Seeing the Art in Me.

It’s a common story of twin sibling girls, one is the tomboy and the other one loves all things girly. I was the tomboy, and not until my teenage years did I concern myself with makeup or how my hair looked.  Growing up my sister Julija always had a natural love with all things that made women beautiful. Like most teenage girls I developed the want to look my best, but it was not as natural as it was for her. My sister knew at a young age that she wanted a career in beauty field, and to tell you the truth I did not see her doing anything else. While I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grow up, Julija was following her passion, and developing creativity in her work I still don’t see anywhere. I’m not sure if it was her drive or passion that pushed me into wanting to work with her, but anyone that has worked with her has said both these characteristics in her makes them want to work harder in their creative fields.  So when she approached me about working with her in a makeup business I was excited. KOA beauty was not just a business plan; rather, it was a way of two sisters bringing their personalities, characteristics, creativity, and differences together to create something truly different. All the women in our lives has affected how we see KOA beauty developing in the future, but before we can make this big dream come true Julija had to make and artist out of me. This was not easy, and we had a lot of work ahead of us, but she believed in me. I could not see myself putting a bride together for her big day, or making a girl beautiful for her Prom, or showing a women how to do her makeup so she feels beautiful for the first time in years. It has been quiet a journey, but we did it together like almost everything in the past. We pushed each other to do better, and believed in one another.  I can’t wait to see where KOA takes us.

History and Friendship makes for a good photo-shoot!

   The Powerhouse is a striking restaurant! Since it’s a minute away from my work I have been countless times. The food is good and just like everything else in Stoney Creek the service is friendly.  The owner is a salon client so between the salon and my dinners at the restaurant, he became a familiar face. I approached him a couple months ago about using his space for a shoot and he gave me the go ahead so I started planning. The Powerhouse has a lot of history to it and is considered a historical landmark in Stoney Creek. It used the creek for four years to generate power to the electric rail lines in the 1890s then closed down when the creek ran too low for consistent power supply. The building sat for about 85 years before it was converted to a restaurant. Some owners were changed and now it gives the small town some good dining in a very charming atmosphere.

   I ended up meeting Laura at The Powerhouse this past summer for the first time. I heard about her a couple years ago from an old client who told me she was very talented. I adding her to Facebook to see if she was interested in doing some shoots for me. It took a few years for us to finally meet up and talk. I’m pretty sure we hit it off right there. She understood my frustrations and what image I was trying to portray with very few words of explanation.  Its almost like she finished my thoughts before I verbalized them. Laura is one of these artists that is not recognized for her work and considered “amateur”. She doesn’t have much to work with but enough to give herself great work. She works mainly out of her apartment and in local settings but makes you feel like she has a studio and travels to exotic locations. She has something I like to call “the eye”. This is something that can’t be taught if you don’t have it. It can only be faked. As many of you know we have many fakers in these types of fields. Photographers who read up on blogs and copy and paste the work of fellow artists and have a self glorifying attitude about faking it. I guess the saying “fake it till you make it” proves true in many cases. In this case Laura doesn’t have to fake it. She is kind, willing to help, and thankful for any help unlike many people I have come across in my career. I am all about supporting local businesses and artists and this is one girl that needs more recognition. Her work aside, she is a cool person to talk to as well. She is a single mother and totally doesn’t give herself enough credit. I can’t wait for you all to see her pictures so everyone can agree.

   The last shoot Andja and I did was a bit dark so this time around we wanted to keep it light and fresh. We still wanted it to be a glamorous beauty shoot, just something a bit more relatable to our clients. We started nice bright and early one Monday morning so we could use as much available natural light as possible. The Powerhouse has a 20’s, antique kind of vibe. The whole space is thick rich drapes, huge chandeliers and beautiful woodwork. When I walk into The Powerhouse I can picture men in top hats smoking cigars and flappers dancing sipping on Champaign.  I watch Boardwalk Empire on HBO religiously whenever it is in its season and this place looks like the hotel in that show. It had all the elements I wanted for my shoot.

