yeg hair stylist

Beachy Wave Tutorial

We first worked with Bree when she was modelling during the Kindle Workshop here in Edmonton and we were also set to do her hair and makeup for her wedding that happened this past summer. Bree is the kindest and most lovely person so when she asked us to collaborate on a tutorial for her new website we jumped at the chance to work with her again!! She legitimately has the most magical hair and it was so fun to watch Caitlyn create these beachy waves and then show how to easily transform your look with some fun hair accessories and tips. Head over to Bree’s site here to see the video tutorial!

Christmas Couples Session | Phoebe + Brandon

Janna •

We planned this session just before Christmas as both Nicole and I love anything Christmas related so it was the perfect opportunity to create with this stunning couple! Check out Nicole’s blog post to see even more of the photos.

Our 2018 in Review

Janna •

2018 was a really big year for Behind the Blush as our team grew with Caitlyn and Diane working on more weddings and projects with me! This past year was full of different beautiful destinations like Ireland, Tofino, Palm Springs, Los Angeles and of course the Rocky Mountains with so many amazing clients that I got to travel to with Nicole Ashley. Another high point of this year was being able to do the hair and makeup for both Kindle Workshops that Nicole Ashley and Ang from Myrtle and Moss put on to educate photographers. We also have to thank all of our local brides and clients here in our hometown of Edmonton for including us in their beautiful life events. This past year would not have been possible without the support of our clients, friends and family so thank you for following along on our journey! Photos by Nicole Ashley unless noted under the photo Photo by Laura Olsen during the Kindle Workshop Photo by Kayla Lovi during the Kindle Workshop Photos by Ang of Myrtle and Moss Photography Photos by Dianna Man and Makeup was done by Behind the Blush for Novelle Bridal Photo by Megan Kemshead Photos by Carlos Vicente Photos by Juan and Angie Photo by Katch Studios Photo by Sharon Litchfield Photos by Janine Rose during the second Kindle Workshop Photos from the Kindle Workshop round two held in Edmonton

Jillian + Joe – Frank Sinatra Estate Wedding in Palm Springs

Janna •

In November I had the honour of travelling to Palm Springs for Jillian and Joe’s wedding in the desert. Their wedding was so relaxed and so them right down to the pool party before starting to get their hair and makeup done. The wedding was hosted at the Frank Sinatra Estate and I had to pinch myself that I was getting to work and celebrate in such an iconic home. The day after we headed to Joshua Tree where we witnessed the most epic sunset. Nicole Ashley captured all these stunning photos and then Plaid Collar Films created this beautiful video showcasing Jillian and Joe’s wedding as well as the day after session. Photos by Nicole Ashley retouched with Nicole Ashley Presets Hair/makeup by Janna with Behind the Blush Video by Plaid Collar Films Planning by The Love Riot Decor by Jesi Haack Design Wedding Dress by Jenny Packham Bridal from White Toronto and veil by Sara Gabriel Veils Custom Suit by Atelier by Ensemble Wedding Venue: Frank Sinatra Estate

How to Tone Your Hair Extensions at Home

Janna •

Sometimes when you get blonde hair extensions you may want them to be a bit cooler/icier in tone or in my case I needed to transform the hair extensions from blonde to pastel pink. In this post, I wanted to cover how to tone the blonde extensions to get them cooler in tone and then also how to make them pastel. I received the clip in extensions from UniWigs and I have to say I was really impressed by how soft and thick the blonde extensions were all the way down to the ends. Over the years I have been styling hair I’ve seen good hair extensions and sub-par hair extensions and I can say with confidence that the clip in hair extensions by their company are very high quality. After you have the hair extensions toned to match your current hair colour following the steps below I highly recommend taking them with you to your next hair appointment to have your hairdresser blend them with your hair so that they look even more natural. We are going to be creating some more tutorials and videos on how to place your clip in extensions in your hair and how to style them so stay tuned! Blonde Steps: Order the whitest hair extensions you can find and in my case, I ordered the 24-inch White Blonde Human Hair Clip In Extensions in the shade G-613. ** It is really important to purchase real human hair instead of the synthetic or synthetic blend version because the real hair extensions will tone without issues and you can also heat style them. Fill a large bowl about 3/4 full of warm water. Add in 2-3 squirts of the Fanola No Yellow Shampoo into the water and swish the water around with your hand until it is all mixed in and you get the water a purple colour. Add the hair extensions into the bowl and submerge them in the water. Keep an eye on the hair extensions as they turn cool in tone very fast. It took me about 5 minutes of the hair being submerged to get the tone I wanted. Rinse the hair extensions under your tap and then add some conditioner to the ends and then rinse again. Add some hair oil and detangler if needed to the mid-lengths to ends of the hair extensions and gently brush them out. I usually prefer to leave…

