The Summer Survival Checklist

Summer is here at long last, which means steamy hot days outside and chilled air conditioning inside, sea water thrashing your hair, humidity making it frizzy, pool parties and beach parties to look fabulous for - so many beauty equations to have to figure out a plan for!
I've made a Summer Survival Checklist with 9 of my favorite items to take you effortlessly through the hot months and keep you looking gorgeous no matter how high the mercury rises.

It's Skin Facial Solution Powder Mist is perfect for those days where humidity has you feeling slimy, when you have excess oil or when you are getting breakouts from summertime oily/greasy skin. Keep one in your handbag or your desk drawer and spritz as needed to soak up oils, clear up breakouts and keep you looking fresh.

Madison Reed Tame I recently found this company 
(Madison Reed). They are a salon quality home hair color company, that also has some fabulous shampoo and styling products. They even have color specialists that consult with you and help you choose what you need.(click here).
This product, Tame,  keeps the frizzies at bay, helps to style summer hair that's getting fried by surf, sun and chlorine and keeps your frazzled flyaway hair looking groomed, tamed and glossy. It also gives your hair some UV protection, which is an extra bonus for those with color treated hair!

Nars The Multiple In South Beach is perfect for summer bronzing with a glow. Powder bronzers can sit on the surface of the skin and look artificial, especially on days where you're not wearing a full face of foundation. The Multiple in South Beach is a gorgeous shade of bronze that you can blend into your skin with your fingers, a beauty blender or a duo fiber brush for a natural look with a healthy, glowing finish. You can even add it over your makeup if you want to juice your look up before leaving work.

Tildon Metallic Floppy Straw Hat at Nordstrom  I love big, floppy straw hats that shelter your face and neck, but also look chic and stylish. Nordstrom has a wonderful selection of sun hats to choose from.

Prada Baroque 55mm Round Sunglasses. Let your sunglasses be a statement piece, making even the most simple outfit look chic.


Tatcha Dewy Skin Mist keeps your skin fresh, dewy and hydrated either on it's own or under moisturizer. In dry climates or when traveling it gives your skin a super boost, on days where its too hot or humid to pile  on moisturizer you can use Dewy Skin Mist on its own. Love it.

You need two good lip colors for summer. One super saturated bold shade in a slightly matte finish, to offset dewy skin and make you look polished when you're dressing up or making a statement, such as Temptu Color True Lipstick in Pink Hype  and one lipgloss with a pop of color. I love Charlotte Tilbury Lip Lustre Lip Laquer in Portobello Girl

Madison Reed Semi Permanent Gloss comes in a variety of shades and lets you brighten hair color that is fading from sun, swimming and beachtime as well as giving your hair a beautiful glossy shine.

What's in your summer survival kit?

Bridal Beauty Tip # 17 What The Groom Wears

I recently had the honor of being part of the team shooting one of the covers for the 15th Anniversary issue of Phoenix Bride And Groom Magazine.

For those of you not living in Arizona, this is a gorgeous, glossy magazine full of fabulous ideas and resources, not just for local brides and brides coming to beautiful, sunny Arizona for a destination wedding, but for brides anywhere in the world.
You can see a digital version of the magazine here:
Phoenix Bride and Groom Magazine online 
I also write and shoot bridal beauty based stories for their blog

The story that I shot with them for the 15th Anniversary Issue
was all about what the groom wears. Rather than the traditional black tuxedo, the magazine paired up with designer Ted Baker and explored some fashion forward options for the guys in the wedding party.

The story was shot at one of our stunning wedding venues in north Scottsdale, Sassi
Photography by Ben And Kelly Photography
Styling by Jennifer O'Bannon
Hair by Amber Tillinghast
Makeup by Corinna Cooke

in the makeup room for the Phoenix Bride and Groom 15th Anniversary cover shoot

Beauty Tip Of The Week # 16 Tatcha Travel Size Skin Care Products And Discount Code

I absolutely love the Japanese luxury skin care line Tatcha.
Love them!
If you follow this blog you will already know that I have written about them often, and that I always take Tatcha products with me when I'm traveling the world. Nothing revives your skin after a long international flight quite like Tatcha's Luminous Deep Hydrating Lifting Mask 


and I love to fly with Tatcha's 
Luminous Dewy Skin Mist in my handbag to spritz on my face during the flight.

