Holiday Glam: Smoky Blackened-Gold with Crimson lips

Most of the time, we pair dark smoky eyes with muted lips to keep things in balance, but it does not mean that you can't pair it with a strong lip for the holiday season. 

To keep the eyes sultry but not overly heavy and severe, I adapted the traditional black eye with 2 things:

• A pale gold on the lid (I mixed a blend of translucent silver and gold mica to get that specific "cold-gold" shade, but any gold pigment would work as long as it's very metallic (e.g. MAC Gold Metal Pigment) or applied with a dampened brush for a foiled finish.
• Pigmented matte black shadow (you can get this from inexpensive brands with strong pigments such as Wet n Wild, Sleek, etc. as they work just as well as MAC or other high-end brands)

Step 1:  Using a firm, pointed pencil brush or a flat angled brush, apply a stroke of black along the lower lash line, starting ALMOST from the inner corner (leave the inner-most corner clean so you don't close off your eye totally) and pull out past the outer corners slightly.  You'll likely need to re-dip your brush to get an even stroke of color as firm brushes give precision but do not pick up a lot of product.

 

Step 2: With the same brush, draw another line along the socket, but don't touch the inner corners of your eyes. (If your eyes are very close set, you might want to start the line nearer the middle of your eye,)
The outer corner of the upper line should meet the lower line in a rough wing shape. Do not worry about getting neat lines. 

Draw a third stroke along the outer half of the upper lashes as well.
The finished look will be something like the below. Look straight ahead into the mirror or take a picture to check that the top line looks more or less symmetrical on both eyes.

Step 3: Smoke it all out! Dip a soft blending brush lightly into the black shadow so there is just a bit of color, and then run it briskly along the top socket line to smoke everything out. This is where you add more black to even out the amount of color on both eyes until they are roughly equal.

Step 4: The fun part. Use a flat brush to pack gold pigment onto the lids. Any shade of gold, bronze or deeper silvers would work for this, but I do recommend loose metallic pigments for the most dramatic effect against the black. Fill in all the bare areas from the inner corners of the lids outwards.
A less shiny shade will give less contrast so if you're worried about looking too dramatic, by all means choose a softer finish.

Step 5: Add definition back.

• I applied black liquid liner along the top lashes and then use the pointed or flat brush to run black shadow along the line. This smokes it out and keeps it from looking too precise and harsh.
• pale yellow pencil to the waterline (my trusty Make Up Store Vanilla Matt pencil), and then 
• went back in the soft blending brush dipped in black. Start to intensify the black and blend into the edges of the gold. Remember the overall look is predominantly smoky black, with a flash of gold.

Step 6: Finish by curling lashes and applying mascara (Bourjois Volume Glamour Max in Black). You can wear lashes with this look, but I chose not to as it might obscure the trace of gold but if you have very big lid space, it would totally work.

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Step 7: On the cheeks, I applied a bit of MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Dark as subtle warm contour just under the cheekbones, and skipped blusher as it would just compete with the lips and eyes.

Step 8: On the lips, I applied a full-on deep-red matte lip using MAC Russian Red lipstick (this is actually not a blue-based red despite what some say; it's more of a dark true-red). I don't have a dark, cooler-toned black cherry shade or that would look even more dramatic with this eye.

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Other Products Used:

• Foundation: Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation #52 for a velvety matte glow
• Concealer: Amazing Cosmetics Amazing Concealer in Fair for a slightly brighter under-eye since the makeup is so smoky and dark
•  Setting Powder: MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium

Recommended nail shade: Black creme, to keep things edgy but refined!

Pink Aura: Smoky fuchsia, purple and grey look (Urban Decay 15 Year Anniversary Look #3)

This is a 3rd look created with the Urban Decay 15 Year Anniversary Eye Shadow Collection (I've getting my money's worth, dang it). I'm doing the "MAC Smoky Eye" with deeper shades at either corners, and the lightest color in the center of the lid. The overall look is colorful but soft and blended with no hard lines or edges.

The 3 shades used for this look are:

1. Junkshow: duo-chrome satin fuchsia with blue sheen (MAC Stars n Rockets is higher-sheen but similar)
2. Omen: duo-chrome medium satin-purple with blue sheen 
3. Ace: Smoky metallic grey 

You don't need to use shades with exactly the same duochrome effects (although that would be fun). Matte and regular shimmer would work just as well. 

Step 1: Pack the bright pink shadow into the center of the lid and smoky gently up just above the socket line. When your eyes are open fully, you should see a bit of pink peeking above your eye lid fold.

Step 2: Pack the medium purple shade onto both sides of the pink, taking care to stop just short of the inner most and outermost corners. (The purple looks grey here due to the angle of the light. See bottom-most picture for the true shade.)

