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General Makeup and Appearance

Makeup Monday: High End vs. Low End

YouTube Makeup Videos

You’ve heard the term Beauty Guru floating around the web.  You’ve probably seen lists of “Beauty Guru’s to Follow,” or articles on the “Best of Beauty on YouTube.” These days, these ladies and gentlemen are mentioned everywhere, in blogs, articles around the web, and even in mainstream fashion magazines!  You might already be totally hooked on some favorites and have subscribed to their YouTube channels. At their best, YouTube beauty gurus are fun, informative, and inspirational.  At worst, they are fake, cheesy, annoying, or simply tragically messy. 

High-End/Low End Makeup battles on YouTube.Today, I would like to draw your attention to a particular style of video that is popular amongst the beauty guru set – the department store vs. drugstore showdown.  

The mission of this style of video is to provide visible proof of these three beauty truths:

  1. Application technique is more important than makeup quality.   
  2. Good tools are essential, and are available at every price point.
  3. There are low end dupes for virtually every high end cosmetic product.

The formula for this style of video is pretty straight forward. A beauty guru will do the research to hunt down duplicate products in from both high-end and drugstore cosmetic lines.  They will then film themselves applying their makeup, so you can see the technique they use to create the final look.  The viewer has the opportunity to do a side-by-side comparison of the look, products, and technique, which they can then use to inform their purchasing decisions.

Here is a sampling from the many-many “High-end – Low-end,” “Department Store vs Drugstore,” or “Fancy vs Frugal” style videos available on YouTube today.  This collection of videos includes some of my favorite Guru’s in action, and is a great place to start if you’re interested in watching this style of video. 

Good luck in your hunt for the perfect products, tools and techniques to up your makeup game!

Dawn Devine ~ Davina
Jan. 18, 2016

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Emily Noel – One of the most well respected beauty guru’s for her professional presentation method and honest reviews, Emily lets you know the prices at the time of filming so you really get a sense of the real cost differences between both sides.  Although her look she creates is a day look, these same products can be effectively used to create a stage-worthy performance face.

Zebrena – If your coloring is more fiery, Florida based Zebrina is your gal.  She’s freckled redhead with bright blue eyes and a passion for makeup.  This tutorial takes a widely popular high-end eye shadow palette, the Urban Decay Naked Smokey, and takes it head-to-head with the much more affordable Makeup Revolution Iconic Smokey Palette.

Jasmine Hand – High End Glam Look from Australian Makeup Artist – They eye look she creates in this demonstration/tutorial could be easly amped up for stage belly dance wear.  Bonus, the drugstore products she uses are widely available in Australia, so my Aussie friends might get some great ideas for future purchases.

Michelle of ReadySetMakeup – This is a more bright and light makeup look from this exotic beauty.  Her primer/foundation routine is very similar to what I use and works. The drugstore products she uses are widely available in the US.

Shannon of Shaaanxo – This lovely New Zealand blonde bombshell presents a smokey eye “clubbing” look that would look great to wear to attend an event, or emphasized with brighter highlight, red lips, and bigger eyeliner for stage.

Angie of Hot and Flashy – Although a slightly different format than the rest on this list, what Angie brings to the table is a more mature point of view.  Middle aged skin has it’s set of challenges and issues, and this beauty guru is unafraid to get right to the heart of the issue.  

Categories
General Makeup and Appearance

Happy New Year – Website Changes and Plans for 2016

Hello Gang – Happy New Year!!!

This blog post kicks of a new series for 2016: Makeup Monday!

Throughout 2015, I have been working on the forthcoming book, Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage, I realized that my “makeup skills set” was better than I had pegged it. On a scale from one to ten, I always fancied that I was a good solid 4. However, it turns out, that all the classes I’ve taken with professional makeup artists, my experience in modeling, dance, and theater, and that my skills-set might actually be somewhere around a 7, or somewhere between B+ to A-.

As Sara, Poppy, Alisha and I developed the content, it became clear that only a FRACTION of our combined knowledge about makeup could fit in our designated pages. But rather than let that content disappear or hoard it to ourselves, we’ve decided to share the info via our blogs.

