Nars Boutique in Bleecker Street, New York.

Today, I had the pleasure to work for the first time at the Nars boutique in Greenwich village, New York on Bleecker street.
I must say the store is absolutely beautiful.  I also had the pleasure last year to work in the Nars boutique in Istanbul, Turkey and next week, I will have the privilege to work in the first Nars boutique in Hong Kong.
I cant really compare this store in NYC to the one in Hong Kong, but the one in Istanbul is much larger then the one in NYC.
What I love about the one in NYC, is the location.  Is in one of the trendiest streets in the West Village, where the commercial rents are higher then Madison Avenue.
The design is by Fabien Baron, the original designer of the Nars make up units and packaging.  Very minimalist yet warm at the same time.  Worn out black wooden floors, with black and shiny white make up units as oppose to the typical black backgrounds.  It also has a fire place with shelves on top with Francois Nars favorite things, such as books form Guy Bourdin, Hermes, and YSL.  It also has personal things like a hand made Tiki statue from Motu Tane, his gorgeous island in French Polynesia.  Videos that has inspired some of his make up products like Catherine Deneuve's 1960's classic Belle du Jour and Jane Fonda collection of films, etc...http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2011/02/nars_boutique.html#photo=1x78465
The dress code is also very Nars.  Boys wear black button down shirts with slacks and dress shoes, while girls wear crispy white button down shirts with black bottoms and black shoes.   Everyone is very cheery and welcoming to the high end clientele from the West Village, NY.
If you are in the NYC area or visiting the city,  I highly recommend to go there.
You can also visit near by shops such as Michael Kors, Dyptique, Marc Jacobs and other high end stores.
Will keep you posted with my travels in Hong Kong and will let you know my opinion of the culture and make up there.

TA TA,

ME

First Shu Uemura challenge completed!!

After a week of work, I finally finished my challenge for the Shue Uemura make up artist competition.  I most admit, they call it a challenge for a reason.

First of all, my first video that I recorded had no sound.  So my bf and I had to reshoot it using another model.
She dropped from the heavens like an answer from a prayer.  Her name is Starlette and she is a gorgeous pre-med medical student that happens to work at the same salon where Larry (my bf) works.
When I first saw her, I knew she would be my solution.  At the tender age of 19 with Korean background, Starlette metaphor into being my Cherry Blossom that I was so desperately in need of.
She agreed to do the shoot, and after nearly 5 hours of shooting video, doing make up and still shots, we got the shot I needed to keep me from being eliminated from the competition.
Another thing I found the most challenging, is my lack of expertise in the video editing department.  So after watching a couple Imovie tutorial, fussing around with my lap top and taking a class today at the Apple store in Imovie editing, I was able to make a video with special features, titles, and extras that I would never had not been able to do if I didn't take this class Larry signed me up for.  (he is so resourceful I must say).

So now, the voting period will be from May 1-5th.  I will keep you posted in facebook were to go for your votes.
May 7th, the last 15 finalist will be announced.  (hopefully I will make the cut.)
Now, I'm going to go meet Larry for a cocktail much well deserved.  I am beat after all this running around and my allergies are not helping one bit.

Ta Ta,

ME :^)

First Shu Uemura challenge completed!!

After a week of work, I finally finished my challenge for the Shue Uemura make up artist competition.  I most admit, they call it a challenge for a reason.

First of all, my first video that I recorded had no sound.  So my bf and I had to reshoot it using another model.
She dropped from the heavens like an answer from a prayer.  Her name is Starlette and she is a gorgeous pre-med medical student that happens to work at the same salon where Larry (my bf) works.
When I first saw her, I knew she would be my solution.  At the tender age of 19 with Korean background, Starlette metaphor into being my Cherry Blossom that I was so desperately in need of.
She agreed to do the shoot, and after nearly 5 hours of shooting video, doing make up and still shots, we got the shot I needed to keep me from being eliminated from the competition.
Another thing I found the most challenging, is my lack of expertise in the video editing department.  So after watching a couple Imovie tutorial, fussing around with my lap top and taking a class today at the Apple store in Imovie editing, I was able to make a video with special features, titles, and extras that I would never had not been able to do if I didn't take this class Larry signed me up for.  (he is so resourceful I must say).
So now, the voting period will be from May 1-5th.  I will keep you posted in facebook were to go for your votes.
May 7th, the last 15 finalist will be announced.  (hopefully I will make the cut.)
Now, I'm going to go meet Larry for a cocktail much well deserved.  I am beat after all this running around and my allergies are not helping one bit.

