Love2 by AIR

Cool French pop duo Air released their new album Love2 which is really great, just been listening to it. I was lucky enough to do the makeup for the album cover shoot and other images which were shot by the genius photographers Luciana Val and Franco Musso. I work a lot with Luciana and Franco (normally on fashion editorials and jobs) and they make beautiful and surreal images. The shoot and cover are styled by Sebastian Kaufmann. This was such a fun couple of days and working on art work for a music album is such a nice thing to be able to be apart of. Especially because I am a fan of Air, have all their previous albums and been to see them play at Brixton Academy. The Air boys are really nice and also really hairy. Talking of hair I also did their hair. I can't do hair at all (seriously at all) but as it was a grooming job I just turned up with a grooming kit full of hair products (mostly my boyfriends Kiehls stuff that I stole from our bathroom) and gave it a go. The boys said thanks but then fixed it themselves! So far this has been the pattern for me with all male artists that I have had to do grooming on and so far I have gotten away with this technique on not only Air but also: Depeche Mode (all of them!!) Nick Cave, Bryan Ferry, Dizzee Rascal and Muse (all of them too!) Mwa-ha-ha-haaaa (cue evil laugh)
Last night Air were on the 6 Mix on the radio hear it: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ntg7b/6_Mix_07_11_2009/
Please feel free to see some of the other images of Air that we worked on http://en.aircheology.com/galerie_photo and also check out Luciana and Franco's work at http://www.art-dept.com/artists/valandmusso/index.html www.sebastiankaufmann.com

Weird Science

So, I haven't been sick and full of self loathing since the last time I had to write on this a few postings ago the words "fashion forward" well now I have found a site that really makes me want to puke. It doesn't make me hate myself just other people in a Bill Hicks kinda way. Please just check it out http://www.mirrorofbeauty.com It claims to be the world's most advanced makeover programme and you can see yourself with everything from a virtual botoxed face, virtual de-ageing, the virtual nose job and my favourite is the feminize tool which makes your face appear more feminine ( I am sure that is a hit with all the trannys). Another site pretending to help women but actually make more women feel shit about themselves. However this is also creepy and fascinating at the same time in a M. Night Shyamalan film way if you see what I mean.The graphics look really dated and amateur and it looks like it was the programme the geeky boys used to make their virtual perfect woman; Kelly Le Brock in the '80's teen flic Weird Science. Enjoy.

La Fontana

So, I am posting this image (the full story too) because it is one of my favourites and it's the jaw droppingly beautiful Isabeli Fontana shot by David Dunan and styled by Sebastian Kaufmann with the delightful Tracey Cahoon on hair, Jenny Longworth on the drums, sorry nails and I did the makeup. I am putting it up here because although it was published it was never placed in my book or on my agency website (www.clmuk.com) This happens to so many artists that I know and although I feel strongly about it as fantastic images and great makeup, sometimes there is not much I can do and thought I should share it so someone gets to see and hopefully like it as much as I do!!!! Isabeli is one of the greatest models I have ever had the pleasure to work with. She is a really cool person and very professional, she is a one shot kinda gal, in other words she gives it to the photographer in one shot. That doesn't always happen and it is great when you get a girl who takes the work seriously and really knows her angles, lighting and poses and wants to work fast. BTW she ate tons of Chinese food on this job and still managed to put on a skin tight rhinestone encrusted McQueen catsuit and look phenomenal!

Maybe She Wasn't Born With It

I don't often get that excited by the launch of new products as a makeup artist, truthfully because I am only interested in what I can achieve with the product from a work point of view so when I heard that Maybelline are finally bringing out great lash BIG mascara I am intrigued to try it as when I was growing up all the mags like Top Model Magazine (which was my style bible!!) always talked about it being the 'must have' mascara and I was so disappointed with it when I did finally try it as I thought the brush was crap. Now they have a big wand on the brush which I think will make a difference for a thicker and fuller lash. Maybelline estimates that in the United States they sell one of the original product every 1.6 seconds. In a Love, Actually way I am excited, actually.