   I decided to keep my makeup dramatic but still natural enough for day or casual evening. I usually wear my makeup not to far from this as my everyday look. Both Andja and I wanted it to look like we usually look. I decided to wear a full sequence dress with a white collard shirt underneath. I watched the music video déjà vu by Beyoncé before the shoot and fell in love with her hair. It was just curled and thrown up to fall naturally. I felt like this was the best way to keep it casual and glamorous at the same time to match the look of our space. I kept my lips red for a punch of colour and glam. Andja wore a floor length BCBG dress that was a midnight blue almost purple tone. Both our dresses came out of our closets and we have worn them to prior events.  Her look again was a polished version of her usual self. Her hair was lightly waved and she kept it simple with jewelry. We wanted this to look like a regular woman attending a wedding or evening event. My hope for this shoot was for women to see themselves in this kind of makeup. Not just makeup for a picture, but makeup for everyday.

   All makeup used was from KOA, our soon to be released makeup line. Stay tuned to up coming Koa blogs and watch our dream slowly come together. Thank you again to our clients and friends who are always asking about us and who are patiently waiting for our next step. And special thanks to Laura for putting up with my half explained ideas and understanding them enough to bring them to life. Thank you to whoever is reading this. It takes a lot to bring your genuine thoughts out and write them down for everyone to see.  It’s much like bringing my makeup out for the world to see in a picture. It makes you vulnerable and I appreciate any support. Have a pleasant day and stay beautiful inside an out. 

                                                                God Bless, Julija.

Brave.Bold.Fearless KOA Beauty: Inspired by a Poet...

Brave.Bold.Fearless KOA Beauty: Inspired by a Poet...: -->    As I said in my earlier posts my sister and I have been trying to put together a cosmetics compan...

Inspired by a Poet...

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   As I said in my earlier posts my sister and I have been trying to put together a cosmetics company. We are doing this alone with our full time lives, so it has become very difficult in many aspects.  My sister is currently a student attending the University of Toronto in the Sociology Program, and I am a full time stylist and makeup artist. We both have 40 plus hour weeks on our plate. Much of what we want to do for KOA beauty takes a lot of time. Finally we got together with Dan Stefan to do our shoot. We decided to infuse our personalities with our looks; my sister Angie is the more natural elegant type, and I being trendier and a risk taker.  We decided to keep my sister light with make up and her outfit. She wore creams, blues, and greys to keep her fresh and bright. We followed that look with her make up as well. She had natural but vibrant eyes, with a rosy lip and cheeks. My look was more dark and bold. I wanted it to be more of a statement. I did intense black smoky eyes with a deep almost eggplant lip. My whole outfit was black but I kept the detail in the texture.  My dress was a satin with feather accents. I had this piece of jewelry that sat on my shoulder and swept over to connect as a necklace. In the shoot we captured our own, more elegant version of gothic glam. We had also found just the place to bring this vision together.

   This past summer my sister and some friends wanted to have a little get together. It was just us girls and we wanted to try a new place. My sister heard of this cool and creepy lounge downtown called The Baltimore House. So we decided to give it a try. We walked in and thought, “Yeah it’s creepy but very different.” It looked almost like an antique shop.  It was just the look we were going for, very gothic glam. It had rich and deep colors, with an almost 20’s vibe. We were a bit worried about the place, because it had a lot of crosses with icons. My sister and I both being Christian wanted this look to be more glamorous vintage and this place was boarder line morbid looking. We knew going in we would have to switch something’s around to keep it a look without these aspects we were concerned about.

   The day of the shoot we came in and met one of the owners of The Baltimore House. We started talking about what inspired him to decorate the place in this way. He told us that it was modeled after the works of the poet Edgar Allen Poe. Most famously known for his poem “The Raven”. It suddenly all started to make sense. This was not a morbid scary place, but it depicts the works of a disturbed dark poet. I loved how they tied the whole place in with this man. After he said that I totally saw Poe all over this place. They did an amazing job at reflecting him in how it was decorated. The dark and creepiness is exactly the mood of his poetry. It gave our vision what we were looking for without even knowing it.  For those of you who know Hamilton well, you know we have such unique places like this in our city. I’d like to give the Baltimore House big thanks for allowing us to use their space, and for treating us so kindly. It is truly a unique place, so everyone reading this should go and check it out!

   We are now currently working on our website where many of these pictures will be available to be seen along with much of our work. We are also working on other shoots and hope they turn out as successful as this one. Stay tuned and see what we have coming next!

