***VIDEO TUTORIAL*** Kat Von D 10th Anniversary Collection

Back to Work and Kat Von D Makeup Look.

This week has been a struggle in part and a triumph in others. I've started my phase back return to teaching hair and media makeup at college last Monday and it went positively. I only went in for a meeting with my manager who were really supportive with the whole situation and then went to see my level 3 students. 
I have to say that the hardest thing with this health problem is not being able to finish the students through their qualification and just not being there to see how they progress their creativity through the year. Thankfully I have had the most amazing lady taking over and helping out, Lisa, she has been a total star with all of this and really helped out the students. So seeing them again was amazing, even if that was their last session being signed off their assessments.
The morning went really well but then a massive migraine hit me which lasted the rest of the day and the following day. When this happens I can't help but feel a bit useless and like am going backwards but I realise it can't be helped, and this whole thing is to test out the medication and increase it when it needs it; till I've found the right dosage.

Enough of the life story, time for the makeup! As you may of realised am currently trying to get both this blog and my YouTube off the ground with uploads every Monday for blogs and every Thursday for new videos.

Today's blog and video (which will be uploaded on Thursday) will be a makeup look using Kat Von D 10th Anniversary Collection and some other brands which I'll list. I also have finally be able to use my Unicorn Cosmetics brushes and lashes for this look! Which are amazing quality and are super unique. I absolutely love my unicorn brushes and my heat sensitive Halloween brushes!!

Its be great getting back to playing about with my makeup again, I think its really therapeutic for me. I've got a load of ideas in my head that I want to get recorded. But I do love this metallic look with the blue and gold lips.

I think my favourite product out of the new collection has to be the glimmer veil in "Gold Skool", that colour is beautiful and can be applied over any colour of lipstick for a pop of luxury. You can also use them on the eyes.

One of the most amazing things about Kat Von D's products is they are vegan as well as being designed to be used on both eyes and lips. So that blue pencil used for my eyes is the same as the one I used for my lips. 

Products Used:
Illamasqua: Hydra Veil
                    Radiance Veil.

Kryolan: Cream Foundation Stacker.

Medusa Makeup: "Pink" Gel Eyeliner

Unicorn Cosmetics: Lashes in "Majestic AF"

Kat Von D Beauty: Brow Pomade in "Aubergine"
                                Lock It Concealer in Light Neutral
                                10th Anniversary Palette.
                                Lock It Foundation in 41 neutral
                                Everlasting Lipliner in "Poe"
                                Shade and Light Contour Palette (powder)
                                Metal Crush in "Gold Skool"
                                Glimmer Veil in "Gold Skool"

LA Splash: Liquid Lipstick in "Werewolf" from there Classic Horror Collection.

Cover FX: Custom Enhance drops in "Halo"

Mehron Makeup: 1925 Vinyl Eyeliner


Don't forget that on Thursday I will be uploading the tutorial video to go with this look on my YouTube channel which you can subscribe to here: https://www.youtube.com/ruthemouldenmua

You can also check out my other work on: 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ruth.E.Moulden.MUA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ruthemouldenmua/

See you next time.
xRx

The Last Of Us {{ CLICKER }} {{Fast sculpt VIDEO}}

Check it out the new tutorial video is up now on my YouTube channel!! Make sure your subscribed to see new videos every Thursday and check out the blog below for more information about this look.



xRx

The Last Of Us - Clicker Prosthetic

This is a old post that should of been done a while ago but because of my health issues it sort of got put on the back burner. Better late then never!

So last Halloween I was hired to create the characters/monsters for a zombie run at a local Youth Group. This event was your typical zombie run, where groups solve puzzles to move on to the next area where they will be challenged again, the cool thing was the Youth Centre is massive...I mean multiple floors with indoor and roof top football pitches so the amount of characters needed was a lot.
One of the areas in the run was a maze, which the groups had to navigate through in the dark...it was one of my favourite rooms. I thought the best thing to have in a maze in the pitch dark, a Clicker. Those of you who play The Last Of Us will know exactly what a Clicker is. Those who are not familiar, its a zombie like person who has basically been taken over by a fungus (think that picture of an ant with a fungus bit growing out of it!) and it makes clicking noises, really creepy croaky clicking noises that tells you one is near. Having this in a maze in the dark was amazing!! It freaked everybody out, including me and I created it!

Here's the sculpt that I created, there will be a fast sculpting video of me creating this on my YouTube Channel on Thursday so make sure that you are subscribed to me on there.

