BEAUTY — Blog — Denyelle D. Beauty

A year ago I had a dream...a vison if you will, about doing a photo shoot which featured beautiful brown women having fun. That vision /dream gave me the idea to do "Curlfriends in the City" . So, I reached out to one of my photographer friends Melena of MShonell Photography ( www.mshonellphoto.com) with the concept; lucky for ME, she was down. Fast forward, we did a model call, and snagged 5 beautiful women of color. We did the shoot in the U St corridor of Northwest D.C., and "Curlfriends in the City" was a success!! We were featured on blogs, and were reposted many times.

AAAaaannnnddd...

*drumroll please* This year we were published in the 1st edition of Color Story Magazine!

Exciting right!?

With the unexpected success of "CITC"* shoot, it was hard to find a concept to top it. I knew we had to " bring it" with the next shoot.

Then...

One day, while scrolling my FB timeline, I got wind of the County Fair coming to town. After my discovery I quickly realized we had about two weeks to plan and prepare to execute the shoot.

Knowing Melena wanted to shoot at the fair, my immediate text to her was- "WE HAVE TO SHOOT CURLFRIENDS AT THE FAIR!!! What is your schedule??"

We HAD to act fast because the fair was only in town for one weekend, which, for me, meant I had to carefully and strategically execute EACH detail...we locked down a date and time and I had to start with the planning.

Model call was tough...I needed at least 4 women of varying skin tones to pull off my vision and I was receiving images of the same tone..BEAUTIFUL women nonetheless, but I needed a variety.

Then "voila" everything came together...I ended up with 6 models...which meant work for me as the MUA, Stylist, AND creative director...No sweat right?? Nah, no sweat, I got this!

Deep sigh...

I decided this time we would be colorful so the outfit colors you see were chosen by me accordimg to each model's skin tone. Makeup had to be soft glam on the eyes with a popping bright lip to coordinate with their clothing.

KNEW I wanted them to have big fun, eat fluffy cotton candy, win cute prizes and laugh until their bellies hurt...but I didn't think of the crowd. OMG...ya'll when we arrived...I cringed "what about the crowd??". How in the world can we do a PHOTOSHOOT at the fair with this HUMONGOUS CROWD???

Let me just say this...My GOD is AWESOME! with the exception of one rude game worker, we had a smooth shoot! People were surprisingly respectful of the models, and some were even giving lovely compliments to my ladies.

All in all we had a bunch of fun, and I am extremely proud of this colorful fun-filled shoot.

A HUGE thank you to photographer Melena DeFlorimonte (MShonell Photography) and my beautiful models Joy, Catherine, Terri, Mischelle, Krystle and Denise for making this shoot better than what I could ever imagine!

I hope you enjoyed Curlfriends at the Fair!! Leave a comment..let us know what you think!

If YOU would like to be a Curlfriend email me at hello@denyelledbeauty.com!

Until next time,

💜D

*CITC= Curlfriends in the City

CURLFRIENDS AT THE FAIR

PHOTOGRAPHY: MSHONELL PHOTOGRAPHY

CONCEPT/STYLING/MAKEUP: Denyelle D.

Happy Wedding Wednesday!

Today I will talk about how I create different looks for my bridal clients. I believe that bridal beauty should be timeless, soft, and near perfect. I enjoy looks that have that "WOW' factor without being overly done, and I believe that bridal looks should not be dramatic or trendy. Your wedding images will last a lifetime, and when you book with me, my goal for your wedding day is for you to still be happy with your makeup look 20 years down the road.

Today, I am sharing one of my favorite makeup looks that I've created for former brides and bridal shoots!

Here is an anniversary shoot with Tiffany and Alonzo! This glam shoot was so much fun and they were a beautiful couple to work with!

Ok, this is the breakdown of Tiffany's makeup look:

Skin: Black Opal Cosmetics Foundation Stick in Suede Mocha and Truly Topaz to Highlight the high points of her face. Black Opal Foundation Stick in Carob was used to contour the hollow of her cheekbones to make them stand out a bit.

Makeup was set using Black Opal Loose Powder in Dark. Skin was highlighted with MAC Cosmetics Mineralized Skinfinish in Gold Deposit, and her blush was MAC Blush in Sweet as Cocoa.

EYES: On this shoot I used a neutral matte palette of eyeshadow by Mehron. Eyeliner was ELF Cosmetics creme liner in Black. Tiffany's bottom lid eyeliner was MAC Powerpoint Eyeliner in Engraved.

Eyelashes were Ardell Demi Wispies.

I finished off the look with MAC Cosmetics lipliner in Vino, and Miliani Cosmetics Lipstick in Matte Flirty