Fall Makeup Tips and FOTD featuring MAC Viva Glam III and Moonshot Jelly Pot in P08 Cafe Con Leche

Tempted by all the dark, lush Fall tones of rich brown, rust, and brick red, but worried that they're too dramatic?

Here's my favorite way to channel the Fall mood and pair all these rich, warm brown-laced colors together without everything becoming too vampy or over the top for the day.

1. Sheer out a dark lip shade

Often in Fall, brands start releasing beautiful rich, deep lip colors. Nothing says Fall more than a beautiful brown-red, berry or plum colored lip. It's posh and chic and dressy, but not as loud as red or as vampy as a full-on noir shade.

One trick is not to go TOO brown as it can make your entire face look quite drab and washed out when paired with brown-toned eyes and dark Fall clothes. Dab a little of the color on the back of your hand with your finger and see if it sheers out to a reddish or plummy tone. If all is you see brown, it's TOO brown.

I used MAC's classic Viva Glam III (the darkest shade on the bottom left) for the look above. It has the potential to look very vampy, but sheered out, it is just a lovely raisiny red-brown that looks pretty, not severe.

Simply dab on the color with a finger and then apply clear lip balm over your lips to add a little sheen and to even out the color.

2. Go for a smoky eye in a softer, metallic shade of brown

Black liner and mascara is the easy way to do your eyes for dark lips. But it can often look very severe, especially for girls who like to draw very thick liner.

A smoky hazy eye look in a soft brown is much more romantic and dreamy. Instead of going for a typical dark smoky eye color, pick colors that are 1-2 tones lighter, like Moonshot's Jelly Pot in P08 Cafe Con Leche below. Medium-toned metallics are dimensional enough that you only need one shade to look like you applied 2-3 colors. Great for a low-maintenance eye that you can throw on quickly.

• Make sure you blend out the edges and there aren't any hard lines.
• If your eyes do not tilt downward too much at the outer corners, you can run a tiny bit along the outer half of your lower lashes to create that smoky dreamy effect.
• If you need definition and want to wear liner, use pencil and try to smudge it out lightly with a ring finger so it is not one hard black line.

3. Don't use brown-toned or very shimmery blush

It might seem to make sense to match your blush to your lip and eye colors, but not everyone suits that severe monochrome look with brown eyes, brown lips, brown cheeks.

Skip the brown-toned blushes unless you have caramel to dark skin. Often it's more flattering to inject a tiny bit of soft color to your face with a neutral peachy-pink blush when you are wearing brown tones on lips and eyes.

Just don't pick a shade that's so bright - or apply so much - that it is obviously clashing against the rest of your makeup. The blush is there so you don't look too corpse-like. Not to make a statement in itself. 

This is also the one time I would not go with a very metallic or shimmery blush. A satin or matte shade would look much better. Otherwise it just detracts from the overall look and you will have too much going on on your face.

Bobbi Brown Luxe Lip Color Swatches and First Impressions

I love opaque lipsticks.

I love the color pay-off, and the rich texture. They're a great way to dress up the lips instantly, and they last better than glossy lipsticks without feeling as dry as matte lipsticks.

But intense lipsticks aren't usually known for being comfortable to wear. Most have to sacrifice moisture for color. So I was curious to check out Bobbi Brown's new Luxe Lipstick range (SGD$44), launching 15 October 2015 in Singapore, because they promised to combine great color intensity with a nourishing, comfortable semi-matte texture that can reduce fine lines and relieve flaking. Sounded like exactly what I need.

The lipsticks have a much flatter and wider bullet tip for quicker application, and a point shaped for a precise edge without having to use a brush.

What do I think of these?

They are still new to me but so far these are buttery-smooth and almost every single shade is opaque in one stroke. I expected these to feel a lot drier, but they go on like silk. I would classify these as classic creme formulas - too soft and creamy to be classed as satin/semi-matte. They also stay relatively creamy for the next few hours and don't go matte-looking quickly like pigment-rich lip products usually do.

There were a couple (like Brocade) which needed to be built up a bit more for opacity, but that's not to say it was patchy and sheer by any means. It was just slightly less intense than the other shades in the range, which go on opaque instantly.

As for the colors, there are 30 and they run the gamut from nude to brown to pink to coral to red to dark. And because it's Bobbi Brown, you can expect a good variety of classic nudes and naturals in different undertones. In fact, there may be a few TOO many Nudes/Beiges/Browns in my opinion, but then I prefer to mix it up from day to day.  The natural tones here make up over 1/3 of the entire range, which might be overwhelming for Nude lip novices. Several of them are quite close in tone, although I know nude lovers will definitely appreciate the tiny differences in tone because a hint more pink or orange can entirely change how a shade looks.

Wear-time varies depending on color. Many of the brighter and deeper colors stain the lips and will seem to last slightly longer than the softer shades. But I don't find this range to be especially long-wearing as far as intense lipsticks go. I still recommend a liner if you're wearing one of the stronger shades, to prevent smearing and bleeding. 

I have 27 of the 30 shades to swatch for you at this time, so here they are below.

What's good are also the deeper neutrals, which are very on point and super-trendy right now. You have Neutral Rose, which is a nice soft "MLBB" shade, Pink Buff which is a brown-based beige, and Soft Berry which is a great warm rosy brown which looks great with a tan.

I always love pinks and berries, and there are quite a number of good shades in the line. I especially love the warm salmon-y Bright Coral and the intense raspberry (Raspberry Pink) and fuchsia (Hot Rose) shades.

Even the pale peachy-nude, Baby Peach, surprised me by going on smooth and even. And all the orange and coral shades are fun.

