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Hello Beautiful People!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week this week. Well I am one day away from being a year older and I had an amazing post-Oscar week. I had the pleasure of working with Miss Jazmine Sullivan for her debut in the re-release of The Cotton Brand’s song made famous by the legendary Aaron Neville. We shot a two day commercial and print campaign which will launch in late spring ’09 which is very exciting for her.

Fresh off a 5 hour flight from LA I was whisked to set by where I began a grueling 12 hour work day. Jazmine was full of big smiles as usual and her hairstylist Yusef Williams created flawless flowing tresses as usual. There were several changes in wardrobe however for the first day the look was pretty clean. I prepped her skin with Neutrogena Oil Free Moisturizer because its light weight and fragrance free and oil free. I like to use a lot of oil free products just in case a client is sensitive to oils. Even natural or organic oils are sometimes irritating to some of my clients who are oil sensitive. Then I used Paula Dorf’s Perfect Primer I find that it helps to maintain makeup on jobs like this for hours on end. The rest of the makeup was a simple clean look using all earth tone colors in various shades of bronze, brown, gold and copper to play up Jazmine’s cinnamon complexion. I love MAC pigments when I am doing clean and pretty looks because they are super pigmented and come in a range of amazing colors and textures.

The wardrobe which was done by Anthony Franco was amazing!!!! I was pretty impressed as a size 12 girl who often has a hard time finding clothing to fir properly because I have a small waist and a big bottom, but Anthony did his things on Miss Jazmine and for a first time working with he is truly a gifted artist. He knew how to take Jazmine’s voluptuous size 10 body and accentuate all of her best assets. I was asking him constantly where pieces came from because I wanted them for myself. He put Jazmine various designers from independent to high end to custom made garments. One of my faves was a black Valentino dress with a very detailed neck line.

Day Two was more creative because the scenes being filmed were surrounding a photo shoot where I actually had an opportunity to make several appearances in the commercial doing makeup. So I had to beat my face as well which is always a trip when I am working on a client too LOL. The three scenes during the morning Jazmine was doing three completely different looks. One was cute, the second a little sexier and the last one was totally edgy and creative. So Yusef and I started soft and built up from there because it’s always easier to build then to take down. For the edgy shot I painted a flower on the side of her face and put top and bottom lashes using Shu Uemura Viktor and Rolf lashes which are a special limited edition pair of lashes. I almost didn’t want to use them, but when I thought to myself that the commercial would play constantly that is the only thing that eased my anxiety of letting them go. I get attached to products sometimes it’s so funny because I have sooooo much (trust me ask my husband…Love you honey). If I find strong pigments, the perfect bronzer or a long wearing lipstick shade I love I am always hesitant to use it in fear the product get’s discontinued from the brand. When that happens it truly sucks and I travel the world in search of it’s perfect replacement.

My week ended with a very hectic-free photo shoot for Parent Magazine and I had the divine pleasure of doing light makeup and grooming for kids from 3 months to 4 year olds. What a treat it was to work with all the little angels and there were no diva’s or divo’s present on set well except for the one cutie pie 4 year old red head who had what the set director called a melt down when she discovered her dress from wardrobe had no sparkles on it. She literally would not shoot and had to be coaxed by a surprise visit from daddy to set along with a promise to go to Toy R’ Us after the shoot was over LOL.

Having a work week like this where I had the pleasure to work in various mediums of my profession from TV commercials, to photo shoots, to celebrities to infants always makes me realize what a truly rewarding experience being a makeup artist can be. I am always grateful for the gift that the Creator gave me of using my hands to make a living. What a blessingJ

Living life to the fullest in the light knowing that every person is a golden chain leading to my greater good………. makeup artist to the stars www.ashuntasheriffonline.com.

Visit Ashunta on BlackPlanet.com click here.

Check out Ashunta’s Grammy Glam look for Jazmine click here.

The grand return of the Melanin Awards amplifies and honors the finest Black-owned beauty brands with honest reviews, and discusses the evolution of beauty in Hip-Hop culture.