Boy am I flattered, SmashBox Studios discovered me through LiveFastMag.com and did a little write up on me! Check it out.

http://www.smashboxstudios.com/yello/2012/09/profile-make-up-artist-gia-brascia-a-muse/

Check out an interview with me about makeup, tattoos, touring with Christina Perri and Jason Mraz and tattoos! Photos of me taken by Charis Kirchheimer, makeup and hair by me.

A couple of my favorite snaps from the beautiful Christina Perri glowing on the red carpet from the Musicares event and Britt Awards…some of my favorite make-ups from this year so far. Can’t get enough of the bronzy smoky eye.

The Britt Awards

Musicares honors Paul McCartney

One of my favorite shoots with a talented team! This video turned out amazing, makeup by yours truly

We were definitely going for a darker, more avant garde look so I made the lips look intense using a white eye-liner pencil with a creamy texture to fill in her lips. Then working from the inner part of the lips out I created dramatic depth by combining a rich black gel liner and black eye shadow and blending it outward.

What a fun shoot at smashbox studios for Love Cupcakes! Pretty, fun makeup and great models made for a fun effortless day. Happy to finally see these photos!

Check out the Makeup and Hair I did on the beautiful Christina Perri and Jason Mraz for their music video Distance!! So much talent was on this set that day and I’m so proud to be a part of it.

I wanted to Christina to look natural and ethereal and still have her features pop, and it turned out exactly as I had planned. enjoy!

So if there’s one thing that’s been essential in my makeup knowledge, it’s knowing the differences between and the purposes for matte eyeshadows and frosty/shimmery eye shadows.

FROSTY SHADOWS:

At a glance, a shimmery/frosty eye shadow looks way more exciting…and most people have the tendency to gravitate to them for their reflective, flashy appeal.

Below you’ll see an image of an eye done with frosty shadows, they have a very metallic, light-reflecting appearance to them. (image not mine, just an example)

What you will notice is that, though pretty….when using only frosty shadows, there is not much depth to the eye. It doesn’t carve out shape, it highlights. The reflective quality brings everything forward. So if you’re using a frosty color in the crease of your eye for depth, it will not have the same effect as a matte shadow.

Frosts are amazing for women who want to make their eyes pop and don’t want to have to use many shadows. You can throw a gold metallic color on the lid with some mascara and have a beautiful and bright eye.

When wanting to use more colors and have some shape to the eye, frosts are wonderful for highlighting. Pop some under your eyebrow to accentuate your brow bone or use on the inner corner of your eye to get a bright doe-eye’d look. Pair a frosty color on your lid with a matte color in your crease to  create contrast and give the illusion of more dimension.

MATTE EYESHADOWS:

Matte shadows are usually the ones that don’t catch your eye immediately when you’re at the makeup counter browsing over colors.

Matte shadows have no sheen, shine, shimmer or frost…they are flat, as you can see in the image below. (image not mine, just an example)

I can’t imagine my makeup world with out my beloved matte shadows. The often overlooked gems, are completely essential in creating many looks you see in magazines and on the red carpet.

When using just one color on the eye, matte’s give a classic, timeless appeal. You can still achieve a “pop” depending on the color you choose. As seen above, the lid and brow bone are very pronounced and bright without the need of a frost.

Matte shadows are a must when wanting to create depth in the crease of the eye. Matte colors can contour, unlike frosts. Matte brings in, frost highlights. Of course of course, there are always exceptions…but I’m just going over the 101 right now.

So if you’re wanting a classic, basic look you can throw a soft matte brown in the crease of your eye to give the illusion your makeup is more done up than it is. And when you want a dynamic, dimensional look, use a frost on your lid and a matte in your crease.

Also use mattes to deepen the outer corner of your eye and give smoky depth.

This look was created using what appears to be all shimmer, frosty, metallic colors

This look uses all matte

Both looks are gorgeous…..

And when you combine matte and shimmer you  get…

Dimension

How gorgeous did Jennifer Lawrence look that evening?!

