My lovely friend, Tyhara is pregnant with her first baby and a miracle baby at that! to celebrate, we did a photoshoot at my house. 3 looks with easy changes: Neutral, Colorful and Editorial graphic liner! I loved these looks and Dre Photography did an amazing job of capturing it <3
Hello hello! It’s been a bit! I’m a great documenter, working on the sharing part 😅 but I was invited to do hair for the lovely Lyra Barillas! She is an amazing actress, model, and cat mom. She wanted some new work for her portfolio and I happily agreed! Luckily we also got this work published in Lady Gunn Magazine. Check it out below for more images from the shoot!
Next we played with an updo version of this style. She has tons of lush hair but it’s heavy so lots of Bobby pins and small sections were needed. I did a partial French roll and added pin curls back in to cover it a bit and keep the texture.
Next were warrior style braids. It screams Jason Mamoa in Game of Thrones in the best way 😂 strong, powerful and practical for battle. I liked keeping the styles a bit tousled so I fluffed up the braids a bit instead of making it super sleek.
The last hair look is my absolute favorite because we get a little edge action! I wish I could have done more but we were cutting it close on time and energy but I’m so happy with how it turned out. We went for perfect pulled back ponytail with these not so baby hair accents and it wired to give her extra intensity on the eyes.
We started with some classic 50’s pin curls. This made things easy for multiple styles and eventually styling her into finger waves. Her hair is long so it’s not the full hair helmet that we traditionally know but I think the point came across.
It’s a new year and mannnnnn am I grateful to not only have made it through the past two years but to have thrived in so many ways. I also feel like I should reintroduce myself since many things have changed for me in the time I have been away from the blog.
Photo by SashaLee Photography
Let me lay down the basics: My name is Erica, I’m 24 soon to be a quarter century old. I make art in the city of Boston and my mission is to create a sense of awareness of self in people that they may have otherwise ignored or had gone unnoticed. From the makeup artistry to my illustrative work, I want people to see themselves in their best light but also shed light on the things that have been hidden.
With makeup, I do this by showing people it doesn’t take much to release your inner self. It’s all about the confidence gained by becoming the reflection of yourself that shows who you are on the inside, outside. Reminiscing on my chameleon days of “new wig everyday” and having 3 opposing aesthetics a week, helped me to find the little details of personal style that brought my inner personality to life. If you’ve ever had your makeup done by me, you’ll hear me say, “it should be you but more refined” but the thing is, I don’t want to define what the refinement is. That’s for you to be curious about and figure out what you are tuning yourself into. Often times, it’s just another aspect of you that lacks visibility.
Taking that into consideration, I never want to mask how I or anyone else feels or expresses themselves. I want to amplify. This goes for my illustration as well. I want to create a space that is tangible for people to feel like they can express things they never have before and explore what that is or what it could mean for them. I have had many highs and lows and dealing with them has revealed a lot about the ways in which I view the world and where those boundaries are or even where they are being created. Emotional and spatial awareness is a big part of my current work as I practice this while making the work itself.
Photo by Mona Miri
I will be working my way back to fashion posts and “style studies”. It’s clearly something I have always loved but it heavily ties into art and the way I like to tell stories. People around me have taught me how to tell better stories and that it can help to push a story forward. That’s why I love costume designers Ruth Carter and Ellen Mirojnick. They use color, texture and historical narratives that are more engaging stories. I want to do that in my daily wardrobe but I’m also working on creating a more sustainable wardrobe. I am back to designing and making clothes for myself again. But as always, my wardrobe is open to independent designers, black-owned, Women-owned and eco-friendly businesses. Moving forward as I want my closet to have a similar moral messaging that hold myself to. So I’m excited to go back to being dressy and cute and adding to my “Chameleon Effect”. I will also be partner with some new people and brands this year so don’t be surprised when I have discount codes for days for you!
Looking forward to more posts and educational resources on here as well as BTS and process work for all of my projects. See y’all later! 😊
I love this little snippet from The Real Daytime that has been illuminating to hear
Hello hello! How are y’all? I hope you are in good spirits! It’s been a while but i want to show you where i’ve been and what i’ve been up to these past few months!
I had the amazing opportunity to do makeup for a music video!! Side Presents, who I’ve worked with on a few other occasions last year, invited me to design and execute looks for ToriTori’s video project and I was beyond words. Tori and I chatted about the concept for the video and styling so we could come up with something that matched the mood and tone. After coming up with a plan, I sketched out a few ideas. Here’s the face chart I created to get a better sense of which direction would be best.
