These Curves are Dangerous...!

I just finished re-reading the most amazing book!
The first time through it shook me up so much that I had to go straight back to the beginning and read it again.

Its called "Dangerous Curves" and is the autobiography of racecar driver, model and entrepreneur Terri O'Connell.


Whether you are a race fan or not, this book is a must read.
It is a compelling, heart wrenching story of beating the odds, and of the sheer force and power of the human spirit.

I haven't been around the race world for very long - it's only been a couple of years, but one thing is certain, this is the domain of the alpha male - a man's man's world. Dirt track, quarter mile or paved oval, the testosterone hangs so thick in the air you could cut it in slices. (and frankly, I love that!)

So its not hard to see how controversial Terri has been in this sport...

You see, Terri was born a hermaphrodite, in a small provincial town in Mississippi, in a time where genetic testing wasn't prevalent, and the smaller medical communities weren't adept at recognizing and identifying such biological anomalies.

CB: In my teens, growing up in a small, provincial place I had a friend who was a hermaphrodite. I witnessed first hand how cruel humans can be when faced with a situation they've not been educated about, and the pure havoc this lack of knowledge and accompanying fear enables the masses to inflict on the life of another human being. My friend underwent exploratory surgery at age 20 and they found all the female reproductive biology inside. But that didn't change the gossip, innuendo and cruelty that she had to face in the outside world...

Terri was raised as a boy, J.T Hayes, who became a spectacularly successful racecar driver, but who from the age of three, knew she was a girl.

Dangerous Curves is the story of all she had to endure, the mountains she had to climb, in order to make it to the other side of what is still an ongoing ordeal. The prejudice, the hate campaigns, the injustice, coupled with an overwhelming need to survive, and a racer's fierce competitive edge and refusal to accept anything short of a win.
While you are sitting there shell shocked by what has just transpired, Terri shifts gears and jumps into her 800hp sprint car and takes you to the dirt track for a hair-raising spin that ends with her holding yet another trophy in the winner's circle.

From chapter to chapter you don't know if you'll be in a crumpled heap on the floor, or cheering her on in a win!

Early on in the book she talks about being a 5 year old at Christmas, desperately wanting Santa to bring her a Barbie, then lying in bed Christmas night, silently crying bitter tears because Santa too wouldn't listen, wouldn't hear her baby voice, and gave her a train set instead.
There were times in this book when I was reduced to tears, and times when I was so inspired by Terri's indominatable will.

Terri won over 500 professional motorsports events in 5 different racing series. She won 3 National Championships, and made it to America's most popular racing series, The Nascar Sprint Cup.
She designed and built most of the cars that she won in.

After biological re-alignment surgery at age 30 Terri was able to move forward with her life as a very beautiful woman.

NOTE: Terri is not Trans Gender, as is often written. She was born with both male and female biology. The only surgery she had was urological re-alignment and breast augmentation.

I've read comments where she has been accused of having her shoulders, ribs and hips reduced. Huh??? NO. She has always had the same body. She is my height - 5 foot 6 inches, and weighs 117 lbs. Which has pretty much always been her weight. When she lived in Charlotte she was a fashion model.
She is a slim, intensely feminine, gorgeous woman who is always described as being witty, clever and charming. Even her biggest critics and detractors are blown away when they meet her. Most don't realize that this is the same person that they have been slandering...





If you enjoy a little juicy gossip and intrigue, the book divulges much interesting info from behind the scenes in NASCAR, there's a crooked congressman - all kinds of good stuff!

Dangerous Curves is a memoir about women's issues and professional sports wrapped in the social dynamics of a small town in the deep south. It is the story of a family struggling to come to terms with a very difficult situation in a time and place where there was no road map to guide you through.
Its a story where bigotry and true southern deep love and compassion walk hand in hand through heart breaking pages. You meet some truly heinous characters, and also some of the most loving, kind humans, who's devotion and true friendship know no boundaries, and help a wounded soul beat the odds in the face of personal danger and extreme drama.

