Eek! It has been FOREVER since I last wrote on my blog. Things have been incredibly hectic for the past couple of months now (In a good way, of course!). My fingers are super sore from being poked at the immediate care yesterday (boo... high blood sugars...) but I know that I am going to end up typing up a storm right now anyways!
As all of you know who follow me on Facebook, my YouTube Channel has been entered in a competition called the Nyx Face Awards! I had submitted my YouTube channel to the competition in hopes to make it into the top 30, and I did! I was in complete shock, and extreme excitement! A follower had messaged me informing me about the competition (Good ol' Kristi Jo!). I am so glad that I checked out the link, and that she was so kind as to let me know it was going on! Anyways. The perks of this competition:
EVERYTHING.
The first place winner will receive $25,000 and a beautiful glass trophy! Of course, there are other incredible perks such as a full supply of NYX Cosmetics, and the wonderful opportunity to meet other professional makeup artists!
This competition has been incredible. We are now in the final voting round. Thank you to every single one of you who have advanced us this far in the competition! I am up against other artists who not only produce beautiful work, but also have 30,000+ more followers than I do! Some even are in the 500,000+ followers! (EEK!) While this is incredibly scary trying to get through the voting rounds, we have pushed our way to the very last voting round. Voting will begin again on July 10th! Mark your calendars people, it's going to be intense!
While I have been including everyone on this incredible journey, I wanted to give you guys a more inside look at the competition so far! <3
AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! YOU DID?! I KNEW YOU WOULD! NOW WHAT! WHAT HAPPENED!? (followed by continuous celebratory blabber that I cannot even remember because I was so excited).
Oh the anxiety when I received the first email announcing the very first round. My family and I were actually at a car dealership when my phone buzzed to alert me that the first theme had been announced. They were in the middle of talking, but here I am.. *poke* .... *poke* .... "Psst, Moooom... the first theme was announced...!"
After reading the e-mail, all I could think to myself was, "Self, you are going to be rocking the 1920's." Why did I choose this point in time? There were a couple reasons to my logic. Competitor wise, I did not think that many of the contestants would choose the 1920's, but eras that were more "well known," such as the 50's or 60's. As much as I love love love the poodle skirts and Johnny Rocket's themed times, I really wanted to stand out. One of my best friends, Amanda, also popped into my head. One of her favorite books is The Great Gatsby, and she was also a flapper for Halloween one year. In high school, when she told me about the book, I asked her, "wait, isn't that a whale?" She replied, "No Lex... that's Moby-Dick." Whoops!
Clearly, this theme also gave me a major history lesson. While I was never a fan of learning history (I know, I know... but I have always been a fan of Science and English! Subjects where it leaves your mind to wonder), I ended up learning a lot about the wars, and how this time period was so significant. After research, I decided that this was absolutely going to be the era that I wanted to represent. If you look at makeup through the ages, it really is incredible how much things have changed. It makes you wonder how the future will look like... Will the past repeat itself? Will we eventually go back to the 20's makeup? Or will it continue to change into something we have not yet seen? I guess we will have to wait and see.
I normally do not practice my looks before I do them, but determined to have a near perfect video (perfect to my satisfaction at least), I did two practice rounds before actually filming the video. I was actually unhappy with the way the first look turned out. Why? Because I am very used to todays day and age in makeup application, and thought it was very odd to have the shadow pretty much reversed from what we know today. After the first application, I had to completely forget todays makeup application and remember that I am representing an ERA. The second application, I treated it as a form of expressing creativity, just like any other monster or creature I paint, and accepted the fact that I would not look like myself with this old age application. At first this made me very nervous that my application was so true to the era and I did not "modernize" it at all.. but... how could you represent an era if you are modernizing it? With these thoughts and satisfaction of my representation of the 1920's, I began to film. Unlike my other videos that normally would take around two hours to film, and three to fours hours to edit, this video took four hours to shoot. Why? Just being extra cautious that this look was about to represent me in a competition with 29 other incredible artists.
First round, check! We made it through.
