Tuesday, July 3, 2012

A day of being fussed about

Okay, so here I am blogging on an iPhone (And it is strange quite fun minus the fact that I type slower than a fingerless person on this particular electronic device.) since I am on a one hour journey home and I think today was an exceptionally fun day! Well at least to me! .. I just realize you can't put them spacing line in with this stupid device, either that I am too blind to see the button like thing I am apparently supposed to touch. I guess you would just have to endure a very squashed blog post. I apologize deeply, my minions. Oh right! Today I had to wake up at an ungodly hour, you may know it as '7am'. Since I had to reach Jaya one (That's where the academy I attend I'd located and no, you may not have the permission to hunt me down.) at 10am for the 'makeup exam'. Eh, I will tell you in a bit why I have those flying commas around the words: makeup exam! I reached the academy at fourty-five pass nine and met some other students in the lift and apparently they were makeup students and I was like 'I didn't know we were going to take the same exam!' but the doors strangely weren't open yet so we decided to hang around down stairs. Not long after I spotted one of my modeling mates and I couldn't spot her box of makeup so I asked her where it was and she was like 'We have to bring our own makeup?! B-but I thought we were just the models?!'.


Oh my god! I have discovered how to create spaces! So all you have to do is press the magical 'return' button, isn't this amazing?! 
 Anyways, I forehead slapped myself for being such a blur person and thinking I was the one taking a makeup exam when I was actually there just to be made up by the makeup students and guess what?! It was a BRIDAL makeup (Today's was wearable day makeup.) exam!


For two hours, or so all I did was open and close my eyes, look up and down and tilt my head at different angles! I felt like a err, robotic doll! It was extremely fun being fussed all over (Except the part when my feet started getting pins and needles from sitting down a little too long..) and hearing your makeup artist go 'Wow! Your eyes are do big!', 'Oh wow! Your eyelashes are so long! I don't think I need to put falsies on!', 'Mmmm, we don't have to contour your nose because you have such a thin, high nose.. Like Korean celebrity like that!', etc! 
I'd have to say I loved the makeup she did for me! No, it has nothing to do with the sea of compliments!

After all the comments were given (Apparently my blush was too heavy or something and I was also told my right cheek was slimmer than my left cheek! I never realized that! Got fussed around by Ben and Jil, my favorite catwalk teacher and the other is the head of makeup. Jil was all 'You got it easy! Look your model already has big eyes and a nice nose!" and Ben just turned my head around in all directions and said some random fluff I can't exactly remember, meh.) we had to change into a white tube (Because we had to put on a WEDDING DRESS later on for the final photo!) then start on the hair!

Mmm, I don't have much to say about the hair as I was blinded by hairspray (The smell of hairspray always reminds me of my Grandma's favorite very old fashioned hair salon and I had to call her hairdresser :'Auntie Poh-poh'!) and bobby pins being tossed all over!

Once that was done it was time to put on this hideous (*Coughcough* It had a really awkwardly size bow on your waist line and old fashioned lace everywhere!) white wedding gown to take a picture of the complete bridal hair and makeup!

Not long after, the veil (I find it quite hard to blog when there is a picture of me with with a veil on.. And she's staring at me.. *Shivers*), pearl hair band and pinned on flowers were off and I roughly had about.. Five hours till my Advance catwalk course briefing!

Those five hours were spent eating, catwalking in the studio, lazing around, peeking at the next batch of makeup students do their stuff and eating again! Oh, and admiring the makeup student's huge pretty box of makeup stuff!
I placed all of my makeup (I strangely have quite alot..) into my old cake decorating tool box! I washed and dried it out at midnight thinking I had a makeup exam on!

 The briefing was fun, I got to swish around in a can-can dress and we basically learnt how to handle mermaid, A-line and can-can dresses!

Oh right, I really enjoyed one of the questions being asked by Ben during the briefing "Lets say you have some real fancy head gear and a toga like dress with a huge flower and patterns on one sleeve. Which way do you pose your head? Where the flower is or the bare shoulder?" (Before this we were told that you should always pose to the side with the pattern to show it off.)



I replied with "The bare shoulder, otherwise it would have been too overwhelming.", expecting a negative reaction but instead I received something like "Correct! And that's why you have a potential to become a top model and with your beautiful frame! Tsk!".