Ta Ta,

ME :^)

Video shoot this weekend with Jo Newman.

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great Easter weekend and that the Easter bunny left lots of chocolate eggs from Godiva for you to find. hehehe

So this Sunday, instead of going for an Easter egg hunt, I did a video/photo shoot with my beautiful model Jo Newman.  She is absolutely a breathtaking beauty.  One year ago she relocated to L.A. and is doing great there.  In fact, she just booked a movie featuring Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta Jones!  I'm so happy for her!

Unfortunately, just when my partner Larry and I thought we did a great video and photo shoot for the Shu Uemura Makeup Competition, when we got home, we realized there was no sound recorded in the video.  BUMMER!!!  So now, I will have to reshoot tomorrow with a different model, but it all happened for a reason, because the guidelines for the first challenge, required partial red floral lashes, which I did not use.  So even if all would have come out great, I would have had to reshoot anyway. You live and learn.

By the way, funny story about Catherine Zeta Jones I want to share with you.  About two years ago, I was working at Saks 5th Avenue in NYC as a freelance make up artist for Dolce & Gabbana.  I was standing there bored out of my mind, trying to catch a victim to put make up on, when I see this girl that seemed awfully familiar to me.  I immediately though, "OMG, that's my friend Nadia I have not seen in 10 years", so I ran up to this woman from behind, grabbed her by the arm, turned her around quickly and said to her... "NADIA, it's me.... Julio!"  She looked at me like I was nuts and pulled her arm away from me and said, "NO, NO" and ran away from  me.  I turned away puzzled and my friends who were behind me had this horrific look on their face and I said, "I thought that was my friend Nadia" and they said, "Girl, that was Catherine Zeta Jones you just grabbed." Needless to say, I  mortified!  LOL

So here are a couple of pictures that my boyfriend Larry and I took of Jo yesterday.  The challenge is called Cherry Blossom Beauty, but now I cant use them for the competition, so I'll post them for you to see since I'm going to do something completely different tomorrow!

Stay in tune for the next shoot I'm doing.  

:^)

Made it to the top 20 Finalist for Shu Uemura, The Beauty Art Make-Up

Ok guys,

I've been keeping a little secret that I cannot keep inside me anymore.  I entered a make up artist competition over a month ago, just for fun.  To my surprise, I made it to the top 20 finalist.  The challenge was mystic nature, so I submitted 2 photos and one of them got picked.  Please see the image above that got me to the finals.

I also just received a beautiful make up collection from Shu Uemura in Canada.  Is too bad they dont sell it in the states anymore, but you can buy it on line.

Here are just some of the make up I received for my next challenges; Morphorium Blue Palette
Sunset Gold Palette, and Shine Mystic Powder Shadow.

There is plenty more were this came from, but dont want to spoil the fun.  I rather you see them on my models when I do their make up.

So my next challenge is called Cherrie Blossom Beauty.  I cant wait to get my hands on my model and turn her make up out!!  I have to make a tutorial video that will be posted on youtube, and then the winner is whoever gets the most votes.  So I'm counting on all of you to get me to the next level.

The top 5 finalist will get to go to Toronto, Canada for a live final round.  Isn't this exciting?  I'm just happy I made it to the finals without expecting it.  I guess life is full of surprises.

I will keep you posted with more fun stuff and also with my video that I'll be working on soon.  It has to be done by the 28th.  EEEK!!

Annabel Alpers/ Christchurch, New Zealand, and Australia.

