UP AND COMING
NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
Introducing Christiana Cleland makeup artist extraodinaire. This chick seriously kicks ass. Her passion began with a curiosity of art and photography but it always stayed fashion based. Even as a child, art and creating came easily to her and her also talented siblings. On a whim and a wish she travelled up to Auckland in 2009 to train at The Cut Above Academy, which was based in central Auckland. Over a year of intensive training, and a true artiste was born.
“ I’M ALWAYS LEARNING FROM EVERYONE AROUND ME, LIFE IS INSPIRING! “ Spending several years living in Bosnia when she was growing up gave Christiana a different view of the world at large, and this adds to her inspirations of raising the bar for high fashion and culturally rich makeup. A high amount of research is done for each shoot, drawing from media, personal experiences and the people around her. Favourite designers’ catwalk shows can be a good place to start, Gareth Pugh always pushes the bar in an interesting direction. Capable of gentle glamorous wedding makeup, and special night out makeovers, she is also trained in everything from drag to movie prosthetics. During training they covered historical makeups through the centuries to gain a true understanding of where the trends originally came from giving a rounded education to begin from. She uses many leading brands, not sticking to a single one as that would limit her creativity, not just colour palettes. Certain brands work for one type of makeup and not another. Constantly importing and trying new products means that she keeps on top of the leading trends and developments. Her work has already featured in Woman’s Day, Women’s Weekly and North and South Magazines, not to mention working with Ryan Meta on high fashion editorial shoots. Her versatility is obvious in the range of jobs she manages to get. A lot of her work is done on location but she also has her premises in Square Edge to work from. The easiest way to find more examples of her gorgeous work is to find her facebook page Christiana Cleland Makeup Artist, or visit her website christianacleland.squarespace.com to book. A professional through and through, she can cater a look for anyone.
FAVE LOOK FOR TODAY:
Flicks on the eye corners, strong brows but careful on the proportion. Dewy skin with peach blush and copper and bronze shadow. Depending on the mood, either nude lips or dark stain look. It’s important to do your makeup for your mood, not just the occasion. If you are feeling it, that will shine through. Keep it simple! How do you get into it? Practise practice practice! Research and be inspired. If you are really keen, go train! Teaming up with an established makeup artist can be a good idea if you aren’t able to train right away. What has your greatest achievement been? Winning Youngblood Makeup Artist of the year in 2012, and getting to travel to Christchurch to recieve it. The main reward though, is seeing how good you can make people feel about themselves, the change you can see in a person when you have finished a makeover. Getting to know your clients is a great tool, they become your friends!