World Domination

Words: Tamara Vos

Taken from Ohcomely.co.uk

Verity Cumming is the makeup artist behind the flower tattoo on Issue 20's cover. After the wonderful reception we've had about it, we thought it would be nice to catch up with Verity about the shoot, her inspiration for the flowers and how you could even do it yourself.

What was your inspiration behind the cover photo?

I was really keen to use flowers in the image, but wanted to stay in keeping with the relaxed vibe that is my idea of the Oh Comely girl. We were really excited to do something creative and a bit different, but I didn't want the makeup to feel heavy or forced. The tattoo and detail on the ear worked for us because whilst being delicate and intricate, it gave the image an edge, bringing out Valariia's natural beauty.

The dried flower tattoo is very beautiful- where did you get the idea for them?

Thank you! The idea of using flowers actually originated last year, when I was trying to think of something special to make my mum for her 60th birthday. She loves gardening and flowers, and I'd thought about making her a picture with dried flowers and getting it framed. I looked around some antique markets and ended up finding an empty antique brooch. I dried tiny flowers, and sealed them inside the brooch with liquid resin.

After that I got really into drying and creating images with flowers and thought it would work well translated into makeup. I spoke to Beinta and she too was keen on the idea. She's an amazing photographer and is always open to experimenting with ideas. It was something we'd talked about for a while but we hadn't found the right place for it, and when the opportunity came to shoot for Oh Comely we thought it was the perfect moment.

Did you pick and press the flowers yourself?

Yes, all the flowers were fresh, and I picked and pressed them myself. I live in London, but I was at home in Scotland when Beinta and I realised we needed to shoot in the next few days. I picked some flowers from my parents' garden, and I also went to the local garden centre where I got some more plants. There weren't as many flowers in bloom at this time of year as I'd anticipated, but I actually like that about the shoot now, as all of the flowers are very seasonal. I was drawn to the vibrant yellows and purples, the varying shapes, and I loved the tiny pansies.

My technique is to dry the flowers in the microwave which makes it very quick, and means that the colours keep their vibrancy better than they do when you dry flowers the traditional way. After I'd chosen my flowers I gave the leftover plants to my mum, so they are now all growing in her garden!

It looks very fiddly (especially on her ears!) - did it take long?

The process of drying the flowers took a while because I did such a large quantity, but applying them was relatively quick; the whole arm probably took twenty to thirty minutes. I thought I would stick them on using eyelash glue, but I actually ended up using a Vaseline-type lip balm. The flowers were very delicate, so I stored them in a book between sheets of kitchen roll, and used tweezers to peel them off and apply them to the skin.

Was there a funny moment during the photo shoot?

Beinta and I have been shooting together for a few years now and we always have a lot of fun together. We wanted to try some shots with Valeriia laughing, so we got her friend to stand behind Beinta and tell her jokes and make her laugh. I think they were both taken aback when I started laying out all the flowers, but they really got into it and loved the look. It was really just a fun shoot; we all got along well and gossiped about work and boys and London life between shots.

Could someone do this for themselves, if they wanted to?

Yes definitely! Drying the flowers is easy to do. Put two pieces of kitchen paper on a plate and put your flowers on top. Then put another two pieces of kitchen paper on top of that, and another plate, so the flowers are sandwiched in the middle. Put it in the microwave for around 30-40 seconds, and that's it!

If I was applying the flowers for a night out, I would use eyelash glue to keep them on, and try to position them somewhere where they won't rub against anything, as they're very fragile.