Luminous Dewy Skin Mist

I was super excited to see that Tatcha has a complete list of skin care products ready for summer travel in TSA friendly travel sizes

This is also a great chance to try out some new products.
I've been saving some of the products from my gift sets to travel with this year.

I'm working on my personal stash for this year's travel

And to make everything even better Corinna B's World has a private discount code for Tatcha products, valid through June 21st 2015.
Get 10% discount with the code SUMMER10 when you spend $150 or more and get 15% discount when you spend $250 or more by using the code SUMMER15
To use these discounts you need to access the Tatcha website via this link
Read more about my favorite Tatcha products here and here and here

Behind The Scenes, Google Campaign

I always mean to post behind the scenes stories from makeup jobs that I do. I seldom get around to it.
There are so many things to factor in to the equation:
*much of what we do cannot be shown before the project/ad campaign/ magazine goes live.
* as a makeup artist you seriously have to protect the privacy of your celebrity clients, and the sanctity of the makeup room
* you don't want to be showing the photographer's lighting
* when shooting fashion you can't be posting the clothes and styling before the shoot goes live
... there are many more factors too. So I mostly don't write about it.

But today I'm giving you a look behind the scenes at a week long campaign we shot recently for Google.
The key to any project going smoothly is to 
a) have a great leader, in this case our handsome and fabulous photographer Eric Cassee
who b) assembles a group of like minds who function seemlessly as a team.

Our handsome leader. 

There is always a group of girls (crew and models) sitting behind Eric, waiting for him to bend over and shoot. The general consensus is that he has the absolute perfect butt. 
Eric is both brilliantly talented and fun to be around, so his set is always a really happy and cool place to be.

For me it all starts with setting up my makeup room. The studio we were shooting in has several different makeup rooms and makeup bays. I always take this one because it is huge, and it has really comfortable lounge chairs in it. 
Also it is directly across the hallway from the wardrobe room. I like to be able to zip back and forth, checking details on a model's wardrobe so I can make sure my work is 100% on point.
I also love being next door to our amazing wardrobe stylist Zoe Hennessey. She has the 3 F's in spades - she is fun, completely fascinating and endlessly fabulous.
The makeup room is always a place where everyone wants to hang out, so I like it to be comfortable, clean and always smell good.

My friend Diana Elizabeth was one of our model/actors. She and I have worked together for years. Back in my SheKnows.com days we worked together often, and I would sometimes be the beauty expert guest on her show. ( I just found my SheKnows Chat Pack bio online! See it here)
We always have fun together!

Diana wrote about the shoot on her fabulous blog, Diana Elizabeth Blog. 
Below see one of the photos from her blog, sitting in my makeup chair. 

The fabulous Diana Elizabeth in the makeup chair

Read her blogpost here 

The international glam squad

The beauty team on this shoot was from all over the globe.
If you follow me on Instagram (@Corinnamakeup) you will already have seen this image. I called it "The United Nations Of Glam"  because we had my assistant, Persian beauty Zee, who lives in Bahrain but works Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Dubai, and I think Lebanon too. She is a makeup artist and was in town for a couple of months to take a class I was teaching and to work with me. I hope to get out to the Gulf sometime soon to work alongside her.
Then there's me, originally from New Zealand, and here via London (5 years) then Los Angeles (10 years). The hot blonde on the right is our hairstylist Patrycja who is from Poland but came to us via 17 years in New York.
We are a really fun team!

#SQUAD

touch ups on set

As much as we fool around in between shots, when it's work time we are all on set, watching, touching up, making sure everything looks perfect.

