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.