Funny how cake decorating knowledge helps with being a smart arse and picking up makeup super quickly and actually being considered "beautiful" (All my life I have always thought of myself as this very eh, awkward and un-beautiful person.. What a strange world this is.) by people who work with so many models day in, day out.

 Oh chee, look at the time. I have to be awake at some ungodly hour again tomorrow and I haven't even gotten my bridal makeup off yet, boo.

-Karen 

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Modeling- Why I started and some random talk.

Oh cheese and whiskers, I haven't blogged in ages but I have this strange sudden urge to since I well.. Have quite a lot to rant and share-ish, if i don't do so my head would explode and that isn't the most attractive thing one could do.

Hmm.. Let's start sometime in March. *Starts time travel machine*
I was suppose to start the City & Guilds pastry course but I was only told it was cancelled on the day I arrived for the course and before all that we (As in the 2 parents and 4 other siblings I live with!) practically moved most of our house into a tiny apartment in Damansara (We live an hour and a half away from where the course was supposed to be held and I had to be there pretty early so it was easier to move down.), ready to stay there for 3 months.

So after that I was given the option of taking the Wilton Instructor's course to kind of make up for it and obviously I said yes.

So after the five day course and one sit-in class (You have to observe before being able to teach.).. I was told I COULDN'T teach because I was TOO YOUNG and could only teach these project classes, which I really didn't want to and I could have done so even before taking the Wilton course.

Oh yes, may I add.. I absolutely hate being told I CAN'T do things because of my age, so being told I couldn't do things because I was too young (It's quite stupid really, what has age got to do with anything? You don't see child actors being told they are too young to act, child models being told they are too young to model.), once too many times really got onto my nerves and one day I just exploded all of the broken promises (I just think I shouldn't add too much into this blog.) and frustration (The frustration of not committing to any classes and things of that sort just to make space for the pastry course and it turns out it's cancelled and you are left with this very blank imaginary calender and not having anything planned really isn't my thing and the fact that all those people that were supposed to be there to "guide" me were just "saying" so and they really didn't want me to get anywhere in life.) out.

Maybe all of that was just a sign that I wasn't doing what I was supposed to do anymore..

After all, I think my passion for cake decorating has died down quite rapidly since the end of last year and I was slowing moving into doing art instead and watching fashion and makeup videos during my free time, and I happened to have a lot of it since the beginning of this year.

Being in that "dormant" state made me feel very bad and for the first time in a rather long time (I was in this exact same spend-the-entire-day-online dormant state before I discovered my passion for cake decorating.. I find it quite funny, really. How you have to be chin deep in boredom before finding what you are passionate in and you were actually finding your passion when all along you thought all you did was sit in front of your laptop for 12 hours!).

I had those nights where I would cry myself to sleep because I was such a pathetic idle person.
It's strange really, it just suddenly occurred to me that I just couldn't do NOTHING.
I like to think of that as one of the good parts of me!

So not long after the verbal explosion I had with my parents I started connecting the dots and just thinking about what people have always said after they have met me (If you were wondering, it is usually : "Wow! You are so tall, you should be a model!" Well, if you are tall but with a lousy catwalk you probably won't be too successful but I guess it helps.. Oh, what am I rambling about?), put it all together (Including the fact that my all time favorite shows to watch on TV were America's next top model, The Janice Dickinson Modeling agency and project runway! I still absolutely love them but too bad we don't have cable TV, sob. Oh well, but there's always good ol' youtube!) and decided..

I wanted to start modeling.

So after doing some research and blahs, Mommy stumbled across the Amber Chia Academy website and apparently they had modeling courses so we decided to drop by one of the academies.
I signed up for the course without thinking too much about it, really.
Sometimes you just shouldn't think too much before trying something new out, at least that is what I think and it is always fun to expose yourself to different things in life, obviously the younger the better!

Ah, the first day seemed like ages ago already!
It was just basically receiving a pair of white 5" heels and being briefed about the course!
Oh, and also being told "What is thisss?!" *Points at my blank, un-made up face!*

The course came with a few makeup classes which you could attend anytime but I signed up right away so I wouldn't have to go blank faced into class again!

I absolutely LOVE the makeup studio! The walls are lined with mirrors that are framed with light bulbs and you look instantly better in them! It's almost magical!