Wardrobe stylist Zoe Hennessey and the beauty team

Zoe's assistant Ale on set

On our last day of shooting we had gorgeous model Zack with us, Patrycja couldn't resist  making her own matching beard.
Have I mentioned how much fun this shoot was?? 

Zee trying on a fringe wig

Every shoot ends with a crew shot.
This campaign was so much fun to be a part of. I can't wait for the next one!

8 Tips For Saving Money On Summer Travel

Summer is finally here, and those of you who haven't yet booked your holiday may be feeling overwhelmed at the price of last minute vacation travel or be thinking all the bargains have gone.
I found these 8 tips for saving money on summer travel on 
Airfare Watchdog.com

1. Avoid ‘peak’ summer travel. Summer doesn’t officially end until well after Labor Day. Since school starts earlier and earlier these days, you’ll find that airfares and hotel rates tend to go down for travel after around August 18, when kids go start to return to school. So plan your travels for “off-peak summer” if you can. 
2. Look into low-season destinations. Check out some of the not-as-popular summer destinations that still offer great activities and good weather. Since thousands of tourists won’t be flocking to those locations, prices for hotels, transportation, and everyday activities will be lower. Plus, crowds will be much smaller.
3. Use a flexible search to find better deals. When planning your travel, try to be as flexible as possible with your departure and arrival dates. That way, you can take advantage of flexible travel date airfare searches. If you can flex your travel dates slightly, and don’t need to travel on specific date, you can take advantage of huge savings, sometimes simply by booking a day or two earlier or later. Some of our favorite flexible search tools include those of JetBlue, Southwest, and United for airlines, along with Google Flights and Kayak.
4. For Europe travel, focus first on crossing the Atlantic cheaply. At this point, it’s no secret that the euro is at an historic low, which makes for cheaper travel within Europe. However, some cities may still be pricier than others, so to get the best deal you may have to fly into a nearby airport and then travel city-to-city by plane or train. Check out some of our favorite smaller airlines, such as Norwegian, Condor, and Wow Air, where you’ll find great deals within Europe. While you might have to spend some extra time getting to your actual destination, you’ll save money while touring two cities for less than the price of one. For example, while round-trip fares to Amsterdam may be about $1,500, you could instead fly into Frankfurt for about $799 (which we recently saw on Singapore Airlines from New York). A flight or train ticket from Frankfurt to Amsterdam is only about $100. All of those savings add up!
5. Check out your options with frequent flyer miles. When researching flights, see if it makes sense to cash in reward miles with any of your frequent flyer programs. In certain situations, you might have better luck calling the airline’s reservation center and speaking directly with a booking agent.
6. Do your research before booking an air + hotel travel package. While the package deals for airfare and hotels stays seem promising, sometimes they are significantly overpriced. Before whipping out your credit card and snagging that “great package deal,” search airfare and hotel prices on their own. That way, you’ll get a feel for what the prices are when they are separate and you’ll know if you’re actually saving money by booking a package. For example, British Airlines recently had a package deal for airfare and five nights in Dublin for about $750 per person. When we searched for airfare independently, we found that the flight alone would be more than $900. In this case, the package deal was definitely a no-brainer!
7. Check to see if your credit card offers travel insurance. Many travelers purchase travel insurance without first checking to see if their credit card offers any coverage. The credit card you use on a daily basis might already offer you enough insurance to cover your trip. Our favorites are the Chase Sapphire card, United Explorer card, and some Citibank AAdvantage cards, which all offer superb insurance protection.
8. After you book, check for airfare and hotel price drops. Airfare and hotel prices fluctuate on a daily basis. It’s a total bummer when you’ve paid for a hotel or flight and find out that someone else paid less. If you stay on top of it and check for price drops after you book, however, you might still be able to save some money. You can either get cash or a credit for future travel if you know how the system works. For example, Tingowill give you your money back if the price of your hotel room drops after you book; and Yapta is useful for tracking airfare price drops.                                                                                                                               

How To Look (and feel!) Confident

Confidence is alluring.

