Leanne brushes off the opposition in make-up awards

make-up artist Leanne Crossan (24) from Larne is celebrating picking up the Student of the Year accolade at the third annual Shaz Awards celebrating the rising stars in the make-up businessin Northern Ireland, organised by Ciara Daly Make-Up.

The Student of the Year award is given to the person who Ciara Daly believes excelled and outshone all her fellow students. Leanne showed passion and dedication as well as excellent skill and understanding of make-up as an art.

Photographer Lee Mitchell; Ciaran Green, artistic director for Toni and Guy; Margaret Connolly, editor of In! Magazine and renowned make-up artist Paddy McGurgan judged the awards.

Shaz Awards founder, Ciara Daly has been working in the make-up industry for over a decade and has trained in London with some of the most forward thinking and groundbreaking brands such as Mac and Illamasqua. Ciara’s Lisburn Road based make-up academy is one of Ireland’s most sought after training facilities, offering courses for beginners to the more experienced artists and has created some of Northern Ireland’s freshest creative talent.

The awards are named after Ciara’s mother Sharon, affectionately known as Shaz, who passed away. The awards will support New Hope Village in Siem Reap in Cambodia, where Ciara’s long term and close friend uprooted from Belfast to help the cause. New Hope, with the assistance of sponsors and volunteers, treats over one hundred residents per day for illnesses such as severe malnutrition, HIV, hepatitis, typhoid, tuberculosis and dengue fever. Each month, families in need receive food packages and New Hope provides free education to four hundred children and young adults.

Ciara Daly said, “The 3rd annual Shaz Awards was a great success. There were so many entries for all the categories and it is a testament to Northern Ireland’s creative talent. I’m already looking forward to getting started in the organization for the 4th awards in 2013”.

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