Sunday post v. 40 & 41

There was no Sunday post last weekend because I was going to have a job meeting with Malin who works from home (with web, marketing etc.) in Gimo and took the opportunity to visit Miska's mom, my dad and our friends when we were still there and visited. So I was busy being free, you could say, it is also needed sometimes;)

New song! Dead alive by Kiddo

A few weeks ago I wrote about a make-up job I did in Stockholm for the artist Kiddo who was to release a new single. Now the song is out! Her album cover is animated but they would take some advertising pictures etc. with the song release and that was the photography I made up for.

Kiddo (or Emma as she is called) has a very funny Instagram because she animates almost all her pictures and even those that were to be photographed that day she would draw a little later. Cool with half-animated pictures!

Here are 3 pictures I got from the photographer:

Got a behind the scene from when I put on makeup too! Ergonomic haha. When you do freelance work, there are almost always only low chairs for the model and that's hard enough, but now it was an even lower stool and no table for the products. Sometimes I sat on my knees in front instead of it was kind of easier than standing :) But when you do freelance work so rarely, there is no danger at all!

Search for Kiddo on Spotify! My favorite song is called Trouble, but after Dead alive was released, Trouble is no longer on "the 5 most popular", but I recommend you look it up anyway. So good!

Miska practices eyebrow tattooing

2 weeks ago I posted that Miska practices permanent makeup on latex skin and various fruits haha. Now he has started practicing on real people!

As I already blogged about (see before and after pictures in this post) so I was the very first test person. It was not so scary because they chose such a mischievous color so there was no great risk if he would happen to tattoo too deep or uneven because it becomes so diffuse after healing anyway :)

Here he fills in Annika's eyebrows that wanted to improve a little hair here and there :)

And today, customers come all the way from Lysekil to Uppsala to be tattooed by Miska! We will see how he feels after the tattoos today, but the hope is that he will feel ready to open times for real customers from now on, but for a super cheap apprenticeship price of SEK 2,700 in limited numbers!

Miska already has a list of interests with people who want to book for that price! You can email him at miska@creativemakeup.se if you want to be contacted when it is possible to book, which will be quite soon.

Here he tattoos the first person he does not know! Then he had only practiced on me and Annika before.

Here is the result:

Nice right? :)

When you are an apprentice, it is not only important to get a good result immediately afterwards, but everything should stick after the healing time as well. So it will be exciting with all return visits later!

Last Friday, he tattooed a test person who had an old tattoo under already:

She said afterwards "it feels like i did a hair transplant" Lol :)

My own make-up brand is advancing!

I have teased you that I am looking at the possibilities of starting my own make-up brand, I can not say more than that, but just wanted to tab in here that it is progressing! This is a huge project and I let it take time because it is so important to get everything right from the start. I see it as a pyramid, you can build damn solid if you have a good foundation;)

This week I was at least in a meeting and talked for 2 hours about this and feel like a much wiser person now. It's a whole jungle of things to think about!

I do not dare to shout hello until I have crossed the river, but of all the big dreams I have had, this one feels most likely that it will actually get rid of. When you are creative and fearless, you sometimes start up things that you then put aside for various reasons, so there are some things in the luggage that I believed in but never got rid of in the end. But this feels like it's moving forward, it feels right!

But it can take a whole year before I can tell you what it's about, and certainly 2 years before you can buy the products. Things like this take time. But I do not have so bad patience actually because it is the process I think is the most fun! So myself I have my funniest time soon haha.

Here I sat one late night this week and did some of my own "makeup experiments" before the meeting! This is my new evening activity - nibble on Avec sweets (the box you see on the desk), drink tea, listen to podcasts / music and mess with products! Love!

I should have actually fixed a few different formulations this week to be put to the test, but it has been postponed for two weeks. Testing and reviewing products is the most fun I know, but to not only be able to give feedback but also make the changes myself and bring out the BEST it is so fun that I burst out !!

Event at Disruptive Materials!

Disruptive Materials (the company that works with the material Upsalite that I blogged a lot about, which can now be bought in Palina's new powder as well) had an "owner event" as they call it and I was invited again this year! They invite their investors and partners for an information evening where you learn more about Upsalite but above all are updated on how things are going for the company and all the news and projects they work with.

