Beauty to Beast, an Introduction
Supplying professional hair and makeup artists for over 75 years, we understand that the art of makeup does not end at glowing skin, long lashes, and sun-kissed cheeks. Don’t get us wrong, we love that part of this business, but take a moment to think about some of your favorite shows - The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, etc. Heavy makeup is involved in creating those blood thirsty zombies, killer clowns, and mutilated villains. Each amazing makeup look is created in steps. You can’t create a monster without a foundation of some sort, right?
Enter - Frends Beauty. For 75 years, we have carefully crafted the ultimate store to help you bring your creative genius to reality. We’ve spent years expanding our range of brands; everything from colorful lipsticks and sultry eyeshadow palettes to aisles of bottled blood, elf ears, and gunshot wounds. But we don’t stop there. We stock all of the products needed to create characters from scratch, like Ve Neill's infamous Davy Jones (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl), or Rick Baker’s transformation of Jim Carrey to The Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And a complete film-worthy character doesn’t stop at the hairline or the neck. To bring your idea to life, you’ll need hair products. Whether it’s a salt spray to create loose waves for your southern Cali tanned beach babe, or maybe a wig for a period war movie, we’ve got you covered.
Apart from hair and makeup, you always start with a base. In this industry, the base is skin, which means you’ll need skincare. The basis of ALL good makeup is good skin. At Frends Beauty, we offer a wide range of skin care brands, whether you need cleansers, toners, prep products, or removers. The list of what Frends Beauty carries could go on forever, we’re talking 44,000+ items of forever....and then some!
Now that you have a good idea of who Frends Beauty is and what we do, it’s time to introduce you to a project we have been working on for quite some time now. Sometimes it’s difficult to blend two worlds together and to let people know, yes, we do specialize in ALL areas of makeup. Frends truly does have “Everything You Need, For Every Look You Want.” Since we knew this was accurate, we had to get that message across in one single photo.
Beauty To Beast is born.
The Frends Beauty team wanted to accomplish a few things with the Beauty To Beast series. Of course, we wanted to convey the message that we have every product you need, whether you’re a makeup junkie, a Halloween hobbyist, or a working professional makeup artist. Another thing we wanted Beauty To Beast to do was to honor our artists and clients who have supported us for so many years. There are several pro hair and makeup stores, but they made the decision to work with Frends Beauty and we appreciate that greatly.
Makeup and Hair Artists tend to get lost in the crowd, but without them, the characters in ads, photos, theatre, music videos, TV, and film would be boring…devoid of anything that draws us in visually. A beauty queen with no mascara, a colonial judge with a faux hawk, or a car accident scene with no blood? It’s not representative of the reality the scene aims to portray. Adding a visually realistic (or fantasy) element to these things is what engages the audience. So if you ask us, the work of these professionals is incredibly important to the entertainment industry. Not only did we want amazing artists to be involved, but we also wanted to dig into their careers and wanted our readers to know them and love them as much as we do!
So what is the Beauty to Beast series?
We created three teams; each team included one model, one beauty artist, one special FX artist, and one hair stylist. Each artist conceptualized a makeup design that suited their models and their specialty in the field. The beauty artists went first, making their model glamorous and breathtakingly beautiful. After the morning beauty makeup and photoshoot, the special FX artists took that same striking model from a beauty to a beast. Once the special FX portion was completed, the beast photoshoot followed. It was awesome to see what the amazing artists were able to do to one model in one day, taking her from stunner to monster in a matter of hours.
Our first artist team to be featured is beauty artist and bronzing queen Carlene K, and Eryn Krueger-Mekash, special fx guru and makeup department head on American Horror Story. Assisting them was the beloved Face/Off Season 6 contestant Chloe Sens. Hair was expertly done by Kim Ferry, who has worked on some of our favorite shows like The Office and Pretty Little Liars. Their model was beach blonde beauty Stephanie Thomas.
Our second team is a force to be reckoned with, to say the least. Glam makeup extraordinaire Kristofer Buckle, whose brushes have worked on dozens of Hollywood’s iconic beauties, teamed up with legendary Academy Award-winning special fx artist Matthew Mungle. Assisting them was makeup artist Jen Giragos, and Kim Ferry once again handled the hair of our model, Brooke Quinn.
Our third team is sure to knock your socks off. East Coast-based photographer and makeup artist Jordan Liberty brought beauty up a notch in this edition. Working with Jordan is a master of his craft, from sketch to design and creation, special fx makeup artist Richard Redlefsen. Assisting them was Frends Beauty’s very own special fx beauty, Lea Willard. The model behind it all, another beauty from Frends Beauty, Alex McKibben. As you’re used to hearing by now, Kim Ferry took hair to the next level.
From concept to execution, it has been a long ride for the Beauty To Beast series, and we see no end in sight. We are passionate about continuing this series to showcase what we are capable of delivering and what our clients are capable of creating. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and we can’t wait to show you who we work with next! We promise you won’t be disappointed.
Be sure to follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and our blogs to see what each team has created. With each new ad launch, you will see in-depth interviews with the artists, behind-the-scenes of how these looks were achieved, full product lists, kits to purchase, and of course, the final product!