Let me introduce you to my friend and trusted makeup artist (and my personal hair hero!!) Brenda.
Isn’t she adorable!!
I’ve known Brenda for about 8 years I think. We clicked immediately, she’s very easy to like, very down to earth and funny. She asked me to do a shoot for her to celebrate herself after doing a ridiculous amount of hard work in the gym. It was one of the best and funniest shoots I’ve ever done, I must gt her to send me copies of the photos as I don’t have them on file any more. (sad face)
We drifted apart for a bit, and when we got back in touch, I was working full time as a photographer and she had completed training as a makeup artist, specialising in bridal and photographic makeup. She asked me to do her first makeup shoot, which we did on Aeva Anderson (who is now doing amazing things in the UK!) and I beleive it really helped to set Brenda apart in her field. Business boomed.
Aeva also has a lovely face - she was only 17 or 18 here…
I started working with Brenda on shoots not long after. She is an excellent woman to have on hand, she is reliable and adaptable and good fun to have around. Her work makes my job a lot easier too and is always so good (and believe me I know, I zoom in to 300% to have a good look when I’m editing)
I mean come on, look at Sarah Kennedy! SWOON!!
So one Sunday evening when I was annoying Brenda about how ringlety my hair is since she extolled the virtues of Olaplex (message her page about it, it’s a game changer!) she sent me a photo of her new lashes. I stopped chatting shite about my hair immediately and asked her if she’d let me come up with some product shots for her. She said yes (probably to get me to stop sending her selfies) and I knew immediately how I was going to shoot them.
The packaging she designed was so nice, so Brenda, that I took my inspiration from how the case made me feel. I’m not an expert on lashes by any means (as Brenda will tell you I am blessed with wonderful lashes of my own - right Brenda??!!) but I do know about quality. These are extremely good. The package is cool AF and very different to everything else. So, left to do my own thing (which is probably called art direction) I shot this:
This was actually a light test. I had figured the whole thing out in my head before I even went in the studio. And believe it or not, there is very little post production done on this image, apart from a little vibrance and adding a touch of Milky Way in the background. Sadly the real Milky Way wasn’t available that day, or I’d have used the real thing.
Brenda liked it. (I’m trying out understatement here, wondering if it’s believable??)
Then I started getting ideas of a shoot with the lashes on a model. Obviously I thought of Claudia:
Literally everyone in my life is bloody beautiful - this is Claudia - also swoon!
Since working together on this campaign (Brenda spent weeks preparing the hair and makeup looks for this shoot and I have to say it was flawless) she has been stocked nationwide in pharmacies in both the Republic of Ireland in in Northern Ireland. I am so happy for her, delighted to be part of the story in a small way, and not in the least surprised. Because anything my mate Brenda does, is going to turn to gold.
FACT.
Check out her website www.brendadoherty.ie, or go have a look at her incredible salon in Ballybofey. Worth it.
Much love to my gorgeous friends and models Aeva Anderson, Sarah Kennedy & Claudia McLaughlin.