But it is not a "sit still on the butt and just listen-evening" but really upset with activities, incredibly good food and mingling. I had so much fun!

It's really fun to go to events with people other than beauty / press as I otherwise do. Here it was mixed with researchers, professors, investors. Great fun!

Here they gave a presentation about the different uses that Upsalite has. Partly drugs that are the main purpose, that is why they researched the material from the beginning.

But thanks to the enormous absorbency, it is also useful in cosmetics and sports. As you know, there is a powder to buy already, but did you know that they also have climbing powder that is available to buy? :)

Soon a "liquid climbing powder" will also be launched, which we got to put to the test in a competition about who could hang the longest:

I won haha! I am really weak but do not weigh much because I am short and slim so I had a small advantage there, but above all I was really impressed (!) By the good grip you got with upsalite in your hands! Sick! I kind of did not need to tense the muscles so as not to slip off, I just held on :)

Another activity was to guess which powder all the jars contained, one was upsalite which was easy to guess because I know exactly how it feels and then you had to mix in moisture and oil and then you immediately see which one absorbs well.

But baking powder I also knew because it bubbled when you put on water, I have tried to make face masks with it haha so that's why I knew it :) Sometimes you get generalized by being beauty crazy too!

Then there were other activities where you needed more brains and then I took a step aside, but luckily we had various professors and math geniuses in our group so we won the whole competition! Great fun! :)

Vacation planning & staff meeting

One of the improvement points we raised at the kickoff two weeks ago was that we need to get better at holiday planning. I have said yes to basically everyone's holiday wishes at the same time, which has been a bit crazy :)

This summer, it resulted in the staff being away at the same time for too much, which will be bad both for the customers and for our finances. And now I am facing the same problem as every year: everyone asks for leave over Christmas / New Year, so if I were to say yes to everything, we will be completely closed for half the month.

Other companies have systems such as "every other year" or early / late holidays in the summer, etc. But it is not very comforting to say "you get what you want .. in a year!”. Or? :)

I think it is a long-term investment, if the staff is well, the company is doing well! But it's also about me having so much understanding for their privacy, there are always circumstances like that kindergarten is closed, they want to take advantage when the children are allowed, they want to take time off these days because then they found a cheap trip, they should visit their family who live in another country, etc., etc.

But this week I puzzled with the schedule and managed to compromise so that everyone was happy and we only need to have closed 2 days + the red days. So it will be very closed anyway because Christmas Eve is in the middle of the week but in any case not completely closed for 2 weeks.

I really want to praise my nice colleagues who are so cute and line up like this! It is of course that they want to be free, but they are still very helpful with compromises because they also think about the company and the customers' best interests.

This week we also had the first meeting after the kickoff and it's really good teamwork! So much fun! :)

Ida offered buns! How cozy? :)

From now on, we will again have staff meetings every other week with the entire salon. We did so evenly before but then Annika became on maternity leave and with local relocation and everything, we took a break with the meeting structure. But now we started with kickoff and after that there will be a meeting every other week and every four weeks we also have individual meetings with each person.

The word meeting I think sounds a bit serious though, we meet and talk simply :)

Take care of Mileya

Now that both Annika and Miska have been sitting with permanent makeup customers, I have taken care of Mileya more than usual. It is impossible to work at the same time but I can work in the evenings then instead so it goes pretty well anyway because it is not about every day.

I told you that we had poop chaos and screaming party in the staff room a few weeks ago haha but now it has gone very well! She is 9 months now and we have potty trained her since she was a newborn and when I have had her it has not been a poop diaper once but I always manage to see the signals so that we have time to walk on the potty in peace and quiet with happy faces and everything. IF I feel good then? Prouder than the first time I managed to paste on false eyelashes perfectly on the first try haha.

Here we sit and fool around while Miska tattooed in the room next door and Annika was there to support. This little lady also took her first step last Friday !! She gets up from the floor completely without support as well and it probably will not be on until she runs around here. SO go!

No, this is not going to be a mom blog either. My God, you're probably not a bit interested in poop diapers and potty training !! I'm just blabbering on!

Now I will take care of Mileya again while Miska tattoos the customers from Lysekil and then it will probably be a quiet Sunday night on the schedule. New hold again next week :)

Hugs are ♥