Oksana + Ray’s Brooklyn Engagement Session

Janna •

You really never know the people who you will come across in your life or what circumstances will change your life forever. On October 1, 2017, I was in Las Vegas with Nicole during the mass shooting and ended up meeting Oksana and Ray while hiding in a bathroom until it was deemed safe to come out. We spent hours with them and decided to exchange contact info since we felt bonded to them after our experience that night. The next month we were set to travel to New York for work and it ended up that we were staying in Brooklyn where Oksana and Ray also lived. The stars aligned and we were able to do their engagement session while we were there. Nicole posted all the photos on her site with two posts which you can click on here for the first post and then here for the second. I just wanted to share a few on our site as well since the photos are just so stunning! We were all so happy to be able to make some photo magic and create some better new memories after how our last meetup went.

Best Beauty Discoveries of 2017

Janna •

Looking back at what an amazing year 2017 was for us and our clients as we did in our year in review blog post here, had us thinking about what were the best beauty discoveries of the year. We decided to pick out the best of the best to share with all of you! Let us know what products made it to the top of your year last year as we are always looking for amazing products to use for our clients! Microneedling at Hemingway Medical Spa – We wrote our praises of our experience trying out Microneedling at Hemingway Medical Spa in Edmonton here and we had to include this service as one of our top discoveries of 2017. If you want to spend money pampering yourself while at the same time actually helping your skin improve then you should check out Microneedling! We found the effects to be long-lasting as the service helped improve our skin texture as well as fine lines. Don’t let the “needle” in the name of the service scare you as it feels more like a little suction cup going over your whole face. Try it out and then thank us in a month on the money well spent for your face health! Puff Me by Design Me – The first ever volumizing hair powder spray in a pump! Gone are the days of pouring too much hair dust powder as the new method of spraying out the powder makes it so much easier to control where the powder is going and you can even spray it into the lengths of your hair to have volumized curls. It is so perfect for all our traveling as it is in powder form and so light so we don’t have to lug around cans of texturizing sprays. Overnight Garden Mask by Pura Botanicals – Ever since picking this mask up at the RAAS opening at West Edmonton Mall my skin has been thanking me! This thick hydrating mask is geared towards those of us with problematic skin that tends to be oily and acne prone. After I wake up from putting on the mask the night before I find my skin to be tightened as well glowing. If you have a dryer skin type we’d recommend trying out the Overnight Mango Mask (antiaging) or the Overnight Watermelon Mask (super hydrating). We also love that this product is…

Alex + Farsai’s Brooklyn Engagement Session

Janna •

Alex and Farsai were in contact with Nicole to schedule a potential couples shoot in New York sometime in the spring of 2018 but little did Farsai know that Alex had been in contact with Nicole to do a surprise proposal of a lifetime! He had worked it out that Nicole and I would fly into New York in time to do a proposal on the rooftop where they had their first date in Brooklyn. He got her friends and their adorable puppy named Pretzel involved in the surprise proposal. The rooftop was decked out in cafe lighting and dozens of candles. Even the imminent threat of rain didn’t stop this romantic surprise that Nicole was able to capture. Of course, she said YES and they went off to celebrate their news with close friends. The next day I did Farsai’s hair and makeup before their engagement session started. Nicole captured their love story starting in their apartment with Pretzel and then we took off on a stroll to their favorite ice cream shop. Their session was highlighted by the beautiful fall colors and the epic New York scenery. We are just so thankful to have amazing clients who fly us out and include us on such momentous occasions. Congratulations to Alex and Farsai and we wish you all the happiness in the world!

