SAM FINE

1. Who are your clients?
I’ve worked with celebrities such as Vanessa Williams, Patti LaBelle, Mary J. Blige, Queen Latifah, Mo’Nique and supermodels Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks, Chanel Iman… and one of my personal favorites, Iman!

2. What are your 3 all time hall of fame/fave products?
Yves St. Laurent Semi-loose Powder Natural Radiance – Fellow makeup artist Fran Cooper turned me onto this incredibly silky loose powder and I’ve been using it my entire career! It never settles in fine lines or looks heavy!

IMAN Cosmetics Sheer Finish Bronzing Powder in Afterglow - Bronzer and blush all in one? Who could ask for more!

Stila Eyeshadow in Twig – A rich brown shadow with flecks of gold that looks great on everyone from fair to deep complexions.

3. What are your mistake proof tips for holiday festive makeup?
Glitter liquid liner makes eyes sparkle and is one of the easiest products to use! Simply apply a bit to the inner corner of the eye (nearest the nose) to add a touch of holiday sparkle or layer over a dark smoky eye for all out glamour!  My fave is IMAN Luxury Liquid Eyeliner.

Wearing lipstick in rich shades ranging from red to bordeaux look amazing when paired with a clean eye and a defined brow… very old Hollywood!

4. What are your quick makeup fixes that all women need to know?
Apply lip liner in a coordinating shade over the entire mouth before applying lipstick. Not only will this keep lipstick from bleeding, it will last longer while you dance the night away!

Don’t have room for a compact? Simply pack a few blotting tissues in your purse to absorb oil throughout the evening.

If you feel you’ve applied too much foundation, simply take a two-ply tissue, separate, and blot. Not only does this absorb excess foundation, it also allows the skin to show through for a more natural looking, flawless complexion.

5. Are you working anything new that we should know about?
I recently released my first instructional makeup DVD, Fine: The Basics of Beauty available now on Amazon.com! This step-by-step tutorial features three individual makeovers and addresses a myriad of beauty challenges! Check it out!

ASHUNTA

1. Who are your clients?
Some of my clients are Alicia Keys, Keri Hilson, Sharon Stone, Mary J. Blige and Rihanna.

2. What are your 3 all time hall of fame/fave products?
My three all time favorite products are Laura Mercier Perfect Primer, Mary Kay TimeWise Targeted Eye Revitalizer and IMAN Cosmetics Creme To Powder Foundation.

3. What are your mistake proof tips for holiday festive makeup?
Play up lips and try a bold brick red, or deep wine. If you are not used to these colors make sure to use a warm brown lip liner line and fill in the lips then apply lip color. This always works well when wearing bolder colors is new to you because the warm brown lip liner tones down the brightness of red to create a more sultry color. This is a great tip to ease you into the color. For lighter complexions I suggest doing the same with a nude lip liner.

Also for holiday time using a fun eye liner like emerald, blue, or purple only on the lash line with 2 or 3 coats of Mascara is a great way to try a new look. My favorite eye liners are Makeup Forever Aqua Colors because they’re water proof and come in amazing shades. I love Dior Iconic Mascara to achieve full long lashes. When applying mascara wiggle the wand in a fast motion from side to side almost like teasing hair carefully. This insures that every lash is coated evenly.

4. What are your quick makeup fixes that all women need to know?
I always keep a Ziploc baggie with Q-tips inside with eye makeup remover. I let it marinate over night so the makeup remover is really soaked up by the Q-tips. This is great for runny eye makeup or makeup mishap quick fixes on the go – or if you want to change eye makeup from day to night you can easily remove only eye shadow so you can build up eyes or change without the heaviness layering makeup sometimes does.

A lot of women are always surprised when they see that I work on eyes first. It is a great tip because when you focus all the attention on the eyes then you can just clean up any fallen shadow or mascara. It’s easy to get a flawless finish with your foundation afterwards.

