I'm at a really fun point in my career where various things I have been doing for years are starting to come together in different ways and I am finding that a lot of my briefs are starting to diversify - luckily for me as it means my whole creative existence is no longer stuck in a chair limited to works on paper. When I was approached by Pead PR to work on a project for Maybelline NY* I was very excited as it saw my love for beauty illustration combine with my enjoyment of public speaking, and of course cosmetics!

For this project I was asked to create a beauty face chart that would be used for an art class. I was flown to Auckland and over a day I hosted four events for various fashion and beauty media. This class wasn't your normal kind of art class, it was a class to promote and play with the new Maybelline colour collections launching this summer, no pencils or paints in sight, only lip glosses, shadows, loose pigment powders and a selection of eyeshadows and eyeliners. Each person sat at an easel with my plain illustration and was encouraged to apply the makeup to bring her to life, everyone was pretty cautious to start for fear of making a mistake, but once they got going it was fascinating to watch how one face could end up looking like so many different girls - the magic of makeup! 

I loved working on this project, not only for obvious reasons such as drawing what I love and of course the product, but also to be part of a creative media approach and also see how transformative and relaxing a casual art class can be for people who take part - each guest left with a smile looking calm and quite proud of their efforts.

* A few people commented negatively on social media about my alignment with Maybelline due to animal testing. As an animal lover and Beagle owner I checked with the company about their involvement in this and was assured that Maybelline no longer tests products on animals and has not done so since the 80's