Working in events, we quite often have the pleasure of meeting and working with some amazing creatives, this blog is all about one of them, Anna Lingis, who we fell in love with the minute we got into contact with her!

My name is Katerina and I am one of 2 directors of the Serenity London Group. In February I turned 25 and in true event planner style I decided to throw an extravagant fancy dress party for my closest friends at the lovely Hilton hotel situated in Tower Bridge.

Having worked with many amazing make-up artists before, I felt spoilt for choice, until I decided that I wanted to be a mermaid - which as you can imagine required a little more than a usual contour.

When speaking to some of my makeup obsessed friends about my idea, they pointed me to the wonderful Anna Lingis’ instagram page. Well! Anyone who’s seen her page knows that for her, a few scales on my face for a mermaid look was light work in comparison to some of her out-of-this-world work on others for fancy dress, pop art, special effects and halloween looks. She had it all - anything you can think of was displayed in a wonderful portfolio of mystical and magical images, I think I must of spent a good 10 minutes scrolling down her page lost in her work. She was the one! Having had an impressive 72,000+ followers and having had a few celebrities on her portfolio, I did however assume she may be very hard to get hold of and also cost me more than my party in total.

But much to my delight was I mistaken. I emailed her with the date of my event, and a rough idea of what I wanted. In no time, she had personally replied and before I knew it the date and time had been confirmed and I was booked in! I was also very happy with how reasonably priced Anna was, she required a deposit before hand which I expected and to be honest - preferred - as it gives you the reassurance as well as it would her.

Me and Anna remained in contact for the month or so before my event, she frequently messaged me with different ideas and questions about my look, and even though that was the one thing I wasn’t 100% with in terms of how I wanted to look, she was always ready to offer suggestions in terms of what I may like - which was great. Working with someone who is approachable is so important - firstly it helps you to feel as though you have the flexibility to change your mind (which you can imagine happened quite often!) secondly, it puts you at ease - there is 100 things when planning your own event that you have to worry about, the more you can NOT worry about the better, and thirdly - it makes you feel as though you’re not just a number or a name in an appointment book, it makes you feel as though you are special and thought about - which everyone wants to feel, especially on their birthday right?

In true event fashion, the day of the event was upon me, and was I stressed. One of my balloons popped on the way up to the venue and on top of it my cab journey took an extra 45 minutes than planned due to Saturday afternoon traffic in London. I checked into the hotel and went up to the room, Anna arrived not long after I had put my bags down. She was prompt and on time with a smile on her face - Just what I needed! She was welcoming and had a very warm and calming aura which was perfect. Before I knew it we had started on my look and I spent majority of the time having a good old moan about my poor balloon! (Sorry Anna!). She was a brilliant multi tasker as she was able to complete my look in 1 hour. She passed me the mirror and I was in awe! She had nailed the look I wanted down to the last gem on my lip!

She then went on to create a look on Serenity’s other director, Sandi, who had decided to go as a ballerina. She used glitters gem and a pink contour to create her look, she looked stunning!

We were both so pleased as it was exactly what we had imagined and more! Anna was quick and effective. She had unpacked, finished both of our looks and packed away in just over 2 hours and was ready to leave for her next client. Before Anna left, she managed to get some lovely images of us using her professional camera - which were ready to send over the next morning.

Throughout the evening Sandi and I received a number of compliments from people who attend about our look and the makeup stayed in place for the whole 6 hours of the event with not one speck of glitter out of place (to be honest - I’m sure if i didn’t remove the makeup before bed it would have been there when I woke up!)

I personally would recommend anyone to use Anna, I feel as though making the decision to use her as my MUA for such a personal and special event was one of the best choices I made for the evening. She not only does special effect makeup but also displays a wonderful portfolio of day and evening make up for any event - which I cannot wait to use her for in the near future.

It’s safe to say she was definitely our Make-up fairy Godmother for the evening.

Thank you Anna, you was a an absolute pleasure to meet and i’m glad we have had the opportunity to work together - wishing you all the best in your career!

Please check out her instagram pages (@AnnaLingis/@AnnaLingisMUA) to see some of her amazing work…

Below i have included some pictures of her work and what the look she created for us on my birthday! Enjoy x