FOTD August 23, 2015: The calendar says it's summer, but my heart says it's fall

Base:
Primer MAC Prep + Prime Skin
Foundation Covergirl Ready Set Gorgeous in 105 Classic Ivory + L'Oreal True Match Lumi in W1-2
Concealer NYX HD Concealer in Porcelain

Eyes:
Brows e.l.f. Studio Brow kit in Medium
Primer Urban Decay Primer Potion
Shadows Matte light pink (inner 1/2 of lid) and mauve (outer half of lid) shades from the Coastal Scents Revealed 2 palette, Colourpop Sequin (outer 1/3 of lid), Colourpop Drift (outer corner and crease, outer 1/3 of lower lid), and Sultry from the balm Nude 'Tude palette (blended out above the crease)
Liner NYC liquid liner (tightline)
Mascara MUFE Smokey Extravaganza (top lashes), Covergirl Clump Crusher (bottom lashes)

Face:
Blush Three blushes from the Coastal Scents 10 Blush palette (in the top row, the two leftmost shades, in the bottom row, the rightmost shade)

Lips:
Lipstick Urban Decay Matte Revolution Lipsticks in Afterdark (applied first) and Bad Blood (applied on top)

Ever since starting grad school, the moment August rolls around I am ready to pack away my shorts and sandals and coral lipsticks and get ready for fall. Last year, the weather seemed to be in agreement with me and leaves were starting to fall in NYC by mid August. This year the weather is still resolutely summer, but my heart is already stuck on fall makeup.

I've been feeling anxious lately about some school/work things and so this afternoon I decided to play around with Colourpop Drift for the first time as a distraction. I can tell just from today that this is a shade I'm going to be loving this fall and winter. For the eyes, I started off by applying the light pink matte shade from the CS Revealed 2 palette all over my lids, with the light matte mauvey shade on the outer half of each lid. I then patted on Sequin, a gorgeous glittery rose-copper, with my finger on the outer half or third of each lid. On the outer corner of each eye, I patted on Drift with my pinky finger. I then use a Coastal Scents synthetic brush (BR-C-S51) to bring Drift up into the crease. I also used the same brush to bring Drift down along the outer 1/3 of my lower lashline. I've heard that the Colourpop shadows apply best with the fingers, and my experience so far using Sequin has confirmed this, but I actually thought that Drift applied quite well using the CS brush as well. Once I had blended this into the crease, I blended it out using Sultry from the balm's Nude 'Tude palette.

I decided I wanted to mimic the warm berry tones used in the eye shadow on my cheeks, so I used a couple of different Coastal Scents blushes to get a similar effect. I started by using a light peach shade (in the top row, second from the left-- I hate that they don't have names or numbers) and applied this along my cheek bones towards the apples of my cheeks. I then used a warm nude shade (bottom row, all the way on the right) and applied this just under my cheeks bones, almost like a contour. Finally, on the tops of my cheek bones, I applied a gorgeous mauvey shade (top row, leftmost) focusing only on the outsides of my face. I blended these lightly together with a fluffy kabuki brush. I like the effect a lot, although I think for a more monochromatic look the blush called Mellow Wine from Wet 'n' Wild would also look gorgeous. In the way of a mini review, I think the Coastal Scents are quite pigmented and come in a beautiful array of shades and finishes, but on my skin (which is not oily, although I will admit to resting my cheeks in my hands throughout the day) the blushes definitely do not last the day. I know that Coastal Scents also makes individual blushes called Forever Blush (or forever flush, or something like that)-- I'm not sure if these are the same formula or if they're longer lasting. TL;DR: The 10 pan blush palette is pretty for playing around with but doesn't hold up all day long.

Finally, I decided to use another new product I've been saving for fall-- the Urban Decay Matte Revolution lipstick in Afterdark. When I first put this on I was surprised by how purple it was-- it's a gorgeous color, but it didn't look quite right with the shadows. I layer the shade Bad Blood on top though and it become the Oxblood fall lipstick color of my dreams! They seriously make an amazing combo, if you happen to have both shades I highly recommend pairing them together.


