Apex Secondary School

Today I was invited to be a guest speaker for the Girl's Group at Apex Secondary School. My good friend Lesley did her teaching practicum at this school and asked if I would be interested in talking to the girls about make-up, and being a Make-Up Artist. I was excited to be able to talk to some young ladies and tell them about my experience and hopefully give them some great advice. My trusy sidekick Tracy came along for the adventure, and was able to help me in giving these girls a different perspective on Make-Up Artistry and all of it's many possibilities. 

The school does not have a budget for guest presenters, so a couple weeks ago I went around town asking for some small funding or donations to be able to give these girls a goody-bag to take home with them. I wanted to be able to provide knowledge, tips & tricks, something to look forward to, as well as something to help make each and every one of them feel special and beautiful. This wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the wonderful manager of Superstore Langley, the fragrance manager at The Bay in Willowbrook Mall, and some contributions from my very loving Mother.

I think the "presentation" went extremely well. We all sat in a circle and had some great girl chat! We all had a chance to speak and ask questions and have some fun discussing our favorite make-up brands and which cleansers and moisturizers to use. Tracy and I were both a bit nervous, but after the ball was rolling it was easy-peasy and we all were comfortable jumping in and adding to the conversation.

I had a great time talking to the "youth of today" and what was so amazing was they made both Tracy and I these beautiful flower pots! Gorgeous! It's so bright and perfect for Spring (which is finally here!).

Thank you so much Girl's Group at Apex! If you are reading this, don't hesitiate to contact me about any further questions, advice, or my services ;)

xox Celina

Battle Royale &The Hunger Games

Oh, hi.

If you haven't been living under a rock (<-- foreshadowing to this post!), I'm sure you've heard all about the book series and movies The Hunger Games. I haven't read the books.. not sure if I will.. maybe eventually, but last night I saw the movie.

But before the Hunger Games...

Last week my boyfriend and I watched Battle Royale which has a similar concept of young kids going into a war against each other with limited weapons and survival equipment and the last person standing "wins". If you haven't seen Battle Royale and you are up for reading subtitles - as this movie is in Japanese, and if you are not squeemish when it comes to blood and gore, I highly recommend it. I thought it was brilliant! I also am pretty proud that I recognized one of the actresses, Chiaki Kuriyama, who also plays Gogo Yubari in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill; another amazing movie. Here's a fun fact. Tarantino loves the movie Battle Royale, and hired Chiaki because he saw her in it. Another fun fact is that over 450 gallons of fake blood were used on the two Kill Bill movies.

Wowza. Now that's a bloody good time!

Anyways, thanks for staying with me during my movie tangent. I've been reading that people are wondering if The Hunger Games are an "American version" of Battle Royale, so I'm glad I watched both of the movies. They have similarities for sure, but have very big differences as well. Completely different movie styles for one. Personally, I liked Battle Royale more, but I definitely enojyed The Hunger Games. 

Here's the thing though... I don't understand why the people in the movie who are watching the Games are dressed up like the Alice in Wonderland colourful corset wearing Victorian clowns? Am I missing something? I mean, I love costumes and I love to play dress-up (clearly) but I was so confused why everyone looked this way. Maybe it describes how it makes sense in the books. I get the whole, we are richer and we control your destiny aspect.. but it was confusing and sort of weird. If you don't know what I'm talking about, this is the actress Elizabeth Banks as her character Effie Trinket:

I mean, great  make-up for sure. The head of the Make-Up Department for Hunger Games is a woman named Ve Neill who is more than creative and talented. 

Some of you may recognize her as a judge on the SFX show Face Off.

(If you are crazy about those eyelashes, you'll be jealous to know that I own those. My boyfriend gave them to me for Christmas. They are made by a company called Paperself,

check them out for some unique lashes & other goodies).

Back to the make-up madness. I just felt like I was watching a huge add for MAC or something. Like everyone was in drag and it didn't make sense why. Elizabeth Banks said it took over 2 hours every day of shooting to achieve her look and she started at 4am. Hey Banks, ever realize that your make-up artists had to start their days earlier than you to apply it, and then end their days later than you to remove it? Just saying... I'm sure you had a comfy chair while you sat there and got all dolled up. 

That was a small rant.

In other news, the butterfly make-up done on Jennifer Lawrence near the end of the film is "ooh" and "ahhh" worthy, and I did love some of the facial hair and the creative ways of shaving beards.

But, Probably the coolest part (for me at least) was the special effects done on Josh Hutcherson who plays Peeta. His family owns a bakery and apparently he learned how to ice some seriously wicked cakes because he camoflauges himself pretty damn well. Obviously it's all special effects. I read that Josh had to lie down on rocks and not move for an hour and a half to have it applied for the one scene where he is completely camoflauged into the nature. Apparently the make-up team created a mixture of clay and glycerine to create the effect, because they had to make it look real enough as if Peeta did it himself.

Anyways, I don't know how to feel about this movie. Go see it for yourself. Maybe a little while down the road I'll need to watch it again. Or maybe just keep watching the whole series.  It really makes me realize that if I were ever in a War situation, or needed to be in "survival mode" I'd be screwed... unless I camoflauged myself like Peeta...

Oh well. As they say,

"May the odds be ever in your favor"

xox Celina

Look Ma, All Hands!

This first week of April has felt like an accomplishment not only for me, but for most of my dear friends. There must be something in the water, because everywhere I look great things are happening and people are being recognized for all of their hard work. And I'd like to add, hard work done by our hard working HANDS!

Let's start with my wonderful friend Seth. Seth works at Idea Rebel, which is a digital marketing business. I've known Seth since High School. I've had sleep overs at his apartment, spent many of my summers camping with him, and even had meatless stuffing together at his family's Christmas dinners. I can't imagine my little Celina world without a Seth in it. And that is why I am so proud that his company won an award with BC Business Online Magazine as one of the Most Innovative Companies for 2012! Way to go Seth! Look at all that hard work you've done and how it's paid off! 

Look Ma, All Hands!

Now onto my next friend.

I was just talking about the little lady the other day. She's one of the hardest working Make-Up Artist I know, Tracy Lai. Tracy just finished on set for a short film about ferrets called Jake & Jasper: A Ferret Tale and was hired back for another film by the same Director Alison Parker which is titled The Ferret Squad. The best part about this is Tracy has 3 ferrets of her own. The other day, her littlest and only female ferret Dolly crawled up into my hair and sniffed my big bun on top of my head. I think she could have had a little nap in there if she really wanted to. Anyways, a big congratulations goes out to the Jake & Jasper crew because they have been featured in the magazine Ferret USA 2012! And what's even cooler is they mention Tracy & her ferret babies in it.

Look Ma, All Hands!

And now, yours truly.

Thanks to John Casablancas, my little face & my work are now in the new pamphlet hand-out for the Make-Up Artistry program. When I first saw this picture my honest reaction was,

"I'm so glad I wore lipstick this day." 

(see kids, you NEVER know when 

you'll end up in a magazine.)

What's even cooler is they have enlarged and framed my work in the school hallways! I feel like I am officially a "published" artist. 

Look Ma, All Hands!

xox Celina