Don’t Be a Makeup Chicken

A commenter (thanks, Yadon!) asked if wearing makeup the way I wear makeup (i.e., not at all natural in the slightest) is like wearing a mask, since this kind of makeup isn’t like anyone’s face. And I’ve been thinking about that. I’m going to have to say no.

I can see how it might feel that way to some people - like it’s putting on a different face. So much of the conventional wisdom surrounding makeup, as it is with clothes, is about emphasizing “assets” and minimizing “flaws” - as though people’s faces aren’t perfectly fine the way they are.

That’s the kind of social pressure that makes loving makeup kind of a mine field for a progressive, feminist, etc., etc. person. Because it isn’t like observers can see my politics flashing above my head - they just see another woman wearing makeup. That’s one reason I talk about it a lot, about how fun makeup can be, as opposed to how (fill in the blank)makeup can help you fit in. I’m not really interested in fitting in.

Instead of a mask, makeup is, for me, a paint box. It’s feathers and sequins. It’s adornment. I can’t change my hair color every day, but I can put something different on my eyelids and lips. It’s got elements of costuming, but it’s still essentially me. I’m not looking to hide what my face truly is so much as I’m looking to put bright and spangly things on it because I like it.

I do like my face, for the most part. I hated my nose when I was a teenager, but I suspect most people hate their noses when they are teenagers and someone points out to them that noses are kind of strange.

This is, of course, not to say that all natural-looking makeup is bad or wrong. I don’t think there is bad or wrong when it comes to a particular style of doing makeup itself. (The impetus and insistence that gets leveraged behind certain styles is another matter.) It’s just not my style.

Closed eye with yellow and orange eyeshadow in warm, matte shades

Today’s makeup is meant to match my new dress from LucieLu.com - seriously, y’all, if you’re looking for plus-size, on-trend clothes for decent prices with good quality, I cannot recommend LucieLu highly enough. Love it. Anyway, I have this wren dress with a mustard yellow top and I wanted to do some eyeshadow that played with that color.

Both closed eyes, with eyeshadow in warm, matte shades of yellow and orange

I really need to figure out how to take better pictures, y’all.

This is MAC in four colors. Burnt Orange, which is a mustard yellow matte, all over the lid; Brown Script, which is a brick brown matte, in the inner corner; Orange, which is a bright freaking orange matte, at the outer corner; and Retro-Speck as a highlight under my eyebrow.

What the pictures don’t show so well is how much dimension you can get when you’re playing around with tones and related shades. I’m pairing this with bright red, matte Ruby Woo lipstick, also by MAC, because I can look really washed out and, indeed, jaundiced when wearing yellow. The pop of color really helps even things out.

In other makeup news, I wore this last week:

Closed eye, with neutral cream eyeshadow and a burst of pink, with black eyeliner

I think this was Thursday (I’ve been wearing makeup every work day but I’ve not managed photos every day - I’m working on it). It’s one of the MAC Hello Kitty palettes - I am still so glad I bought them both. I used Yogurt allllll over as a creamy neutral shade. It’s got a tiny hint of pink to it, at least to my eye, so it brightens everything without being in your face about it.

See, sometimes I’m subtle. Okay, not really. *laugh* That’s Romping, a (definitely blue-based) hot pink frost, in my crease and blended down onto my lower lid.  I lined with Stately Black, which is a matte black with fine (blue-based) silver glitter.  The glitter doesn’t show up so well in this picture, alas. And then, though you can’t see it in this pic, I lined under my eye with Too Dolly, which is a nice cool aqua frost. It was bright and perky without being color from lashline to browline.

Most days, you know, I do opt for color from lashline to browline. *laugh* I wore shades of purple yesterday - I wish I’d gotten a photo.

Saturday night I went out with my husband and a friend to play pool (and air hockey and ping pong) and I decided to go for something a little more dramatic. This has also taught me to take pictures before I go out for the night, especially if the night involves drinking. Still, let’s just take this as a testament to Urban Decay’s Primer Potion: this makeup is at least 7 hours old.

Closed eye, eyeshadow in shades of black and silver, very smoky

Who doesn’t love a good smoky eye? Man, I wore this with Ruby Woo again and it was so awesome. Reminded me of getting ready to go clubbing when I was going clubbing almost every night.

This one took a little more effort, but I was also playing around and thoroughly enjoying myself. I started with Cinderfella, the black/silver mineralized shadow from MAC’s Style Black collection. Seriously, those eyeshadows still make my heart pound with how gorgeous they are. Ahem. So, Cinderfella on the lower lid. I took a dark pewter frost called Pandemonium into the crease, then a lighter silver called Silver Ring above that. Then I used a slightly purple color, a recent aquisition that I seem to be using every chance I get, called Crystal as a highlight under my brow.

That might have been enough but I also went back in with Carbon, the most intense black matte (I love it so much), and generously lined top and bottom. I blended Carbon into the Cinderfella pretty aggressively and then applied more Cinderfella so I didn’t lose the mega sparkle.

