So another year has gone by and another several hundred brides have been left in awe at the looks that the K-Team family have made for them.
So many beautiful and friendly brides, bridesmaids, mums and occasion clients have come our way and so many amazing testimonials have flooded in. As ever we couldn’t be more grateful nor more in love with our jobs! We’re truly blessed to always have the nicest bunch of clients, each and every one has made us love our work in more ways than they realise!
Since March this year we have a new makeup and hair studio in central Richmond where we do bridal trials, occasion makeovers, photoshoots and teach professional makeup and hair courses.
In January the Kristina Gasperas Academy was born and has been going strong with new as well as experienced makeup artists and hairstylists coming in to learn new skills or hone what they already know so they can style their clients to look like movie stars.
We’ve had students from Norway, Argentina, Russia, Spain, Lithuania and Australia – quite the global enterprise! They all finish their courses ready to turn their clients into red-carpet worthy icons. We also pass on our total obsession with makeup and hair.
The K-Team and I spend our days off doing test photoshoots, trying out new looks, perfecting application techniques, product and colour selection, meticulously analysing bridal and red-carpet trends and we do this again and again and again until we’re confident we’ve mastered what we set out to learn.
I love the theory that you have to do something for 10,000 hours to master it – well I’m over 2,000 faces in so am on the way! :o)
Three new members have joined the K-Team family: Sylwia, Birute and Agata and the feedback about their fabulous makeup and hair creations has been great. Congrats girls!
To make it into the K-Team you have to be the warmest person, the most dedicated worker and totally immersed in the world of beauty, of course.
Our incredibly hard-working and devoted PA Jurate has been managing our bookings, caring for our lovely brides and clients as well as us with so much love and personable service. She gets just as much fab feedback as the rest of us!
The K-Team wouldn’t be able to function as well if not for Jurate’s eye for detail and genuine care about each of our clients and team members.
Just a reminder of some of the services you can expect from us besides our most popular bridal makeup and hairstyling:
- Makeup lessons – learn how to apply your own makeup beautifully. An increasingly popular service loved by hundreds of our clients;
- Beautiful portraits for any purpose – business profiles, dating sites, post-wedding bridal portraits, model and actor portfolio shoots, lifestyle shoots and special occasion makeovers. We know how to pose you so that you looking your most flattering!
- Professional makeup and hairstyling demo masterclasses – fast-track skill sessions for specific looks. Given in small groups and including a Q&A; and
- Portrait photography classes for professional makeup artists and hairstylists – learn how to capture your work and showcase it the way it deserves to be!
I also taught myself (and am still improving this new skill) how to do put together short makeup video clips. Please check out my YouTube channel for makeup and hairstyling inspiration and some behind the scenes stuff.
And here are some of my 2016 faves…
Makeup products:
- Anything by Hourglass to do with cheeks – divine skin radiance!
- Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in “Medium Brown” – this colour seems to work for just about any skin tone; and
- Revlon Ultra HD Matte Lipstick in “Seduction” – the ideal long-lasting nude tone perfect for the natural bridal look.
Top tips for brides in the run up to the wedding day:
- Do a 5-day vegetable/fruit smoothie detox – your skin, body and energy-levels will be transformed! Tried and tested by myself!
- The most important things to get right – makeup, hair and dress. People will look at you all day and you’ll look at yourself in the photos for years to come. You need to get it perfect! and
- Comfortable undies – countless times we’ve had to help our brides rescue their underwear from “misaligning” itself under the dress! (All part of that go-the-extra-mile service from the K-Team).
Some of the books that have inspired me:
- “Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice” by Matthew Syed;
- “The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich” by Timothy Ferriss; and
- “Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive” by Charles Duhigg.
Some of the fiction works that have enthralled me:
- “Me Before You” and “After You”, both by Jojo Moyes;
- “The Walls of Byzantium (Rise of Empires)” by James Heneage; and
- “Meet Me Under the Ombu Tree” by Santa Montefiore (so addictive! A holiday read as you should expect not to be able to sleep or do anything else but read until it’s finished).
Thank goodness for audible books so I can listen whilst driving to clients, jogging in Richmond Park or walking to the studio.
It wouldn’t be fair not to mention some of the things that didn’t quite go as planned this year, I mean none of us are perfect right?
