So, I headed down to Birmingham on Sunday for Clothes Show Live 2013 and was both extremely nervous and excited at the same time. The day began very early as I had to get to Birmingham for 6:30am (the morning after our Vinery staff xmas party!) on the Sunday morning to meet some other members of the Make-Up Team and then we headed to the N.E.C for 7am!
I was incredibly nervous at this point and it felt as though my heart was going to jump out of my throat! I then met the Head Make-Up Artist who was in charge of our team and to my relief she was lovely and very welcoming. She instructed myself and a couple of the other Make-Up Artists that we would be doing make-up for the dancers performing on stage (both male & female). She was very precise about the look she wanted - which consisted of very dark smokey eyes and nude lips for the girls, there was to be absolutely no shimmer anywhere on the face - this was because it would not look right with the lighting for the show.
Each model had to be checked by the Head Make-Up Artist before they could go and carry on getting ready. I was thrilled when she said "perfect!" every time I took a model across to her. Once the show had begun, our job was to stand right next to the stage entrance to 'touch up' the make-up in between outfit changes. This consisted of applying more powder to the facial areas that had become shiny, and the application of more lip gloss/lip balm. It was fascinating to be a part of the backstage buzz and watching the assistants frantically trying to help the models and dancers out of their outfits and into the next ones. On some occasions they were still zipping and buttoning up as the models were walking through the stage door!
All the male models and dancers were performing every type of sit-up, push-up and press-up before they went onto the catwalk to make sure they looked their very best for the stage. They were also all fighting over the mirror to have a final look and check their outfits before running to their positions, ready to go on. In fact one male model who had literally a few minutes in between scenes had a routine of running at high speed to the mirror, nearly knocking us off our feet before having to run round the corner, skidding as he went! After the fourth show we all knew to get out of his way!
The Make-Up Artists were split into 2 teams, alternating between the shows, so when it was our 'break', we could go and look around the main arena where all the clothes stalls were but the best part was being able to watch the show from specially allocated seats right at the front!
I was asked by the Head Make-Up Artist to also do a demonstration of the eye makeup we had been doing on a volunteer on a small stage within the main arena. I had to wear a microphone and explain what I was doing and about the HD Brow products I was using. I am not used to doing this type of work and felt as though I was turning bright red and stuttering like mad! But I was assured by one of my team members that I did really well. When I got back to the Make-Up area I had just missed Peter Andre walking through and I was gutted! The other girls told me that he had said 'hello' to them as he had walked through. Union J also walked through the Make-Up area before every show - after the 4th or 5th time this became normal to us, instead of acting all star struck and nudging each other in excitement! This also became the case with several members of T.O.W.I.E and Made In Chelsea.
The day ended at around 6pm, when we headed to a cosy pub for a well deserved glass of wine and some food. I was really pleased when the Head Make-Up Artist thanked us for our hard work and said how pleased she was with all our work and that it had made her job so much easier so she could feel a lot more relaxed about the following day.
We tumbled into bed at 10:30pm throughly exhausted and we had to be up at 5:30am again ready for the next day. We were put into the same teams as the previous day and told that we would be doing the dancers again. We were given a slightly different brief regarding the make-up look - the skin was to be left quite dewy-looking and the eyes less smoky and less blended up into the socket. Some of the models were not quite happy about the new look that we had been instructed to create however we politely and professionally carried out the remit set for the Make-Up Team and it all went off without a hitch!
Had an amazing time and look forward to having similar opportunities in the future!
Love Rachel x
