Karla Powell Make-up Artist
March 20, 2013 Comments 81 notes beauty makeup eyes smoky eyes natural eyes lashes mua cosmetics mua makeup artists dewy skin

NEW Video: Flawless Dewy Skin. Including Natural Eye Make-up & Smoky Gold Eyes!

A New Behind the scenes video on my Youtube channel working on MUA Cosmetics NEW Undressed S/S13 Campaign.

Enjoy…

Karla

X

January 31, 2013 Comments 23 notes beauty and the geek seo search engine optimisation advice optimise ranking search engine tumblr google wordpress beauty blog blogger blogging mua
Beauty & The Geek Search Engine Optimisation So…where to start, this is one of those grey areas where there is no definitive answer.  There are things you can do to help improve your search engine rankings and I’ll be talking about a couple of things that you can do now to help improve your search results. SEO is mainly about including the words which you’d expect people to enter into Google (or another search engine) into your blog posts so that when someone types something like “eyebrow blocking” your blog post appears high up in the results.  So first of all we’ll talk about keywords and custom url names. Keywords / Tags These are the short descriptive words which you enter in the keywords or tags section when creating a blog post. They are words which describe your post which people are likely to enter into search engines.  The trick is to be as specific as possible, so use words like ‘eyebrow’, ‘block’, ‘blocking’, ‘creative’, ‘sculpting’, ‘makeup’, etc.  Try to avoid really generic keywords like ‘good’, ‘new’, ‘cheap’, ‘red’, etc. Custom URL Names Most blogs allow you to give your blog post a custom url name, so that instead of ‘site.co.uk/blog/posts/15782789’ you get ‘site.co.uk/blog/posts/creative-eyebrow-blocking-tutorial’.  As you can imagine, the randomly generated string is not going to help anyone find your blog post, were as a well named url which contains your best descriptive keywords will help.  It also helps to structure the keywords like I have into a readable title.   The words that you use should be separated by dashes ‘-‘ not spaces, as URLs cannot contain spaces. Search engines such as Google will treat the dashes as if they were spaces, so don’t worry about that.  When I got Karla to do this it made a big difference to how many blog posts turned up in Google search results, and they were showing up on the first page a lot quicker too.  So what else can you do? When you insert a picture into a post and you get the option of giving it a title, which is not displayed, or sometimes you can enter an Alt or alternative text, then again name the picture descriptively as that will help it appear in Google Images. Blogs like Tumblr and Wordpress are very search engine friendly, and your posts will be quickly picked up by them.  How quickly depends on how many visitors you have to your site and how many incoming links you have from other sites, the more the better.  And the bigger the site that links to your blog, to higher you’ll go up Google’s ranking and the higher up the search results.   You can instantly help to improve this by adding links to your blog from your social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  and from any other sites you have profiles on, such as Model Mayhem. Google changed the way it ranks sites recently so as to stop people spamming links to their site everywhere on forums, comments on blogs etc.  This now means that they pay more attention to links from social networks, likes on posts, links from tweets which get a lot of retweets and which trend.  So remember to put in the hard work from a social networking point of view, share your work, link to your blog posts, push, push, push…don’t just expect to add a couple of keywords and a custom url and sit back and watch the magic happen.  As with many things in life, you have to work hard to get what you want.  One last thing I would recommend is not being tricked by these online companies that contact you via email and offer to get you to the top of Google overnight.  There is no fast track to it.  It takes time and following the tips above will help.  

Beauty & The Geek

Search Engine Optimisation

So…where to start, this is one of those grey areas where there is no definitive answer.  There are things you can do to help improve your search engine rankings and I’ll be talking about a couple of things that you can do now to help improve your search results.

SEO is mainly about including the words which you’d expect people to enter into Google (or another search engine) into your blog posts so that when someone types something like “eyebrow blocking” your blog post appears high up in the results.  So first of all we’ll talk about keywords and custom url names.

