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The Blog
Hi again!
It’s been a long, long time since I put a blog post together. I’ve been just busy working away.
Currently I’m on the set of a Papa John’s commercial. In commercial work there is usually some
downtime, and, if I can, I’d like to take advantage of it by trying to get in a quick blog post.☺
Since you last heard from me:
I’ve had my 11th cover with Avenue magazine.
One of the photographs I did makeup for, taken by Daniel Wood, of our premier Rachel Notley, was awarded silver for photography in People & Portraiture at the Alberta Magazine Awards. My separate works with Curtis Trent, Cory Johnn, & Curtis Comeau were also nominated this year.
I was invited to the ACE awards where some of my work with DDB was awarded as well. It was so cool to be at an event where I thought I wouldn’t know anyone, and it turned out that I’d worked with more than half the ad agencies in Edmonton. I ended up having a great time visiting with clients and friends I’ve made over the years in my work.
I’ve been working hard with Eveline Charles in creating a virtual learning, online version of my level one makeup course (which I still teach at the academy). It’s been quite an experience and more work than any of us anticipated, but it’s looking really good and coming along. So if you’re someone who has always wanted to learn more about the basics of makeup but don’t live near the bricks and mortar of a facility, this course can be taken anywhere in the world.
I’m still privileged to work closely with Vue Weekly & Meaghan Baxter on their style & trend pieces. In fact, I was asked to be in a style feature for Vue Weekly magazine, where I had to be in front of the camera. https://www.vueweekly.com/seasonal-update-local-pros-weigh-in-ontrends-for-spring/
I had the cool opportunity to weigh in on this season’s blue makeup runway trend when my girl Julia Lipscombe was writing an article for the Edmonton Journal. I found myself again in front of the camera when they sent a photog to shoot me at my home studio doing makeup focused on that trend. https://edmontonjournal.com/life/into-the-blue-80s-makeup-trend-is-back
My volunteer initiative with Sorrentino’s Compassion House has finally commenced after months of talk and preparation. I go once a month and
do makeup appointments with the women staying there during their cancer treatments.
My relationship as a freelance artist with MAC Cosmetics has grown and become stronger. They’ve sent me two rounds of product support (20 products) for using their product on certain
jobs. They were also able to donate a huge amount of products for my volunteer initiative at the Compassion House. Thank you MAC for supporting the artist community!
My relationship with the couple I spoke about in my M.I.A blog post has been completely repaired as I was able to do his hair, makeup, and styling on the house for his Top 40 under 40
placement with Avenue Magazine. They also came to see me for Halloween makeup! Congratulations to them on their recent engagement!!! Major hot couple alert. ☺
Not everything has been amazing however, I started the year by being on the receiving end of a lay off with CTV. I had been doing makeup for Alberta Primetime for about two years when, back
in December, the show itself felt some major cuts in staff. Unfortunately makeup was one of those cuts.
At first it was very upsetting to lose that job and I struggled to be optimistic, for about 5 minutes, and then I decided that worrying about it was was not going to change anything. It was just making me feel like crap and stressing me out more. I took a step back and looked at the bigger picture, and realized that in the first few years of being an ‘Independent Business Princess’ (or an ‘IBP’ as I like to call myself) I hadn’t had any major set backs. Things had been going pretty smoothly, so I figured I was probably due for a challenge.
If I had let losing my job with CTV set the tone for 2016 I might not have had so many cool things to update you on. So as I’ve said before ‘A door has closed on me. Now I gotta bust open that fucking window and get my ass to work.’
This year optimism, determination, gratefulness and joy are my focus & so far so good!
P.s If you’re still reading this, thank you, I appreciate it.
Xoxo A
The Blog- M.I.A.
I want to address a serious topic, a topic that I am disappointed to even have to share with you.
That topic is…missing a gig, being a no-show, missing in action, however you want to word it.
After nearly a decade in the industry, it finally happened to me.
My story begins in the month of June when I decided to make work and life easier – or so I thought – by purchasing an iPad mini.
My iPhone is full, and since I work independently, I was having a hard time separating my personal life from my work life.
I figured a second device would help keep things separate and allow me to still do business in case anything happened to my phone.
I noticed some weird things happening when syncing my iPad to my computer.
For instance, I have been recording my kilometers since the start of the year and suddenly they were gone! They just disappeared into thin air. Also pictures, some pictures uploaded to my iPad and some didn’t. But as far as I could tell, that was it. Everything else seemed fine. I considered the few issues an overall win as I am somewhat technologically inept.