Thank you for your continued support of my publications and projects! I hope you find these makeup articles interesting and inspiring!

Happiest of New Years!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
January 4, 2015

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Categories
General

Hot Travel Tip – Portable Pharmacy

This winter season I’m doing a lot of traveling.  I went on a family holiday cruise to Mexico in mid December and next week, I’m heading out again to Vegas to connect with friends who are attending CES – Consumer Electronics Show.  In Las Vegas, however, I’m NOT attending CES!  Instead, I’m going to be working on my new 2016 blogging project, “Makeup Mondays,” where I talk about products and techniques that will help you up your performance makeup game.  As I unpack my bags, and then repack, I thought I would share an indispensable item that permanently live in my my travel kit.  It’s not often that one little kit can make life easier and provide piece of mind.  What is it?  My customized portable pharmacy!

PortablePharmacy

 

My portable and highly customized portable pharmacy is super simple to put together.  All you need is a week long pill organizer with enough capacity for three days of product. I choose my essential products, the ones that make my life more comfortable, and gather them together.  I used my handy P-Touch label maker to mark the product name and dosing directions.  I popped the labels onto the compartments and then load it up.  And it’s done!

Yep – there’s a typo on there too!  I know that the P-Touch label tape isn’t a precious commodity, but really, I didn’t think a typo was worth fixing. (Life Lesson: Wear glasses when using the P-Touch!)  I choose to leave the Sunday compartment unlabelled so that I can include something unusual for me that might be trip specific. For the cruise, I took along some dramamine, and just popped a hand written note into that compartment with the dosing.

During my cruise, I had a little too much fun dancing, and my old creaky knees were grateful that I had everything on hand that I needed to cope with up to 6 hours of dancing every day!  This was so useful, I’ve decided to break down and make a second one to keep in my dance kit too!

Happy Travels,
Davina ~ Dawn Devine
December 28, 2015

You can get weekly pill caddies at virtually any pharmacy, grocery store, or big-box discounter.  Here are two I am considering for my dance kit: Amazon.com or
Amazon.com.  Need a P-Touch?   I use my label machine all the time, I couldn’t imagine life without it!

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San Diego Sunrise on the Holland America Veendam, December 2015.

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General

5 Reads for a Lazy Fall Afternoon

5 Fall Reads for Belly Dancers - Titles from the reading list of the book, "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage." by Sara Shrapnell , Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld, and Poppy Maya.

Fall is here, and there is nothing quite as satisfying as cuddling up with a cup of hot apple cider, a comfy blanket and an interesting book.  Over the summer, I’ve been collaborating on an upcoming book entitled, “Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage.”  I’ve been tasked with putting together a suggested readings list for this upcoming book.  This project involved re-reading old standards, exploring new titles, and crafting a select bibliography to get the reader started if they are planning on continuing their research and exploration of our dance art. So without further ado, let me present a few faves for lazy-day reading.

The Belly Dance Handbook: A Companion for the Serious Dancer by Princess Farhana.
If you are on a trajectory into the stratosphere as a belly dance star, or if you just want to read a really good book about belly dance, then get this book! I’ve read this book a couple of times, first casually for entertainment. Then I sat down and really savored the information in the book. It’s full of great “from the trenches” tips on how to manage a belly dance CAREER.  But this book is also an enjoyable read.  Princess Farhana is warm andA7B193B4-36EC-463E-9913-1227161CF46C generous in the text.  She doesn’t just tell you what you need to do, she tells you why.  She tells great stories that really illustrate the often not-so-glamorous behind the scenes world of the belly dance profession.  You will laugh out loud, you will find yourself saying “awwww,” and don’t be surprised if you also have a few “Ah-HA” moments as you work your way through this book.  My personal favorite section is the costuming section, but I really think the professional insights throughout this book are worth their weight in gold.