It reads like a novel, and at times you forget that you are reading an autobiography.


Terri is making a professional motorsports comeback with Dick Barbour of Dick Barbour Racing. She has built a company that specializes in super cool Tshirts for female race fans, and is in negotiations for a reality show based on her life.





I hope you will read this incredible book. I'll be giving it to all my friends for Christmas this year.

You can find out more about Terri on her website www.goterrio.com
Follow her on twitter at: goterrio
Check out the Dangerous Curves facebook page

And buy this great book on Amazon.com Click Here

Oh William!

When you look at a picture in a magazine its often hard to imagine what was going on when that image was shot. What the model was really dealing with - like modelling a bikini on a freezing cold day at the beach, wool jackets on a summer's day, being pulled and pinned and cinched into the clothes she's modelling etc.

When you have a good team working, everyone pitches in and makes it happen so that you can get the shot. And often times its all kinds of silly fun!

Here are some more behind the scenes moments from the shoot we just finished, which was filmed for the bridal industry.


So here is our beautiful model, Emely, in the makeup chair. She was our final model for the day.

Oh William! Heaven only knows what he was up to, but I can guarantee you it was hilarious! We had been working a really long day already, and all were exhausted.



With Emely on set, Kelly Cappelli started shooting. You can see the TV camera in the corner of this shot.


How funny is this??? Will and I were fanning out the train of the dress. This dress was actually exceptionally beautiful. It has flowers sewn on to it, and is really quite elaborate.
Its from Mariee in Scottsdale.
I was still miked, and the transmitter is still clipped on in my lower back. Not so seksi...


Can you please pass me another clamp.....


You can see here that in order to get the shot Emely (in high heels) has to arch her back, lift her chin, pull her shoulders both back and square, angle her neck, lean, and look demure, while I'm on one side holding the skirt, and Will is crouched behind her holding that side. You can also see some of the clamps that are holding the dress tight to her body.

The dress is actually really heavy, especially for a tiny slim little thing like Em.
She is pinned, pulled, clamped and cinched, but although as uncomfortable as she is, she can work her face and body, and make you believe she is lost in thought...



Meanwhile, the shooting continues. Kelly and Jeff Bills from Serendipity Videography.

A quick touch up and spray from the fabulous William Zecco...

Now Will is on camera, explaining why he chose this particular hairstyle, and how he did it.
When you step back out of the shot you can see all the backdrops etc. It kinda lets you see how real it all is.


Isn't he just gorgeous??? All kinds of crazy fun to work with!


And here's a very blurry shot of Emely. Hopefully by next week I'll be able to post a tutorial on this makeup. It was so lovely, and was done using the new Smashbox collection, which I am looooving to death!

Funnily enough its called work, but in all honesty, its just great fun!

xo

C

Fashion Week Sept 2009

I always love watching all the news coming out of New York fashion week.

When I lived in London runway was my thing, and I did endless shows, so its always cool and exciting to see where makeup is trending for the next season.

Right now they are showing Spring 2010, and for the most part the makeup is somewhat predictable.

Runway makeup is frequently low key, or focusing on one feature, partly to let the clothing be the star of the show, and partly because you have so little time to do the makeup, and girls are literally running in from another show still in that previous show's makeup. Its incredibly fast paced, but incredibly good fun to work on though!

Anyhoo, what I'm seeing this week more than anything is that precision brows are really dominating the runway.
The brows are making a statement. The shape is played up, the color is a little intensified but not too bold. The overly structured, overly groomed brow has stepped aside and a fuller, nicer, more natural shaped brow has arrived.

This was the look at Tory Burch. Beautiful, soft, natural, with the fuller brow. See how the brow is the statement in this makeup?


Tony Cohen's models also had a beautiful, put together natural look. Some of the shows had the girls looking too bare for my liking, but the looks I am showing here, in my opinion, are just right.


Carolina Herrera, as elegant as ever, wanted her girls to look beautiful and gorgeous, with the bolder brow and soft kissable neutral pink lips.