I am always asked how I get Alicia’s skin to glow. I always buy empty plastic jar containers from Ricky’s or Alcone – both fabulous stores for beauty junkies like me. I am a firm believe of removing products from their packaging to mix and create my own. I love being creative with makeup because it’s like painting so it should be fun. I actually learned this from two people I greatly look up to in beauty; Iman and Pat McGrath. I remember when I became a makeup artist I read Iman’s book, “The Beauty of Color: The Ultimate Beauty Guide for Skin of Color,” and she said she was always mixing things because brands didn’t make colors for her skin-tone. Pat is constantly mixing products to make the perfect shade so it became a trick of mine and it works. One of my biggest tricks to glowing skin is I take Tinted Moisturizer from Mary Kay, 24 Karat Gold Shimmer powder from Jane Iredale and Cover Girl Queen Collection Natural Hue Mineral Bronzer and mix it together to make a perfect flawless base that covers with glow.

5. Are you working anything new that we should know about?
Yes, I am working on a TV show, a book about green beauty, a blog, and a green product line. Plus always busy with my various clients and their projects. It is going to be a busy year and I feel very blessed.

BEAU NELSON

1. Who are your clients?
I have worked with Taylor Momsen, Lindsay Price, Mary J Blige, Lucy Liu, Iman, Blake Lively, Amanda Bynes, Mariah Carey, Kristen Stewart, Zoe Kravitz, Becki Newton, Brooke Shields, and Sienna Miller amongst others.

2. What are your 3 all time hall of fame/fave products?
Yves Saint Laurent Faux Cils Mascara makes lashes thick and dark without clumping. A real classic.

Shu Uemura and IMAN Cosmetics Stick foundations; between these two brands I have any skin tone I would ever need, and they both offer incredibly adjustable coverage, from the sheerest wash of color all the way up to full coverage, but have a satiny finish that never looks like MAKEUP.

Beauté Cosmetics Liqui-Gel Stain for Cheeks and Lips; I designed these as pure pigments suspended in a liquidy-gel base so they are bendable and super long lasting and look great on all skin tones.

3. What are your mistake proof tips for holiday festive makeup?
For daytime activities I think a little extra blush in a muted berry tone is a really pretty way to go, it makes you look like you have been out in the snow for a bit. And for evening a smoky dramatic eye looks amazing with a hint of silver or gold blended over the inner eye corner to light up the look.

4. What are your quick makeup fixes that all women need to know?
Brushes are your best friend! They make applying professional looking makeup a breeze, so make sure you invest in a nice set. That being said, sometimes nothing works better than your fingers, especially with emollient products like concealer and crème blush.

When using concealer under the eye, use your finger in a tapping motion rather than a rubbing one to blend the pigment under the eye, that way you will get the fullest coverage without it looking heavy. Use a small fluffy clean shadow brush to lightly dust loose powder under the eye after applying concealer to set it. This will control the amount of powder you are using making sure it doesn’t look dry or cakey.

For perfect red lips (or any other dark color) I apply a pencil in a lipstick matching shade and fill in the entire lip, I then use a clean lip brush to soften the pencil line very slightly. I use the same brush to apply a matching lip color all over the lip. Sometimes I refine the line further by using a straight edged flat liner brush dipped in makeup remover along the outside of the lip to define the shape even further.

5. Are you working anything new that we should know about?
It’s my goal in 2010 to expand the distribution of my brand Beauté Cosmetics to more locations in the US, so look out for us! Beyond that I’m continuing my work with my amazing clients and will hopefully have even more incredible ladies to work with soon.

I am very proud to call her a friend and this month she has several projects that I would like to pass on to you… one being her CD “The Element of Freedom” and the other being this jewelry collection “The Barber’s Daughter.”  The beautiful jewelry is engraved with poetry, prose and prayer and is gorgeous as well as inspiring.  It is designed by Gisele Theriault.

Alicia says, “I love Gisele’s work. I feel like I’m wearing art. I love how each piece is so individual, beautiful, handcrafted and one of a kind. But, by far my favorite part is the words that are written. They remind me of the things I want to hold onto every day. It feels, in a way, like a shield.”

And true to Alicia’s commitment, this year she has collaborated with her designer Gisele and created a special necklace for the Black Ball Charity event in New York; it was auctioned off raising $25,000 for Keep a Child Alive which helped the evening raise $2.4 million.

I sat down with Alicia and Gisele and asked them to enlighten us about this new venture.

