For this week's MUA of the moment, we caught up with the supremely talented Alexa Junkens. The 27-year-old hails from Indiana and shares her awe-inspiring eye looks with the world via her Instagram account, @gandalf_sandwich. Alexa sets herself apart from the scores of other social media artists by adding incredible floral detailing to her perfectly blended looks, making for an ethereal aesthetic that screams A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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Her decision to include flowers into her work was a natural one, progressing from her background as an art student. "I started off as an art student studying painting and sculpture," says Junkens. "In a lot of my paintings, I would use makeup instead of paint. I would add color to my pieces using blushes, eyeshadows, lipsticks, and loose pigments. After I graduated I felt really uninspired, so I started looking at other forms of creativity."
The self-taught art student turned MUA is also quick to shout out other artists that she finds inspiring, including @phunky_town, @lindahallberg, @kaylahagey, @angeschka and especially @emalovii who she credits with giving her the idea to use pressed flowers in her looks. "I thought, 'Instead of using my dried flowers in my paintings, I can put them on my face! So fun!'" Not all of Alexa's gorgeous creations are adorned with flowers though - her posts with beautifully blended blues, greens and pinks all speak for themselves in terms of skill.
Like many artists, Alexa testifies to the quality of Anastasia Beverly Hills products, but also favors higher end indie brands like Grace Co., Igneous, Linda Hallberg and Shiro. Amazingly, the creative maverick has never received any formal training, instead picking up her makeup skills from friends, family and YouTube. She bases her eyeshadow looks on books, games or movies that she loves, from Coraline to The Lord of the Rings and The Legend of Zelda. Each look takes around an hour to create, although Alexa admits that, like most of us, she's easily distracted. "I tend to get distracted by movies, shows and audiobooks."
As far as advice for new MUA's or those wanting to get into the makeup scene, Alexa offers up some pretty sage words of wisdom. "Just dive right in and start by just having fun with it! I was super self-conscious and afraid of being "bad" at it for so long, until I just let loose and experimented and practiced. Once I started, I seriously had so much fun with it, and to me that is what is important. Having fun and expressing yourself!"
Be sure to follow Alexa to keep up with her latest work.
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