Making face charts with these descriptions really helps the person embodying them set the mood for themselves and how they would like to approach the look. I always think of the attitude that comes with a look and especially for something like this that comes with a bit of acting, I love to add it in. It’s part of stepping into that new reality or storyline. The story of this video definitely read a bit sexy but sinister so with each look there were all varying instances of drama. Red lips for me always read sexy but darkening it made it more vampy. We ended up going for the Classic Sultry look for the video which turned out perfect! take a look at the video and tell me Tori’s isn’t absolutely gorgeous, and if you do, yous a lier 😜
We banged out a music video in a weekend and what a weekend. Cast and crew were amazing! gotta give it us for TLoui and Marly for inviting me to be apart of this project, feeding us goos, hosting us in both of their homes for the video and for keeping us on track. We had 3 locations for this shoot including a dance studio hiding under a hair salon! not to mention the crew was almost am all black production 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 I love working with other black creatives in my city so it made me happy to make everyone look and feel good. Plus a pet talk from me will hopefully get you through anything or at least that’s my hope.
Cast |
Performing Artist: Toritori
Love interest: Junior
Dancers / Friends: Carmen, Patrice, Theralande, Marly
Production/Direction: HomeGrownHD | Christian & Rickey
Makeup Artist: Erica Imoisi
Cheers to another publication! I’m so glad I was able to work with Zeemo again for another photoshoot this time for Selin Magazine, a virtual and print publication for models.
I’m very excited to share some news with you! I’ve been doing more freelance makeup artist work this year and was publish in a UK fashion magazine. This is the first time that I have had work in a publication that wasn’t just proof of existence or experience but a team effort. Here’s the article!
Credits:
Photo: Zemo Zheng / IG: @zeemees
Model: Kristina ByerleyIG: @kristinabyerley repped @ Maggie Inc. Agency IG: @_maggieInc
Model: Eliane Cabral IG: @itseliane repped @ Maggie Inc. Agency IG: @_maggieInc
Stylist: Anica Buckson / IG: xx_Anaka_xx
HUMA: Erica Imoisi / IG: @Erica.imoisi
Photo Assistant: Joyce Yan / IG: @joyce.yan.94
Kristina In a natural blush red
Kristina is wearing a soft natural look with a berry blotted lip. Her skin is so bright and youthful so I wanted to keep it light. My favorite part of this look is the lip! I learned this technique watching the cool Korean girls come into Sephora. Many of them love dark red lipsticks applied on only the center of the lips which make them look intense but small like you’ve just eaten berries in the forest. One of my favorite colors for that look is Lost Cherry from Tom Ford. On Kristina, I used Kaja’s cushion Lip in red since it had a velvet texture and is great for blending rich color into a softer stain.
For Eliane’s look I wanted something that worked similarly so I used the same technique for the lips in a softer color. I also added extra foundation over the edges of the lip so it blended into the skin beautifully. Her brows are one of my features of her face so of course I brushed them up to give her a lift and make them the star of the show. To bring that attention back into the eyes, I opted for bronze neutral shadow with an emphasis on a full looking lash line without lashes.
For their last look, we went more experimental. Ever since Rihanna did that blown out blush for the Met gala years ago, I’ve noticed a lot more makeup artist doing this look. It personally became and everyday look for me and I thought our models would love it. Kristina’s version of this look is more of a cool-toned pink with neon like intensity. Definitely gave sailor moon vibes. Eliane on the other hand got a richer glow from within and warm tones that made the reds melt into her skin. Working with them was great! Up for anything and everything I wanted to put them in.
Our team was pretty small, just 6 of us. It really played out well and was super fun. I already love working with Maggie Agency models and our stylist, Anica, is absolutely amazing. Hopefully, one day she’ll style me for something 🥰 In the mean time, I’ve got hair and makeup on lock so I’ll stick to what I do best. While we were out, I got some awesome behind-the-scenes and we filmed a couple Tiktoks too! By the end of the day I had broken my makeup bag and had arms like Popeye but chillin on a rooftop with free drinks and music so it all worked out. Trust and believe the struggle will lead to a stronger victory. Push though cause I know you’ll make it ✨
Take care, stay safe,
E
I have been waiting so long so post about this shoot. This shoot was from last April and was only of my first shoots with an agency signed model. It was cool to show up on set and set my goods and really delivered. Plus I, (as in my hand) made it into one of the published shots! I have a tendency to be a hand model for random things because luckily my nails are usually done and they “just need me to hold something real quick” haha but this was great from the outfit changes to the quality of clothes we were working with. the team was super nice and luckily I took some BTS. I have to be better about that but it’s coming
