It’s time to announce the winners of our Retro Glamour Makeup Contest!
But first, we would like to extend a huge “THANK YOU” to all our participants, the semi-finalists, finalists, and our judges!
This year, our wonderful judges—Azzi Williams and Corianne Cowan—created personalized scorecards for each finalist to determine the winner of their category.
Judge: Azzi Williams
Here’s what Azzi was looking for:
- Creativity: How unique and creative is this look? Does it show personality and flair?
- Effort: How much effort has the makeup artist put into the look in terms of high definition products used, textures, effects, and finer details?
- Skill: Does the makeup artist demonstrate a high level of skill in terms of tasteful retro color palette selection, good symmetry, blending techniques, accuracy, and attention to detail? Is it clean and precise with even application on eyes and lips?
- Theme: Is there a clear conceptual connection with the retro theme of the contest?
- Overall Image: Does the makeup complement the outfit, hair, and model’s features? Is the photography clear, in focus, and taken with good lighting?
Retro Glamour Scoring:
Artist: Denver Andrews-Long
- Creativity: 7/10
- Effort: 7/10
- Skill: 7/10
- Theme: 9/10
- Overall Image: 8/10
- Total: 38/50
Comments: Beautiful, simple interpretation of the theme and an elegant look. Lovely overall style with that va va voom factor. Watch for the smaller details like filling in the brows for a more seamless finish and the choice of false lash—try a more fanned natural lash for a more sultry retro look. Applying a luminous, hydrating primer will also help to create a more dewy ‘Marilyn’ finish.
Artist: Birri-Li Nicols
- Creativity: 6/10
- Effort: 7/10
- Skill: 8/10
- Theme: 9/10
- Overall Image: 7/10
- Total: 37/50
Comments: An elegant yet dramatic retro look that is true to the era. Beautiful cut crease and lash application. Amazing, detailed submission demonstrating the research and reasoning behind the look. Just needs that added creative ‘wow factor’ to bring the whole image together in terms of overall styling and pose.
Artist: Kelly Anthony
- Creativity: 8/10
- Effort: 9/10
- Skill: 7/10
- Theme: 9/10
- Overall Image: 8/10
- Total: 41/50
Comments: A super cute, cheeky retro look that is true to the era. Beautiful, flawless skin, lovely vibrant reds and great effort in terms of styling and pose. Just watch the ‘overuse’ of colour—eg—the rouge on the cheeks can be more subtly applied, perhaps blended with a dash of contour/bronzing powder for a more balanced look. The image will also benefit from some added concealer under the eyes for a more flawless, perky look.
Artist: Erin Brooke Stokes
- Creativity: 8/10
- Effort: 8/10
- Skill: 8/10
- Theme: 8/10
- Overall Image: 7/10
- Total: 39/50
Comments: A vibrant, beautiful makeup application that is fun and dynamic. Lashes, lips and brows are flawless. Lovely effort with the overall styling, although a more elegant or simple background and setting would bring out the theme more. Cheek colour and eyeshadow are also a little too close in shade, the look would benefit from some subtle variations in colour palette selection. Applying a luminous, hydrating primer prior foundation will also help to create a more dewy retro finish.
Artist: Wendy Sam Beane
- Creativity: 8/10
- Effort: 8/10
- Skill: 8/10
- Theme: 9/10
- Overall Image: 9/10
- Total: 42/50
Comments: A timeless, elegant look that comes together beautifully in terms of makeup application, styling and pose. The lips are a vibrant red and lip application is seamless, skin is radiant and flawless, contouring, brows and lash application are all red-carpet ready. A strong effort and an overall stunning creation.
Judge: Corianne Cowan
Take a look at what Corianne was scoring on:
- Creativity: Is the overall look both creative and unique?
- Artistry & Technique: Does the creator’s artistry and technique shine through in the makeup application?
- Hair Styling Skill: Was skill shown in the completion of the retro hairstyle?
- Quality of the Image: Has the image been excessively edited or is it high quality without obvious edits?
- Overall Transformation: When comparing the before and after photos, how is the overall, final transformation?
Retro Glamour Scoring:
Artist: Denver Andrews-Long
- Creativity: 8/10
- Artistry & Technique: 9/10
- Hair Styling Skill: 8/10
- Quality of the Image: 9/10
- Overall Transformation: 9/10
- Total: 43/50
Comments: Great look for the theme, as I believe this is what people envision when thinking of retro glam. Try playing with various ways to create waves, as for a retro look, you want more of a defined look. You have created a beautiful, strong winged liner, so be sure your lashes don’t distract from that. I love the shade of red you chose for the lips! It compliments perfectly!
Artist: Birri-Li Nicols
- Creativity: 8/10
- Artistry & Technique: 9/10
- Hair Styling Skill: 7/10
- Quality of the Image: 9/10
- Overall Transformation: 9/10
- Total: 42/50
Comments: Great job! I like that you decided to go with a “Twiggy” look! The eye look you created is clean and beautiful, I would have liked to have seen something more with the hair to play off such a strong makeup look. I photo was good, I think something with a white background would have provided the right contrast to bring more attention to your model. Well done!
Artist: Kelly Anthony
- Creativity: 8/10
- Artistry & Technique: 8/10
- Hair Styling Skill: 6/10
- Quality of the Image: 7/10
- Overall Transformation: 7/10
- Total: 36/50
Comments: I like the creative direction you chose for this! The dress and headband are a nice touch for the retro feel. Begin to play with balance for the makeup look. A winged liner and red lip is classic retro. Everything else should be soft, so clean skin and blush just to add color, but don’t allow it to be the focus. The lighting in the photo seems a bit warm. When taking photos, especially of makeup, the best lighting is natural light!
Artist: Erin Brooke Stokes
- Creativity: 8/10
- Artistry & Technique: 9/10
- Hair Styling Skill: 7/10
- Quality of the Image: 7/10
- Overall Transformation: 8/10
- Total: 39/50
Comments: The red lip here is a strong beautiful feature! Your work is good, you want to be sure the photo you’re using shows off your work; make sure there is nothing going on in the photo to distract. The white flower is a great touch, begin to play with hair styling more to add to your artistry. I like that you thought about costuming!
Artist: Wendy Beane
- Creativity: 8/10
- Artistry & Technique: 9/10
- Hair Styling Skill: 9/10
- Quality of the Image: 9/10
- Overall Transformation: 9/10
- Total: 44/50
Comments: Vintage is what comes to mind when I see this! I like the dimension you created with the lip color and the clean look of the victory rolls for the hair! The background is simple. Great job in creating simple elegance.
The winner of our Retro Glamour Summer Makeup Contest is Wendy Beane! Wendy wins a retro-inspired prize pack that includes the Kat Von D Studded Beloved Lip Trio, Benefit’s They’re Real: Sexy on the Run Mascara & Liner Kit, and Benefit’s 1st Prize Highlighters!
The lucky winner of our Sephora PRO Easel filled with QC brushes is QC Makeup Academy student Kandi Singh!
Thank you to everyone who participated!