MOCA Studio our diverse salon in the heart of Downtown Stoney Creek

   I started working at MOCA Studio about 3 years ago. MOCA is located in the heart of downtown Stoney Creek, ON. For any of you that know downtown Stoney Creek you know it has that old town feel. Most little shops have been there forever with its original owners or its been passed on to family members. That being said I had no idea how tight nit this community was. Growing up I was involved in a very close community. Almost too close. I had neighbours that would rat me out to my mom all the time. On my block we had our parents friends and neighbours with an eye on us all the time. I probably live a 5 minute drive from my work and I had no idea this old Stoney Creek community existed. Working at MOCA I had the opportunity to meet all these old Stoney Creekers. That’s what I think is so unique about our salon.  We are apart of a community of people that are accepting of our fairly new salon.

   MOCA caters to all types of woman from different backgrounds and ages. We have our elderly clientele in every week for styles and our clientele that I get to play with and shave one side of their hair for a Rihanna look. Any style that comes in we are well prepared for with a educated staff ready for any occasion or idea. We work in a very diverse environment that is always creative and fun. I love going to work to see all our regulars that has been seeing the same stylist for 30 years and the young ones like me who bring some spice in.

   I invite whoever to come in and try our traditional, funky, modern salon and become apart of our family in Old town Stoney Creek. Come walk around check out the shops and stop in for your hair, you wont be disappointed. I hope to see you all in the shop and I hope you all enjoy my blogs. If you have any beauty questions or ideas for a blog please feel free to comment with anything. Getting to know peoples concerns will help me get these blogs going. With my professional background in hair and make-up I’m positive I can help out many of you. I hope everyone had a Happy New Year and thank you for checking me out.

MOCA Studio 905.662.3513
julija_Stojakovic@hotmail.com

Everything must have a beginning...

   Today I decided to start bringing Koa Beauty out there more in some sort of social media way. I've been thinking about it for awhile and finally brought it to life. I not too long ago replaced my blackberry with a iphone and started downloading apps. One of these apps I downloaded was instagram, and I fell in love! It connected me with people from all over the world with different lives and experiences all for everyone to see. My creative wheels started turning as I went from profile to profile. It gave me the motivation to keep my dream going. 

   Two years ago my sister and I decided to start a full out make-up company. I had many of my clients asking me to shop with them for make-up, hair products, skin products and even clothes. I'm definitely no clothing designer but I always had a flare for this kind of stuff from a very young age. I remember getting ready for school everyday like it was a special event, or obsessing over my eyebrow shape after watching Iranian and Arabic music videos lol. My image was important to me because it was my way of showcasing who I am. I did go through some pretty bad looks and sometimes wore too much make-up but it was all me trying to find myself. I can look back at some pictures and laugh at myself but hey everyone lives and learns.

   My life has been full of cultures that have opened my eyes and mind to what beauty is. I don't just mean in the physical either. When you open your mind and heart to the people around you, you become different person. I was raised by Yugoslavian parents, both from villages back home. My mother always taught me to be myself, respect myself and others. By this I was able to be me by my crazy hair and outfits and she never refused unless something was inappropriate. Unlike many Yugoslavian parents she let me make my hair fire red, chop it off and pierce my nose as long as it was all in fun and nothing permanent. Growing up in Canada we had people from everywhere. My best friends in grade school was a Vietnamese girl, a girl whose mother was from Guyana and Father was African and a Sikh Indian girl. This exposed me to very cool things from a young age. We all had different styles and mentalities that mended together. And I don't care what any of you say we all in Canada have at least one South Asian friend that lets us try on lehenga's and Saree's for fun and takes us to parties to put mehndi on our hands. I wouldn't change my childhood with these girls for anything!

   This continued on into adulthood where I made friends from Pakistan, Greece, Cambodia, Iran, Kurdistan, Jordan, Palestine...I mean this list could go on and on. I was raised with films and music videos from all over the world. All different types of woman with different types of hair and clothes. It really inspired me in my career and life. Now my client ranges from every corner of this earth and all with different needs and wants from me. That is where I decided to start Koa with my twin sister and best friend. I want to make my skill available to all woman from everywhere with one goal in mind...brave, bold, fearless beauty.

These next couple months I am putting together a bunch of photo shoots to launch Koa. My make-up line has been created by my sister and I from start to finish. We hope to offer our clients the personal help and accessibility they need to make themselves feel as best as they can. I hope you stay tuned to my creative adventure.

God bless, Julija