A cheeky little afternoon shoot from my last trip to Melbourne - inspired by my beautiful friend Naz and a rather funky pair of Frothlyfe sunglasses.

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Very happy to announce that my work can now be found in the month's issue of Elegant Magazine!

This shoot was coordinated to showcase the wonderful handmade creations of Amanda Dudley Millinery and features the beautiful sisters Teilia and Elle May Smith. All photography and styling by my amazing friend Donatella Parisini, with big thanks to Louise Lassay & Byron Amaya for their invaluable assistance.

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Kryolan is a great professional makeup brand that launched in Berlin in 1945. They have a massive selection of products and colours and most importantly of all they are - and always have been - completely cruelty free :) I have written to their various head offices around the globe asking about vegan friendly products as as things stand there are no guarantees that any of their products are free from animal derived ingredients. Prior to the demo I spent an evening researching the ingredients that they use as as so many of could be either plant or animal derived it's very difficult to know .

Due to Kryolan's longstanding policy against animal testing I was more than happy to create a look for them and use their makeup for the demo. However in life and work I prefer to use cosmetics that I know are vegan friendly. The following is a list of the products I used to create this look and their available vegan alternatives :)

Kryolan Ultra Foundation (Face Atelier Ultra Foundation)
Aquacolour in Black & White (Cameleon Baseline)
Faceliner Pencils in black (OCC Cosmetic Colour Pencils)
Cream Liner - potentially vegan except for colours containing carmine.
*I used white & red cream liner to create the layering on the lips. Usually to
create this effect I would use Velour Liquid Lipstick
Mascara (Blinc Mascara)
DUO eyelash glue - Vegan Friendly
Nail Colour (OCC Nail Laquer)
Satin Powder (OCC Loose Colour Concentrate)

The demo was a nerve-wracking but amazing experience, a huge thank you to Kryolan, Salon Melbourne, my amazing model Yana Martens and to everyone who came to watch the demo - especially the lovely lady who was sitting front centre :)


When my time was up Yana and I headed outside to the Convention Centre's amazing modern exterior to take some photos. I cannot recommend her highly enough as a model - she was a dream to work with, made the day so easy and was fabulous in front of the camera. The girl seriously knows how to pull a pose!

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Last month I collaborated with two of my favourite Melbourne ladies in the creation of a new video short showcasing the work of Melbourne designer Daniel Cumbo's amazing label IDOL.

Clare Nica filmed, directed and edited the piece and Jasmina Mili once again demonstrated her amazing presence in front of the camera as well as assisting me with hair/makeup and styling throughout the day. I can't even begin to describe how much I loved working with these ladies - it's such a treat collaborating creatively with your friends and I can't wait until we have the opportunity to do it again xxx

Last month I teamed up with Lyris Design to showcase a selection of her beautiful handmade garments at Fiend Fest Melbourne. I handled the makeup while the wonderful Gorjess Designs showcased her handiwork with some wonderful hair creations. Our models absolutely rocked the catwalk at the Carpe Noctum Fashion Show & the days events were beautifully captured by the one and only Alysander De Djinn Photography. Alysander and the wonderful Olivia Duval very kindly set us up a photography area backstage where they captured some beautiful images of our combined handiwork after the show which will be ready to share soon! Thank you to everyone involved for a spectacular day of alternative fashion xxx

I recently teamed up once again with Satya James and Donatella Parisini to shoot Satya's new collection inspired by the swashbuckling ladies of the high seas and infused with some beautiful gypsy elements. Once again the glorious Miss James has outdone herself in creating an absolutely divine collection of womens-wear that's both playful and absolutely delicious.

In prep for this shoot I spent a couple of days with Satya in her studio customizing hats that had been shaped by the lady herself and Amanda Dudley and making a gypsy pirate inspired headdress to use as props.

The shoot itself went beautifully - as things always do with Donatella! We commenced the day in her gorgeous studio in Suffolk Park and I started applying makeup that integrated the colours from the collection while the lovely Jarrah Hustler set to work styling Satya, Carmen and Lakita's hair. Donatella and her lovely assistant Byron captured some beautiful studio shots after which we descended on an amazing lunch prepared by the lovely Lousie before heading down to Brunswick. Here the luscious ladies really got into character - commandeering a local fishing boat whose lovely owner was kind enough to take us out of the harbour so we could really get into the spirit of things.

