We love the Golden Globes and all the glam it brings. This year we found the makeup to be almost too natural! Celebrity's such as Charlize theron and Kate Beckinsale, with their colourless cheeks and nude lips, looked very bland on the red carpet.  They seemed to blend in with the crowds. This natural look works when you add a hint of blush to the cheeks and a tinted gloss to the lips adding warmth and vibrancy. This is a look that we love for every day but not for the Red Carpet! Especially for pictures, you need to wear a little more than you normally wear. We cannot stress enough to brides and people needing a good headshot or any professional picture.

The one celebrity that got it right this year was Angelina Jolie with her soft smokey eyes and perfect red lips. Harper Bazaar's Derek Blasberg tweeted, "I think Angelina Jolie just single handedly made it cool to match your bag and your lipstick to your dress again." A bold red lip is always a fantastic black-tie choice; and Jolie has a world-famous pout. 

We will show you how to get this look that you can use for any black tie event or special evening out. 

How to achieve this red Carpet look. 

Step one: Pepping the face for colour and evening out skin tone.

Starting with a fresh, clean and hydrated face and using your Alchemy Foundation blending brush, dab on you face primer to the areas of the face that have large pores and over any fine lines around the eyes. In an instant, your skin feels and looks smoother and resurfaced!

Using Alchemy's Mineral Concealer, spot treat any blemishes, sun damage, or flaws on your facial skin. Remember, a little bit goes a long way here.

Next, with either your Loose or Pressed Alchemy Mineral Foundation and your Alchemy Foundation brush, go over your whole face and neck with a swirl like stroke until the surface of your skin is even and clear.

Step two: Smokey Eyes

Using the Blending Brush, sweep Eye shadow base evenly over your lids and up to your brow bone. This will brighten and conceal the eye area making your eyes brighter and ready for colour. 

Choose a contour eyeshadow colour (not a base) that appropriately brings out your features. Angelina is wearing a colour that is very close to  Alchemys Eldorado eyeshadow. With the Shadow Brush, apply the eyeshadow in the outer corner of your eyelid

With the Blending Brush again, sweep over the contour colored eye shadow, blending it up and outwards

Now clean your Blending Brush well and then select a Highlight eyeshadow. Angelina is wearing one that is slightly gold such as Alchemy's Golden eye highlight. Dip the Blending Brush into the highlight, remove it and tap lightly to remove any excess mineral. Starting in the far corner of the eye, sweep the highlight towards the center of the lid, stopping no further than the center, just above the pupil. Now smooth any lines that may have formed, with the brush.

Next  bring out the  shape of your eye with Alchemy's Eyeliner. Angelina is wearing a black liner . Start by sharpening your eyeliner to create a perfect point, then line the upper lash base and wing out the liner a bit beyond the outer edge of your eye. Then, move the point to the inside corner and line the inside lash line. This will cause the lashes to appear thicker and longer.

Now apply your mascara by twisting the wand along its axis, lengthwise, at the base of the lashes. *Tip* To steady your hand, hold the wand at a right-angle with respect to the direction of your fingers. Also, zig-zagging the wand back and forth will help cut down on clumps!

Step Three: Contouring your face and features

With the eyes completed,  contour and warm up the face by applying the Alchemy's pressed Face Bronzer. This is an important step as it fully defines your features and provides a healthy sun kissed glow.

Touch the cheeks with a hint of a lightly toned blush. We love Alchemy's Rose Crown . Angelina has a strong lip colour and smokey eye, it is important to not over do it.

Step Four: Lips

Finally, line the lips with a red lip liner. Scarlett Sage  which is one of our favourites when doing a red lip! Finish with Alchemy's Strawberry Creek Lip Gloss.  Strawberry Creek is very close to the colour on Angelina is wearing in this look but you can also use a red lipstick in your favourite shade. 

Last week we (Sally and Bre of Alchemy Mineral Blends) were invited for two days to present an instructional course at the Aveda Institute in Denver, allowing us to showcase both our makeup and our techniques. In addition, focus was also on the development of Alchemy as a business, as many of the Aveda students aspire to start their own companies upon graduation. It's always a fantastic experience to educate students, and we hope our story of building Alchemy from just an idea to a thriving company in 5 "short" years is inspiring. We want women, especially, to see that its possible to start a company for themselves, and we are always thankful when we can be a part of the process of providing them with the knowledge, inspiration and tools to venture out on their own in that capacity.

