Today we have a guest post by veteran Las Vegas makeup artiste: Amelia C. I know it seems like it’s a long way off as we all shiver through winter, but summer is coming, I promise! Amelia’s sharing a few nuggets of information from her depth of experience on how to deal with the sweat inducing sweltering heat under the Nevada sun, and the best ways to keep your makeup looking fresh and beautiful in spite of it.
These tips (including one involving paper toilet seat liners!) will serve you well if you going to be spending any amount of time in Vegas and want to look good for engagement shoots, trash the dress sessions, wedding photos or just looking good everyday, so listen up!
Some of the beautiful looks makeup artist Amelia C and her team have created
Photo credits: Ron Miller (l), Mindy Bean Photography (r)Â
Before we get started, who is Amelia? Here’s a little about the woman and her company: Amelia C & Co comprises an award-winning team of Las Vegas Hair and Makeup Artists making bad hair-days and sloppy makeup quiver in their proverbial stilettos. Our comfort zone is as wide as our skin is thick, and yes, we will let you know if you have a booger that’s distracting everyone from our awesome makeup job. If we aren’t on set sneaking pizza to models or with a wedding party putting straws in champagne flutes, we are probably stuffing our faces and imbibing copious amounts of wine (and telling dirty jokes.)
Confession : I LIVE for Vegas Summers.
Where out-of-towners liken our heat to sticking ones head in an oven, I live for soaring 100+ temps. And after spending nearly thirty years in the sweltering Vegas heat, I’ve learned a thing or two about keeping your makeup in place well past margarita-hour.
The key to any water-resistant makeup is…wait for it… silicone. That’s right, silicone! And if not silicone, oil. Sounds strange, I get it, but hear me out. I know right now you’re picturing something like bacon fat in a frying pan, grease slowly dissolving under the heat into a runny mess. But let me ask you this: what would happen if you put salt water in that bacon grease? It would just bead up, right? Please don’t go slather your face in Crisco, just trying to give you a visual here.
Silicone-based makeup is the sexier, savvier version of the old oil-based products. And it also happens to be the base of choice for most professional artists. We can use it for traditional application and airbrush application; it blends beautifully and leaves a silky but matte finish. Sweat and tears just bead up on its finish and roll right off. Eureka!
Thankfully professional line Makeup Forever has the ultimate collection of silicone-based foundation  (#1), and Temptu has some stellar product as well. For home use, I suggest the Makeup Forever HD line.
The other not-going-anywhere product you need to have to survive our summers is eye shadow primer. Unlike other parts of your face, the eyes always have some kind of friction going on. Open, close, open, close. The lid of your eye is constantly rubbing on your crease. If you’ve ever come home and seen that unattractive line of makeup where all your carefully applied shadow has migrated to, you know what I’m talking about.
Enter primer (#2) to save the day! Primer acts as a kind of adhesive, although it’s not. It locks the shadow in place from underneath, so that all those come-hither looks you’re casting about don’t skew your makeup.
Finally, the thing you need to take with you, your go to, your touch up maven, is blotting paper (#3). We can put anti-shine on you, we can use silicone-based makeup, we can use primers, but there is absolutely nothing we can do about your oil and sweat glands. You WILL get shiny. Blotting papers lift the moisture from your face without moving your makeup underneath. In a pinch, those toilet seat covers in public bathrooms work wonders. (Unused, please!)
Unless your day exceeds 10+ hours, resist the urge to take powder with you. Oil/sweat plus powder creates an icky, cakey looking finish on the face. Gross. Far better to appear a little dewy and smooth than to look like water and flour had a fight on your face.
 xoxo,
Amelia C & Co
Get more great make up tips and insider knowledge, or book a great makeup artist over at Amelia C’s blog!Â
I love this – my kind of humor! Great post, thanks for the tips!