The Nature of Beauty: January 2011

Monday, January 24, 2011

Lady Marmalade!

Notice any differences between this pic and the ones from my previous posts? Anyone? Bueller?? Well there's two major changes: new camera for one--all the better to capture the actual look than my little iPhone 3G (bless it's poor lil' 3 megapixel camera!). While not exactly the same as what I see in the mirror, it did a bang-up job of taking a pic in lower indoor light without a flash and producing a sharper, clearer pic that showcases the various shades used in my looks.

The other thing is--I was so excited to test drive the new shades that although I did indeed begin the look with clean and moisturized skin and primed my eyelids, I did not apply foundation, finishing powder, or concealer!! Yes, faithful followers, I was that excited ;)

Yeah, so you can see the flaws I usually hide under color correctors: a beauty mark under my left eye, a red spot that gives away the location of a broken blood vessel above my left brow (which my little sister swears is the result of quirking said eyebrow skeptically once too often), and a bit of dark puffy baggage under my eyes. Eeek.

The crater (scar) nearly dead center between my brows I never even try to hide--it's out & proud, a leftover from what used to be an obligatory childhood wrassle with chicken pox (kiddies these days get to skip it and get vaccinated instead ;p)

"Lady Marmalade" with a flash

Here's how I prettied up my eyes today:

1) Foil the "OMG freakin' amazing coppery orange" shadow of your choice--mahalo Amanda T. for the excellent color description lol... (I hear Napalm by Concrete Minerals is well loved by Emily's fans) and apply to lid and outer 2/3 of lower lid

2) Blend a rich shimmery chocolate brown into crease and outer corner; take more of this shade on an angled liner brush and line just the outer 2/3 of upper lid

3) Pat a bit of metallic bronze over the top of the chocolate brown

4) Apply a shimmery nude/champagne on the brow bone and blend blend blend into the upper edge of the chocolate brown/metallic bronze to make a soft pretty gradient

5) Dab a bit more of the champagne shade into inner corners of eyes and inner 1/3 of lower lid

6) Line lower waterlines with black eyeliner (I used e.l.f.'s Mineral Eye Liner in Black)

7) Blend medium brown shadow into brows to shape/define (I used my new fav brow shade--Indy by Mixology)

8) Apply primer to lashes (I used MAC Prep + Prime) and add 1-2 coats of black mascara (today I'm wearing MAC False Lashes mascara in Black--loving this right now!!)

9) Mix the coppery orange + shimmery nude champagne shadows with clear gloss & apply to lips

So I cheated by not applying foundation, etc. to the face; I think I'd rather adhere to my usual routine and wear foundation/concealer as well as perhaps some mineral glow or bronzer to amp up the glam ;) Next time...

Bonus: this isn't a vlog, but here's the closest thing I've got to an outtake

trying to figure out your new "point-n-shoot" can be frustrating...

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Starry Night

Disclaimer: All content is my own opinion only and should in no way be construed as a paid endorsement or representation of any companies named. I receive no compensation whatsoever from any makeup or other companies named/linked to in my posts for my looks or reviews. I just like to have fun with all the pretty pretty colors...

LOTD January 21, 2011: Starry Night

Updated March 20, 2011. What could be better, you ask, than having a love affair with a gorgeous line of mineral makeup? With friendly customer service and great quality, beautiful product at reasonable prices? And a delicious "of the month" club that sends three lovely limited edition shades to your door for $15 a month? Not to mention a virtual community of fans that offer each other not only helpful tips, pics of the looks they've created and hauls received, but also emotional support for the trials and triumphs of each other's everyday lives? What more can a makeup fangirl want?

How about the opportunity to collaborate with the makeup-maker herself to create your own custom shades drawn from your imagination? Shadows that are not only dreamed up by you, they are named by you--would that make you feel all warm and gooey inside?

Can you imagine going to MAC, Chanel, Dior--heck, even Cover Girl!--and saying, "yes, hello, Major Cosmetic-Industry Entity, I really really really love your stuff and had this great idea for makeup shades I'd like you to create, and would you mind terribly putting my humble little name on the label right alongside yours as you sell these bits of gorgeous? I'm not asking for any profit-sharing here, just to bask a little in the glory with you while you make money off my creativity..."

Hope you have a padded seat for your landing (ouch!). Still, a girl could wish, right?