Our 2017 in Review

Janna •

2017 brought so many adventures and changes for Behind the Blush and we wanted to take the time to thank each and every client, family member, friend and supporter that we have for helping make our year the best yet!! We got to expand our team to include Caitlyn and Diane and ended up traveling the world! Check out our 2017 year in review below and we cannot wait to see what 2018 holds for us. Our 2017 year started out with some boudoir beauties while working with Nicole Ashley We also started a monthly favorite series to share our product loves with everyone and do reviews on products that really wowed us. Check them out here for January, February, March Our good friend Suzanna asked to come speak at her school’s Career Day and we presented a talk on how we started our small business and followed our dreams to create Behind the Blush. This is selfie we took with Suz right after our talk! We worked with Lululemon again for one of their Ambassador Love shoots for Meg in her studio. Photo by Nicole Ashley Laurence and Oliver tied the knot in February. Photo by Woodland Photography Co In February we did a collaboration with Nicole Ashley to shoot some different beauty looks on the stunning Jaeda from Mode Models. You can check out all of the photos here! In February our good friends Ryan and Kristina welcomed their baby boy Jack into the world and we worked with Nicole Ashley on this newborn session. We’ve expanded to sell hair product on our site! Check out our shop here! The same day that we worked with Jaeda we also filmed a hair tutorial and you can see the full video for that here! In February we did a styled shoot with an amazing team and in May the shoot was featured on Artfully Wed. Check out the full post here! In March we worked with an amazing team of FaBLOOMosity, The Skinny, and Carmen Freemark to create some pastel magic on this kids styled shoot. See more images on our full blog posts here and here. Perhaps the most exciting news of 2017 for us was expanding our duo to a team of four to include Caitlyn and Diane! Photo by Nicole Ashley In April we also worked on this styled shoot that got featured in Green Wedding Shoes. We loved…

Fenty Beauty Review

Janna •

If you are a beauty junky then you too may have heard of the Fenty Beauty range brought out by the beauty queen herself Rihanna this past Friday, or you want to read a review on some of the products before you shell out your hard earned cash. Some people may not be as up to date on all the beauty launches but this one was pretty significate to the beauty community for a few reasons! Instead of testing the waters by launching a few limited edition pieces, a la Kim Kardashian with KKW Beauty, a huge range was brought to over 1600 stores world wide as a permanent launch without giving any sneak peaks to beauty bloggers or magazines. The foundation color range alone rivals the range of MAC with 40 shades to suit skin tones from very light to dark with warm, neutral or cool undertones. The types of products she brought out are innovative in that she bypassed traditional blush, bronzer, or eye shadow powders by introducing a line with a soft matte primer, soft matte foundation, blot power, blot sheets, stick products called Match Stix that click together with magnets, a singular universal gloss and then several colors of highlighters. Packaging wise Rihanna killed it with the nude tones and geometric shapes. Many people have been commenting that she copied the KKW Beauty launch but production for these lines would have started months ago and I would just chalk that up to a coincidence. The products are also produced by the same lab that Kat Von D and Marc Jacobs Beauty are created in which stands to point out the higher quality of Fenty Beauty products and also that they are cruelty-free. From the products that I’ve tried, I noticed the foundation and Match Stix may suit people more of a combination to oily skin type vs someone with a drier skin type. The price range is just right also with nothing being over $45 CAD (the trio of Match Stixs come in at $67 or $31 individually). I also got a sample of the foundation and primer but didn’t find them to be anything to write home about for my super oily skin type as I found the matte finish didn’t last as long as my YSL All Hours foundation or the MAC Pro Longwear Nourishing Waterproof Foundation when combined with my favorite Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer. Perhaps the…