All in all another wonderful shoot with some of my favourite ladies - I'm very much looking forward to seeing the results!

xxx

A couple of weeks ago I teamed up with Alysander De Djinn Photography and my gorgeous friend Jordan for a little creative play day - inspired by the delectable works of Australian artist Del Kathryn Barton. The shoot was a fun way for Alysander and I to work together, for me to finally get my amazing friend to model for me before she leaves the country indefinitely and to test out some ideas that have been floating around in my head for a while now.

I commenced work on a huge backdrop painting a week before the shoot - taking inspiration from elements of Del Kathryn Barton's amazing collection of work. Utilizing an old projector screen I happily scored in the local hard rubbish week I busied myself drawing, painting, styling and cutting a wig and making props up until 2am on Saturday morning when I realized I'd lost all sensitivity in the tip of my right thumb...which no, still hasn't returned!!!

To be frank it was an AWESOME day of shooting - one of those happy occasions where picking the final photos is almost impossible as there are just far too many you're in love with.... We're hoping to have the final photos ready, edited and printed to be exhibited at the RAW Melbourne: Revolution showcase on the 23rd April :) If you fancy popping along tickets are a mere $15 and available here: http://www.rawartists.org/elvisschmoulianoff

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A recent play day with the divine Miss Donatella Parisini saw us embarking on a series of head-shots for the beautiful Telia Smith at her gorgeous studio in Suffolk Park. We started off with a very simple and clean natural makeup and over the course of the day I gradually added detail and colour while Donatella styled both the photos and Tilly's amazing sun bleached hair. The shoot also provided an excellent opportunity to include a beautiful hat made by Byron based milliner Amanda Dudley whose path I've come tantalizingly close to crossing on several occasions now - and who I'll finally be meeting next week on the shoot for Satya James' amazing new collection, can't wait!!

Ladies and Gentlemen and everyone in-between - I am proud to say that my first stop motion experiment is finally complete!! It has been a rather lengthier process than originally anticipated but well worth the journey as I have learned a considerable amount about makeup, photography, lighting, animating and editing along the way - lessons I very much intend on carrying forward into the next installment :)

Painted is in essence an experiment that I embarked on in how to best animate body art and an attempt at giving a creative medium that I adore it's own personality. Along the way the paint started to take on a life of it's own and proceeded to lead me on a little adventure that pays homage to the many amazing artists who have inspired me over the years. The first few sequences were roughly storyboarded and went through several major changes as I started to learn more about what I was doing - whereas the latter came from moments of inspiration and developed more organically in a spur-of-the-moment kind of way.

Though I originally had a very different idea for the audio I found that the tempo of Flow Motion by my lovely friend Square One helped to give the images momentum they needed to keep ticking over happily. In the end I got so used to using the track when I showed the unedited version to friends or family that it became entwined with what I was doing and it therefore seemed fitting to scrap my initial ideas and keep it with the final cut :)

The animation has been online for a week or so now and I'm happy to say that despite it being just a silly experiment I've had some lovely feedback - including some very kind words from two of the incredible artists whose work inspired it :D

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Early this year I had the vast pleasure of joining Lizzie Sharpe's team on the filming of The Presets video for their single "Goodbye Future."

Our focus was on the creation of cavemen and soldiers - two really fun grimy makeups to get stuck into - the cavemen especially being a real treat!! They came to us clean, tidy and neatly shaved and we descended upon them with bundles of crepe hair and spirit gum, laying on beards, eyebrows and smatterings of bodyhair before moving in with the dirt, grime and a topping of false teeth. This wonderful character to the left was made up by Rose Parsons, Danielle Mcleod and myself - I went in with the beard and eyebrows whereas Danielle and Rose got stuck in laying hair on the body and adding the grime :)

A huge thanks to the amazing Lizzie Sharpe for having me on board and giving me an opportunity to have some fun with a great crew of artists - such an awesome team to work with and though I started off dreading laying hair I discovered that I actually really enjoy it :) Big love to everyone involved,  I hope to see you all again sooner rather than later! xxx