1. How did you two meet?
Gisele:  “Alicia and I met through a friend, Dave Watson, Alicia’s sax player for her world tour 2008 when they came to Toronto.  Ashunta (Alicia’s make-up artist) asked Dave if I could bring my jewelry line to the hotel. She and I had a crazy, strong connection and she thought Alicia would appreciate the work and arranged for a meet at the next day’s concert.” 

2. Alicia, what made you decide this was to be your first non music venture?
I love these pieces on a very deep level. I love the way they are so individual and created with so much divine energy put into them. They are beautiful and speak to the song writer in me by having such meaningful words engraved on them. I believe the world is looking for meaning everywhere they can, and they absolutely can in these barbers daughters pieces!

3. Gisele…. I believe everything happens for a reason….the birth of your son and the death of your father share same day and now this wonderful project?
This line of inscribing words in jewelry to remind us where beauty really lives and how rich we are if we’d open our eyes is the result of persistent dreams.  A dream that was waking up with a voice in my head that was telling me that if I want to reach more people through the healing arts, I should go back to creating jewelry that I knew so well and start engraving poetry, prose and prayer and help people ground into their deeper self through the tough times.  I neglected this dream, sure that I was eating too late at night, until I started waking up in a sweat.  When I gave in and pursued the idea, of course answers came almost as fast as the questions were formulated.

After 1 1/2 years of it and a line gaining momentum, Alicia and I met. Within our communications I offered to create a piece for the Black Ball 2008.  While I was engraving late one night, exhausted, realizing that I’ve grown to hire 2 more people and went from working 12 hr days to 18 hour days, I did the simple math and threw the question up to the Universe/guardians/.. “If I am supposed to reach more people with this work, how? If I hire one more person, I think I’ll be dead.”  Two days later, the day after the Black Ball necklace we created together sold for 25K, we had lunch and Alicia said, “I sooo believe in this work and want to partner with you and help you take it to a global reach.”

Direct answer to my question! Coincidence?

4. Alicia, why Keep a Child Alive… share why this particular organization moved you to action?
Keep a Child Alive speaks to me because I directly saw the effect of the AIDS pandemic in Africa when I went and I believe so much in my co-founder Leigh Blake! I know the people we serve and that they get what they deserve. This movement gives me a more supreme purpose and it’s something I believe in. 

5. Alicia, what would you like to accomplish with the jewelry line?
I would like the WORLD to be effected by the pieces; for people to have an emotional connection with their pieces in such a way that it gives u something positive to hold on to (literally and figuratively!) 

6. The Barber’s shop seems to be an extension of what you both have been doing for a long time…. please explain?
Alicia “‘The Barber Shop’ is traditionally a place you can be yourself, find friends and emerge looking even better than when u came in… I feel the same about the barbers daughters pieces.”

Gisele “‘The Barber Shop’ is the greatest repository of stories. Stories define who we are. When we are willing to drop our story lines that hinder our growth, we can recreate the lives we want to live.”

7. Alicia, during this Christmas 2009… what would like to impart to the universe?
A sense of inspiration, hope, joy, faith and limitlessness.

8. Alicia, do you have a favorite piece?
My favorite piece is somewhere between the barbers daughters dog tags that say “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others,” that we created specifically for the Keep a Child Alive Black Ball fundraiser this year, and this large beautiful silver cuff that says “I am A superwoman!”

www.thebarbersdaughters.com
www.keepachildalive.org

Alicia Keys and designer Gisele Theriault

With Gwen Stefani and Bowie

CONDE NAST/BLACK BALL for KEEP A CHILD ALIVE Once again we were the hit of the town as Alicia Keys and I co-hosted our annual fundraiser Black Ball for Keep a Child Alive and this year we honored Bono, Nick Redding for S.A.F.E. and Dr. Pasquine for their tireless work on AIDS in Africa. The concert was amazing! Alicia Keys and her band rocked the joint in this case the Hammerstein Ballroom with performances by Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow and the amazing Kathleen Battle! The afterparty was just as hot! As Amy Sacco rebuild her famous Bungalow 8 on the 7th floor of the building! I presented the award to Bono who at the end knelt by my feet and called me the true African Queen! Thank you all for the support and don’t forget to donate towards Keep a Child Alive