Step 3: With a pointed pencil brush, run a smoky grey shadow along the lower lash line, then pack into the outermost corners of the upper lid. With what is remaining on the brush, sweep gently inwards along the outer half of the socket line to sculpt the eye a little, and dab into the inner corners of eyes as well.
With a soft blending brush, blend out any harsh edges to the grey.

Step 4: At this point, if you've muddied up any of the colors, use your finger to gently dab more purple and pink onto the respective areas. This will intensify the color.
For a little extra oomph, I applied purple metallic pencil  to the waterline (you can use regular grey or black but that trace of purple is just much more interesting). Finish with black mascara!

Picture taken with flash

Gift Idea #2: MAC Smoky Plum Crushed Metallic Pigment Dazzlesphere (Swatches and Review)

MAC Smoky Plum Dazzlesphere

My second suggestion as a cool gift this holiday season for any makeup lover who loves dramatic color. MAC's Dazzlespheres look like oversized tree ornaments, but what wowed me were the actual pigments contained within. Out of the 3 available Dazzlespheres (Temptalia has a good run-down of all 3), my choice was the Smoky Plum stack. 

I actually like all 3, but I didn't like all 4 colors in either of the other 2 sets so I gave them a miss. This doesn't mean you won't. If you love strong metallic pigments, definitely check these out in the stores before they sell out. (Smoky Berry is a mix of red, pink and neutrals, while the Smoky Blue set is a mix of deep indigo blue, white, slate-silver and sparkly black.)

Crushed Metallic Pigments clockwise from top left: Misty, Grape, Light Violet, Seasonally Cool

I'd say all 4 pigments perform quite well (some crushed metal pigments adhere poorly without a base)

Swatches (L-to-R): Misty, Seasonally Cool, Light Violet, and Grape

• Misty: Bright silver metallic with a slight neutral undertone. This pigment is fine-grained with minimal sparkle/glitter, and sheers out quite well when blended. If you have deeper skin tone or find most true silvers too harsh, this might be a good one to check out as there is a slight beige undertone which makes it more flattering than other silvers. Can be worn sheer.
• Seasonally Cool: I always love a beautiful brown neutral, especially when it has personality. Seasonally Cool is a sparkly, warm bronze-brown without any brassiness or green undertones. It's not grey enough to be a taupe, and the sparkles are quite multidimensional (think of MAC's Lip Gelees with their multicolored micro-sparkles). This can be worn sheer as a soft beautiful neutral wash or packed on for flattering drama. If you have very deep skin, this would make a wicked highlighter as well.
• Light Violet: The most gritty of the bunch, Light Violet is a soft lilac made up of large, sparkly flecks. It's more chunky and hard to work with than the other pigments due to the texture, so a base would be needed if you want to increase its intensity and avoid fall-out. It can work as a sparkly highlighter, but I'd suggest applying it with your ring finger and gently smoothing it out to a light sparkly veil, as brushes do not pick this up well.
• Grape: The most intense of the 4 shades, Grape is a deep true purple with just a hint of burgundy/wine undertones. Like Misty, it does not have sparkly bits, but its sheen is more muted than Misty. I'd call it a Pearl finish rather than Metallic. Definitely a dramatic shade that will look better when packed out as an intense smoky eye or worn as a liner. (Wearing it really sheer might make you look a bit bruised.)

Urban Decay 15 Year Anniversary Look #2: Duo-color Purple and Brown Smoky Eye

This look was done using the below 2 shades, but feel free to use other shades that might be similar as these shades should be generally easy to substitute:

• M.I.A.: Deep chocolate pearl (medium sheen)
• Half Truth: Deep purple pearl (medium sheen)

The trick to choosing 2 shades for this type of look is to swatch them side by side on the back of your hand. If you can't easily tell which shade is darker, then they are a great pair for this type of look where you reverse the order on top and bottom lids. (If one shade is noticeably lighter, it will look less flattering either on the top of bottom lash line when you wear the darker shade on the inside.)

Step 1: Pack the rich chocolate brown onto the inner halves of the upper lids, and run along the outer halves of the lower lash line as well (opposite ends).

Step 2: With the purple shadow, pack onto the outer halves of your lid, and run along the inner halves of the lower lash line as well. (You can reverse the order of the shadows. I just recommend using the more "interesting" color on the outer halves of the upper lids as that section will draw more attention overall, but you'll have to be the judge as to which color is more interesting to you!)

Step 3: Bring the purple out past your socket line at the outer corners, but not into a dramatic wing.
Then smoke out the socket line with a fluffier brush so there are no hard edges, but do not blend on the center of the lid itself as you will muddy up the colors.

Step 4: I ran a matching purple and brown metallic pencil (Bourjois Metallise has great shades) lightly along the upper and lower lash lines (corresponding with the shadow shade in that section) just to intensify the color at the lash line. This step is actually optional.
Then I curled my lashes and applied black mascara to finish.

