Grill This Not That

I love being the hand model part of the ETNT team    The books are chock full of fabulous information about eating healthy and making better decisions about food.  I devour each new one when it comes out and love the sneak peeks I get of the upcoming ones.  The 2013 Eat This Not That guide is going to be incredible.  I can’t wait to see it on the shelves.

A friend found a copy of the Grill This Not That in a magazine.  I’m not sure which one this was in as she just emailed me the tearsheet and I can’t find the name of it.

nom nom nom

pretending to chow down with the food stylist, Roscoe.  (we have a whole series of the nom nom shots)

Butter Spreads

It was a butter spreading kind of day!  A perfect spread is a delicate combination between the speed/pressure that I exert and the temperature of the knife and butter.  Talented food stylist and prop masters make sure that once the perfect combination is found, it is repeated for each take.  It is a team effort to get that final moment that makes it to the television screens.

I was pleased to find the butter of all butters, Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter was the go to spread.  A block came home with me at the end of the shoot!

Are you stressed? Anxious? me too…

A friend recently went from feeling stressed to giggling when they stumbled upon this forgotten gem of a photo.  There I was staring out, nervous, worried..would I chew on that finger nail?  haha.  This photo always seems to pop up in the most random places.  Once it was on a dating website with a caption of ‘does the dating world leave you stressed?’

Thats the thing with stock photos.  You never know where they could end up.  I wait patiently for the day I am in Joey’s shoes on that episode of Friends where he becomes the poster boy for an STD.  I did a few stock jobs when I was first starting out as a model, it is a great way to build your portfolio and get paid a little bit for your time.  A roommate found one in a law book for one of her classes.

The high tension photo came from a fun day at a studio in New Jersey where we were creating a lot of handy images.  The photographer noted that I was very expressive and asked if they could do some shots of ‘all of me’ after we finished for the stock rate.  My agent gave the go-ahead (always check with your agent about anything that changes or is added on a shoot day) and we had a fun hour of trying out various scenarios.  The shoot happened right around the financial collapse so they asked for a lot of nail biting and stressing.  There were some funny ones with blocks spelling MONEY and me looking very sad and forlorn.  I have not seen those surface…yet…    Till then, the nervous nail biter (now you know I would never….) takes the lead in stock image usage.

Skincare Routine

I recently asked my friends about their favorite lotions on my facebook page and got a range of products. Some that I’ve tried and some that I will have to try. There are so many different products on the market and it is hard to pick favorites THOUGH I do have my daily skincare routine which I was asked to share…so here goes.

MY FAVES!

Going from right to left

Aura Glow – I adore this stuff. My friend Amy introduced me to this amazing oil when I was in college, long before hand modeling and it has been a staple in my bathroom ever since. It is downright luxurious to put on after a shower. The ingredients are Peanut Oil, Olive Oil, Lanolin & Vit E Oils. YES! All stuff our skin needs to be moisturized and feel soft. I use this from the neck down after every shower and will put it on my hands a few times a day.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Not just for the kitchen This is my not so secret weapon. I use this on my face and hands. I carry a bottle of EVOO with me wherever I go and this is what I put on my hands X # of times a day. Hard for me to say how many times I put it on as it is just a part of my routine. I use it all the time. EVOO is also great as a hair moisturizer. I put it on my hair every other week or so and let it sit for an hour or so and then wash it out.

Liquid Lanolin – This is the pure thick stuff. It goes on heavy and is not something you would want to put on before you went out into the world. This is my ‘before bed’ moisturizer in the winter months. It is almost like a sealant for the moisture in your skin. You don’t need to use a whole lot of it. Liquid Lanolin can also be mixed with other oils! I’ve mixed it with Jojoba oil with great success. I use the Heritage Product brand as I adore the teachings of Edward Cayce.

Alba Botanica SPF 45 – SUNSCREEN SUNSCREEN SUNSCREEN!! So important for the skin. I try to always remember to put this on, year round, before I step into the world. I love the Alba brand because the products are natural, organic and they don’t test on animals. Yeah – love our furry friends.

The Yellow Jar – My friend Emily’s secret recipes for a lemon hand scrub. I don’t know what she puts in here but DANG I love it. My skin feels silky smooth after using in the shower. And it smells great.

AND THE NEWEST ADDITION to my skincare routine –

Pure Harmony Soap.

This stuff is incredible. I have always hated soap. It dries out your skin and leaves it feeling tight..well, that is what I always thought until I tried the Pure Harmony line. I’m using the Peppermint Stick bar right now and will admit to keeping it on my desk for 2 weeks before I tried it out because it smelled so darn good. Seriously. YUM! I want to get a bunch of these bars for next Christmas and put them in a basket in my living room. The smell is incredible. So how would it work for its intended purpose? I wasn’t sure but I knew I loved the ingredients – olive oil, coconut cream, shea butter, cocoa butter, jojoba oil, french white clay, peppermint & spearmint essential oils in the peppermint bar. All amazing products for the skin. I also really liked that the bar is hand made. When I tried it out I was blown away! The soap has a rich creamy lather that nourishes my skin leaving it feeling squeaky clean and invigorated. After drying, my skin feels smooth and soft before I lather on the auraglow! I love this because normally soap leaves my skin feeling one of two ways; the first is that dry tight feeling and the 2nd is oily and greasy, almost like a residue was left behind. The Pure Harmony bar wins for BEST SOAP EVER! I am excited to try the other flavors and love knowing that each bar is handmade with love.

New You Magazine

A last minute editorial was my final job of 2012.  The shoot was for the first issue of New You Magazine which came out THIS MONTH!  That was one of the fastest turn around times for an editorial spread, less than a month from conception to preparation to shoot to edit to printing to distribution (not to mention all the fine tuning throughout.)  New You Magazine, the January issue.

I was excited because I heard that I would be working with the nail artist, Chiharu Natsume again.  She is really great at creating tiny intricate designs on the nails and once I saw the spread of gorgeous jewelry on the props table, I knew she would be decking out my nails.  I was super hoping that the last look would be on both my hands (sometimes they only paint one hand for the shot) so that I could go home for the holidays with badass nails.

It was a great day on set lead by photographer Wendy Hope.  Wendy made finding the right angles with the jewelry while showing off Chi’s nail designs a breeze.  And her shots!!!!   Oh man, we were all huddled around the computer screen drooling over her work.  The faceys were the beautiful twin super models Ieva Aniuylte & Aida Aniulyte.  Gorgeous and sweet and how lucky to have a friend to always travel with.  They told me that they do a lot of work together and are usually always in the same town.  It would be awesome to always have someone to hang out with on out of town jobs.  That rarely happens for hand models  

Town & Country – Bridal

I was very excited to be chosen for the Town & Country Bridal Issue (on stands now.) It would be my first time working with the incredible photographer, Carlton Davis.  Stockton Hall, one hell of a props stylist and friend, had first shown me Carlton’s work a few years ago and I had hoped to one day collaborate on something amazing with him and a bridal shoot gave us gorgeous props, beautiful sparkly rocks to play with when creating the shots.

Not only did we get the most incredible of rings to play with, we also got Fleury Rose and her nail creations.  Seriously – stop reading this right now and go to her website.  Check out the Artists Favorites section.  Just – wow!  She does that all by hand.  In addition to being able to create tiny galaxies of designs on nails, she is a seriously cool person.

Had a blast with Carlton and the T&C gang.  Love a set with great music and great people, Stockton was right about a day onset with Carlton being inspiring for creating amazing shots AND just being FUN!

Nails being beutified by Fleury Rose.