One of the most common questions we're asked from women is how we managed to start our own mineral makeup and services business. The short answer is that the first step is receiving a proper education. One that not only prepares you for the day-to-day tasks of your trade, but prepares you for business, as well. In our case, we studied at The Cinema Makeup School in Hollywood, along with other continual courses in makeup. 

The next step, and equally important, is the Idea. Your Idea must provide something that is missing or that has room for additional competition within the industry, something you believe you can do better than your competition, or you must be able to start an entirely new industry! If you can think of any one of these, and if its one you're absolutely passionate about, you may be on to a winning business. 

Once you have gotten this far, you must really hone your skills. To break into an industry or create a new one, you must be the best of the best, offering customers and clients a reason to leave their current products behind in favor of yours, or to give you a try over another stylists / makeup-artist, etc. And they must be hooked on the first try! In our case, beyond formal training we worked hard every day, often providing services for free during the first few years because we knew it would either help us make a connection or enhance our skills. To accomplish this, we both worked two jobs until we were booked with paying business.  I don't think either of us could have managed such a grueling schedule if we didn't love what we do, and weren't passionate about every makeup product we sell and makeover we apply!  

Finally, you must be persistent. There will be those tough times when you question every move you make, question if you'll succeed, there may be months with little or no business (during a slow-season, hopefully), and it might be hard to see the "light" at the end.... but you must persist.  Eventually, you'll have those great days, and you're problems will turn from finding work to deciding if you should seek an investor, bring in another business partner, hire your first employees, rebuild your website, or maybe even take a vacation! A final thought, and one that has been very important for our success, you must just DO IT! Start today, because if you don't, it will simply never happen.

Now, since this has turned into an inspirational story, we must also thank our family and friends who have been our greatest support, sometimes our best customers, and even our first investors!  As well, a huge thank you to our customers who are the most loyal we could have ever hoped for, and some of whom have become our personal friends!

  Getting yourself ready for a long day of work is not exactly what we are all looking forward to  as soon as we step out of bed.  Applying your makeup quickly can still look like you spent 20 minutes on it with the right tools, colors and steps.  
I am always so interested to see how women decide to apply their makeup when they are in a hurry.  It is so easy to quickly apply a layer of mascara on the lashes and maybe put a touch of foundation on the skin.  Those steps take less than 2 minutes and seem like the right thing to do when you're busy or too tired to take the time to get ready.  The one thing that I always make sure to do, is to take the extra 3 minutes to add a bit more color and contour to my face.  It seems unnecessary to some, but I truly believe that if you feel confident and at peace with yourself, everyone else feels your radiance and respects you for it.

  I put together 8 simple steps to creating your everyday makeup look:

Before you get started always make sure that you are fully moisturized! Being moisturized will create the world of difference in the way your makeup lasts throughtout the day as well as how healthy and glowing your skin can be.

1. I applied the dispensing brush Aspen all over my face and neck.  This not only makes your skin look perfectly flawless, it also is keeping your proctected from free radical damage as well as giving you your SPF of 26!

2. Contouring with the pressed bronzer golden glow makes me look a little more sunkissed than I actually am this winter. Blend this color in the crease of your cheekbones, down the neck and along the outside of the face.

3.Next I lightly blend the Rose Crown blush across the apples of my cheecks and glide towards the temples. Make sure the color is blended naturally to create a healthy flush.

4.With my blending brush I swipe Dove Creek eyeshadow across my entire eyelid. Using a base shadow will help open the eyes by eliminating any redness on the lids. 

5.Using the same brush I use a very light amount of Raspberry eyeshadow and blend evenly in my natural eye crease. This give definition to the eyes and help keep the eyes looking lifted.

6.Aster eyeliner is the next step to the eyes. Keep the color on the outside corners of the top of the lid and then lightly line the bottom corners of the eye.

7.Then I use N2 undereye concealer. Blend with your ring finger under the eyes to highlight and brighten the undereyes. This is the one product that I could never walk out the door without wearing!

8.Lastly I use my black mascara and coat the lashes to desired length and thickness.  If you have stubborn straight lashes like me I would highly recommend using twizzerman lash curler before you apply your mascara.

Lips are always part of your everyday routine.  Make sure you have a gloss ready in your purse or car so that you are prepared to apply on the run!  I love Sapphire Rose natural lipgloss to give me a lightly colored pout.

Email or call us with any questions, help or comments at anytime!

