As I mentioned on Monday, this week I'll be sharing with you my entire experience filming "The Foodie List" TV show in Boston. Yesterday we talked about my audition and the casting of the show and today I thought we'd dish about hair, makeup and wardrobe. Ladies, you know this is critical.
After getting the email that I'd been cast, I waited about . . . five minutes to ask what the hair/makeup/wardrobe situation would be. When you're imagining your face beaming into the homes of people around the world, your appearance is naturally a concern.
Since the show is in its first ever season, the production is real scrappy. In all 13 cities the crew consisted of our amazing director Maude, our cameraman Sebastian and our production coordinator Adriana. That's it!
Since they were traveling so light, all hair, makeup and wardrobe had to be DIY for the cast.
Now, I know what you are thinking, "No problem! Just do DryBar or Sephora." Well, when your call time is 9:00am and some of those places aren't open, or don't open until an hour before you need to arrive, your options are limited.
So, I decided I would do my hair myself (straighten it) and then I would try to find a makeup artist to come to my house early in the morning each of the shoot days to transform me.
On the recommendation of a friend, I reached out to Ali, the owner of Alexandra Dale Makeup Artistry. She couldn't have been nicer and with zero hesitation, agreed to come to my house each morning at 7:00am.
I told Ali I wanted to look natural and still feel like myself, but I definitely wanted to keep in mind that I'd be on camera and that camera might mega zoom onto my face (while eating! EEEK!).
Ali had quite the set up!
Who knew one could use so many different types of makeup brushes?
Before she began, Ali asked me to sit in the room with the most natural light. We both agreed that was the dining room. For one full hour she worked on my face, feature by feature - foundation, eyes, lashes, cheeks and lips. When she was finished, she asked me to go take a look in the bathroom mirror.
Here is what was looking back at me:
I loved the way she smoothed out my complexion, shaped my eyebrows, accentuated my blue eyes and gave my lips just the right hue.
I'm always hesitant to smile with teeth when I have lipstick on, but Ali assured me I could not it without smudging:
Now, of course I was concerned with keeping my lips looking great all day because I knew we'd be eating for the whole shoot. Ali was nervous too, so we searched my personal makeup stash and discovered I already owned a sample size of the lipstick she'd used, Makeup Forever's Rouge Artist Natural. Phew! I tucked it into my purse for touch ups throughout the day.
In case you are wondering if the makeup made any real difference, take a look at this photo of me with the whole cast. That is definitely not my usual face! #upgrade
As I mentioned earlier in the post, for hair, I just used my straightener to give my locks a sleek look. It took just 30 minutes each morning and made me feel very glam.
Now for the most interesting piece, the wardrobe. Over email in the days leading up to the shoot, the casting coordinator told us not to wear "black, stripes, neon or any brand names or logos." If you've ever seen me in person, you know all I wear is black. If I do ever deviate from that color choice, it's for electric pink or orange (usually while in Miami). This rule about "no black" had me in a total panic.
On the first day of the shoot, I decided to wear a green and gray dress from Anthropologie. This dress is usual my go-to for client meetings. It's simple, but sophisticated. Here's a shot of me in the green dress, taken by my castmate Bianca (forgive the iPhone pic!):
While shooting at our dinner location that first night I was lamenting to the crew about how hard it was to find non-black clothing to wear. The production coordinator said quizzically, "Who told you that you couldn't wear black? Of course you can! Wear whatever makes you feel most comfortable." I felt like I was going to vaporize right in front of her. I had been stressed about this for weeks! Needless to say, I wore black on day two.
And there you have it, the makings of a TV newbie!
Tomorrow I'll take you behind the scenes of our first day of shooting.