At Rebecca Taylor makeup artist Rie Omoto worked the nice full brow, soft eyes but threw in a bold orange lip.


Mark Jacobs I love you!!! This look was a deliciously mad breath of fresh air from the rest of the shows. Makeup Artist Francois Nars created a "Ballerina Goth" look. Who knows why?
We probably wont be seeing too much of it on the street, but what a show that must have been! I love the Nars wine lip stain in Pop Life.




My absolute favorite so far? The very talented Polly Osmond created this Barbie-meets-Marilyn look for Tuleh.
I love everything about this. The brow is not too thick, the eyes stand out but don't overwhelm, the cheeks are a soft fresh flush, and the lip is a lovely glossy pink.


This is the look I predict you'll be seeing most of come spring.

Love it!

xo

C

Well Good Morning Miss Allergy Face!

Ugh! Ever wake up with allergies? Today I did. I dont get them too often, but today I woke up with the full on blocked up, congested, swollen face, swollen eyes thing going on, and felt somewhat like death warmed over. Hardly glamor-rama.

In fact I looked like an alcoholic after a mad dog night of party-hearty binge drinking.

And, of course, I had to get out the door to go do makeup on a client.

So whats a gal to do?

I have a trusted routine that I swear by, that gives me results like crazy, but that I'm sure the medicos will say is all old wives tales...

So here's what I find to be the best solution.

First up if you can squeeze even a couple of extra minutes in to your already rushed morning, grab a clean washcloth, soak it in icy cold water, and lie back down with it over your eyes.
I have bought those eye masks that you keep in the refridgerator before, but find that they never quite mold to the shape of my eyes, whereas a wash cloth will, everytime.
I am convinced the lying down part is important too.

Next up I pour boiling water into a bowl which I place in the sink and add a couple of drops of peppermint oil. With a towel over my head to hold in the steam, I do some deep inhaling. This helps clear out congestion.
It also seems to help allergy headaches, and on top of that, I find that when I have allergies my skin feels pulled and dry, so the steaming and the peppermint oil help open it all up so that my moisturizer can really get in there and do its job, rather than just sit on the surface of the skin.
I swear by steaming the skin - it really does work wonders.

I have this great product in my makeup kit that I throw on next. Its called Morning After Rescue Gel and its by Nickel Spa for men in NYC. And its brilliant!
It was designed for men who've had a big old night on the boogie, and now are looking truly hungover and crap-tastic the next morning. But it also works brilliantly when you're puffy from allergies.

I found out about this magic potion a few years back on breakfast TV. The early morning crew frequently have puffy eyes and swollen faces, and this is fantastic for bringing their skin back to life.
It has caffeine in it, which really does waken the skin. It also is genius at reducing puffiness around the eyes (although you're not supposed to put it there).
Its mentholated so sometimes can get a bit fumey, but I absolutely swear by it!
In fact on mornings like this morning, I would have loved to just dunk my head into a bucket of it.

A little side note here: you often hear about people using Preparation H around puffy eyes. The ingredient that supposedly reduces puffiness was removed from Prep H years ago. In all my years in the business I have never seen it used on any set that I've worked on. My theory is keep backside products to your backside, and facial products for your face....

The last part of my routine if I'm doing the allergy thing, or if I'm just looking super tired & wrung out in the morning is to leave out the java. For some reason coffee seems to make the skin look worse when taken internally on a bad day.
I'll either put lemon slices in hot water, or drink peppermint tea. It may be urban myth, but it seems to either detox a little, or maybe just invigorate the skin and get rid of the bloaty face that we're battling.

So ice it, steam it, keep your caffeine topical, and rock on looking all kinds of fabulous!

Bridal Promo Shoot

lashes, starbucks, Julie Hewett palette& lips, brushes galore....

Yesterday was too much fun! Just waaay to much fun.