Then I cleaned up with MAC wipes because, zomg, fallout like whoa. *laugh* It’s good to keep something on hang to clean up - I use the MAC wipes but I haven’t been using foundation at all lately. When I am, I use a clean brush or a q-tip to pick up/brush away spots of fallen color.

That was one night when I wished my quest for the perfect mascara was already over. I’m trying a Sephora sample right now and it’s fine for daily wear but I need some more drama.

For the record, I use the MAC wipes to take all this stuff off at the end of the night, too. Some people are sensitive to them but I love the mild exfoliation and how easy they are. When I don’t have them on hand, I don’t wear makeup.

Light blue eyeshadow with a bright yellow burst of color and a neutral highlight

I’ve been asking my husband, every morning, to pick out a color combination; this morning he chose blue and yellow. I keep thinking about makeup challenges and how to keep things interesting.

This is a simple look with four colors from MAC. I used Sky Blue, which is a permanent PRO color being repromoted with Dare to Wear, all over my lower lid. Then I put Bright Sunshine (though I suppose you could use Going Bananas, a C-Shock color that has been brought back for Dare to Wear, if you wanted a softer color) above the creas on the outer half of my eye area. It wasn’t bad just as it was at that point, but I wanted to add a little dimension. So I used Freshwater, a darker blue, in the inner corner and blended it into the Sky Blue. And then I used Ricepaper as a highlighter just under my brow and blended down into the Bright Sunshine.

Lately, the whole idea of contrast has been fascinating to me when it comes to makeup. So I think this isn’t the last time I’ll play with two wildly different colors.

The same blue and yellow eyeshadow as above, with a closed eyelid so the color placement can better be seen.

Hello again, y’all.

So I am an obsessed..er avid youtube make up video fan and I was inspired to try out one of xSparkage’s (AKA Leesha) looks. She has done some awesome themed looks and I decided to try out her Hulk inspired look today.

See her version here.

And here’s a preview with my eye closed.

More under the jump.
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When I read the eyeshadow_sluts community on Livejournal, it can be a really inspiring thing. It can also make me feel like makeup is only worthwhile if it involves 12 different colors that have all been expertly blended and then accented by fake lashes.

While makeup like that is awesome, it can be really intimidating. When I start to feel like that, I try to remember my very first MAC purchase.

I’d worn a lot of brightly colored makeup before but it had all been drugstore stuff. Loreal had some pigments that I was particularly into when I was in college. But the pigmentation is what separates the good stuff from the drugstore stuff.

So, one afternoon I found myself in the local MAC store and a makeup artsit named Nick did my eyeshadow and set me down a path of bright colors. It was a very simple look. Bitter - a bright chartruese - all over my eyelid, from lashes to browbone, thick black liquid liner, and loads of black mascara.

It was amazing. Especially when I added some Crimson Lipmix.

Wearing bright colors does not require an art degree, fifty blending brushes, and hours of experimentation. Pick one color, a bright one, that you really really love. Grab some black liquid liner (I am so much in love with the Penultimate Liner in RapidBlack by MAC - it’s like a brush marker and is super easy to apply) and yourr favorite dramatic mascara and go to town.

Use a good eyeshadow base. I cannot tell you enough how good the Urban Decay Primer Potion is. I know I say that every time but it’s true! When I bought Bitter, I didn’t have the Primer Potion - it hadn’t been released yet. The Bitter was still incredibly bright but when I bought eyeshadow base and wore it? There was an appreciable difference, y’all.

Last night I bought a color called Blue Calm. It’s like Electric Eel, but with shimmer. I bought it and the Penultimate liner pen and knew they were meant to be together. Which is why tonight, I’m wearing the Blue Calm and the liner and very little else. I added a little Sky Blue to the brow bone - Blue Calm doesn’t sheer out the way Bitter does - as a blendable highlight.

This blue is not particularly calm, not matter what they name it.

Don’t be afraid of brights! Even if you’re just getting into makeup and you feel like your technique is a little shaky, you can wear them. That’s all there is to it.

I got my Detrivore Cosmetics order in and, I have to say, these shadows ROCK.

Marianne has already reviewed Detrivore, but I just thought I’d add my two cents. First, I highly recommend Swine, a pink color that has some serious mileage possibilities. It’s a bright baby pink with a touch of salmon in the package, but the color payoff is much more baby-pink with a punch. Also? Today, I am wearing Swine with Weaponry, which I can only describe as lavendar with a punch.

The color payoff on these is pretty high quality. Do they replace M.A.C. pigments? Not at all. But I still suggest you try them.

Edit: This pic does no justice to this look–it’s a webcam and it has washed the pic out. Trust me: the shadows are HOT.

My eye this morning:

Detrivore Swine on the lid and Weaponry on the outside, blended with M.A.C. Digit on the top and lined with M.A.C. pigment in blue brown.

Just wanted to share a quick look I did on Thanksgiving Day - a bit springy for a fall holiday perhaps, but it made me happy.

