Hello Gang!
It’s been nearly a year since I tackled the challenge of putting on a full face of belly dance makeup every day – and vlogging about it on YouTube. That was last year in July, and I was new to vlogging, uploading videos on a regular schedule to YouTube, and it has been many years since I was working as a pro dancer and putting on performance makeup multiple times a week. I flew by the seat of my pants making it up as I went along. Some of the vlogs are interesting. Many of them are informative. A few of them contain questionable content. Here is the playlist from last year, in case you would like to check it out again, or watch it for the first time.
Prompt List – No flying “Seat of the Pants”
This year I thought I would pull from the lessons learned last year and be a bit better prepared. The first step was to brainstorm a list of concepts to use as a springboard for coming up with new belly dance makeup looks. I’ve seen many a challenge list over on Instagram and so I crafted my list of 30 prompts and created a graphic to share around social media. 
A few pieces of equipment
I’m still filmi
ng on my iPhone 6s+ which continues to serve me well. For my holiday gift last December, I requested both makeup and a microphone. I was pleased to score a Kat Vo
n D Metal/Matte eyeshadow palette, which is now out of production and is selling for 100+ dollars on eBay, as well as a Blue Snowball microphone with stand and a spit guard. Over the course of the next several weeks, I will be putting both of these new treasures to use!
I also bought a few affordable clamp lamps to light up my work table for top-down video production. Between the new lights and the new mic, I’m looking and sounding better this year.
More Palettes – More Colors – More potential
Last year I was really on a quest to learn as much as I could about the makeup industry, the ingredients within cosmetics and how they reacted on my skin. I’ve watched hundreds of hours of YouTube makeup guru’s, perhaps it’s even thousands of hours at this point! I’m not a makeup artist or YouTube guru, but I am fairly competent within my niche of belly dance, and I want to share with students of the dance the how and why of belly dance makeup. While I stuck to a small assortment of products, this year, I’ve got more to choose from in my collection, so I will pull from my full selection of makeup. I’m going to try to be more informative explaining my why and how I intend to use the items in my makeup hoard.
Day 1 – Go-To Belly Dance Look
The first vlog of the channel is now up on YouTube! The new playlist has been made and the game is afoot! I hope you will take some time this month to watch a few of the posts. I’ve started a playlist where all the videos will be posted as they are finished.
June is going to be fun, but a lot of work! I’m hoping to streamline the video process and learn new editing techniques, as well as getting more and more comfortable in front of the camera. Nothing like having a daily challenge to keep you motivated!
To beautiful makeup and costumes!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
June 1, 2017