Keywords / Tags

These are the short descriptive words which you enter in the keywords or tags section when creating a blog post. They are words which describe your post which people are likely to enter into search engines.  The trick is to be as specific as possible, so use words like ‘eyebrow’, ‘block’, ‘blocking’, ‘creative’, ‘sculpting’, ‘makeup’, etc.  Try to avoid really generic keywords like ‘good’, ‘new’, ‘cheap’, ‘red’, etc.

image

Custom URL Names

Most blogs allow you to give your blog post a custom url name, so that instead of ‘site.co.uk/blog/posts/15782789’ you get ‘site.co.uk/blog/posts/creative-eyebrow-blocking-tutorial’.  As you can imagine, the randomly generated string is not going to help anyone find your blog post, were as a well named url which contains your best descriptive keywords will help.  It also helps to structure the keywords like I have into a readable title.   The words that you use should be separated by dashes ‘-‘ not spaces, as URLs cannot contain spaces. Search engines such as Google will treat the dashes as if they were spaces, so don’t worry about that. 

seo search engine optimization tumblr unique url

When I got Karla to do this it made a big difference to how many blog posts turned up in Google search results, and they were showing up on the first page a lot quicker too. 

So what else can you do?

When you insert a picture into a post and you get the option of giving it a title, which is not displayed, or sometimes you can enter an Alt or alternative text, then again name the picture descriptively as that will help it appear in Google Images.

Blogs like Tumblr and Wordpress are very search engine friendly, and your posts will be quickly picked up by them.  How quickly depends on how many visitors you have to your site and how many incoming links you have from other sites, the more the better.  And the bigger the site that links to your blog, to higher you’ll go up Google’s ranking and the higher up the search results.   You can instantly help to improve this by adding links to your blog from your social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  and from any other sites you have profiles on, such as Model Mayhem.

Google changed the way it ranks sites recently so as to stop people spamming links to their site everywhere on forums, comments on blogs etc.  This now means that they pay more attention to links from social networks, likes on posts, links from tweets which get a lot of retweets and which trend.  So remember to put in the hard work from a social networking point of view, share your work, link to your blog posts, push, push, push…don’t just expect to add a couple of keywords and a custom url and sit back and watch the magic happen.  As with many things in life, you have to work hard to get what you want. 

One last thing I would recommend is not being tricked by these online companies that contact you via email and offer to get you to the top of Google overnight.  There is no fast track to it.  It takes time and following the tips above will help.  

November 01, 2012 Comments 89 notes beauty and the geek geek technical makeup make-up makeup artist make-up artist MUA hints tips advice
Beauty & The Geek This week I thought that I’d answer a question which a lot of you have been asking since last weeks post, how did I embed the images within the text on a tumblr Photo post. Stand Out In A Crowd With so many different blogs out there it is important to make sure that yours stands out in a crowd.  This can be done by having an interesting layout, logo or background image, however if your posts are mostly text then people are going to take one look at your blog, get overwhelmed with how much text there is to read and they will move on to the next blog.  This can be improved by adding eye catching images to your posts.  If it’s a short post then you can just include a header image, on tumblr this is as simple as creating a Photo post.  However if you have a long text post, having one header image still may not be enough.  This is where enbedding images within your posts comes in.  Tumblr allows you to create either a Photo post which has images at the top of the post and an optional text at the bottom, or a Text post which allows you to have a mixture of text and embedded images.  You’d think that it was a no-brainer then, if you have a long post, say a how to post, then create a Text post so that it can have embedded images. There is a downside to Text posts in Tumblr, they are less likely to get read and re-posted as in the Tumblr dashboard only a small amount of the post is shown and if that is just text then people are less likely to click through to read the rest of the post. Wouldn’t it be great if you could embed images within the text at the bottom of a Photo post?   Well you can! Embedding Images In A Tumblr Post The trick is to have two tabs open in your browser when you’re creating a Photo post.   The first one is the Photo post you are creating, the second is a Text post. When you want to embed an image within your Photo post, go to the Text post and click on the “+Upload photo” link. See below: This will open up a file selection dialog. Simply select the image which you want to embed and select the Open button and the image will be embedded into the Text post. Now comes the clever bit!  This image has now been uploaded and stored on Tumblr’s servers, which means that even when it’s been deleted from this text post, it will still be stored on their server.  So we can take advantage of this and copy it across to the Photo post.  To do this you select the image by clicking on it and then click on the “Insert / Edit Image” icon. See below: Then select and copy the Image URL text in the dialog that appears. This is the location of the image on Tumblr’s servers. See below: Then simply select Cancel on the dialog and delete the image from the Text post. Go back to your Photo post and in the Caption section where you’ve added text, decide where you’d like your image to go and again select the “Insert / Edit Image” icon.  See below: Then in the Image URL box paste the URL which you have just copied from the Text post and select Insert.  And just like magic your image will be embedded within your Photo posts caption. You can do this as many times as you like within a Photo post.  This technique has been used to create this post and the previous Beauty & The Geek post which resulted in a lot of questions by other tumblr users as to how we did that. Who knows, maybe one day Tumblr will allow you to embed images into a Photo posts Caption in the same way you can a Text post, but for now at least we have a work around. :)