Giovanna Battaglia in New York with Fendi bag

It walks hand in hand with success. Confident people are considered to be more desirable, happier, whether true or not they are thought to have more friends and lead more fulfilling lives.

Confidence has nothing to do with income or beauty or perceived success. After nearly 30 years as a makeup artist working with actors and models I can tell you that behind closed doors the exquisitely beautiful, body perfect, wealthy people that we think have it all are often wracked with self doubt and totally lacking in self confidence.

Giovanna Battaglia, fabulous with a Fendi Baguette

Wherever you are in life, no matter what you think you are lacking, you can learn to project confidence, develop the habits, and after exercising these habits everyday become someone who without even thinking about it, just exudes confidence.

How To look And Feel Confident

Posture

Walking with your head down, your shoulders slumped, with your body language reading threatened, defeated, humbled, tired or overwhelmed is synonymous with a lack of confidence.

Confident people stand tall.

They square their shoulders and their hips, and instead of letting their chin drop, they hold it parallel to the ground.

When they sit down, they don't slump over (in the position of the defeated) they maintain great posture, leaning back but sitting tall.

Take notice of your own posture, and get into the habit of adjusting it and mimicking the posture of a confident person.

Eyes Up

Rather than dropping their gaze, which again is a symptom of the humbled or the defeated, and can be seen as a mark of deference to those you consider to be above you, confident people keep their eyes up, looking forward at the world as if everything is going as expected, projecting a sense of knowing where they are going - both in terms of the street they are walking along, and where they are going in life.

Make an effort to look straight ahead instead of looking down. If your shoulders are squared and you are making an effort to keep your chin up, it's pretty easy to keep your gaze up and forward.

Walk With Purpose

image via Stockholm-Streetstyle.com

You don't realize how much you shuffle around and walk indecisively until you start making a concerted effort to walk with purpose. Even if you're lost, or walking into a meeting with an irate boss, or into a situation you are uncertain of, square your shoulders, keep your eyes and chin up, and walk as if you are going exactly where you are planning to go.

Walking with purpose makes you look like a leader, makes you look like you are in charge of your own being, and of course, makes you look confident.

Develop A Firm Handshake.

Whether you are a guy or a girl an insipid, flimsy handshake makes you look like a pushover. It speaks to timidity, wishy washy character, indecisiveness and lack of mental strength.

A bone crushing handshake makes you look arrogant and like a bully.

But a good, firm handshake says that you know who you are, you know your abilities and have full faith in them, you are completely comfortable in your own skin and are not even remotely intimidated.

Subliminally a firm handshake paired with winning posture, raised eyes and a purposeful gait tells people you are at least an equal, if not someone to be deferred to. It also implies honesty and strength of character.

Make Eye Contact.

Confident people look everyone in the eye. People who divert their gaze or look down or away appear either dishonest, disinterested or intimidated. You don't want to develop some kind of blink-free serial killer stare, but learn to look everyone in the eye when you are speaking to them.

It implies that you are fully engaged in the conversation, you are listening, paying attention, attaching relevance to the conversation, and it also makes you incredibly likeable. If you start paying attention to eye contact in the conversations you are having you will be surprised at how few people actually concentrate on you when they are speaking to you. They are always looking here, there and everywhere.

Resting Happy Face.

We all are familiar with resting b*%ch face, where someone looks anywhere from dissatisfied to angry while in repose, when in all likelihood they are actually probably relatively happy underneath that sour expression.

Confident people have mastered the art of maintaining a resting happy face. Not some dopey, giddy grin, but a resting facial expression that resonates a feeling that they are content with life.
Again it takes some work to develop this trait, but it is well worth doing on many levels. Yes, obviously you will look confident, but also you will find that it becomes increasingly difficult to be feeling discontent, irritation, boredom, anger, confused, jealous - any negative emotion, when your face is looking happy. You become a happier person. 
Win/win.