With Common

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALICIA! Alicia Keys birthday was at Bed club in New York and it was so much fun. She looked HOT! and as always so sweet. It was all about the music, the music and the music. My god, the music was good. … everyone was on the dance floor all night. It was a mix of old and new. If you have never been to Bed, check it out next time as it literally are beds and everybody lounging on them. It is a miracle that people get up and go home and not just go to sleep after all the dancing. I met for the first time one of my favorite artists, Common. He was cute and gracious and kept on calling me all night, Hail to the Queen. How cute

With designer Valentino

THE BLACK BALL GALA Nov 9th was our main annual fundraiser, The Black Ball, at the Hammerstein Ballroom and both Alicia Keys and i co-hosted this year. “I can’t wait,” said actress Anne Hathaway, in anticipation of a rare live set by my husband David. “I think he’s so sexy, but i shouldn’t say that too loudly, since I’m sitting at Iman’ table!” Honey, you can say it!! We had one hell of a turn out from Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes ( a week before their wedding!” Damon Dash, Rachel Roy, Russell Simmons. Kimora Lee Simmons, Ed Norton, Jeffrey Wright and our MC Wanda Sykes. Rousing performances by Angelique Kidjo, Damian Marley but the highlight of the evening was the duet of Changes of Bowie with Alicia Keys, it brought the house down. To find out more about how to help www.keepachildalive.org

With husband David Bowie

GLAMOUR WOMAN OF THE YEAR What a year it has been so far! I was awarded one of Glamour’s Woman of the Year for my humanitarian work for AIDS in Africa. I was given the “model citizen” award and it was a very moving and inspiring evening. “Iman would have made history as a supermodel alone,” says friend and Keep a Child Alive global ambassador Alicia Keys, “but she is channelling her boundless passion into an issue that needs all the visibility it can get.” Please, donate to www.keepachildalive.org

Photo by Michael Thompson

I AM AFRICAN As the Global Ambassador of Keep A Child Alive, I am spearheading a timely and thought provoking campaign called I AM AFRICAN. It is designed to spark a global conversation, turn heads, and create a new level of engagement about the AIDS crisis by connecting each of us to our Motherland. The campaign speaks to the African ancestry we all share. I have appealed to various celebrities to show their African roots in this I AM AFRICAN campaign to appear in a modern take on African tribal makeup; photographed beautifully by top photographer Michael Thompson with his team: hair stylist Serge Normant, makeup artist Dick Paige, and stylist Joe Zee, and Art Direction by Trey Laird. Alicia Keys, David Bowie, Elijah Wood, Sarah Jessica Parker, Gwyneth Paltrow, Liv Tyler, Sting, Elizabeth Hurley, Richard Gere, Gisele Bundchen, Lucy Liu, Heidi Klum and Seal, Tyson Beckford, Lenny Kravitz, Mischa Barton, Alan Cumming, Janet Jackson, and myself, have all been photographed acknowledging our African heritage. Please join us and help. For One dollar a day you can make a difference in someone’s life. Visit www.keepachildalive.org

With Alicia Keys and her mom

DOCTORS OF THE WORLD HONORS ALICIA KEYS This very important organization honored my dear friend Alicia Keys for her humanitarian work with Keep A Child Alive, a non profit organization that provides life saving AIDS medicines directly to children and families in Africa. In April of this year, Ms. Keys embarked on a tour of Uganda to promote care and understanding for the children affected by AIDS in Africa. log in www.keepachildalive.org

With the cover girls, Susan Taylor, Monique, Fantasia, Angela Bassett and Alicia Keys

WOW! ESSENCE CELEBRATES 35 YEARS. The Beautiful Ones… 35 of the Most Remarkable Women in the World, and yours truly made it. Cover girls… me, Susan Taylor, Monique, Fantasia, Angela Bassett and Alicia Keys. What a celebration of sisterhood it was… we laughed, we cried, we sang, we danced and we gossiped. I remember my first Essence cover at the age of 20 and that is when I knew I have finally arrived.It surely is a beautiful sight for sore eyes… black women from diverse backgrounds being celebrated for their beauty, brains, talent and sheer power. Baby, we all have a come a long way.