The Makeup Show

It is no secret that New York is one of the “go to” destinations for high fashion and glam.

This past week, I checked out The Makeup Show in Chicago, a makeup convention that has cornered the beauty industry to a "t." Launched in New York, The Makeup Show travels to major hot spots including Los Angeles and Berlin, educating makeup artists and beauty experts from across the globe.

And once the seminars are over, off they run to stock up on makeup from just about every major brand you could think of.

I have to admit I was a part of that mob. However I redirected my focus to brushing up on makeup techniques. My favorite was the eye lining technique demonstrated by celebrity makeup artist New Yorker Orlando Santiago. He shared a few simple steps that simplified manipulating the natural shape of an eye without overdoing it.

Using a model with beautiful blue eyes, Orlando began adding dimension to her eyelid by lightly contouring with neutral shades of beige and taupe. Rather than applying the shade directly into her eye socket with a “windshield wiper” motion, he went straight across with the eye shadow brush.

This brought the top eyelid down, making the model’s space between her brow bone and lash line appear less prominent.

Lining the lower lid with an angled brush, Orlando began working a thin layer of black eye shadow directly into her lash line. This made her eyelashes pop before he applied mascara. The top lid was treated with the same technique, except he added a little more drama by creating a “cat eye." 

Before adding a peachy color on her top eyelid to compliment her eyes, Orlando went back and lined the highest point of the model’s upper lash line with the angled brush. 

This instantly created a balance between the model’s eye shape and the space between her eyebrows and upper lash line. After a couple coats of mascara, the end result was flawless and very modern.

Honestly, there wasn’t a place for makeup artists to go and swap beauty secrets from artists such as Orlando and other celebrity creatives until now. Luckily, we have The Makeup Show’s owner Shelly Taggar to thank.

Seven years ago she saw there was a void for makeup artists— she mentioned how a lot of hair shows represented some makeup, but there weren’t any expos exclusively for just makeup. “It was always about the artist having to go through dozens of hair companies just to find one, small makeup booth.

This industry is just as important as any other industry,” she said, “and [makeup artists] can be successful.”

Shelly is definitely on target. Since it’s inception, The Makeup Show is continuing to build popularity within the beauty industry including adding Orlando to their list of cities.

It is in a class of its own, giving birth to countless numbers of creatives who seem to have mastered the art of innovation and trend setting.  And in an effort to keep women on point with looking fab, makeup artists such as myself must continue to evolve by educating one another and help perfect each other’s craft.