The images in this story are of Italian style icon and fashion editor Giovanna Battaglia.
The first image has been on a mood board of mine for a couple of years because I was coveting her Fendi Baguette, but after a while I started noticing how much confidence and self awareness just oozes out of the very essence of her being, so now I keep the picture there as a constant reminder of how to carry myself.
Career and fabulous wardrobe not withstanding, Giovanna Battaglia is the perfect example of a confident woman, embodying each of the traits in this post.

Makeup Tips For The Mother Of The Bride ~ Bridal Beauty Tip #15

The Mother Of The bride has probably been dreaming about her daughter's wedding since shortly after she was born.
And in that dream she probably envisions herself looking lovely, fresh faced and beautiful.

image via www.dresses8.com

It's easy for the day of the wedding to be both stressful and busy for the bride's mother, so she needs to plan ahead and factor in her own beauty needs.

Here are my beauty tips for the mother of the bride:

1. Get Your Skin Ready
No matter how skilled your makeup artist is, your makeup will never look fantastic if your skin is not looking fabulous underneath.
Start having regular facials in the months leading up to the wedding, or if the wedding is just around the corner give yourself a good (but gentle!) exfoliating treatment and use some sheet masks in the days leading up to the big event. Sheet masks are super affordable but also super effective. Look for masks that are hydrating and brightening. I order mine online at Memebox

2. Hydrate.
On the morning of the wedding apply liberal doses of both eye cream and moisturizer when you get out of the shower. You need to allow plenty of time for it to absorb in before you put on any makeup.

3. The Makeup Artist.
If you have a makeup artist coming to get the bride ready, have her do your makeup too. When you are booking her ask to see samples of her mother-of-the-bride makeup. Some artists are very heavy handed and only know how to do Instagram inspired heavy contour and mega brows, which frankly looks awful on everyone. If she can't do your makeup either book someone else, or if you are doing your own makeup follow these tips.

4. Prime time
Use a good quality primer such as Charlotte Tilbury Wonderglow Primer. This primer will not only give your foundation a perfect surface to adhere to, making it go on more smoothly and last longer, but it will also add some vibrancy to your complexion.



5. Fill In Your Brows
Typically as we age gravity sends everything downwards. Makeup-wise we want to create the illusion of everything being back up where it used to be. Filling in the brows with a complimentary color in a brow pencil or powder (don't go too dark) redefines your face, and directs the viewer's eye upward.

Helen Mirren on the red carpet is the perfect example of gorgeous, flattering makeup for a mature woman.
She always looks stunning.

6. Keep The Eyes Defined But Soft.
Stay away from eye-makeup that is dramatic, overblown or dark, and avoid black eyeliner like the plague. All these things are super aging and draw attention to every fine line and wrinkle around your eye. Black liner grabs light and sucks it in, making it the first thing anyone sees when they look at you. In all your photos it will make you look like you are squinting. Opt instead for deep espresso brown or purple browns that will give you the accent you want, but won't collapse your eye.

7. Use A Waterproof Mascara
Chances are you will tear up during your daughter's wedding, so prevent the inevitable damage by wearing a waterproof mascara.

8. Use A Cream Blush
Cream blush gives the complexion a lovely radiant glow. The color is buildable so you can gently add more color, or if you've been too heavy handed it is easy to correct by swirling your foundation brush back through it. Try Laura Mercier Creme Cheek Color



9. Use A Satin Finish Lipstick
Glossy lips look great on a teen, but look silly on a mature woman.
Matte lips are super aging, but  a satin finish lipstick makes the lips look soft and alluring and is very flattering.
I am obsessed with Charlotte Tilbury K.I.S.S.I.N.G Lipstick. The finish is gorgeous and the colors are perfect. 



10. Avoid Aging Makeup Mistakes
I have an entire post on makeup mistakes that age you. Learn more tips and tricks by reading it here