- Having my own brush line – so that after makeup courses and lessons I don’t have to send my students off to various different stores with lists of brushes that are best suited for particular tasks;
- A collaboration with a makeup brand – I nearly had an agreement with a great brand local to London but just couldn’t go with exclusivity as my clients sometimes like to use specific brands and I also like recommending products from different brands that are the best for certain purposes. This might change… if I find a company (or they find me) that makes an offer suitable to both our business models;
- Getting the website mobile-enabled (it is coming though!) – Google nonetheless seems to be cutting us some slack thanks to so many of you checking us out so am still hovering around the top of the search rankings for makeup artists in London. You are what Google says you are! and
- Oh so many other exciting things that are still in the offing and definitely on the business blueprint that I simply ran out of 2016 to do.
My inspiration for 2017: Just do it! Go and get it! If you feel the fear then it’s even more worth doing. What’s the worst that can happen? Can I deal with that? Of course I can! It amazes me how powerful the mind can be once you overcome mental obstacles and just apply yourself.
And finally… let me end this blog and this year with some of the many lovely testimonials that the supremely talented and friendly bunch that are the K-Team girls have received over the last 12 months. We promise to continue always being that little bit kinder and always trying that little bit harder for our clients. Kindness makes the world a much more pleasant place to live and get married in. Here’s to 2017 – bring it on! Let it be the wisest, the wildest, the most adventurous and fun-filled year!
For Amy:
“My makeup was truly flawless (all day and night!), I loved every part of it from lashes to lippy. You took my vague and neutral idea due to limited makeup knowledge and created something I couldn’t have dreamed of.
You even managed to make my new husband believe lashes are acceptable 🙂 !
My bridesmaids looked stunning and they were all thrilled with their makeup. Everything just tied-in beautifully! I can’t thank you enough for your imagination, time and patience.” – Georgie
“Just want to say thank you to you guys!
You were THE most amazing team I could ever have expected! Professional, talented and also so calming to work with 🙂
Kasia, I cannot say enough how wonderful you are. Not all hairstylists can “master” my long hair and achieve the effect I like but you totally nailed it! For my bridal party – they loved their hair styles and we were all so impressed by how patient and accommodating you were!
Amy, you made me so confident especially as I am not used to makeup. All of my bridal party kept telling me how this was their best makeup experience 🙂 We looked stunning 😉
And last but not least Lina, thank you so much for making sure everything ran so smoothly!
I cannot recommend you highly enough and no doubt will see you often in the future 🙂
My husband wants me to pass on his thanks as well for the most stunning bride he could have ever expected 😉 ” – Ran
For me and Kasia:
“Thank you so much for everything you did to make my wedding Day so unbelievably special.
Everyone kept saying how beautiful everyone looked.
You are both extremely talented at what you do” – Becky
For Aušra:
“Thank you so much for everything yesterday!
Thank you for all your patience with putting up with my indecisiveness you were absolutely fantastic and amazing and I have no words!!!
You are just fab at what you do and on top of this you are so kind and gentle and funny! I absolutely LOVED my hair and makeup… I loved it!!!
Everyone was commenting how beautiful I looked… All our friends and family… and wider guests of the Petersham Hotel! I had such a magical day it was just perfect in every way!!! Thank you so much.
I’m sending big hugs as I wasn’t able to say my proper thanks as I was whisked away to meet the registrars!” – Dorota
For Inga:
“The morning of my wedding was such a wonderful experience thanks to Inga!
Having Inga there with her beautiful smile all morning was just what I needed to keep me calm! I was so happy with how my makeup looked on my special day and my mum and bridesmaids all looked absolutely stunning.
Inga was so wonderful to work with and she made sure she highlighted all of my best features whilst still keeping my makeup very subtle and natural.” – Katie
For Tanya:
“I would like to thank Tanya from Kristina’s team for the amazing job she did on my wedding day. Her patience and kindness during multiple trials went above and beyond what any bride could expect.
The end result was just what I wanted and I really enjoyed her being part of my day. Thanks also to Jurate for being the most organised and responsive PA ever. An amazing team that I couldn’t recommend more.” – Elizabeth
Festive greetings to you all! xx