And with that, I moved on with my week, enjoying my new work/life balance.
It wasn’t until a few weeks later, while I was at another makeup job, that I found out just what else did not successfully sync over.
I was nearly finished at my gig and had a down moment to check my email and do some other work while at work, which is my favorite—multitasking excites me.
I opened my email at nearly 4:30pm to find emails from a client who had booked me weeks prior.
I’d missed two emails and had been completely M.I.A for a 3:30pm call time THAT day. Not to mention he had driven to a pre-planned meeting destination to make sure I didn’t get lost on the way to the shoot location.
First, my heart stopped, then was in my throat, and finally sank so hard, so fast. I was mortified, and devastated, and in shock.
My mind raced. How did this happen?! Why was I here if I should be there!?
I remember booking the shoot specifically and was looking forward to it.
It wasn’t in my calendar and didn’t come up as a reminder at all, so I had recently booked another gig for that same day and was a complete no show for a client and model who were relying on me for a fitness shoot.
I picked up the phone and immediately connected with the client.
“I am incredibly apologetic and completely and quite frankly mortified that this has happened today. Can I send another artist to you right now!!?”
I was frantic- thinking I could call a pal and pay them to go save my ass.
He was so understanding and quite gracious over the whole scenario.
I was very grateful for his reaction as well as forever apologetic and I think he sensed my distress was genuine.
In the end, the model did her own hair and makeup and looked great on her own.
Before I hung up the phone with him I promised to redeem myself by offering to do his next hair & makeup job completely complimentary. It was the least I could do after such a complete fail on my part. I also made sure to send an email offering the model a complimentary service as well.
After all it was her fitness shoot and I wasn’t there as I had promised to be, so I felt she deserved my apology as well.
I have since recovered my kilometers and made sure that my sync is complete! I haven’t missed another gig since, and hopefully never, ever will again.
It happens to the best of us and I’ve learned to forgive myself for being human and busy, instead I choose to feel blessed and so grateful to be busy.
Here’s to another 10 years with a clean attendance record. 
The Blog
As an Edmonton Makeup Artist, I am lucky enough to get to work on some really cool jobs, some of which happen to be on television.
Another unique thing about my job as an Edmonton Makeup Artist is that if I’m sick, running late, or something unforeseen occurs, I don’t have a team or staff to cover for me. I am it.
If I don’t show up or I’m late, it not only looks terrible, it leaves my client, for lack of better words, screwed.
I mean sure, there are the odd times when I get lost or there’s an accident, but for the most part I try to account extra time for these things, and most clients understand if the situation is out of my control.
For me, especially in my line of work as an Edmonton Makeup Artist, reputation is everything. Have you ever asked yourself, “what is my reputation worth?”
Well not too long ago I found myself faced with that very question…
***
If you read my last blog, you know that I have a dog. I always like to take her out to use the bathroom right before I head out anywhere. It’s an opportune moment, in these Edmonton winters, to start the car and bring half of my makeup kits down at the same time.
I live off Whyte ave and I know to lock my running car, especially with the amount of make up products and tools in there.
It was 11:30am and I had to be 20 minutes away for a taping by noon. As I sat in the drivers seat to start the car, my purse fell off of my shoulder…no big deal, in fact, I’m not sure that I even noticed.
It certainly didn’t register to me that ALL of my spare keys for this now-running vehicle were in that purse as I locked the doors and closed my drivers side.
As soon as that door closed my heart sank. I realized what I had just done and I couldn’t believe it. I moaned a dramatic NOOOOOOO! and wanted to face palm myself.
I still had Gnarley with me, as well as my house keys in my jacket pocket, and that was it. My cell phone? In my purse.
So my brain starts running through a list of my options…AMA, mom & dad, brother, brother in law, neighbour….the one thing all of these options needed was time, and I didn’t have any to spare. I had to be at a gig in 20 minutes.
I knew what I needed to do.
With an eerie calmness I walked back into my building, gave Gnarley her ‘mommy’s going to work’ snack, grabbed a hammer, shut the lights off, and left.
Once back at my car, I took my jacket off, covered the drivers side back window, and on the third whack the entire window came shattering down around me.
I tossed the hammer in the backseat, unlocked the car, and headed to work. On time.
The moral of the story? And the answer to my question… what is my reputation worth?
Windows aren’t cheap, but don’t let a situation that seems impossibly out of your control get you down, bust that fucking window and get your ass to work.
XO
~A