This week I was most fortunate to be one of my most favorite people/clients date to the world premier of the Hunger Games!

Me n Christina Perri got glammed up and had an amazingly surreal night, full of excitement, celebrity sightings, beautiful fashion, and most importantly were the first to see the much anticipated cinema adaptation of the phenomenon that is The Hunger Games trilogy!

Being such a fan of the books, I of course had my little quips about details here and there, but seriously the movie did not disappoint…It was really fantastic and I think all the fans are going to be pleased!

It was truly an amazing night to be remembered, I am so thankful for the path my career has taken me down and the amazing people I’ve gotten to know, and experiences I’ve been able to have through it. 

And a special thanks to Christina Perri for being the best client turned best friend a gal could wish for, and for having me as her date to this ever desired event!

There was no phones or cameras allowed inside so this is all I got from that day

Hello Friends,

it’s been awhile since I’ve written a proper blog, so I’m going to update with a written tutorial on my makeup today.

I wore one of my favorite looks, which is neutral tones used to contour and highlight the eyes, accentuated with winged out liner and half-lashes.

To avoid fooling people into unrealistic perfection, I don’t photoshop my photos and they are fresh off the ol’ iphone

This will be the end result :)

Step 1 and 2:

prime the eye using your favorite primer, I use “shadow insurance” by too-faced

then carve out your crease using a fluffy blending brush, I’m using the MAC brush #224 for this look, but as long as it’s fluffy and a little tapered it should work just fine.

For this look I’m using a soft, warm brown that’s just dark enough to create definition.

I’m using MAC’s “wedge” eyeshadow, it’s great for fair to medium skin tones. For darker skin I love “Texture”, “Saddle”, and “Cork” for the crease color

Step 2 

Take a light neutral of your choice with a flat brush and apply it to your lids, and use as a highlight under your eyebrows. I’m using a shadow called “Vanilla” by MAC for this look.

Steps 3 and 4

Using a smaller flat, or pencil brush shade the outer corner of your eyes with a deeper shade of brown. I chose a warm, deep, reddish brown called “embark” by MAC. I always tell people to imagine making a little “V” shape, hugging the outer corner of the eye. Don’t worry about blending yet, just get the shape.

HELPFUL HINT: when applying your dark eye shadow, be sure not to work it up too high onto the eye before blending. When you take your blending brush to it, it will naturally rise and spread up and out, giving that smoky look you desire. You can always add more after blending and keep building for a more dramatic effect, but if it’s too much too soon, it can be a pain to remove without messing up the look.

So after creative you “v” shape with a smaller brush, grab your blending brush again and blend out the rough edges

So it should look more like this when you’re done

Note how much the color rose and spread out after blending, and again you can always add more, but I was not going for an intense, dramatic look today. Just soft, sexy shape and shadow on the eyes.

Steps 5 and 6 and 7

Add your favorite liquid liner in black. I’m using MAC Fluidline gel liner in “blacktrack” with the MAC 266 brush. 

shade your lower lash line with the same color you used to shade the outer part of you upper lids. For example: I used “embark” eyeshadow to shade the outer corner of my eye, so I’m going to use the same color to shade the outer corner of my lower lash line. 

NOTE: For this look only shade the outer corner of your eye on the bottom as well, this will keep the eyes looking bigger, and more open.

You can use an angle brush, or my personal favorite the MAC 212 brush

After this, I added concealer to my under eyes and filled in my eyebrows.

Use whichever concealer you’re happy with and what method of brow filler you prefer.

I have one MAC’s prolong wear concealer in NW20 if you’re curious :)

I love all kinds of brows but on myself I prefer full, yet soft so I just lightly fill mine in with an angle brush and a soft gray-brown to to match my hair color.

Steps 8 and 9

Mascara and Lashes :)

Make your eyes POP by really accentuating your lashes. Use a volumizing and curling mascara.