I can't wait to wear this look again (outside of my apartment, even >>) when the weather becomes more appropriately fall! 

(P.S. My skin has been very sad lately thanks to hormones (and I somehow forgot to use moisturizer last night), sorry sorry.)

FOTD: August 15th, 2015

Base:

Foundation bareMinerals Complexion Rescue Tinted Hydrating Gel Cream in 02 Vanilla

Concealer Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Concealer in .5, NYX HD Concealer in Porcelain
Powder Tarte Smooth Operator (to set concealer), Wet 'n' Wild Reserve Your Cabana (all over)

Eyes:
Brows e.l.f. Studio Brow Kit in Medium (gel side) + Mocha from IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty palette (to fill in some sparse areas)

Primer Urban Decay Primer Potion

Shadows Instinct (all over) and Wonder (above crease) from Stila In the Moment palette, two purple shades (in the crease and on the lower lashline), a pink shade (above the crease, the blend everything out), and a cream shade (inner lid) from Coastal Scents Metal Mania palette, a turquoise shade (deepest part of crease, outer corner) from the e.l.f. Summer Beauty Night Book, and Shattered (outer 1/3 of upper lid) from the Urban Decay Ammo palette
Liner NYC liquid liner (tightline), Jesse's Girl eyeliner in Lilac Shimmer (lower waterline) topped with Impulse from the Stila In the Moment palette
Mascara Makeup For Ever Smokey Extravagant (top lashes), Covergirl Clump Crusher (lower lashes)

Lips:
Lipstick ColourPop Lippie Stix in Lumiere (all over) and Westie (patted on top)


I'm so excited about how this look turned out! In my last FOTD I talked about how I wanted to work on my blending, and I think I really improved it a lot in this look. I based this off of a shadow look /u/Julia526 posted on the MakeupAddiction subreddit (you can find her post here), and I think having a guide for color placement helped a lot with getting the blending right. I didn't have any of the particular shadows that she used (I didn't even have similar colors, in some cases), but I'm really pleased with how this came out anyway. I feel like if unicorns wore eyeshadow, it would look something like this.

I've really been enjoying the Coastal Scents Metal Mania palette the last two times I've used it. Don't get me wrong, it's an inexpensive mega palette so it's got some flaws (there are a bunch of "dud" shades that produce no noticeable color, some fallout, etc) but it also has some beautiful and very unique shades. This serves as a reminder to self that it's good to shop your stash every once in a while.

Speaking of shopping your stash, I dug up this Jesse's Girl eye liner because I thought it would look perfect with the shadows I used and I haven't used it in a long time... but I just wasn't that impressed with it. The liner is unbelievably soft which makes it very difficult to get good color payoff (especially in difficult areas like the waterline). I ended up having to go over it with a purple shadow I sprayed with MAC Fix+. DO NOT DO THIS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! I don't know why I thought Fix+ was a good idea for shadows on the waterline but it burned my eyes for a good 5 minutes and they were a watery red mess. Thankfully they recovered and I can still see and all that good stuff so no permanent damage done, but an important lesson was learned.

Finally, my skin is in a bit rough shape as I'm trying to get rid of these freaking closed comedones I've had on my chin for a long while... I recently came to the realization that one of my favorite foundations was highly comedogenic so I've switched away from that and now I'm trying to improve the skin texture in that area. I've been thinking about maybe making a post about this and documenting what works (and doesn't work) during this process, but it will probably take a while to write, so we'll see.