Beauty & The Geek

This week I thought that I’d answer a question which a lot of you have been asking since last weeks post, how did I embed the images within the text on a tumblr Photo post.

Stand Out In A Crowd

With so many different blogs out there it is important to make sure that yours stands out in a crowd.  This can be done by having an interesting layout, logo or background image, however if your posts are mostly text then people are going to take one look at your blog, get overwhelmed with how much text there is to read and they will move on to the next blog. 

This can be improved by adding eye catching images to your posts.  If it’s a short post then you can just include a header image, on tumblr this is as simple as creating a Photo post.  However if you have a long text post, having one header image still may not be enough.  This is where enbedding images within your posts comes in. 

Tumblr allows you to create either a Photo post which has images at the top of the post and an optional text at the bottom, or a Text post which allows you to have a mixture of text and embedded images.  You’d think that it was a no-brainer then, if you have a long post, say a how to post, then create a Text post so that it can have embedded images.

There is a downside to Text posts in Tumblr, they are less likely to get read and re-posted as in the Tumblr dashboard only a small amount of the post is shown and if that is just text then people are less likely to click through to read the rest of the post.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could embed images within the text at the bottom of a Photo post?   Well you can!

Embedding Images In A Tumblr Post

The trick is to have two tabs open in your browser when you’re creating a Photo post.   The first one is the Photo post you are creating, the second is a Text post.

When you want to embed an image within your Photo post, go to the Text post and click on the “+Upload photo” link. See below:

This will open up a file selection dialog. Simply select the image which you want to embed and select the Open button and the image will be embedded into the Text post. Now comes the clever bit! 

This image has now been uploaded and stored on Tumblr’s servers, which means that even when it’s been deleted from this text post, it will still be stored on their server.  So we can take advantage of this and copy it across to the Photo post. 

To do this you select the image by clicking on it and then click on the “Insert / Edit Image” icon. See below:

Then select and copy the Image URL text in the dialog that appears. This is the location of the image on Tumblr’s servers. See below:

Then simply select Cancel on the dialog and delete the image from the Text post.

Go back to your Photo post and in the Caption section where you’ve added text, decide where you’d like your image to go and again select the “Insert / Edit Image” icon.  See below:

Then in the Image URL box paste the URL which you have just copied from the Text post and select Insert. 

And just like magic your image will be embedded within your Photo posts caption.

You can do this as many times as you like within a Photo post.  This technique has been used to create this post and the previous Beauty & The Geek post which resulted in a lot of questions by other tumblr users as to how we did that.