Buying this book directly from the author provides her with the biggest financial payback for her hard work! Visit her website to pick up your copy, and be sure to tell her I sent ya!
BellyDance-CoverBellydance by Keti Sharif

This is my favorite general reference guide book to the art of belly dance.  Keri Sharif did a great job in putting together this overview of belly dance.  It’s a quick read, with lots of beautiful imagery, and lots of information about what makes this dance unique.  Bellydance provides a lot of interesting background information about the history and development of the style.  But the thing that I love most about this book is the delicious full-color photos.  Sometimes it might be a little difficult to read because of the lush layering of text and imagery, but frankly, I actually enjoy that.  I’ve had this on my shelf for years, and still pick it up and casually thumb through it to look at photos.

Bellydance

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The Belly Dance Reader 1 and 2 edited by Lynette Harris of Gilded Serpent Magazine
If you want to read some of the most current research, thought, and trends in dance today, check out the pair of anthologies produced by Gilded Serpent eZine.  The articles vary in topic and length and there’s a topic that will appeal to almost anyone involved in the community of belly dance. There’s information on history, culture, process, theory, costuming, and much, much more. From academic scholars to celebrity dance stars and everything in between, Lynette really searched out pieces that showcased the broad diversity within our art form.  Even if you don’t agree with every point of view, it’s great that these books present a variety of opinions.

The Belly Dance Reader 1
The Belly Dance Reader 2

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The Art of Manipulating Fabric

For my fellow costume making junkies, be sure to get a copy of this amazing book. The two best ways to save money on costuming are:
• To do it yourself
• To use less expensive materials creatively to create visual interest, texture and contrast.

This is the best books for introducing the art and technique of fabric manipulation. It’s so good, it’s required reading for my costuming students. I’ve found this book endlessly inspirational, and go back to it again and again.

The Art of Manipulating Fabric

C79F3885-40A2-4841-A3A7-54A3611574CCBead & Sequin Embroidery Stitches
by Stanley Levy

If you’ve looked at the crusty goodness of imported belly dance costumes and thought, “maybe I could do that,” then this book is a great start. Although the author was writing with textile and fiber artists in general, the methods presented in this book provide a good foundation to use for progressing towards the more complex designs. Informative and inspirational for budding costumers, and an essential for any costume designer’s bookshelf.

Bead & Sequin Embroidery

 

41ZoBc+54bLI want to shout out to my collaborator Sara Shrapnell of  Teaching Belly Dance, a great book for budding dance instructors and my co-author on the upcoming Becoming a Belly Dancer.  These titles and many more are included in the suggested reading portion of our book.   Visit her website for more information on her past, current, and future projects.

To follow the development of Becoming a Belly Dancer, from Student to Stage, you can sign up for our mailing lists, and come over to FaceBook to join the conversation.

Happy Costuming and Dance!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
Oct. 4, 2015

Categories
General

Embellished Bras – Birthday Sale 2015

Hello Gang!

September is my birthday month and to celebrate, I’ve put my best selling book, Embellished Bras on sale over on my Etsy store.  Through September 31, 2015, this book is on sale for the lowest price ever – only $15 + shipping.  I’m so proud of this book and it continues to be my best selling publication.  This is, quite literally, a “workshop in a book.”  These are the techniques that I present to students during bra making classes and workshops. There are many-many ways to make a bra.  In this book, I present a simple draping technique for making a pattern for the bra cups. Once you have your pattern made, follow the step-by-step directions for sewing the fabric to the bra.  The last half of the book is filled with ideas, materials, and supplies for embellishing your bra.  If you already make dance bras, this book will offer you new insights, tips, tools, and techniques for taking your bra-making to the next level.

All of my in-print titles are available on Etsy, so if you are looking for a different title, stop by the store and check it out. If you are a regular Etsy shopper, favorite the store and keep in touch for new products and book releases!

Thanks for joining me in my birthday celebration!
~ Dawn Devine ~ Davina

Embellished Bras – On Sale for $15 + Shipping
On Davina’s Etsy Store through Sept. 30, 2015.

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EB-Ad Bar

 

PS: I’ve been adding a few assiut accessory pieces made from scraps left over from the production of The Cloth of Egypt: All About Assiut.  If you are in the market for a hair flower, headband, or other accessory piece made from assiut, be sure to keep an eye out.  All through the month of October, we will be finishing up new pieces!  One might be right for you!   ~ Happy Costuming ~ Davina

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