MAC's Bright Sunshine and Lime Crime's Lime Criminal

Makeup doesn’t have to be complicated, see. I used the Urban Decay Primer Potion as a base, then applied MAC’s Bright Sunshine all over my lid with a brush up into the crease. Bright Sunshine looks a lot like Chrome Yellow if you’re just holdin them next to each other but where Chrome Yellow is a vivid matte shade (and is sometimes a little hard to work with), Bright Sunshine has loads of shimmer. It’s just as vivid, but with different characteristics. That’s the beauty of different finishes even when you have similar colors.

Once I had the Bright Sunshine on, I pulled out my crease brush. I use this one from Sephora.

I used the crease brush to place a bit of Lime Crime’s Lime Criminal in the crease. I blended it slightly above as well and down over some of the Bright Sunshine.

There are a lot of different brushes you can get but I definitely recommend a crease brush. Get two - they make super brushes for blending when you have all of your colors applied.

I used Digit, which is a very pale lavender frost from MAC, as a brow bone highlight; I used a clean brush to apply it but used the crease brush with the Lime Criminal on it to blend.

You know, there are a lot of really awesome makeup tutorials with looks that are really complicated. I love that stuff, but sometimes you just don’t have the time or the energy. You do not have to spend half an hour on your makeup (or more) to have a good time with it. You don’t have to do complicated looks to use bright colors, either. This took five minutes - and that included the time I spend lining my waterline with black kohl and applying a layer of Diorshow Blackout mascara. Lipstick took an extra minute but I did that in the car (I wasn’t driving!) so I’m not sure it counts. *grin*

I am thankful for makeup.

How many times have I heard people tell me that pairing a bold or dark lip with a smokey eye is a no no.

As you get to know me you’ll discover that I habitually break the rules.

Lately I have been doing some really enjoyable smokey looks.

BAM.

This is my usual face routine (my skin is astonishingly oily and I prefer a very matte look and at some point will do a picture by picture or youtube video about matte skin) Milk of Magnesia primer, a little Happy minerals powder primer to smooth things out, BE foundation in Deep and Mac Blot powder in deep dark.

If you click on that picture for the big version you’ll also spy my very pretty Nars Orgasm knockoff MIlani blush. And the lips, a Chanel Vamp knockoff made by Sinful Colors a few years ago with some Mac Cherry Blossom lipglass.

And the eyes.

I used L’Oreal H.I.P paint in a color that I’ve forgotten the name of (creamy beige-y color), Mac pigmenti n French Violet on the lid, Mac Grape Pigment in the crease, mac fluidline on the waterline and a crap ton of mascara.

The only thing I would change, next time I’m doing matte lips.

It’s a little goth and very glam. And yes this is a daytime look for me.  I wore this last Thursday.

If you want to know my steps or what brushes I used just ask.

Happy Monday my Glamorous Homies.

Last night, JT and I hit the Mac Pro Store (Pro Stores carry a lot of products you can’t get at regular counters, many of which are designed for use by professional makeup artists) for a bit of playing around. Going to the makeup store without a game plan, with no real idea of what you’re looking for, can be a really good chance to try out colors you’ve never really embraced before (it can also be a little hard on the wallet so go with a budget in mind if you are willing to spend anything at all - exploratory makeup trips can actually be just exploratory, after all).

That’s how I wound up with pinky-purple amazing eyeshadow and YELLOW powder on my face last night.

The yellow powder is a beauty powder, a loose and shimmery powder that comes in several different shades. It’s a pro product, so you’ll need to find a nearby Pro Store to test this stuff out. Daisy Dust isn’t gold. It really is a shimmery yellow. It’s an insanely awesome highlight, right above your blush. I’m hoping to get some good photos of it in action soon - the problem is that it is kind of subtle. *grin* In as much as anything I wear is subtle.

I also wound up experimenting with some nude, shimmery (I’m loving shimmer lately) lip products. Creme Cerise, a lipstick from the recent Cult of Cherry collection, really broke through my nude-lip-resistence and now I’m kind of drawn to them.

But, still, the eyes are my favorites. Here’s today’s look.

I swear, I'm wearing that yellow powder. I told you it was subtle.

This was a bit of an experiment. I started with Urban Decay Primer Potion, as usual, then applied some Creme Color Base (I mixed White with Pink Shock - be wary of using pinks or reds around your eyes, some people have allergies to the dyes; fortunately, I do not) to my lid and blended that up towards my brow. I used Stars & Rockets (a very iridescent pink-purple shadow) on my lid, Tilt (another iridescent, this time more purple-blue) in my crease, and Pink Opal (a white-pink iridescent pigment) as a highlight. I blended the heck out of things, then used a very fine brush to apply a thin line of Waveline (a navy Fluidline) as close to my lashed as possible. Some dramatic mascara finished off the eyes.

What lip would you pair with this? Of course, the “rule” is that you’re supposed to go for a neutral lip when you do bold eyes but I’m never that concerned with the rules. I custom mixed a lip color for this - I’ll show you that tomorrow.