Who knows, maybe one day Tumblr will allow you to embed images into a Photo posts Caption in the same way you can a Text post, but for now at least we have a work around. :)

October 23, 2012 Comments 217 notes eyes karla powell lashes makeup makeupartist mua strawberry tutorial challenge bootcamp boot camp
Make-up Boot Camp with Karla Powell  I wanted to introduce a new idea to my followers. Make-up Boot Camp with Karla Powell! I will be introducing a new makeup theme every few weeks on my blog, with a guide for each theme on how to create the make-up look (step by step guides), with a boot camp challenge being that you my followers can read and follow my guides on my blog and then that week you can re-create the look with your own spin, take photos and upload them onto my NEW Facebook group- Make-up Boot Camp with Karla Powell.   This is a great way for all of us who love make-up to interact, share tips, looks, trends and more and I will feature some of my favourite looks on my blog to my 150,000+ followers. I will also be using this Facebook page to keep you all up to date with my make-up meet ups I am planning to do in the future and other events. For now please feel free to join the NEW Facebook group and here is the first Theme- Strawberries and Cream Eyes Using MUA Cosmetics: Step1: Take MUA’s Intense coloured eyeliner in ‘Snow White’ -£1 which is a creamy white eyeliner & apply to the whole eyelid then smudge and blend with your finger. This acts as a great sticky base where your eyeshadow will stick well. Step 2: Now take the MUA peachy pink shade from ‘Pretty Pastels’ eyeshadow palette- £4 and apply this shade to the inner corner of the eye Step 3: Using the brightest pink shade MUA have got from the Poptastic eyeshadow palette-£4 , Load a pencil brush with the bright pink eye shadow and apply this to the outer corner of the eyelid Step 4: Now soften and blend all shades with a clean brush- Take MUA’s matte white/cream eyeshadow from the ‘Pretty Pastels’ eye shadow palette-£4 and apply this to the centre of the eyelid to blend all the colours together. Step 5: Using MUAs Intense coloured eyeliner in ‘Snow White’ apply this to your water line and set with a white powder eyeshadow. Step 6: Take MUA’s 3 in 1 extreme eyeliner pen- £1.50 in ‘brown’ and create a strong crease line.Smudge and soften this outwards with your fingers… Step 7: Take a thin art brush and dip into water and then into a MUA black eyeshadow this will act as a softer eyeliner then apply this to the crease to create a strong harsh crease line, keep this really neat! And extend right to the inner corner of the eye! Step 8: Now load an angled brush with MUA’s ‘Chocolate Box’ Trio eyeshadow set- £2.50 (I have used the darkest brown) and set the crease line and then slightly bring the shadow outwards from the crease line. Also sweep the same eyeshadow under the lower lash line and stop at the pupil. Step 9: Now take a fluffy blending brush loaded with the same Chocolate Box eye shadow shade and sweep and soften this crease line… It’s all about the blending! Step 10: Take MUA’s Shade 5 black liquid eyeliner-£1 to create a harsh eyeliner flick! Then take a small amount of the black eyeliner and apply to the inner corner of the water line. Apply the MUA’s Poptastic eyeshadow pallette pink eyeshadow shade to the inner corner of the eye lid to make the eyes pop! Step 11: Finally Cut,flex and let the glue get tacky before apply your ‘Sassy’ MUA false lashes. Be patient when applying big false lashes! Now apply two coats of your favourite MUA mascara to bring the look together. The Finished Look: I look forward to seeing you all re create your version of Strawberries and Cream eyes! Get posting your looks on The Make-up Bootcamp and you could be featured in my blog! Karla X

Make-up Boot Camp with Karla Powell

 I wanted to introduce a new idea to my followers. Make-up Boot Camp with Karla Powell! I will be introducing a new makeup theme every few weeks on my blog, with a guide for each theme on how to create the make-up look (step by step guides), with a boot camp challenge being that you my followers can read and follow my guides on my blog and then that week you can re-create the look with your own spin, take photos and upload them onto my NEW Facebook group- Make-up Boot Camp with Karla Powell.  

This is a great way for all of us who love make-up to interact, share tips, looks, trends and more and I will feature some of my favourite looks on my blog to my 150,000+ followers. I will also be using this Facebook page to keep you all up to date with my make-up meet ups I am planning to do in the future and other events.

