite' actually wanted a celebrity inspired look, Kim Kardashian's Smokey Eye.  Something she saw from a still photo to Kim K.'s youtube video done by her makeup artist, Stephen Moleski. For Tahite's look, I used a light application of concealer (Beauty By Christa) around her eyes and eyebrows as the highlight and MAC Mineralize SPF 15 Foundation around the perimeter of her face.  I defined her eyebrows with a MAC Spiked eyebrow pencil.  For her eyes, I first used Urban Decay Primer Potion to give the eyeshadow something to stick to and prevent creasing.  I then used the darkest purple color from my Bundle Monster 120 Palette in the crease using my BK18 Crown Brush in the outer corners and up through and a little above the crease.  I used my BK13 Crown Brush to blend the purple shadow above the crease.  I then placed the lightest pink color (no label) from my 120 palette in the inner corners of the lids with my BK14 Crown Brush.  With my BK13 Crown Brush I blended a light dust of white from my 120 palette on the brow bone and into the crease.  For her lips, I highlighted her cupid's bow with a White liner from Wet-n-Wild.  Her lipgloss is from MAC in a sparkling frost color. I contured her cheeks with a purple blush known as Eggplant (Beauty By Christa).  For her blush, I used Beauty By Christa again in a soft pink-orange color known as Captive.  I lined her eyes with Sephora's Waterproof Smokey Cream Liner in Must Have (matte black) with my BK11 Crown Brush.  I winged the liner out and created a sharp V into the crease.  I blended the top of the V into the purple with a BK16 Crown Brush.  I glued drugstore strip lashes. I then placed another coat of Black eyeliner on top of the lashes to make them appear fuller and to hide the lash strip.  I lined the bottom lash line with a black Wet-n-Wild eyeliner pencil. On the top and bottom lashes, I applied L' Oréal Paris Telescopic Explosion Mascara to make her false lashes appear more realistic.  I set her makeup with Urban Decay All Nighter Spray.

Before

After

All Dressed Up!

*Beauty By Christa is a private label.  For more info email BlushingAmbers@gmail.com.

Before and After Prom Pics: Nesha

Nesha - Joliet Central High School
She wanted a very natural look because she doesn't wear makeup, at all. lol. I used MW3 concealer (Beauty By Christa) as my highlight with Honey (Beauty By Christa) as the setting powder, Beautiful Bronze Foundation (Black Opal) and setting powder in Brown Sugar (Beauty By Christa) applied with my BK1 Crown Brush.  I lightly brushed Azalea blush (Beauty By Christa) on the apples of her cheeks up to her temples with the BK2 Crown Brush.  MAC eyebrow pencil in Spiked. For the eyes I first primed with Urban Decay Primer Potion and then used my 120 pallete from Bundle Monster. With my BK14 Crown Brush a light sparkling pink color (sorry not labeled yet) over the entire lid and crease.  I then used my BK13 Crown Brush to apply an iridescent white (also from the 120 palette under the brow.  I used Sephora's Waterproof Smokey Cream Liner in Must Have (matte black) to line the top eye only with my BK11 Crown Brush and L' Oréal Paris Telescopic Explosion Mascara.  On her lips I gave her a sparkling pink lipgloss sample from AVON (I believe it was Luminous Mauve, but don't quote me!) so that she could re-apply throughout the night.  To set the look I sprayed Urban Decay All Nighter Spray.

Before

After

All Dressed Up!

*Beauty By Christa is a private label.  For more info email BlushingAmbers@gmail.com.

Support the IMAN Leather and Lace Video ft. Amberly

I am one of the contestants in the Iman Leather and Lace Contest.  Please support me by watching my video on Youtube on how I create a bold look using Iman products.  On Nov. 22, 10 finalists will be chosen and the amount of views and votes count.  You can see my before and after below as well as the link to VOTE and SUBSCRIBE to Blushing Ambers' Youtube Channel.  Thanks in advance, friends!

link: http://www.youtube.com/user/blushingambers

Polished Ambers!

The name Polished Ambers actually came from the African American cosmetic collection under Revlon headed by Creative Director Alfred Fornay.  It is the inspiration for starting Blushing Ambers, only the name "Polished makes me think of nail polish... With that said, the Polished Ambers label of this blog will refer to reviews of nail polishes that I like. (Just a little history to introduce the new label).

If you follow @BlushingAmbers on Twitter then you saw the retweet I sent out about the 50% off already sale items at the Evanston Urban Outfitters. (I tweet sales, giveaways and contests about fashion and beauty often)  Well, while standing at the register I happen to glance at the nail polish rack and grabbed two colors (Gray 4 and Nude 4) which I absolutely love!  Not only did the colors catch my eye, but the square containers did also.  Packaging and presentation are soooo important! I put on two coats and I was good to go. They are very matte (looks like the paint on walls) so adding a clear coat for shine is good too, but after a day or two there seemed to be a natural sheen.  The paint lasted about a week with no cracks or chips, but on the 6th day I did start to see the paint fading (again, no top clear coat was added).  I believe if I had added a top clear coat, this would have sealed the nail polish and it would have lasted a lot longer.  I would def recommend Urban Outfitters nail polishes.

Photo from: http://grayhood.com/?p=371

Photo from: http://grayhood.com/?p=371