 {{{ https://www.youtube.com/user/RuthMouldenMUA }}} 

And here is the fabulous Katie modelling the prosthetic piece applied on the night, thanks to my assistant Lisa as well!

Honestly, I love how it came out. I think she looks creepy and Katie did the clicking noises perfectly!

I love this image, I think it totally fits with the whole The Last Of Us style and Katie definitely made it even better in the maze!

Most of the prosthetic products used were purchased from PS Composites Ltd which included the Monster Clay used to sculpt the piece. I also used tools from Ken Banks and some cheap clay tools from Amazon.

It was coloured using all Skin Illustrator palettes and splattered with blood from Ben Nye (dark blood)

I will be trying to post a blog and video more regularly now, so am thinking Monday's are blog uploads and Thursdays are YouTube uploads, so make sure your following me on both as well as checking out my Facebook and Instagram @Ruth E Moulden MUA

See you next time,

xRx

SFX meets Beauty Makeup Tutorial: Golden Demon. {{Tutorial Video}}

Check it out....new tutorial video of the look I was talking about in the last post. I really like this look and I love using that silicone prosthetic brow piece, so look out for more creations using that. Make sure that you subscribe to my channel as well as hit the bell icon so you know when new videos are uploaded.

Am trying to get this whole YouTube channel off the ground but am not 100% in the know about the whole video making/YouTube thing...any advice?



xRx

Beauty meets SFX ---- Using the new Kat Von D Collection.

Its been a interesting couple of days for me, mostly circling around Kat Von D makeup! Which isn't a bad thing.
Things started off by my sister and I, going to the Trafford Centre Debenhams to watch the new Kat Von D collection being used as well as picking up a few goodies as you do! 
As most of you will already know the new Kat Von D 10th Anniversary Collection dropped a few weeks ago and focused on some beautiful gold tones and strong pigments. This event at Debenhams allowed me to see the products in action as well as seeing some of the brands best products being used. 
I love Kat Von D makeup, the pigments, the textures and just the whole style of the brand so this event was wonderful. Make sure that if you are interested in this brand you pop into the Trafford Centre Debenhams and have a chat to the fabulous artists that are working on the counter, they will demonstrate the products as well as teach you new techniques in application to suit you or how best to use the products which often have multi uses.
I did buy quiet a lot of stuff...so did my sister!! But from the collections I got the beautiful Metal Crush highlighter in Gold Skool which is such an amazing highlighter with some powerful glow to it!

A lot of people who know me are aware that I do use a lot of liquid lipsticks on my brows so I can create the crazy colours so of course I had to get the Everlasting Glimmer Veil from this collection which is fabulous and looks amazing when layered over other colours. But is also awesome by it self.

And lastly is the amazing palette! The colours range from matt to shimmery and some beautiful multi-tonal colours. The package is beautiful, I mean look at that artwork on the front. If you can only get one piece from this collection I would definitely recommend this palette! 

My sister bought the lipstick that goes with this collection which is a beautiful warm toned red, perfect for summer and goes great with her warm skin tones as well as her blue eyes. Good purchase sis!!
There was a brush set that you could buy but I have bought a lot of brushes recently so am good for brushes for now. (That and I spent up.)

So what to do to show off these fantastic products...of course it has to be some sort of SFX meets beauty makeup! I have created a tutorial video of this for my YouTube channel so if your interested in watching the whole process please go check out and subscribe; @ Ruth E Moulden MUA

I have created these silicone brows before but I thought it would be interesting to mix this with more of a beauty based makeup, an ultra glam Golden Demon lady.

I think this look do show off the Kat Von D collection, I mean look at that gold shine!! And on the lips is an example of the Glimmer Veil being used over the top of a grey toned liquid lipstick. All the colours used on the face and the eyes are taken from the 10th Anniversary palette and I did use the Saint and Sinner palette (also Kat Von D) but only for the black shadow.

I will be posting more images of this look on my other social sites so make sure that you are following me on facebook and Instagram @Ruth E Moulden Makeup Artist MUA

The photo below is what the makeup looks like in full light...hence the more warm toned feeling to this image. (Excuse the hair over my nose...I didn't notice it when I took the photo!)

Full lists of the products used will be on my YouTube channel as well as Instagram feed...this includes the SFX products being used too.
I think that I may do this look again...but with a headdress and maybe a wig!! OR create the darker side to the Golden Demon?! What do you guys think?

