The Case of The Gilded Lily

The Case of The Gilded Lily

The Case of the Gilded Lily

Roxanne

December 21th, 2017

Below you will find ‘The Case of the Gilded Lily’, a short made by Shipwrecked Comedy that I got to work on earlier this year. I can easily say it was hands down the most unique project I’ve been on and one that I am absolutely ecstatic to have been apart of! If you want to skip my thoughts on it/me being sentimental, now is the time to scroll down and press play. If not, then continue reading.

When I was studying film at UT Austin, one of the areas I focused in on was was old movies and film history. I loved the topic so much, that for a while I planned on leaving makeup behind me and was going to go all the way for my Phd in media studies to become a film historian. (If you had questions on how nerdy I was, I think they were just answered) So a black and white, period, film noir, set in 1939 Hollywood was an dream project to do! The trailer they put together for the film I think sums it up better then I ever could:

When I was first contacted about working on the production, I was sent a link to the Kickstarter page, and I was in love with the project within minutes. This was something that was right up my alley, and yet completely out of my usual realm and challenging in the best possible way. The makeup designs I got to create on this were so fun. Working in black and white is such a different medium then color. If you go too subtle it won’t show, but at the same time you can’t go too heavy or else it looks like a stage play. All the guys had to have their lips darkened in order for them to be defined, everyone was contoured to make such their face still had dimensions and wasn’t too flat. And then there was also that we were doing period hair and makeup, plus multiple shoot days involved the majority of the cast. (Huge thanks to Cortney Heiser for coming in and assisting me on the crazy days!) Even on the most simple of shoot days, there was still a tremendous amount of work that went into it. But my goodness it was worth it! 

(Here’s some production posters that they have been releasing on the @ShipWreckedComedy Instagram)

Everyday I was exhausted by the time I got home, however everyday was such a creative joy. All the members of the production put so much heart into it, it was magical. On top of that too, everyone was so humble, and kind, and friendly. The Shipwrecked family are all so funny and talented. They created these great characters in this very defined world that all just mesh together perfectly. Beyond the work I got to do on this, I’m so grateful to have met all these people who I have now gotten to work with again since, and also now consider to be my friends.

 

I could go on for longer and get more sappy, but instead I gonna cut it short (as i look back over this post I see I may have missed my chance for that). I leave you you the funny and brilliant ‘Case of the Gilded Lily’.

30 Day Hair Challenge

30 Day Hair Challenge

30 Day Hair Challenge

Roxanne

December 8th, 2017

Primarily I use this blog section of my site to talk about projects I’ve done and such. But today’s is slightly different!
If you follow me on instagram (@Roxanne_McDanel), then for all of November you got to see take part in the 30 Days of PinUp Hairstyles challenge that Pinup Model Angelique Noire (@theblackpinup) was running. For everyday of November there was a different prompt to follow to complete a pinup hairstyle. The prompts ranged specific accessories, style icons, to particular hair techniques.
In my day to day life, I love pinup and retro style. While I may not do it every single day, I try and do it as much as I can, or at least do elements of it (you will rarely see me without winged eyeliner!) Initially was didn’t intend to do all 30 days, since I knew I was traveling and also working in that time frame. However, I surprised myself and did ever days challenge. Some days it didn’t get done till 10PM, but hey it still counted.
As cheesy as this is to say, I really did learn so much doing this. Several of the styles I did, I had never done before and had been very nervous to pull off. During the course of the 30 days I had to do a lot more research and found solutions to have of the issues I had previously encountered. I’m now really excited that I can execute so many new styles and some of the styles I had done in the past I can do better and make look more flawless.

I did also discover a couple of specific items that made such a difference with achieving some of the vintage looks.
Firstly a Denman Brush. Wow, this made such a big difference with getting beautiful brush outs! I had always felt that the basic brush I had would be fine, but really my curls just would disappear and I would be left with just a subtle wave. The brush really does matter, and now can’t live without it.


Small bobby pins. I did not even know bobby pins came in different sizes until an actor is was working with handed me this lil baby sized bobby pin. I was obsessed with the idea just because, honestly I love mini versions of things. (When you go to the makeup store and they have the small sizes of products as you stand in line to check out, yeah my shopping bag instantly doubles in size!) When I was getting my Denman brush, low and behold I also found my mini bobby pins. When I got them home, it dawned on me to try and use them when pining victory rolls. It was so much easier to hide the pins! This maybe wouldn’t work as well for someone who has thicker hair, but for my fine hair the smaller pins just worked wonderfully for holding the curled hair but not sticking crazy far out. (They are especially good if you are pining from the side to anchor them down)


A good heat protectant and a working curling iron. Okay this one may seem really obvious, and it is, but I’m brining this up because well…..the last week of the challenge I traveled from LA back to Austin for Thanksgiving. And I forgot to pack my thermal protecting spray (I’ve been using Redkens Hot Sets spray). But decided to do my hair without because I didn’t feel like going to the store and buying a new one. (Don’t be lazy kids) Well it also turned out my inexpensive curling iron was malfunctioning and overheating. The results of both of these things lead to me literally burning off a few sections of my hair! 😭 thankfully they are all underneath sections, but it was still devastating when I discovered the fried sections of my hair falling out. As such, with the conclusion of the challenge I’ve been giving my hair a rest, and doing deep conditioning treatments to try and reverse some of the damage. I also got a new (and better curling iron) and promptly trashed the old one.

Final thoughts:

I love looking like a pinup doll, and really want to make more of an effort to do more styles more often.

Certain tools really do make a huge difference of the final look.

Treat your hair well, and don’t take it for granted.

 

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