After the pure shock of pushing through to round two, the excitement began all over again.
After deciding to do a random theme on my page of superheroes and villains, THIS gets announced. How crazy is that?! I had just posted my FIRST look of the series I was about to create on my page. I always see comic book inspired makeup all over the place now (originally sourcing from the MAC Cosmetics face chart...) and for some reason one day it just hit me, "Hey, I could totally do Superman in like.. a comic looking type... makeup.. and paint my hair on! I am totally becoming a dude. Yes, this is happening. Tomorrow". Created it, posted it, the usual - Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.
As all of you know who follow me on Facebook, my YouTube Channel has been entered in a competition called the Nyx Face Awards! I had submitted my YouTube channel to the competition in hopes to make it into the top 30, and I did! I was in complete shock, and extreme excitement! A follower had messaged me informing me about the competition (Good ol' Kristi Jo!). I am so glad that I checked out the link, and that she was so kind as to let me know it was going on! Anyways. The perks of this competition:
EVERYTHING.
The first place winner will receive $25,000 and a beautiful glass trophy! Of course, there are other incredible perks such as a full supply of NYX Cosmetics, and the wonderful opportunity to meet other professional makeup artists!
This competition has been incredible. We are now in the final voting round. Thank you to every single one of you who have advanced us this far in the competition! I am up against other artists who not only produce beautiful work, but also have 30,000+ more followers than I do! Some even are in the 500,000+ followers! (EEK!) While this is incredibly scary trying to get through the voting rounds, we have pushed our way to the very last voting round. Voting will begin again on July 10th! Mark your calendars people, it's going to be intense!
While I have been including everyone on this incredible journey, I wanted to give you guys a more inside look at the competition so far! <3
The Call
Um... What? I was not expecting anyone to call me. I was not waiting for the call. I was not sitting by my phone waiting to get a call from California to inform me that I had made it into the top 30 of the Nyx Face Awards for 2013. Where was I? I WAS SLEEPING. *buzz* .... *buzz* .... *buzz* The first thought that came to my mind was WHATTTT. WHAT DO YOU WANTTTT. AHHHH! I silenced my phone without even looking at it, thinking it was one of my friends calling me. My phone let out a little alert after the call had ended. I had a voicemail. Um? What? No one ever leaves me voicemails. "Hello! I am _____ from Nyx Cosmetics to inform you that you have made it into the top 30 for the Nyx Face Awards" .. Something along those lines. WHAT!!!!!! I called back immediately, hoping I wouldn't sound like I had just been sleeping for hours and was suddenly woken up with a shocking voicemail. After the phone call was over, I went into my grandmas room. "Gram.. shh.. okay.. don't say anything... I haven't told her yet (mom)... I made it into the Nyx Face Awards.. shh...!" My Grandma's face was priceless. It was one of those "WHAT I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT YOU'RE TELLING ME" faces. I casually walked over to my mom's room... "Mom. Guess what. I made it to the top 30 of the Nyx Face Awards!"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! YOU DID?! I KNEW YOU WOULD! NOW WHAT! WHAT HAPPENED!? (followed by continuous celebratory blabber that I cannot even remember because I was so excited).
Round One: Vintage Beauty
After reading the e-mail, all I could think to myself was, "Self, you are going to be rocking the 1920's." Why did I choose this point in time? There were a couple reasons to my logic. Competitor wise, I did not think that many of the contestants would choose the 1920's, but eras that were more "well known," such as the 50's or 60's. As much as I love love love the poodle skirts and Johnny Rocket's themed times, I really wanted to stand out. One of my best friends, Amanda, also popped into my head. One of her favorite books is The Great Gatsby, and she was also a flapper for Halloween one year. In high school, when she told me about the book, I asked her, "wait, isn't that a whale?" She replied, "No Lex... that's Moby-Dick." Whoops!
