Hallo Beauties! How go the makeup experiments?
It's always fun to experiment with your makeup. You learn what works best for you and what doesn't work at all, and you learn shortcuts and techniques and all that good stuff.
I experiment all the time, I'm always trying new colours or shapes or techniques. Especially because I'm self-taught, these experimenting sessions have been invaluable lessons for me in learning and practicing techniques, and also it helps me learn to recognize immediately what looks and colours will work, what won't, and I also practice different shapes so that I'll know how to modify the look instantly for whatever face I'm putting it on. Makeup skill is a muscle, it needs to be constantly worked out and kept strong or it will atrophy.
I'm also always photographing myself. I'm sure people think I'm vain, but I like to test the effect of light and shadow and angle on different kinds of makeup and certain looks. It always helps when I'm deciding on a model's makeup if I know before hand how it reacts to being photographed, even if on a different face.
So here are a few shots of me, taken with either my trusty phone camera or my little Nikon Coolpix digital camera, at various times (a lot of the time in my car, on my way to or from some errand or job). These are some of my favourite go-to looks. :)
This is one of my most used go-to looks. When I took this first pic I was a little pale, owing to the fact that my baby was only about 6 months old and I spent every waking moment (that I wasn't working) with her! I live in a tropical island and there's a certain amount of colour that you get just from being outside, even though I do of course wear sunscreen.
This is a really simple look - clean skin (not naked, I just mean a clean finish with foundation), softly defined eyebrows for shape, and khol-rimmed eyes. I used the Avon Big Color Eye Pencil in Night Glisten all around the eye, blended it a bit either with my fingers or a domed blending eyeshadow brush (I love the one by E.L.F. and the fluffier one by Revlon) and then packed a black eyeshadow over the creamy pencil to set it (My go-to black eyeshadow is Carbon from MAC). Line the top and bottom waterline, add a nude lipstick (here I think it was a nude lip liner all over the lips and a chap stick on top for a velvety finish) and go!
This next pic is of me and my husband. We were going to a dinner event for his work at the time. Baby was around 5 months old at this point, and I was still enjoying the flawless, glowing skin I had from pregnancy and breastfeeding (which I did for 10 months). This look focused on a super healthy glow, so I used foundation, concealer wherever I needed it, and a bronze-pink blush, and then I dusted the bronzer all around the perimeter of my face and into the hollows for a bit of sculting and glow. The eyes were actually quite simple. I'll do a post on this look by itself because it's a look that is so easily adapted, suits everyone, and you can change the lip or the cheek up to suit you and the event you're going to.
My "No Make Up" Makeup. I focused on keeping the skin flawless, just highlighting the high points of the face and the eyes, and shaping the eyebrows well. I almost ALWAYS line my top and bottom waterline (it's just my thing) and apply two or three coats of mascara since I have wimpy little eyelashes - Here I remember I was trying out the Covergirl Lash Blast mascara and LOVED it, although the phone-camera doesn't realy do the lashes justice. For the lips, I just covered them with foundation too and then used a peachy lipgloss on top. I did use an E.L.F. bronzer on my cheeks but the phone camera and overcast day sort of washed that out too in this pic.
This is another of my most favourite go-to looks. I had just cut my hair super short (sort of almost buzz-shaved at the back and a layered longer on top) and I pinned the longer pieces back. I defined the brows as always, used a slightly shimmery shell-coloured eye shadow all over the eye, a medium brown shadow for defining the crease, and then a thick black eyeliner. You could make the liner thinner but I like it thick. I used a pencil liner and set it with Carbon on a tiny pencil brush to soften the edge. You could also use a gel eyeliner and then the black shadow, but a liquid eyeliner would be too sharp. Plummy blush and a raisin lipliner all over the lip, toppped off with a plummy lip gloss, and the look is complete!
This look is pretty much the same as the last one, just with the liner in a slightly different shape. I do like to play with shapes depending on how I'm doing my hair. In the last look it wasn't winged out like this one is, it was a little more blunt and a bit thicker, giving a slightly rounder eye shape. I have naturally quite slanted eyes, and in the first look I wanted them to appear a bit bigger and rounder. In this second incarnation of the look, I extended the liner a bit, sort of the way Angelina Jolie or Megan Fox do theirs, in a long triangle shape that extends a little ways along the lower lashline to pull the eye outward. The lip is a little lighter than the last look too. And as you can see, the hair is a little more grown out, and I went for sideswept bangs.
This look is just a more dramatic version of the first one, using matte black, and dark silver and pewter eyeshadow colours to blend the black out farther and up into and slightly past the brow bone. The highlight colour was a mixture of MAC MSF in Soft and Gentle and a sheer lavender colour.
This look uses one of my favourite pigments - actually one of my favourite eyeshadow colours period - from MAC, called Deep Blue Green. I got it years ago, and I think it's called something else now, but it's a stunning dark peacock teal. I generally use it over a creamy black base to deepen the colour even more. It's one of my most beloved colours and I wear it like this for performing (I sing) or for when I want a dark eye without actually using black. MAC MSF in Soft and Gentle again is the highlight colour for the brow bone and the cheek, and I used MAC Bare lipstick over blanked out lips.
The lighting on this pic is awful - it makes me look all sweaty when I swear I wasn't! But the makeup, I love!! It's all plummy and burgundy...I use a NYX jumbo eye pencil in the color Rust as a base. It's a gorgeous rich burgundy red colour. Over that I used two E.L.F. Brightening Eye Color Quads, Day 2 Night and Luxe. I used the burgundy from the Luxe quad on the lid and the dark purple from the Day 2 Night quad in the crease. I layerd both colours on the bottom lashline too, using the burgundy and then the dark purple over it just in the lashline. For some more definition, I used MAC Fluidline in Black Track with a tiny pencil brush on the top and bottom lashline for a soft line, and I lined the waterlines with Black Track as well (it stays all night!!). MAC MSF in Soft and Gentle is my go-to brow and inner corner highlight colour, and I used my Maybelline Fit Me blush in Deep Coral and a plummy lip gloss topped it off.
And as a last little bonus, here's my wedding-day makeup (And my beautiful red wedding dress)!! This photo was taken after the whole thing was over, I was sooo tired! We left for our honeymoon about 10 minutes later. The arms and head you can see in the shot belong to Aly, the photographer I work with. She was a Bridesmaid.
The Makeup was black smoky eyes, blended out with a warm reddish-brown, a soft shimmery brow highlight, and gorgeous lashes (can't remember any of the brands), and finished off with warm bronze skin. I didn't wear any lipstick, only chapstick. I'm bless with pretty dark-coloured lips naturally, and I figured that after the Wedding Kiss and then greeting all those people and sneaking a kiss here and there with my husband (*wink*) lipstick would just be a waste. So I got away with Chapstick on my wedding day!
Thanks to Khalil for this photo!
Look at how long my hair was! It was past my waist, and I'm not a short woman! I chopped it off after my daughter was born, but that's a whole 'nother story. The colour, though, is all my own natural hair colour. :)
Happy Make-Up Experiments everyone!
Hugs, kisses, and red wedding dresses,
Mandy