Hope you guys have a fabulous Sunday! Don't forget to share and follow me!!

xRx

Where have I been all this time????

It has been a long time since I last wrote a post or was actually active on any of my social media accounts with new looks or new creations. So where have I been?? That is a question that has a long answer which has taken place over a long, painful amount of time. Its been a struggle. So I decided to write a post to explain what has been happening, am not going to divulge all the details but enough to give you the overall picture.

So it all started way back in August 2017, when I woke up with ear ache and a slightly swollen ear which I thought was just me sleeping on my ear funny in the night but no. The pain felt like someone was sticking something in my ear and really made me scream out at times. So off I went to the doctors who checked me out but then sent me to the hospital because I have had a lot of operations on my ears when I was younger, like grommets, T tubes and adenoids out, and at the time of all this happening I was across the country visiting my partner so it wasn't my normal doctors. But anyway, so the ENT guy at the hospital checks me out and says that my eardrum is stuck down which is probably the cause of the pain and will clear after a couple of days. How simple that would be! I thought nothing more of it and took my Lemsips and Beechams waiting for the pain to stop.

It didn't...from probably about September to October, which is also the start of the new academic terms so I was teaching my media makeup groups at the time, I was in agony with this ear pain and a couple more symptoms joined in for good measure. I had constant pressure pains and loud buzzing noises in the ear as well as the sharp stabbing pains that would literally make me yell out, which when your trying to teach a class is not the greatest but luckily my students are the greatest so they totally understood and supported me. I saw quiet a few doctors within this time frame; GPs, hospital and out of hours doctors who gave me an array of possible causes to this pain as well as a lot of medication to try to stop it. None of them worked. I was put on a waiting list to see an ENT specialist and with my momma pushing them for an appointment cause I wasn't coping with the pain very well I got to see them a little sooner.
This appointment was not a fun one I can tell you! The doctor was great but he did have to stick a camera up my nose to check there was no lumps or growths...it was horrible!! It feels like drowning in reverse which is not a delightful experience I can tell you! He gave that the all clear and then looked in my ears...again he said that the ear drum was stuck down and gave me some sprays to try to unblock whatever was sticking it down. I used the sprays...still no luck and not cured...by this point the pain was now causing me to have awful headaches on that side of my head, I would say they were pretty much migraine like. As well as all this I was trying so hard to keep my lessons going and make sure the students didn't miss out but it was so hard, I was determined though and I had help from a very awesome person named Lisa!

Back to the ENT specialist I went, at this point I was kind of feeling like this pain was all in my head and there wasn't actually anything wrong with me cause nobody could find anything so it was starting to really effect my mental well being. Now at this point I had been put on a large amount of nerve blockers, Gabapentine, and the dose was being increased steadily to try and help with the pain...only problem is it made me super drowsy and I was still feeling the pain.
So ENT guy actually called another ENT guy who was the top doctor in the clinic, he was so lovely and really supportive with me, reassuring that he would get to the bottom of the pain and sort it out. He put a camera in my ear and checked out these pesky eardrums that everybody keeps telling me are stuck down...nope...apparently I have slight concave eardrum that's partly down as well as a lot of scar tissue but nothing that would cause issues and I had all my hearing tests which came out clear sooooooo not the ear drum.
As you can image right at this point I was feeling pretty helpless and down...I really wished that there was a doctor that was basically "House" because we were ruling things that it could be out left right and centre but still not coming up with anything. The lovely and supportive ENT guy then sends me for lots of scans...head scans, MRI scans, CT scans...there was a lot and at this point I couldn't carry on with the teaching...it was getting too much pain wise and the medications they had me on made me super dopy and sleepy, so my awesomely lovely buddio Lisa helped out once again and took my session plans in to make sure the students didn't miss out. Which am totally grateful for, she is an absolute angel!

More waiting for the results...lovely ENT guy contacts me back and tells me that one of the scans showed a shadow which seems to be cyst right on my hearing nerve which would explain a lot of my symptoms and problems. Now its pretty scary hearing that in your head is something that shouldn't be there and that needs to be surgically removed. On the one hand I was grateful that it was something effecting me and not me going absolutely insane and feeling pain were there wasn't any...on the other its the idea of someone poking about in the side of my head. This finding meant I was on to the next doctor...Neurosurgeon who requested another detailed scan of my head.
However me being me, I could just have a simple wait for the appointment and get sorted sort of story. No, I was feeling worse and worse, one night I felt really dizzy and everything looked weird so momma rang the doctors who then called an ambulance, who then rushed me to the hospital where I decided that ear pain wasn't enough so I actually collapsed and had one of my vasovagal episodes! I was ok...just in pain...and the emergency doctor was really nice to me.

