Tuesday, December 11, 2012

From daily wear to holiday makeup in minutes!

Adding a bold lip can really transform a daytime look into a festive, glamorous look for your holiday party.  For my daily makeup, I started with a basic golden eyeshadow on the lid with a brown shimmery shadow towards the outer edges.  Add black into the crease and outer edges to take it to the next level.  Place a black pencil inside the waterline and more mascara.  You can add a darker lip with a burgundy line on the outer edges to add dimension and contour.  Touch up your foundation with a powder and a bit more blush to balance the lip and voila!

MacGyver Tips:
-Keep a concealer or full coverage powder with you to touch up your makeup after work and take it into night.  This can cover under eye circles, mascara smudges, lipstick mistakes, blemishes, and areas where the foundation has worn away to give you a flawless look that night without having to go home.
-In a pinch, a lipstick can be used as a blush to refresh your makeup and take it into night. Tip: lightly touch you (clean) fingers to your lipstick and blot them over your blush.  Never go directly onto the skin as it can create a huge mess!
-A black pencil eyeliner can be all you need to bump up your eyes and take them into night.  It can be smudged out and used as an eye shadow accent or put into the waterline to instantly turn a basic look sultry.

Products:
All of the lipsticks featured in this photo are part of M.A.C's Viva Glam Collection. 100% of every cent spent on the lipsticks go towards the M.A.C Aids Fund.  To date they have raised over $250,000,000 that has helped deliver meals, prevent transmission from mother to child, and overall benefit people living with HIV/AIDS.  From the left to the right: VGII, VGIV, VGVI, VGI (the uber matte brick red!).  When looking good benefits people in need, why not buy the lipsticks?!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

My favorite eyeliner picks for your eye type:  I get this question a lot, "Why can't I do a winged out eyeliner?"  The problem, a perfectly straight line just isn't possible on everyones' eyes!!!  It takes me close to 15 minutes at times to turn that serrated edge into a line that doesn't skip over the wrinkles and creases on my lids.  And I'm a professional!!!  Notice in the bottom right pic where I naturally have creases on my lid.  Do you?  This could be what is making this difficult to achieve.  A lot of people have a crease that comes in at the outer edge of their eye when they smile.  Try it.  Smile, and see if there is a crease that makes your eyeliner appear like a check mark.  If there is, you will have to line over that crease until you've covered it or it will appear uneven.  The other trick I use like mad is darkening the outer corner of my eyeshadow to hide the uneven edge my eye shape causes.  No one can tell if your eyeliner isn't straight if that whole area is black! lol.  The other thing you can do is use an eyeshadow as a liner or blend out your liner so the line isn't so clear cut (be careful not to pull on your eyes like crazy while doing this).  If the line isn't as sharp, imperfections can be hidden much easier! woot!  I know, I know, I'm a cheater...but I refuse to have low self esteem everyday because I got into an argument with my eyeliner that morning.  Then I'm beating myself up for years of smoking (former) and pulling on my eyelids... who needs it?!  False eyelashes can also help disguise imperfections in the eyeliner.  When in doubt, just blow it out!  A fuzzy line works best blended into the crease of you can't get the tricks I told you for the sharp line look.  The overall effect is the same as far as the eye shape it will give you.  It will just save you time, energy, and tears...literally. Let me know how this works guys!

Makeup of the Day 12-4-12

Today's makeup placed a lot of emphasis on the eyes.  For the eyeshadow the products you will need are a pink and blue base (an eyeliner pencil and cream blush would work too! You just want any product that is the close to the color of the eyeshadow you will be putting on top that won't dry down.  The idea is not only to create color, but to give the eyeshadow something to cling to.) I used Makeup Forever's flash pro palette. Its about $100 at Sephora if you want to splurge, but it is not necessary if you are recreating this on a budget.  Now that the bases are out of the way, you will need a coral, fuchsia, aqua or tealish, dark blue (purple might work too), and brow highlight eyeshadow color.  First you put the brow highlight underneath your brow. Then you go in with the pink base in the crease and blue base on the lid.  Blend those out (but not into on another) because you don't want a ton of product on the lid or it will crease.  Next you go in with the coral shadow on the upper crease and hot pink shadow in the middle crease (notice the gradation in the pic, that's not amazing blending, it's just multiple colors).  Place the aqua or tealish shadow on the lid with a paddle brush, basically just a firmer brush that can place more color on the lid (think patting it on the lid, not brushing across).  Taking a smaller firmer brush, go in with the dark blue color on the inside corner and outside corner of the crease.  This will look strange to you at first because you are creating the illusion that your eyes are more deep set.  It will end up just looking like awesome lighting is always on your eyelids, when in actuality, you painted them that way.  To blend the edges, use a fluffy brush.  Do not overblend.  The trick to this look is to allow the shadow to remain somewhat unblended to create the contour desired.  To finish, line the waterline with a dark color (honestly, it does not matter what color you choose; I chose black) set the pencil liner with a powder to give it max staying power.  You'll probably want to do your foundation after the eyes are done because you are going to be using dark shadows that will more than likely fall onto your undereye area and make dark circle appear worse.  If you do choose to do you foundation first and have a ton of fall out shadow, use a moisturiser to wipe it away and reapply a concealer.  That should clean it up!  Have fun! Feel free to give me feedback and let me know how it worked for you!

Hello All!

A lot of you have been asking me to post my makeup looks with instructions/ tutorials.  This blog is my attempted answer to that request.  Each week, and maybe more often, I will post looks on my sites with instructions and products that can be used to complete the look.  If you have any requests, please let me know! I would love to help everyone out by sharing the tips and tricks from not only the pros, but a friend!