But try the reds. You have a blue-red (Russian Doll), a cherry red (Retro Red), a classic red (Parisian Red), and a vampy red (Your Majesty).

All in all, I'm pretty darned impressed in terms of color and texture. I would classify these as full-on creme lipsticks, not satins. They have the intensity of MAC Amplified Lipsticks but actually glide on much smoother and silkier. These feel like lipbalms.

The one con to this would be that they won't stay on as long as slightly thicker, drier textures, so as mentioned above, wear a liner if you are applying one of the deeper or brighter shades, just so that the edges don't smudge and feather.

Fall Shimmer Tones Tutorial: 88 Metal Mania Palette

88 Metal Mania Eyeshadow Tutorial for Fall

One of the things you can consider investing in (if you haven't already) is the Metal Mania palette from Coastal Scents. This is an all-shimmer collection, and it's filled with rich, high-pigmented Fall-appropriate shades ranging from neutral to violets, to teals, and pinks. 

For this soft, richly-colored look, you will need 4 shades from the palette, along with black mascara and brown pencil:

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Nail Colors I'm obsessing over for Fall 2013

Favorite metallic Fall polishes: Chanel Bel-Argus, Taboo and Butter London Knees Up

Metallics are incredible. They are able to look bright AND dark at the same time, and different in different lighting conditions.

Here are 3 of the ones I find the most incredibly beautiful.

• Chanel 667 Bel Argus - rich nuanced sapphire that shifts to an azure blue sheen
• Chanel 583 Taboo - Black, and purple, and red, with hints of copper AND flecks of gold. This polish looks like the night sky.
• Butter London Knees Up - Best metallic red in the universe. Well, MY universe anyway. This is so rich it shifts from bright ruby to blood red.

OCC Lip Tar in Sybil, a true chocolate sauce brown, with Chanel Bel-Argus on nails

Cremes, on the other hand, are solid colors that make a strong statement. I particularly like these 3 blues and greys that still echo a bit of Summer’s bright blues, but with a touch of Fall’s cooler, more somber skies.

Creme polishes for Fall: Dior Vernis in Blue Denim, China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le, and Sally Hansen Greige Gardens

• Dior 607 Blue Denim - Looks like a primary blue but actually goes on with deeper, more grey, and not bright.
• China Glaze 683 Secret Peri-wink-le - Periwinkle is usually a word associated with Spring, but this shade has just that hint of chilly grey to it, like the sky when Summer is transitioning to Fall.
• Sally Hansen 404 Greige Gardens - Grey-beige with just a hint of lavender. More of a typical Fall color, greys always look cool and atypical, but still classy. If blue is a little inappropriate for school or work, go for a nice grey!’

Fall 2011 Lipstick Recommendations and Swatches

L-to-R: NYX Iced Honey, Make Up Store Magic, and NYX Chic Red lipstick

Some of the shades that have been showing up for the Fall fashion season include a mixture of soft, dark, and strong shades. Here are some of my favorites.

SOFT:

Gone are the concealer lips of last season. The new "nude" lipsticks are kittenish (they make your lips look much more pouty) with a warm peachy undertone so they give your face some color without grabbing too much attention. These lips will go with pretty much any look.

Swatches (L-to-R): NYX Iced Honey (Round) Lipstick, and MAC Kinda Sexy (Matte) lipstick.

NYX Iced Honey lip swatch

STRONG:

Strong shades make your lips the focal point of your face. This season, the liner has been jazzed up, but the lips remain strong. Just keep the eye color neutral for the day, and any of these shades would look fantastic as a pop of color when you're wearing a whole suit of dark colored clothes.

Swatch (L-to-R): NYX Chic Red (Round), and MAC Up the Amp (Amplified) lipstick

Lip swatch: MAC Up the Amp is a creamy, strong purple mauve.

VAMPY:

Super-dark lipsticks have been popping up in many collections. The common variations are those that are brown based, red based, and purple based. The tricky bit is avoiding looking too Goth when wearing these lip colors, but you don't have to pair it with pale eye shadows either. Just keep the lids a soft smoky shade for a more modern touch.

Swatches (L-to-R): MAC Prince Noir (matte) lipstick, and Make Up Store Magic lipstick.

Lip swatch: Make Up Store Magic lipstick gives an interesting metallic purple twist on the dark vamp lip.

Weekend Lip Shade: Barry M Sunset Lip Paint Review and Swatch!

Swatches (L-to-R): NYX Indie Flick (matte), Barry M Sunset, Revlon Kiss Me Coral, NYX Haute Melon

I mentioned my Barry M haul a couple of days ago, and I've tested all of them in the last couple of days. Of the lot, I have to say #151 Sunset is probably my first recommendation, although I do really like most of the others as well.

Coral Lipsticks (L-to-R): NYX Haute Melon,Revlon Kiss Me Coral, Barry M Sunset, NYX Indie Flick (matte)

The shade itself is a true vermillion-coral creme (think Disney's Ariel) that I enjoy for its opacity, and ability to make the skin glow. 

You can wear this with deep-bronze, dewy skin for the super-hot "Summer-vacation" look, or you can matte your skin and paint on kitten flick liner for a retro pin-up look. 

Barry M Sunset is very opaque and saturated compared to the Revlon and NYX, while retaining its sheen very well. (I'd say it has a similar texture to an Amplified Creme lipstick.)

Barry M Sunset stays on well through drinks and talking, and I find you get more applications out of firmer, more pigmented lipsticks like these. (You know how you seem to go through some tubes of glossy lipsticks so fast because they are too soft and creamy?)


Visit my TUMBLR for the tutorial featuring this lip shade!

The Weekend Mouth: Barry M Lip Paint in Sunset, with NYX Cinnamon Blush and black accented eyes.