Ling Ling in June

December 4, 2014December 4, 2014 | Shikote

I’ve had the enormous pleasure of working with Ling Ling, a beautiful and friendly, extremely talented model. These are the photos from of our first session in June:

I took these photos myself using my new Nikon except for the last photo which was taken by Davide Anderson. It’s a lot of fun to have a camera again! Since I am building my photography equipment, I have really enjoyed using the natural light rather than having to buy a lot of lighting all at once. This day was June 22 around 2pm, so the light couldn’t get any better!

The beautiful jewelry you see was made by Larissa Rubel for Ling Ling. I enjoyed spending the day with Larissa because she is very very chic and fun to talk to! The pink necklace you see is made from Mother of Pearl. Larissa collects rare gems and beads and makes them into this beautiful jewelry!

Melissa Keryn did Ling Ling’s make up. Melissa has really become a star! I love working with you Melissa and look forward to our next session! You are so talented!

I designed Ling Ling’s hair in the first style to look like one of my favorite fairies. The second style was to simply show off her gorgeous hair! I was very inspired by the wide part of the river in these shots which is why I chose this location.

The Tie dye shirt was made by Fotoula Lambros including the custom dye pattern. You can find more of Fotoula’s work on her webpage fo2la.com

I hope you’ve enjoyed these photos! We had a great time making them!

Vis A Vis

December 28, 2012 | Shikote

I offer threading at Vis A Vis every Wednesday. I’ve become their patron as well. This is a very nice skin care and massage salon. The people there are so fun and friendly, and the decor is smart and cute!

Vis a Vis sells a lot of natural high-quality skin care products including make up and application tools. There is also a Vis a Vis skin care line!

One of the massage rooms. Notice the bars on the ceiling. Mellissa uses them for Ashiatsu massage.

There are other equally beautiful and comfortable rooms for massage and full body waxing, but they’re usually full, so it’s difficult getting a picture!

This is the Brow Bar where I do the threading. They use this room for facial waxing and make up application.

These cute little figurines are for sale!

Guests get to drink premium loose teas from Tea Haus which is located about a block away from Grateful Dreads!

These are some of my favorite pieces of art hanging in the salon.

Something I’ve noticed about the people here is they study what they do constantly. They also study their client’s files, so they know the details of each job. Vis a Vis is really into details and personalized skin care.

Yummy treats at the check out area. These girls don’t mess around!

Vis a Vis is top notch! If you’re looking for a place for massage, make up, facials, waxing, or threading I very strongly recommend. My experience there has been completely positive every time!

Maeve

September 13, 2012 | Shikote

Maeve is royalty of models. I love working with her and her hair! She’s so gorgeous, highly educated, and speaks from her amazing experiences. So cool! We met early for the shoot and got ready so fast that we went out for breakfast while we waited for Daighna Rayner, the photographer, to arrive. The day before, Maeve came to Grateful Dreads, and I deep conditioned her hair and braided it to dry. When I took out her braid for the shoot, her hair looked beautiful just how it was! I did a little detail work to create some smoothness. Maeve did all of her make up in all of the photos.

This is a very special shoot. I put a lot of myself and my ideas into this and was able to meet with both of my favorite designers, Kelly Lynne and Fotoula Lambros, to pull from their new collections. Given the concept and the model, we were all excited!

All photos by Daighna Rayner for Daighna Photography:

The dress in the last picture is the Monroe dress in black by Fotoula Lambros for Fotoula Lambros Design. The dresses in the above pictures are both by Kelly Sager for Kelly Lynne. The machine in the top picture is a Linotype and is how newspapers used to be printed. Maeve looks like she is from that era in Kelly Lynne’s beautiful lacy dress! I really love the red puffy sleaves on the middle dress. So haute couture!

Maeve has amazing energy. Thank you to all of you involved in this shoot!

Cool Video by Mai Truong, Melania Sneak

August 30, 2012 | Shikote

Mai made this from our Tuesday shoot!

———————————————————————————————————–

Mai Truong, Melania Plasko, and I got together at Grateful Dreads this Tuesday afternoon for a photo shoot! Melania makes clothes and collects them, so we used her clothes and designs. You can look at Melania’s Lookbook to see more of her designs. For this shoot I did her hair and make up in the salon, then we ventured out to an older cemetery in town. I love Melania’s bangs, so I styled her hair around them in every look! We did a smooth first look and agreed to get bigger as we went. I did her makeup using lavender and metal tones. I added some huge thick eyelashes, and we made lipstick out of a mix of eyeshadows.

The first look was very smooth and sleek. I did this with rollers and clips and using an Ibiza boar’s bristle round brush.

I used Kevin Murphy Color Bug at her roots!

These are just shots with my phone! Mai got some beautiful, high-quality shots which I will post as soon as they’re ready.

Maeve, Daighna, and I

August 1, 2012 | Shikote

Måeve, Daighna, and I got together on Sunday and had the first ever photo shoot at Grateful Dreads! We got very creative, worked hard, and had a lot of fun. I love that I get to spend time making art with such wonderful people and am so thankful! The pics below were all taken with my iphone. The real pics were shot by Daighna Rayner and are currently being looked through and edited by her.

Here’s a sneak of our last look. Måeve in a beautiful grassy meadow. She’s wearing the wrap dress designed by Fotoula Lambros for Fotoula Lambros Design. This dress was the closing look in FLD’s most recent Detroit fashion show but in white. She graciously loaned us the black one for this shoot.

Look at those clouds!

The rest of these photos are of the salon after the shoot. I really love my new salon! And I really loved this shoot. Everything about it.

Most of those clothes are by designer Kelly Lynne. She and I pulled from her newest collection which was totally fun!

Thanks to everyone involved!

Paige Glamour

August 1, 2012 | Shikote

Here are two good shots from a recent photoshoot with Paige Mobley. Marygrace D’Aleo did her make-up and brought the red dress. I styled Paige’s hair off her face and neatly to the side for the beauty shot, shown first. For the last look of the shoot we got very glamorous with a roller set, and I pinned her hair into a bob. Paige is an excellent model and really worked the look!

I am so happy to have worked with the photographer, Acacia. Watching her work was energizing, and her edited pic below is a piece of fine art. What a pleasure to work with such an amazing and talented artist!

Photos by Acacia:

The faux bob! Very glamorous!!