A couple months ago, I did a fabulously awesome photoshoot with Rod Foster Photography and a beautifully fierce model named Brenda Castillo. Rod chose a great little spot in Laguna Beach and we began the day by scouting out all of our locations. I knew we wanted to start with a very natural, beachy look. I started with a clean beautiful base and blush then used only MAC All That Glitters, Sable and Mary Kay Moonstone eyeshadows. I shaped and colored her eyebrows then finished with Mascara. That was all she needed for our first shots and voila, she was camera ready!

Our first couple shots we did on the path to the beach from the houses on this great rock bench. After that we moved to the beach! After getting some beautiful shots in this look, we began the process of turning Brenda into a mermaid! I started with her eyes and I used MAC Lucky Green, Steamy, and Deep Truth. I used black eyeliner on top and bottom and the moved on to her face before adding the lashes.

I began by putting on individual shells to the left side of her face near her eye. These I stuck on using spirit gum. Once I had them in the design that I wanted, I began with the sand. I painted on spirit gum in the pattern I wanted and then poured the sand on directly. This was a fun and messy process where she had to plug her ears and we covered her eyes and nose while I poured the sand on. After it was on then we had her flip her head so the excess fell off and then I used a brush and alcohol to clean up the edges. After the sand was placed and set, I added the finishing touches which meant eyelashes and lips. I used these amazing blue and black long lashes and placed those with some added top liner to finish the look. Finally I used Deep Truth eyeshadow on her lips to finish the look.

I wished I had more time before sunset because I would have loved to add the sand swirls  to more of her body but maybe next time! Finally, after dressing her and draping some awesome fishing net and shells over her we were ready to shoot. Rod Foster is an incredible photographer and he did incredible things with the sunset and his own lighting and we came away with these FANTABULOUS shots! I was so impressed by both Brenda as a model and Rod as a photographer, couldn’t have asked to work with a better team!