This morning, I had the pleasure to do Ms. Annabel Alpers makeup here in my apartment in Manhattan.
She's an amazing artist from Christchurch, New Zealand based now in New York.  She is coming out with a new album in May called Bachelorette.  Here is the link to her website;  www.particletracks.com
There you can see her photos and preview some of her tracks.
Annabel is being photographed today by a U.K. magazine, so she wanted a clean look with a bit of an edge.  For her look today, I applied a wash of an apricot shadow from Nars called Bohemian Gold.  This made her beautiful blue eyes pop even more.  I also gave her a stronger eyebrow to give her eyes more character and finished it off with a bold deep cranberry shade lipstick from Nars name Cruella Velvette Matte Lipstick www.narscosmetics.com.  Now her look was not like Cruella Deville from 101 Dalmatians, but more of a hip, modern girl with a twist from Coco Chanel circa 1930's.
She looked stunning I must say.
We had an interesting conversation.  Being that she is originally from Christchurch, NZ, I mentioned to her that I was supposed to be there for a Mecca Cosmetica event during the same time of the earthquake that happened recently in February 22nd, 2011.
I was blessed to have to had cancelled this trip because of my extensive traveling at the time for Nars Cosmetics and not being able to get my visa on time.  My Nicaraguan passport saved me from disaster, for if I had an american passport, I would have gone there with no problem.  There are many other places I would not want to be caught with an american passport, especially in the middle east.  LOL

Instead of NZ, I went to Perth, Australia.  Have you ever been there?  The people are all tall and beautiful like Barbie and Ken.  They are very happy since they live in 100 degree weather all year round with very little humidity.  The economy there is booming, therefore you have your stepford style wives who go out in the day shopping and having their hair and make up done.  While their husbands work in the oil and mining industry to supply all the luxuries for their wives.  (not a bad place to be a wife heh?)

What I recommend women from this type of arid areas of the world, is to moisturize a lot.  Wear lots of SPF, since the sun in Australia is quite harsh, and if they are going to tan, (which they will do), to do it from a bottle so the skin doesnt look like a california raisin by the time they are 50.  I love Clarins self tanning milk. http://us.clarins.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/beauty-products_body_self-tanning-milk-spf-6_C040102003_10051_10204_-1_23987?cm_mmc=LabeliumSearch-_-GoogleBrand-_-Product+Self+Tanning+Milk+SPF+6-_-NONE
I noticed they also love bright lipsticks, like the type you would use on "Something About Mary's" aunt from Boca Raton, FL.  I dont blame them because it actually looks good on very bronze skin.  Popular colors, Schiap, Dragon Girl, Barbarella, and Niagara.  All by Nars.

Now, I also went to Melbourne, Australia after Perth, and there is a total different ball game.
The women there are more like New York.  Independent career women who dont have the time to fuss with make up in the morning cause they have a board meeting at 9 a.m.
The weather also influences the personalities, It was totally opposite then Perth.  Very humid, rainy and grey.  A bit like London.  From what I heard, they did not have a summer this year.  And Australia had very bad wether all year long.  Floods in the north, etc...
What I recommended the most for Melbournites, is to keep the face flawless with powder foundation for coverage and for a matte effect from the humidity.  Stronger eyebrows to define the eyes with some eyeliner and mascara, and a beautiful bold lip that would compliment their coloring.  This only takes 10 or 15 minutes tops and you can make it to your office on time looking sharp.

Sydney was again different from the rest.  Is more of a beach culture mixed with an urban beat.  Women are trendy and are not afraid to express themselves.  I was rocking out looks with parrot green eyeshadows mixed with fuschia lipstick.  Very Christian Dior couture. :^)
I loved the weather and the food there as well.  Food is really expensive, but very diverse from all parts of the world, especially Thai and Japanese.

So, this is all for today, stay tune for future updates.