FOTD: 08/09/15

Base:

SPF Missha All-Around Safe Block SPF 45 

Foundation Covergirl Ready Set Gorgeous in 105 Classic Ivory

Concealer Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Concealer in .5, NYX HD Concealer in Porcelain

Powder/Highlight Tarte Smooth Operator (to set concealer), Wet 'n' Wild Reserve Your Cabana (all over)

Eyes:

Brows e.l.f. Studio Brow Kit in Medium (gel side)

Primer Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion

Shadows Bare (all over lid) and Bliss (crease) from the Stila in the light palette, turquoise (crease, blended out) and navy (crease) from the e.l.f. Beach Beauty Night book, Shattered (crease, outer 1/3 of top lid, inner 2/3 of lower lid) from the Urban Decay Ammo palette, and two purple shades (crease, lower 1/3 lid) from the Coastal Scents Metal Mania palette

Liner NYC liquid liner (tightline)

Mascara MUFE Smokey Extravaganza (top lashes), Covergirl Clump Crusher (lower lashes)

Face:

Blush Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-hour Blush in Thrilled

Lips:

Lipstick Kat von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in Lovecraft

I've taken a lot of FOTD pictures lately but haven't posted them because I've been having a miserable time correcting the white balance... it's really been bumming me out to create these looks that I'm really happy with and have them look completely inaccurate on my computer screen. I grabbed my boyfriend's gray t-shirt (on my shoulder) to use as a makeshift gray card and it actually worked out quite well for color correcting these images, so I think I'm finally back in business! (Now to get a real gray card from amazon!)

This is a lot more "look" than I typically wear and all I did after I put it on was sit around the house and work out! But I've been wanting to get better (and more adventurous) at eyeshadow application and lazy weekends are a good, low-risk time to play around. But now that I've taken pictures of the eyeshadow, I see that my blending leaves a lot to be desired (while it looked decent to me in the mirror). That's the "good" thing about photographing makeup, I suppose-- photographs, especially now that everything is in crazy HD, are incredibly forgiving, so you've really got to get your technique perfect or errors are going to be readily visible. I'm hoping that photographing my makeup more often will help me to refine my skills.

This look was inspired by a photo posted on Beau Nelson's instagram last May of this gorgeous mint eye look paired with a red lip (I'll try to find a link to this soon, my internet is being incredibly slow right now-- but trust me, the look was gorgeous). What I was really envisioning before I started slapping colors on my face was a sort of "halo" of color around my crease and lower lashline, while the top lid was kept neutral and bright. But I also wanted to experiment more with blending different colors, so I chose to use a variety of purple and blue shades for the "halo", rather than the monochromatic shade(s) in the original photo. Below is a visual of how I approached the eyeshadow application. I started by patting Bare, a light flesh-toned shade, all over my top lid. I then added Bliss into the crease and really concentrated on diffusing the color out. I wanted there to be a soft, warm neutral base for all of the other shadows that I used on top. I then went in with purple shadow #1 and concentrated on blending this softly into the crease. I wanted this shade to look soft and blown out (since it was just a base for the other shadows), but I left a little bit of bliss poking out around the perimeter. I then went in with the turquoise e.l.f. shade and focused this on the lower half of my crease. In the center of my crease, I applied the navy shade and blended it out. I then applied Shattered over the lower half of my crease and into the outer 1/3 of my top lid. Finally, I applied purple #2 along the very top of the crease colors to blend everything out. I added purple #1 to the outer 1/3 of my lower lashline, followed by shattered on the inner 2/3s and blended together.

I really love the way the colors look together, and even though I think the blending could have been better, with my eyes open it wasn't that noticeable and I really loved how the soft colors looked around my eyes. My boyfriend kept telling me I looked pretty so I guess he liked the colors, too. I'd definitely like to revisit this look sometime, but I think I'll futz around with the placement and technique a bit to get a more seamless look.

 

PS. I just got "Lovecraft" as a 100 pt perk from Sephora and I'm in love! I was worried that it would pull too brown on me (most of those gorgeous pinky-brown nudes do), but it doesn't and it really ended up being a fantastic MLBB shade.