Clearly, this theme also gave me a major history lesson. While I was never a fan of learning history (I know, I know... but I have always been a fan of Science and English! Subjects where it leaves your mind to wonder), I ended up learning a lot about the wars, and how this time period was so significant. After research, I decided that this was absolutely going to be the era that I wanted to represent. If you look at makeup through the ages, it really is incredible how much things have changed. It makes you wonder how the future will look like... Will the past repeat itself? Will we eventually go back to the 20's makeup? Or will it continue to change into something we have not yet seen? I guess we will have to wait and see.
I normally do not practice my looks before I do them, but determined to have a near perfect video (perfect to my satisfaction at least), I did two practice rounds before actually filming the video. I was actually unhappy with the way the first look turned out. Why? Because I am very used to todays day and age in makeup application, and thought it was very odd to have the shadow pretty much reversed from what we know today. After the first application, I had to completely forget todays makeup application and remember that I am representing an ERA. The second application, I treated it as a form of expressing creativity, just like any other monster or creature I paint, and accepted the fact that I would not look like myself with this old age application. At first this made me very nervous that my application was so true to the era and I did not "modernize" it at all.. but... how could you represent an era if you are modernizing it? With these thoughts and satisfaction of my representation of the 1920's, I began to film. Unlike my other videos that normally would take around two hours to film, and three to fours hours to edit, this video took four hours to shoot. Why? Just being extra cautious that this look was about to represent me in a competition with 29 other incredible artists.
First round, check! We made it through.
After the pure shock of pushing through to round two, the excitement began all over again.
Round Two: Superheroes/Villains
After deciding to do a random theme on my page of superheroes and villains, THIS gets announced. How crazy is that?! I had just posted my FIRST look of the series I was about to create on my page. I always see comic book inspired makeup all over the place now (originally sourcing from the MAC Cosmetics face chart...) and for some reason one day it just hit me, "Hey, I could totally do Superman in like.. a comic looking type... makeup.. and paint my hair on! I am totally becoming a dude. Yes, this is happening. Tomorrow". Created it, posted it, the usual - Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.
Not long after that, Nyx re-tweeted my Superman look. I was like HOORAY! They like it :) (In reality, they were probably like UMMMMM... Okay, Lex is getting a little creepy because we haven't announced the theme yet...)
We waited ALL DAY for them to announce the theme of this round. Before you know it, my mother rushes into my room "THEY ANNOUNCED IT, THEY ANNOUNCED IT!" I was like "WHAT IS IT!?" and shes like "I HAVE NO IDEA I JUST HAVE THE VIDEO HERE AND PLAY IT." So we watched Charisma Star announce that this theme was going to be super heroes.. and I was like.. hold on... Nyx... Did we just become best friends?
I GOT THIS. This theme was by far the BEST THEME EVER (at the moment!). I was SO STOKED that I had JUST DONE Superman that I was incredibly proud of, and definitely thought this was my kind of theme. Well, you guys saw all of my spastic Facebook updates :)
I called everyone that I knew and let them know the theme, updated all of my networks, and could barely sleep that night. (It was announced at night. Thanks, Nyx, for getting me all hyped before bed.) The more I thought about it, the harder the theme actually became. When you think about super heroes and villains, you think of their costume, not their face. I was nervous knowing that I could not use my body paint (well, technically, I could but...). I thought about all of the comic characters, reviewing their outfits. I ended up coming to the conclusion that NONE of them truly represented me and the style that I like... (other than the Joker, of course). So what could I do?
I waited till two days before the videos were due to come up with a concept, film, edit, take pictures, and submit.
LET ME TELL YOU. I do not think that many things in life will be scarier than coming so close to a deadline to submit something so important to you.
I ended up coming up with my own villain called "Vanity". Her name was also very very last minute. I drew my inspiration from a wall hanging that we have the morning that I actually filmed.
Yep, everyone, meet Vanity. She is a wall hanging. TADA!
That's right. I came up with my villains design the DAY I filmed her. Talk about stress! It was already in my plan to use the NYX Jumbo Pencils in replace of my paint. Off to Ulta I went to grab my additional colors I may need, and time to start filming. After filming was done (which was only a two hour process this time because my creativity was flowing), I spent multiple hours editing my video, as well as creating backgrounds for every product used.