Makeup was something fairly new to me since I have never exactly put makeup on before.. Unless you count the endless times my grandma would put a bit of blush and lipstick on me (I remember that one time when i was waiting for my Grandma to get out of the shower to tie my hair and I guess I was pretty bored and there was a tiny empty plastic bucket next to me, so I turned it upside down and pretended it was a guard from the Buckingham Palace's hat thing and guess what?! I couldn't get it off! Thank goodness my Dad could! .. I don't think I have ever put a bucket on my head since!) while I sucked on a chew able vitamin before going shopping or maybe to a wedding when I was six before Mommy said something like "No makeup on till you are sixteen!".

She broke her own rule, and I still find it amusing!

Getting on with it.. The first makeup class was roughly basic day makeup, Pinky (She's a makeup artist and also my instructor!) did half of my face and I had to do the exact same thing on the other half!
Which was pretty tough because my eyes watered when I had to tight line them (My eyeliner smudged so many times because of my tears and I had to redo it all over again!), I didn't even know how to use an eyelash curler!

I ended up with an overly white face because I didn't mix the dark and light foundation properly and put too much light one is, VERY old auntie drawn on looking eyebrows (I LOOKED LIKE MY GRANDMOTHER.) and VERY messy eyeliner (I think I looked like some goth that was crying the entire day..)!

I pretty much failed the next make up class too! It was night makeup so we did a smokey eye (I looked like someone punched me in the eye.. Or a panda if you have good imagination. ) and I had to put false eyelashes on!
I really disliked the false lashes because I couldn't exactly glue them on properly, I think I put on too much glue because it smeared all over my eyelid and my instructor was like "What am I going to do with this girl?!". And I couldn't really blink properly because of my glasses! ..So I basically had to stare for the rest of the day!

Hm, more makeup stories later.. Now for the catwalk classes!
The first two or so classes were learning the basics of walking, which in my opinion didn't help much because afterwards I couldn't really join it all into a walk and it looked REALLY awkward!

First you had to lift your leg up to a 90 degree angle, straighten it (I felt as though this was the only important part of the basics because the first part REALLY screwed up my walk!) then step and the back leg has to be on tippy-toes!

So for the third class or so we learnt to incorporated hip movement into my already very weird walk and I have this eh, you may call it a problem I suppose.. I don't have very flexible hips! (One of the reasons why i wasn't all that good at horseback riding, I am a strangely stiff person. Sob, it's sad.)

I don't exactly remember it all that well but I kinda moved my waist instead of my hips and it made my walk even more awkward (I had this strange way of lifting up my leg, all thanks to the basics! + I couldn't step straight, so I was walking with my knees bent! Apparently I naturally walk like that and that's why it was so hard to correct! + The waist moving thing, just ugh!) and one my catwalk instructors just screamed "What's wrong with youu?!!".

Being the touchy person I am, I broke down in the car crying and started mentally bashing myself (I think I am mentally unstable or something.. Meh.) on how I wasted so much money on the course and well, stuff.

But strangely the next day I was complimented on how much my makeup skills (She didn't forget to drill the ESPECIALLY THE EYELINER part in! I can line my eyes super quick and without tears now!) have improved and my catwalk instructor went "Wow! Your walk had improved!".

.. Who says crying doesn't help with things?
And well, visualizing straight legs and watching makeup tutorials till an ungodly hour kinda helped too!

From then on I absolutely LOVED the course!

I got taught fashion show buns and hair, different turns to do on the runway and even got complimented my catwalk had "style" (I can officially control my hips now! So I exaggerated the hip swinging because I thought it added more "oomph" into my walk and apparently my catwalk instructors like it! I REALLY didn't expect that!)  to it!

My feet are like cut up things because of my 5" strappy heels that you have to wear for training, 3 plasters on each foot (And the fact that every time you shower it feels like you are pouring acid on your feet.. Not my idea of fun!)! When you love doing what you do sometimes little things like these don't really bother you! Or your ankles, thighs, calves, shoulders and lower back hurting like crazy..

Wooo! Makeup exam tomorrow and the day after, and apparently some photo taking! And finally learning how to catwalk in gowns! 12 whole hours of training! Can't wait!

(I just realized I go for "class" daily from crazy time to crazy time!)

Lots of love to everyone who reads this!
-Karen

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