My detailed scan of my head found that the cyst was not a cyst...it was what was known as a vascular loop. This was basically a blood vessel looped around my hearing nerve which was pressing and causing the pain. I will admit that when I was told this, I cried...a lot...I was ready to have an operation to get rid of this cyst and that would be end of this but no its not that and I needed to be referred to another specialist to get it sorted, Neurologist. I was so down at this point, I felt like I would be in pain forever and nobody would be able to tell me what was wrong with me and how to cope. I was so depressed, pain is an awful thing...not just for the obvious ouch that hurts sort of pain but the psychological effects of it. I was not only feeling depressed because I was struggling to do the things that I normally do and to get on with my makeup stuff but also because I felt like a burden on those around me. My partner didn't have his normal girlfriend, instead he had to take care of me and spend days just watching me sleep. My family were worried sick about me and again had to take care of me all day every day. For me it just made me feel like a burden on them. And that's all because pain. If anyone is reading this and agreeing with me, its normal to feel like this but I know deep down in my heart that both my family and partner are doing these things cause they can see its not my fault and they want, what I want...to be me again and do the things I normally do.

Unfortunately the waiting list for a neurologist is extremely long, and I was desperate to get sorted and get back to normal; teaching and creating crazy things, so I paid for a private neurologist who made me feel so much better about things...not 100% but so much better then before.
Basically he explained that the vascular loop is causing an effect called atypical facial pain which is were the nerves are going mental and you get all the headache pains that go with it. He reassured me that its not made up, am not going insane and is a real condition that he has seen before. At this point I was so happy...but I was like, "soooo how do we cure it? How do I make it go away!!"
This part...not so happy...its difficult to say if it will go away fully (on the verge of crying at this point)...however we can refer you to a pain management clinic who will support you with new medication to block the pain and calm the nerves as well as support groups to teach you how to manage the pain.
Manage the pain?!? This was not what I wanted to hear...in my head all that translated to...you have a chronic pain that will never go away and you will always occasionally yell out in pain or need to lie down cause the migraine pain has gotten too much to deal with. I think that this part of my story was when I felt the lowest, I was in pain, I was watching everybody around me needing to take care of me and plan outings around my health issue, I had gain a ridiculous amount of weight cause of the medication and I couldn't see an end. I couldn't see how I was going to get back to who I was before all this was happening, how was I ever going to get back on track with my career in the SFX industry, how was I ever going to get back to teaching. It was a deep dark hole of depression that I was spiralling into.

The appointment at the pain management clinic did help somewhat, it made me realise certain things that I needed to do to move forward and "deal" with all this. The doctor and nurse again were lovely and explained how the process worked as well as gave me a lot of reading material on pain management. I was prescribed some different medication that should allow me to function better rather than make me drowsy all the time like the gabapentin, only problem was I need to be weened off the gabapentin but I'll talk about that later.
I was told about a support group I could enrol in to support me. This appointment gave me a glimmer of hope, it gave me an idea that I wasn't alone and that there are other people out there that have the same condition as me and are coping with it. It also made me see that its going to a long process to getting back to being me again but it is do able. I think everybody in that room (including my momma) had to convince me that I was expecting too much of myself and I needed to take each day as it comes. The whole celebrating the small successes rather than looking for the big.
This made me realise that I was going to have to deal with this internally, meaning I needed to accept my new condition and move on or adapt in order to get back to how I was before.
Now am not saying that this realisation was some sort of halleluiah moment were everything came into focus...am on the journey of managing this pain and am still asking "will I ever be normal again?"...to which my partner does give the best response..."who wants to be normal?"

So that's what has been happening, now I realise its nothing to do with makeup but I felt I needed to just get it out so that those who know me know what's happening and those who may be are going through a similar thing can read about my journey. Am not saying that this blog will focus on that sort of thing because makeup and SFX is my passion but I will do some posts in the future based on my pain management successes; both the triumphs and tribulations.


My name is Ruth E Moulden; I am a SFX and Makeup Artists who also teaches and I have chronic pain because of a vascular loop causing atypical facial pain...and am going to be ok.