Stop Touching Me Up

I was a bit concerned when I saw this very recently taken photo of Sofia Loren. Now I am all for retouching. I would have to be seeing it's everywhere in my line of work, however now I feel I have to mention that this image is ridiculous she is 75 for goodness sake. La Simpatica is well beyond her free bus pass age.This looks like a cheesy portrait from one of those dodgy portrait places where you see the free flyers saying "win a makeover and a professional photo session" I have been fortunate enough to actually do the makeup for Ms Loren (the image where she has really red hair and is wearing glasses is from when I did her makeup and shot by the photographer Robert Astley Sparke at an editorial shoot in the house of Mr Armani in Milan in 2006) and I can tell you that in the flesh the legend that she is actually looks her age. Ok, she looks good for her age, really good but she looks her age. This photo is too too much and she looks like a 40 year old. Ms Loren appears even younger than the photo when I worked with her, it is like Benjamin Button.The scary thing is that in the future no one will be able to look back at people and know the actual time frame of their life except from intrusive pap shots by scum bag paparazzi. Retouching is nothing new and I have early images by the great George Hurrell and his Hollywood portrait book showing retouched Joan Crawford and non retouched Joan Crawford from way back in the day, however she still looked human and her age (relatively) as you can see. We are entering frightening and dangerous digitally retouched times which falsify the age and time that we live in. I am all for a bit of fantasy but we need to know that reality still exists. http://www.georgehurrell.net/

Bloody Marvellous

Please just read the freakyness below and let me know your thoughts. I found some info on a website. I am dying to see what Daniel Sister looks like.

They call it 'Dracula Therapy', it involves having your face injected with your own blood. But S3 Therapy is the news in anti-ageing.

The name is short for Stimulated Self Serum skin therapy, and has been introduced to the UK by the London-based French cosmetic doctor, Daniel Sister.

The idea is that a doctor draws vials of your own blood, then separates it into the red blood cells, the clear serum and the platelets. Then, after vitamins and amino acids have been added, the enriched serum is injected back into your face.

This, says Dr Sister, stimulates DNA repair, heals scars and makes dry, wizened, wrinkled and lacklustre skin look and feel younger naturally, without the need for synthetic fillers or harsh and painful lasers or peels.

If S3 sounds extreme, it has a surprisingly respectable medical pedigree. For more than two decades, dentists have used patient's own 'serum' to make receding gums regenerate themselves.

And in the U.S., several studies indicate that injecting plateletrich plasma into sports injuries can lead to faster recovery.

The secret? The serum is rich in growth factors, natural proteins that can supercharge healing and reverse damage in the body.

Dr Sister says: 'I thought, if serum therapy was good enough for bones and soft tissue like gums, then it could do even better in the skin.'

He decided to merge platelet-rich plasma therapy, which involves deep injections into damaged soft tissue, with the traditional French beauty treatment, mesotherapy, which involves dozens of tiny injections of vitamins and minerals into the superficial layers of the skin.

Plastic surgeons tend to sneer at mesotherapy, but studies have shown that trauma to the skin in the form of tiny puncture holes can dramatically increase natural collagen levels. Whatevs.

Pappa Don't Preach.

Tonight I went to the private view of The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2009 at The National Portrait Gallery. I was particularly proud to attend as the guest of my father David Graham. His work was included in the exhibition as one of the 60 works. Many photographers entered the competition over 2,000. I am so incredibly proud of him. His image was a darkly disturbing and yet beautifully haunting image of a porter in a hospital with a covered corpse on a trolley. I guess I know where I inherited my macabre side from. If you get a chance please visit the exhibition and see the wonderful work by all the photographers and support the photographers involved.

www.npg.org.uk:8080/photoprize/site09/exhibition2.php and also www.photograhams.com