Blending to smoke out the edges takes just a bit of time, but otherwise, the whole look is extremely easy to create and more interesting than a basic smoky eye.

Other Products Used:

• Foundation: Clinique Repairwear Laser Focus All Smooth Makeup #04 M-G for Dry skins (one of a list of foundations I'm currently reviewing)
• Concealer: MAC Studio Finish Concealer NC25
• Maybelline Eyestudio Brown Pencil

Holiday Look: Molten Metal

What happens when you layer gloss over a high-sheen metallic? I decided to find out.

For this look, I picked one of the creamiest and densest metallic shadows around, The Body Shop's single eye shadow in #45, which is to this day one of the most intense deep-silver shadows I've ever come across, considering that it is not a cream formula.

Step 1: To prep the lids, I lined my upper lash line with a thick swatch of black shadow for some soft definition. Because I'm applying gloss over my lids later, powder or pencil formulas are more suitable than liquid liners.

Step 2: Pack the silver shadow gently over the entire lids, going into the inner corners a little just for a bit of a twist.

Step 3: I applied matte yellow liner to the waterline, and then popped on false lashes. I love Eylure's (Miss Eylure range) Olivia lashes. Mascara on the bottom lashes will complete the look.

Step 4: You can stop at Step 3, but if you really want to go to town with it, and don't mind the look getting a bit messier over the day, dab a clear gloss onto the center of the lids, and gently pat outwards on both sides.Try to keep it off your lashes as much as possible.

Step 5: I applied a hot pink blush lightly to the cheeks (NYX Pinky) and magenta lipstick (Sephora #R11 is one of the creamiest and most beautiful) to the lips. The eyes are strong but not extremely colorful, so I just wanted to make the look just a bit edgier by going for a strong lip instead of the expected nude.

Other products used:

• Foundation: Lancome Teint Miracle O-03 (I'm test-trying a sample over this week)
• MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NC30
• HD powder
• Brows: Maybelline Eye Studio Eyebrow pencil  (There's no name or number on the pencil - it's the grey-brown shade which is perfect for dark hair)

Holiday Gift Idea #1: Urban Decay 15 Year Anniversary Eyeshadow Collection Swatches and Review

Am going to randomly post about products that I think make really fabulous gifts for makeup fanatics.

The first of these is the Urban Decay 15 Year Anniversary Eyeshadow Collection.

The great thing about this collection of 15 intense shades is that they are all completely original. These are not a compilation of "best-selling" shades from the regular lines. The bad thing of course, is that they will not be available after this limited edition collection sells out.

That aside, I've only had time to swatch these, and I must say I'm impressed with pretty much ALL the colors. I prefer to group them by column, as they seem to be positioned by theme. 

15 Year Anniversary Collection Column 1

The first column on the left is a compilation of lighter neutrals with a trace of warmth. Very wearable and versatile. The whole row is metallic. Colors go from L-to-R.

• Midnight Rodeo: Soft beige-bronze metallic with gold glitter
• Midnight 15: Beige metallic with silver shift and gold glitter
• Vanilla: Pearl with pale yellow-gold shift (yes, MAC Vanilla pigment dupe)
• Flow: Cool peachy beige metallic
• Chase: Golden-bronze beige metallic

15 Year Anniversary Collection Column 2

Column 2 in the center of the kit is a collection of strong, cool-toned shades that can give quite a bit of drama to your look. 

• Tainted: Soft satin-matte mauve with pale gold glimmer (the sheen is barely visible when applied)
• Junkshow: Fuchsia pearl with blue shift
• Omen: Violet metallic with blue shift 
• Evidence: Deep, dark navy (Goes on a little like MAC Blue Storm pigment)
• Deep End: Metallic teal (MAC Steamy lookalike)

15 Year Anniversary Collection Column 3

 Column 3 is another standout column composed of deep, smoky shades, and the only true matte in the palette. Colors from left to right:

• Deeper: Deep Bronze Brown metallic (similar to MAC's discontinued Brass pigment)
• M.I.A.: Deep, dark cocoa pearl 
• Ace: Black with a metallic teal-grey shift
• Blackout: True, matte black
• Half Truth: Smoky eggplant purple with violet shift

Overall:

The colors are extremely pigmented and very soft. (I actually dropped my palette right after I purchased it, and shattered one of the shadows. The very kind SA at Sephora actually got me a new one on the spot even though it was my fault.)

If you like rich, strong colors with intense pay off, Urban Decay is one of the best brands to go to.

I love that these shadows are all new, and the quality is outstanding, although it's not the cheapest thing around. 

The combination of shades is also lovely, and I like how they are sorted into soft neutrals, strong cool colors, and deeps. I'll definitely be doing a series of looks using this kit, so watch out for that!