My favorites are:

YSL Faux Cils

MAC false lash

Maybelline Colossal Lash

For the added bit for sexy use half lashes on the outer corners of your eyes for a flirty, yet still believable lash.

Step 10:

Finish your face by evening out your skin with whichever medium you prefer. Mineral powder, liquid foundation, cream foundation, pressed powder, etc.

Since the eyes were the focus today I won’t go into great detail about the skin and face…we’ll save that for another post, and I went very simple with it anyway.

I just evened out my skin using a mix of a pump of moisturizer and a pump of MAC’s prolongwear foundation.

Step 11 and 12:

Cheeks: I didn’t use bronzer or contour in this look though you’re welcome to do so on yourself. I just used a nice amount of Peaches blush by MAC on the apples of my cheeks

You don’t have to use this shade exactly, but I highly recommend going with a peachier tone for this look.

Lips: Lastly….nude lips.

Lipstick is very personal as it looks different on everyone and every type of skin tone so chose your favorite nude.

I used HoneyLove by MAC. It’s matte and very opaque and has an awesome peachy undertone to it. It also looks great on a wide variety of skin tones, it’s a classic.

I finished up with “Instant Gold” lustreglass by MAC. A sheer, non sticky, high gloss, gold toned gloss.

And you’ve got your sexy neutral look

Here is a couple photos from a recent shoot with photographer Danielle Bedics who is famous for her pinup style and being Dita Von Teese’s go to photographer. 

We tried doing something a little different this time in making the models look more modern through styling, hair and makeup.

Styled by: Aban Sonia and Hair by: Derek Williams

Makeup of course, by me.

I’m going to be linking up my makeup artistry instagram account with this tumblr so I can keep the updates coming in more real-time. So look forward to more frequent updates!

In the meantime here’s some photos that are not my work but that I truly inspire me to keep pushing the limits of my makeup artistry

Here are some shots from a beauty test I did a few days ago with the talented photographer Allen Chu.

I wanted to create looks that weren’t your typical idea of beauty by using unique and unusual color placement and textures. I couldn’t be more happy with the results. I had an amazing model as well as stylist/art director Aban Sonia. I hope you enjoy these images as much as I do!

In the photo above I added texture and dimension to the lips by layering different colored eyes shadows over the lipstick.

In this photo I wanted the eyes to have the appearance of a still-wet water color painting. I strategically placed the colors in powder eye shadow form on the eyes, then finished the look by applying gloss over the lids to create that wet shine. Amazing for photographs and runway, not so comfortable for everyday wear ;)

Today I worked for MAC cosmetics, they have a new line out called “MAC me Over”. The whole line was essentially created around a select few lucky people amidst thousands and thousands that submitted their photos to MAC, to get made over to inspire this collection.

MAC of course picked a very eclectic group of individuals and completely overhauled them into new creatures.

I personally love the line, lot’s of neutrals, but dark neutrals. Colors any age, sex, or race can wear and wear right.

Here are some photos of a quick make up I did on a customer today. She never wears color and wanted to experiment with a evening look using color.

With her gorgeous olive skin and honey colored hair, a deep teal green mixed with elements of eggplant purples was my inspiration.

I am such a huge fan of highlighting the inner corners of the eyes. I feel like it literally makes the eyes sparkle and look other worldly. 

And instead of using a typical eye primer I used MAC’s gel based eye LINER called Fluidline as her base. MAC me over collection came over with some gorgeous colors, this one being a deep slightly frosted teal. I popped an iridescent brownish green right in the middle of her lid to create a pop effect and mattified the inner and outer corners of her eyes with a matte teal. I used an eggplant purple throughout her crease to create a warm contrast. Lastly I highlighted the brow bone with one of my all time favorite colors MAC carries with is ORB, a peachy matte nude. Excellent for a base color and highlighting. I popped some #3 lashes on her and a little lip gloss and she looked fantastic….

A project I recently did make up for. I got to work with some very talented people and the end result is lovely.

btfl Hanna from Emmeran Media on Vimeo.