Well, wish granted! (okay, not MACChanelDiorCoverGirl, but hear me out!) Several indie MMU companies such as Mineral Maven offer the opportunity to collaborate with you to create the custom color(s) of your dreams; such options are available either in their shop policies (such as on Etsy) or as a "custom" or "special request" listing. Here's an example from Mineral Maven's policies page:

Custom orders are welcomed, although payment is required prior to any Custom work being done. Please note that custom orders may take longer. We will let you know the expected turn-around time for your individual order (TAT's may change due to availablity of product and dificulty of project). If you need the order expedited please let us know and we will make every attempt to accomodate you!

How freakin' cool is that??

Now I admit, sadly, that this look does not make use of Mineral Maven or other MMU companies endorsed/approved by such consumer education/protection groups as Project Safe Indie or Healthy Beauty Project; it in fact uses shades sold by a controversial brand, so I have chosen to omit the actual names involved. However please feel free to use whatever similar shades you own or look to the inspiring women of the communities mentioned above to get recommendations on reasonable dupes (look-alike shades) that you can use to recreate this or any of the looks from this blog that you admire ;)

So with that disclaimer (#2, right? lol) here is: Starry Night!

Now this girl, you should have seen her in person!! But the pics, lowly and fuzzy around the edges as they are, will have to do *sighs* I am happy that some of the absolutely crazy glittery-ness of the sparkly blue shadow showed up though!

On the face:

Mineral foundation to match my skin tone, mineral finishing powder, and mineral color correctors to veil a few little flaws ;)

Eyes were primed this time with a new primer I'm trying out: e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow Primer (for $3 it's worth a test drive even if I don't like it). This stuff has a completely different texture from the one I've been using; e.l.f.'s goes on quite a bit more slippery and has a more creamy feel. I don't know how this will wear all day, since I did the look in the evening, and my lids tend to be on the oily side to begin with. But it felt good and seemed to grab the shadows just fine, so it suited my purposes for this look ;)

The rest of the look went on as follows:

1) Pat your choice of metallic gold/bronze shade onto lid; don't be afraid to pack it on for a super-glam look!

2) Pat a smoky midnight blue (either with gold glitter already in it or mix with gold glitter such as this one, available from Mineral Maven) into crease and outer corner of eye and blend slightly upward carefully--the shade I have is pre-loaded with gold microglitter so fallout is a def possibility--though that's not exactly a bad thing (it's great for a night out!). Foil more of this shade/mix and paint into crease/outer corner and across outer 2/3 of lower lid.

3) Blend a satiny nude beige onto brow bone and dab a bit more into the inner corners and inner 1/3 of lower lid

4) Line upper lash line and lower waterlines with black eyeliner (I used e.l.f.'s mineral eye liner for this look--not bad stuff but not as easy to apply or as intense as MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack, my old standby)

5) Blend matte brown shadow into brows to shape & define (this time I used a more medium brown shade, Indy by Mixology--sooo in love with this right now!!)

6) Apply black mascara to lashes

7) Sweep your fav bronzer over cheeks, forehead, etc. to add a bit of golden sheen to the face

8) Mix more of the metallic gold/bronze with a bit of a rosy bronzer and gold shimmer gloss (I used e.l.f.'s Mineral Lip Gloss in Trophy Wife) and apply to lips

Seriously, this made me look like I had a little galaxy on my eyelids!! Incredible!!!

For me, this is an evening (on the town) look, something I'd wear when I really want to knock 'em out! You definitely need some attitude (translation: confidence) when wearing such a dramatic look; with a darker lip shade, I could even wear this on the stage ;) With my "drag-queen" false lashes, lol! There's even a song that was one of my first "hapa-haole" (modern hula with English lyrics) routines I learned that began, "Stars that shine, tonight...casting magic charms on you"

Yeah.

Poliahu

Updated March 20, 2011. When I got the shades from this recent haul in my hot little hands (feverish again, if you'll recall, because I was sick when these beauties arrived!) and recovered from the world's most blah NYE, I put this look together.

And fell in serious makeup lust. Lust, I say!! Here's the look:

(I call her Poliahu for the snow goddess who lives on Mauna Kea on the island of Hawai'i. She is legendary for, among other things: battling with Pele for dominance of the island, visiting her sister who lives on Maui and thereby blanketing the summit of Haleakala with snow while in residence, and having affairs with the significant others of a number of goddesses. Kind of a firecracker, for an ice queen, huh?)