Big kiss and love,

Julio
www.juliosandino.com

INTRODUCTION;

Hi Everyone,

My name is Julio Sandino, and I am a make up artist based in NYC.  I've been living in NYC for quite some time now, since 1992.
Before I live in this magnificent city, I lived in South Beach.  But not the South Beach that we know today, but the one from the late 80's when Ocean Drive was nothing but older people, sitting in fold out chairs in old abandoned looking art deco buildings.  My parents used to call it The Cotton fields, because of all the white hair going on.  LOL
Early 90's there was a huge movement in South Beach.  The elderly got kicked out of their apartments, and those buildings were remodeled into  a colorful strip.  Full of restaurants, shops and oh, modeling agencies.
That's when my interest in the fashion industry started.  I met a group of talented kids from Montreal, who actually made a living on putting make up and dressing gorgeous models for photo shoots.  This was the early era of the supermodels, (Linda, Naomi, and Cristy).  There was no Kate yet or Claudia.
I couldn't believe people made a good living and got to travel for doing this. I was very intrigued.
I was 20 years old when I flew to Paris with $5 dollars in my pocket to visit a boyfriend who had many other boyfriends, but that's another story of its own.  The reason I mention this, is because on my way back to the states from europe, I had a lay over in NYC, were I met a friend of mine from Miami and took me for the first time to a night club that would change my life and view of New York.  This legendary night club was called the Sound Factory, and many of you who live in NYC in the early 90's will know what I'm talking about.  It was a gathering of creative people with fabulous costumes, make up and hair.  A mix of trannies, body builders, banjees, latins, whites, blacks... you name it.  It was a soup of glamour and house music that I had never experience before anywhere else.
Needless to say, that night changed my life.  I went back to Miami, packed a bag, sold the little things i had in my south beach studio apartment, (including a vcr  that I rented from Blockbuster videos)  Oops!
"Hope i dont get arrested for saying that", and moved to NYC with $300 dollars in my pocket and a head full of dreams to be involved in the fashion industry.
I began my career in fashion as an assistant fashion stylist.  If you dont know what that means, dont feel bad, my mom didnt understand either, that someone will pay you money to put clothes on them.  She would say, "you put clothes on people?, cant they put the clothes on their own?"  Good point!  :^)
My first job was assistant Santiago, a well known fashion stylist who gave me my big break in the industry.  We worked together in fund raisers, catalog work, editorial, and television show.  One TV show you may know with John Leguizamo called "House of Bugging".
This is were my love of being a stylist came to an end.  Is not as glamorous as people think it is.  Is a lot of borrowing clothes from designer showrooms, picking them up, taking a cab, putting them up in racks, steaming them, removing and putting back labels, and shopping and returning clothes in different stores during your days off.  Needless to say, I was over it!
But this was just my stepping stone to my introduction to the world of cosmetics without me even knowing it.  I made connections while working in fashion and one day out of the blue, i received a phone call that would change my career from stylist to make up artist.  It was Kate S who first call me to inform me, that world renown make up artist of the stars, Francois Nars, was starting a make up line with 12 lipstick out of Barney's New York and if I would be interested to be a make up artist.
This puzzled me, because I was not a make up artist but a stylist, so when I presented the obvious to Kate, she said not to worry, to come to her place on a Sunday afternoon, were she had all her make up lied out and said, "you see this, this is foundation, put it all over my face. See this, is concealer, put it under my eyes... This when on and on, until I finished all the steps.  Then she said, "see, now you're a make up artist, you can start tomorrow."
So I began to work from Barney's New York on 59 street as a make up consultant at Nars cosmetics.
I practiced every day on a different subject and this gave me the confidence to start assisting Francois for backstage shows such as Versace, Dolce & Gabbanna, Miu Miu, Marc Jacobs, etc...
After one year, I started traveling for the company as a trainer and stylist nationwide and soon enough, I became international traveling to europe, London, Paris, and Germany.
Needless to say, this has been a wonderful journey til this day, were I continue to travel for Nars on a freelance basis.  I also work in NYC as a freelance make up artist for all types of occasions like editorial, catalog, music videos, red carpet, weddings, etc...  www.juliosandino.com
I would like this blog to be about make up and how it influences different cultures world wide.  I get to travel to different continents and experience multiple types of cultures and want to share this with all of you.  You'll also get to experience my love for photography of the different cities I visit.