Holiday Look #5: Deep Dark Pleather Plum

A very “noir” look focusing on glossy dark lips that works on any skintone! There are a few tips to wearing monochromatic looks like this.

• Conceal, conceal, conceal! Dark, monochromatic looks can make uneven skin tone and any redness more obvious.
• Keep the eyes a little softer if you don’t want to look too vampish. I used a soft taupe as the main lid shade and plum only in the outer corners.
• Wear a brighter blush. Dark monochromatic looks can really drain the face or make you look sallow, so the way to balance it out and stop everything from going completely goth is to use a soft pink blush to add a little sweetness and color to the face
• Be prepared to touch up! Like a glossy red lip, you will likely need to be careful when wearing a glossy dark lip. Smears, smudges, track marks from your hair getting caught in your lips, you name it.

Product used:

• Foundation - LANEIGE Snow BB Soothing Cushion SPF 50 No. 21
• Concealer - MAC Studiofinish concealer NW20
• Powder - ClearLast Powder in Medicated Ochre
• Brows - Shu Uemura Hard Formula 9 Pencil in Seal Brown
• Taupe shadow - MAC Satin Taupe
• Plum shadow - MAC Rich Core
• Silver shadow - Lancôme Hypnôse cream shadow in Diamant Argenté
• Brown/plum liner - Rimmel Exaggerate liner in Perfect Plum
• Mascara - Lancôme Hypnôse mascara
• Blush - Benefit Rockateur
• Plum Lipliner - Make Up Store Jazz
• Plum gloss - Givenchy Gloss Interdit in 15 Velvet Purple

Deep, dark juicy purple lips with Make Up Store Jazz lipliner and Givenchy Gloss Interdit in Velvet Purple.

New Pulp Fiction: Dark Lips and Nails, with soft Glittery Lids

Uber-dark lips are incredibly dramatic, but can look sophisticated at the same time. Here are a few quick tips to wear super-dark lips AND nails without going all goth or emo.

1. Wear a bright blush. Many people don't think to do this, but dark lips can really drain your face of color, and the pop of a glowing pink or peach on the cheeks adds some life and prettiness so the look isn't too severe.
2. Choose soft, cool colors for the lids. A very dark lip is almost a neutral shade in itself, so if you do a brown or taupe eye, the whole thing can look very monochromatic in a 90's sort of way. Not a bad look per se, but we're trying to keep things modern here.
3. Add a little texture into your look. Whether it's a bit of sparkle or a metallic sheen to your lids, it helps to again liven up and lighten the look.
4. Go purple/plum rather than brown when choosing a dark lipstick. That tends to be more flattering on most skins, including the very fair and the very dark. A dark brown can be more aging and draining.
5. Go for a creamy texture rather than a matte, for a more accessible look.

Tips: Invest in a black lip mix or lipstick. (I used OCC Tarred for this, but my favorite black lip product is actually MAC Pro lipmix in Black.) You don't need 4-5 shades of dark lipsticks. Just add varying amounts of black to change it a bit.

Tool: I used a synthetic concealer brush for this.

Makeup 101: 3 Common Smoky Eye Shapes to Try!

Everyone can wear a smoky eye. It just takes a little experimentation to find out which shape suits you better.

These are just general guidelines, and you should remember that they will each appear different on different eye shapes. There are also more complicated ways to do smoky eyes. I'm just running you through the basics.

For demo purposes, I'm using black face paint (Snazaroo) and 2 brushes. One synthetic concealer brush to pack on the black, and one dry blending fluff brush (below) for smoking out the black.

For your own looks, you don't need to use black or a facepaint!  You can use black kajal, khol, gel liner, pencil or even a powder shadow. Anything that doesn't set too quickly, since you need time to smoke it out.