You know the rules: start with clean, moisturized skin, apply your fav foundation (and finishing powder, if desired) and corrector/concealer as needed, then prime the eyelids with whichever primer works best for you. The more I play in the Wide World of Makeup, the more I'm learning that although there may be some standards and objective measures for determining quality, determining a favorite is an intensely personal process--so hey, find what works best for you. By the time I did this FOTD, I'd tried three different mineral makeup eye primers and thus far I have yet to find my fav. So I used the first one that came to hand, along with a mineral foundation that was a good match for my face. I also set the foundation with a bare sweep of mineral finishing powder and hid my little flaws with color correctors in green and apricot.

Ready for the eyes? Here we go...

1) Pat a sparkly blue-silver shade of your choice on the lid only. This kind of shade is so incredible on my nani browns, the pics really don't do it justice, and I absolutely love it!! Seriously, as I was applying it, I kept stopping to admire it in the mirror and saying to myself "this is freakin' amazing!!"

2) Pat a smoky plum purple shadow into the crease and outer corner of the eye, blending upward slightly and dragging the color down onto the outer 2/3 of lower lid. Also an awesome shade for brown eyes, and like the ice blue, I kept stopping to gaze dumbly at it...

3) Apply a shimmery ice blue to brow bone and blend down into upper edge of the plum purple shadow to smoke it out and make a pretty gradient; take more of the ice blue and dab into inner corners of eyes and pat onto inner 1/3 of lower lid.

4) Line upper lash line and lower waterline with a violet gel/creamliner

5) Blend matte brown shadow (like Kettle by Pink Quartz Minerals) into brows and apply mascara to lashes.

6) Mix a dusky rose shadow with a shimmery gold gloss (I used Lip Shine in Golden Prism by Aveda, a gift I got for Christmas)

I'm not kidding you, it breaks my heart sometimes that I don't yet have a camera that can take a nice clear pic of looks like this!! Sigh...

By the way, like the little bits of shimmery gray in my ears? Go check out TotusMel's shop...she has some incredibly lovely and delicate adornments for ears, hair, neck, wrist/ankles, and face--fantastic!!

I have to say this is definitely a day or night look, but not necessarily a work look (well not for a social worker like myself--usually have to tone it down for the j-o-b). I love the colors so much though, that I would gladly wear this look again...and again...

Oh, wait! I did!! I wore this beauty out to a First Friday (ladies' night out) with my sister-friends. We went to a crab shack this time, so the lips were looking not so shimmery by night's end (though plenty shiny LOL), but the eyes stayed glamoroso all evening! Gorgeous and long wearing? That is beautiful...

Honey Sweet

I'm looking a bit surprised here: maybe because I'm wearing such a SHOCKING pink?? lol

I have to say that these pics don't quite do the look, or the honeysuckle shadow, justice; the shade is absolutely gorgeous on the eyes and lips (probably nails too but that's a different blog post, eh?)!! For some reason--probably the florescent lighting in my bathroom--the pics ended up a bit washed-out. Oh well...on to the look!

By now my faithful followers know my makeup application routine: mineral foundation applied to clean, moisturized skin (would you believe I make my own cream? In a blender??) and then topped off with a mineral finishing powder. Now I tend to be a bit heavy-handed with my foundation brush, so I end up applying my concealers after my foundation (a green color corrector on a broken blood vessel I have on my forehead and an apricot shade under my eyes) and then patting a tad more foundation over the top and BLENDING THE HECK out of the edges.

After applying a primer to my eyelids, I continued the application as follows:

1) Blend a pale frosted pink cream eyeshadow/liner over the lid

2) Pat a shimmery neutral with peachy-pink tones over the pink cream shadow and blend upward slightly into crease

3) Pat your choice of honeysuckle pink into crease and outer corner of eye and blend slightly upward; take a bit more of this shade and drag down across outer 1/2 of lower lid

4) Apply a frosted pale pink shadow to brow bone and blend down into upper edge of the honeysuckle pink; apply more pale pink shadow to inner corner of eye and inner 1/2 of lower lid

5) Line upper lash lines and lower waterlines with black gel eyeliner (I used MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack)

6) Blend matte brown eyeshadow into brows to shape & define (I used Kettle loose mineral matte shadow by Pink Quartz Minerals--really simple and lovely matte shadows!)

7) Apply black mascara to upper lashes (I used Aveda Mosscara in Black Forest)

8) Mix the honeysuckle pink shadow with lip balm (mine was homemade) and apply to lips

Et voila!

This look was fun, flirtatious, and definitely daytime-wearable; for night you could amp it up by intensifying (maybe even foiling) the honeysuckle pink on the lid, adding more mascara or fake lashes, and wearing a darker shade on the lips.

See? Shocking pinks can be your friend ;)