For now please feel free to join the NEW Facebook group and here is the first Theme-

Strawberries and Cream Eyes Using MUA Cosmetics:

Step1:

Take MUA’s Intense coloured eyeliner in ‘Snow White’ -£1 which is a creamy white eyeliner & apply to the whole eyelid then smudge and blend with your finger. This acts as a great sticky base where your eyeshadow will stick well.

Step 2:

Now take the MUA peachy pink shade from ‘Pretty Pastels’ eyeshadow palette- £4 and apply this shade to the inner corner of the eye

Step 3:

Using the brightest pink shade MUA have got from the Poptastic eyeshadow palette-£4 , Load a pencil brush with the bright pink eye shadow and apply this to the outer corner of the eyelid

Step 4:

Now soften and blend all shades with a clean brush- Take MUA’s matte white/cream eyeshadow from the ‘Pretty Pastels’ eye shadow palette-£4 and apply this to the centre of the eyelid to blend all the colours together.

Step 5:

Using MUAs Intense coloured eyeliner in ‘Snow White’ apply this to your water line and set with a white powder eyeshadow.

Step 6:

Take MUA’s 3 in 1 extreme eyeliner pen- £1.50 in ‘brown’ and create a strong crease line.Smudge and soften this outwards with your fingers…

Step 7:

Take a thin art brush and dip into water and then into a MUA black eyeshadow this will act as a softer eyeliner then apply this to the crease to create a strong harsh crease line, keep this really neat! And extend right to the inner corner of the eye!

Step 8:

Now load an angled brush with MUA’s ‘Chocolate Box’ Trio eyeshadow set- £2.50 (I have used the darkest brown) and set the crease line and then slightly bring the shadow outwards from the crease line. Also sweep the same eyeshadow under the lower lash line and stop at the pupil.

Step 9:

Now take a fluffy blending brush loaded with the same Chocolate Box eye shadow shade and sweep and soften this crease line… It’s all about the blending!

Step 10:

Take MUA’s Shade 5 black liquid eyeliner-£1 to create a harsh eyeliner flick! Then take a small amount of the black eyeliner and apply to the inner corner of the water line.

Apply the MUA’s Poptastic eyeshadow pallette pink eyeshadow shade to the inner corner of the eye lid to make the eyes pop!

Step 11:

Finally Cut,flex and let the glue get tacky before apply your ‘Sassy’ MUA false lashes. Be patient when applying big false lashes! Now apply two coats of your favourite MUA mascara to bring the look together.

The Finished Look:

I look forward to seeing you all re create your version of Strawberries and Cream eyes! Get posting your looks on The Make-up Bootcamp and you could be featured in my blog!

Karla

X


June 15, 2012 Comments 17 notes makeup beauty mua undressed palette mua cosmetics extreme smoky eyes giveaway

My NEW tutorial make-up video on how to get extreme smoky eyes with the NEW MUA Cosmetics Undressed palette including an amazing *GIVEAWAY*

Enjoy!

Karla

X

May 14, 2012 Comments 10 notes mua beauty nails nail art marble nails free hand marble nails creative nails mua cosmetics

Look what I have just recorded at my desk at MUA Towers in London!! … ‘How to do quick and easy free hand marble nails on a budget with MUA Cosmetics…

Karla

X
 

April 30, 2012 Comments 44 notes mua mua cosmetics beauty nails nail art red and black nails polka dot nails
Red & Black Free Hand Marble Nails using MUA Cosmetics nail varnishes in Shades 2(Black) & 8 (Red). Karla X

Red & Black Free Hand Marble Nails using MUA Cosmetics nail varnishes in Shades 2(Black) & 8 (Red).