I want to share with you some makeup jobs Ive done on one of my beautiful friend's Natha Perkins and tell you a little a bit about her. She is a native to Boulder and is a very talented Metal and Goldsmith .She created an amazing line of hand crafted jewelry called Luscious Metals.  Not only is she one of my best friends but she is one of the most amazing Jewelry designers in town. I never leave my house until I have my rings on that Natha made for me! The day just isnt the same without those magical treasures! "I know that the pieces I create go out into the world and become treasures, amulets, reminders of memories.'' Natha Perkins

Below is a photo of Natha taken by one of my favorite Photographers Beth Sanders.  I did her makeup for this shoot . It was for one of Twig Salons bill boards. They let me loose with my paints so I worked away on Natha and came up with this human creation! Read on and Ill explain how I achieved this creation!

Here is how I created this look and also a list of the tools I used. 

* Before I started to paint on Nathas face, I made sure I protected her skin by shielding it with a layer of our pressed mineral foundation.

* I always use my art brushes for this kind of makeup. Because this kind of makeup is so intricate and more like a painting, I find that my art brushes give alot more detail and precision.

* My favorite face and body paints of choice is the Ben Nye aqua colors palette. You can mix your own colors too which I like. I started off using the black color and drew in the design first using a very fine brush. Then and placed all the colors I wanted to use beside each other to create the right balance of hues. I then filled in the design and let is take over! Sometimes I don't know what the end result is going to be, but I always know when I have achieved what I am going for!

Here is another shoot Beth Sanders shot .  I did the makeup on Natha and another amazing model named Mike. I also used the same Aqua colors for this makeup. This shoot has to be one of my favorites. It was a hot summers day and we set this up in a junk yard a little outside Boulder. Beth Sanders work is  extraordinary ! She isnt afraid to be different and brings these surreal crazy ideas to life! I love working with her because she gives me full reign of what I want the makeup to be!

Below are some pieces that Bre and I have from Natha's Jewelry collection. Some of these pieces have already been featured in Cosmopolitan Magazing, InStyle Mag, and lots more!  Women ask us every day where we got them from!  

 Check out Natha's site to see all of  her treasures!

You will be happy you looked!

One of our favorite Comedians Kelly MacLean stopped by The Side Door Salon a week ago to have me do her makeup for a stand up show she was doing that evening . After Kelly had her makeup done I could not help but notice how much she looks like Kate Hudson! I  thought I  would share with you how I achieved this look on her! Stay tuned for more Alchemy makeovers on celebrity look alikes!

Before

After

How to get this look:

Step 1 - First I evened out and brightened up  Kelly's complection using Alchemy's pressed compact foundation.  Press a Deluxe brush gently onto your compact. The pressed foundation is great for stage and for anyone who is looking for a little extra coverage.  If you like to use a liquid foundation you will love this! Its has just as much if not more coverage but it lets your skin breath, unlike a lot of liquid foundations. Its also free of harmful chemicals and dyes and is SPFf26!

Step 2 - Contouring Kelly's face was very important so that her features stood out on stage.  Even for the every day look, its nice to highlight your features.  I dipped our deluxe brush into our pressed bronzer and applied the brush lightly in the crevice of the cheeks and under her jaw line, down her neck and on the top part of her forehead and sides of her nose.

Step 3- I added some Candy Tuft blush to the apples of her cheeks. I dipped my deluxe brush into a tiny plob of blush and worked it into the brush before applying  her cheeks. 

Step 4-  I dipped my Blending brush into some Dove creek eyes shadow base and applied to Kellys eye lids and entire eye are. I put about two layers on. 

Step 4-  Using the shadow brush, I applied Alfalfa into the crease of Kellys eyes and also onto the out lid and went about half way in. I blended this and then went in with about two or three more layers to get the depth I wanted for stage. You can add one to three layers, it just depends on the look you are going for. 

Step 5- Using my Blending brush again I added some Pearl to the inner corners of Kellys eyes and pulled it over the inner lid a little too.

Step 6- I lined Kellys eyes with Bluebell eye liner and also applied the liner to the inner membrane of her eyes for a sultry Kate Hudson  look!

Step7- I applied about two layers of black mascara to Kellys top lashes and one layer to her out lashes on the bottom. I also added a few single medium length fake eye lashes to make her eyes stand out even more. 

Step 7-  I lined kellys lips with a pale liner first. I used Rose Mallow lip liner. Next I added a layer of Orchid gloss to pale them down and make them appear fuller. 

Doesn't she look like Kate Hudson!? Such a stunner!

We were so excited to have picked up the most recent issue of 5280 to discover Alchemy Mineral Blends made it into the top two of Colorado's "favorite make over gurus!"