We shot a super cool bridal promo piece at Studio 5, with all my favorite players. Of course the fabulous Kelly Cappelli shot all the stills, Will Zecco and Kristin Isaac did hair, and we used my favorite models Tamara Anthony, Mallory Nevin and Emely Soto.

The dresses were off the charts killer fab, and came from Mariee in Scottsdale, the jewlery was by Claudia.

Serendipity filmed the piece. Hopefully I will be able to post some of it before too long.

We shot some cool makeup tutorials while we were there, using some fantastic new Julie Hewett products and the off the charts brilliant Reign Collection from Smashbox.

There were plenty of personal cameras on set, so I'm going to post some behind the scenes stuff as pics come in.




















Airbrushing Mallory's foundation

























Kelly checking makeup, new Julie Hewett palette in foreground...



















No idea what was so funny, but Will Zecco no doubt had something to do with it!









































ooohh!



















I so love the Smashbox Reign collection packaging that I keep all the products in their original boxes. Geeky, I know, but the little things in life can bring so much happiness...



















How cool is Kelly??? I'm chatting to twitter and facebook, & looking all kinds of serious, meanwhile Kelly looks all kinds of fabulous while waiting to get miked up.




































Mallory snapping some pics while Jeff from Serendipity gets Kelly miked.

























Cameras rolling. Kelly showing one of the dresses and talking about the look.

























Me holding up the dress while Kelly speaks.



















Me telling TV-land about this cool Nicole Miller dress and what makeup to do with it.

No doubt I'll be posting more from this shoot this week, and as Will was in fine form, there's bound to be some silliness involving him!

xo

C

MAC Eyeshadow Makeup Tutorial

Today I am going to teach you a very clean and pretty eye makeup using MAC eyeshadows.

We shot this at a photoshoot for our teen model, Monica, so I have referred to it as a clean, teen eye makeup, but really it is fabulous for any one.

So here we go:



First up, apply an eye shadow primer. This will help the shadows to bind to the eyelid, and stay there all day, instead of disappearing as the day wears on.



Next, using the Oval Shadow Brush, apply MAC eyeshadow color Hush from the lashline to the eyebrow in clean, smooth strokes. Badger hair brushes make this very simple and get it done in just 2 or 3 strokes.

Now take the Chisel Fluff Brush and apply the color Quarry onto the lid only. This is where you feel eyeball underneath. Take it from the lashline to the crease.

Using the flat edge of the Angle Blender Brush, press the color Mystery into the outer corner of the eye



The effect should be quite soft and pretty.




Now add some dimension to the eye by using MAC Pigment in Shimmertime.
I used the Oval Shadow Brush, and just gently pressed it into the inner corner of the eye, and up to the brow.


You can see below how lovely this looks.

Use MAC Stubborn Brown eyeliner pencil and supporting the upper lid, run the pencil along the lash line, lifting it a little at the outer corner.

Using the Taklon Liner Brush take MAC Expresso eyeshadow, and press it into the pencil liner. This will set it and stop the pencil from moving and disappearing as the day wears on.



Make a second pass with the Taklon Liner brush and smudge the line a little, making it softer.


Now run the Taklon Liner Brush and Expresso shadow under the lower eyelid, keeping it right up in the lash line. This will give you a much softer, smokier look than using pencil under the eye. It will also stay on all day.
Anytime you are using powder shadows, particles will drop below the eye, so use a fan brush to sweep away under the eye. Pictured is the Delux Soft Fan Brush which is made from badger hair, and picks up product better than any other fan brush I have ever used.



Add some mascara (I used MAC ProLash) and you are good to go!


For the shoot we added individual eyelashes at this point, and the tutorial for that can be seen here in the For The Ladies Who Lash photo tutorial and the Lash Me Lash Me video tutorial.

So here is our final shot of the lovely Monica with her makeup complete. Isn't she just gorgeous? She is completely adorable to work with too.







And here is my Elusive Cowgirl Love Comes Without Warning T-shirt. I keep wearing this one over and over because I love it so much!
You can get them online at www.ElusiveCowgirl.com


Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!

xo

C