Karla

X

March 07, 2012 Comments 21 notes laura mercier laura mercier concealer review beauty tinted moisturisers concealer makeup foundation mua makeup kits
My Must Have Concealer & Tinted Moisturiser in my Makeup Kit! Why?! Read more… The Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage concealer is an amazing concealer I opt for when applying makeup on my models. Reasons why I love it:  *It gives a thin but completely opaque coverage *Looks real on my models skin *Application is flawless. *The coverage doesn’t budge or crease. *The firm quality of this concealer that makes it great *It comes in 8 different duo colours to match all my models skin tones So finally the secret camouflage concealer has two tones a light and medium shade which is designed to use in different areas of the face- the light shade under the eyes(triangle area) This also acts as a beautiful matte highlighter, then the darker shade for around the nose, outer corners of the mouth, chin area. I use it all the time and yes it’s £23 but it’s worth every penny and mine has lasted over a year now! Laura Mercier Illuminating Tinted Moisturiser SPF20 is one of the UKs top selling tinted moisturisers and I can see why, I love using it in my kit! …Why?! Laura Mercier tinted moisturisers add a slight tint to match the models skin tone, giving a natural un-made up look. They all come with a SPF to protect the skin from sun damage, something that is not found in most foundations. The reason I opt for tinted Moisturisers is that it’s a very light foundation. They provide a natural illuminating look instead of the heavily made-up look seen with traditional foundations. Perfect for models on the runway or those models that have beautiful skin! If you are used to using heavy cosmetics, this may take some getting used to, some brides also love this products! Reasons why I love it: *Gives a natural look *Skin looks dewy, fresh and healthy *Doesn’t make the skin go greasy- no need to powder Laura Mercier Illuminating tinted moisturiser is £33 and comes in 10 shades! I am in love and you should definitely invest in your makeup kits! Karla X

My Must Have Concealer & Tinted Moisturiser in my Makeup Kit! Why?! Read more…

The Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage concealer is an amazing concealer I opt for when applying makeup on my models. Reasons why I love it:

 *It gives a thin but completely opaque coverage

*Looks real on my models skin

*Application is flawless.

*The coverage doesn’t budge or crease.

*The firm quality of this concealer that makes it great

*It comes in 8 different duo colours to match all my models skin tones

So finally the secret camouflage concealer has two tones a light and medium shade which is designed to use in different areas of the face- the light shade under the eyes(triangle area) This also acts as a beautiful matte highlighter, then the darker shade for around the nose, outer corners of the mouth, chin area. I use it all the time and yes it’s £23 but it’s worth every penny and mine has lasted over a year now!

Laura Mercier Illuminating Tinted Moisturiser SPF20 is one of the UKs top selling tinted moisturisers and I can see why, I love using it in my kit! …Why?! Laura Mercier tinted moisturisers add a slight tint to match the models skin tone, giving a natural un-made up look.

They all come with a SPF to protect the skin from sun damage, something that is not found in most foundations. The reason I opt for tinted Moisturisers is that it’s a very light foundation. They provide a natural illuminating look instead of the heavily made-up look seen with traditional foundations. Perfect for models on the runway or those models that have beautiful skin! If you are used to using heavy cosmetics, this may take some getting used to, some brides also love this products!

Reasons why I love it:

*Gives a natural look

*Skin looks dewy, fresh and healthy

*Doesn’t make the skin go greasy- no need to powder

Laura Mercier Illuminating tinted moisturiser is £33 and comes in 10 shades!

I am in love and you should definitely invest in your makeup kits!

Karla

X

March 06, 2012 Comments 41 notes food make-up mua beauty makeup eyes photoshoots mua love hearts food art

Behind the Scenes at my latest Food Project Photoshoot on ‘Love Heart Sweets’

The Food project has been an on going collaboration with Rich Hinton(Photographer) creating make-up and hair images inspired on different foods. Here we created a Love Heart look where we collaborated with UK Beauty brand MUA Academy. There will be an exhibition held in London on the 23rd June to see the whole project in print, There will be lots of build up to the exhibition in the upcoming months so keep an eye out! 

For now check out the project so far on Behance:

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Food-Inspired-Make-up-Hair-Designs/1376429

Karla

X

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