Once again, you guys pulled us through to the next round. This was extremely shocking. While I was incredibly proud of my look and all of the hard work I put in to it, I was also very prepared that there was a high chance I would not make it to the next round due to the fact that we are progressing from votes. I CANNOT SAY THANK YOU ENOUGH for voting three times a day for MadeYewLook, and bugging your friends and family to also vote <3
Common Questions I got this round were:
Q: How did you get all of that makeup off!?
A: I actually used body oil to get all of the makeup off. Because this makeup does its job, it wants to STAY ON! Which would be WONDERFUL when used for the application it was MEANT for, but is tough coming off when being used for a large application like this. When using the body oil, though, it comes right off.
Q: Why did you not do an existing hero/villain?
A: One thing I knew when I began this competition was that no matter how far I make it, I will always represent who I am and what I stand for. While I don't stand for villainous acts, I do stand for creativity. While existing characters are awesome, I really wanted to do something original to represent MadeYewLook/MadeULook, not Marvel or DC. There was plenty of time for me to pay tribute to the classic comic characters on my own page, but for a competition, I guess I was just taking the risk to represent my own design. And let me tell you, I am so happy I did.
We did it! We made it through the second voting round! Once again, excitement and screaming bursted through my house. My dogs were also excited, but my chinchilla... not so much. She was pretty scared from all the noise, but it's okay :) <3 She knows that I love her anyways, and we celebrated with a giant hay party for her.
Round Three: Futuristic
Sorry guys! No photos or updates of this round until July 10th (when voting starts and videos go live!) I will be making a blog update once this round is posted!
If there is one thing I can say about this entire experience, it is that it has been incredible. I have discovered a lot of new and awesome artists, and have also gained a lot of new supporters... NOT TO EVEN MENTION THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF SPONSORED BOXES I HAVE GOTTEN! But that would be an entirely separate post :) I guess I will post the boxes here also.
Please remember to vote three times a day for MadeYewLook starting July 10th! If we do not get votes from as many people as possible, we WILL NOT MAKE IT TO THE FINAL ROUND IN CALIFORNIA.
The Boxes Filled with Love and Greatness
Box One: This box was actually the funniest because I WAS NOT AWARE that we were going to be getting these boxes. All of a sudden I just get this HUGE BOX of NYX Cosmetics at my front door, and my eyes were like O.O WHAT.
Box Two Sponsors: Nyx Cosmetics, Sexy Hair, Pro Activ, Nume Beauty, Lulus.com, Sole Society, and Blue Print
(enter alexys60 in all lowercase on Nume to receive
$110 off your purchase of any classic curling iron or magic wand!)
Box Three Sponsors: Nyx Cosmetics, Sexy Hair, Pro Activ, Sole Society, Ulta Beauty, Blue Print, and Lulus.com
Thank you to NYX COSMETICS for HOLDING this contest. You guys don't HAVE to have this contest. It is not required as a cosmetic company. Thank you so much for showing support for your customers, and for being such amazing people to communicate with and work with! You have a new loyal customer, not only from me, but from many of my supporters.
THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE SPONSORS WHO HAVE MADE THIS COMPETITION POSSIBLE!
THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE MADEULOOK/MADEYEWLOOK EXISTING SUPPORTERS AND NEW SUPPORTERS WHO HAVE GONE ON THIS WILD RIDE WITH ME AND HAVE PUSHED US THROUGH THE ROUNDS SO FAR!
THANK YOU TO ALL OF MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO HAVE SUPPORTED ME THROUGH OUT THE YEARS, AND ESPECIALLY RIGHT NOW!
SPECIAL THANK YOU TO BRET MICHAELS FOR BEING SO INCREDIBLE AND CREATING A VIDEO ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR ME! You did not HAVE to do that, so thank you so much for being so incredibly kind, and my inspiration since I was very young!
Let's make it to the finals!
- Lex
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