Create Your Own Happiness

makeupbox:

Avant Garde Baby Blue: Smoky-Blue Eyes with Pop of Pastel Liner

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I think I seldom do anything that’s really against the grain in terms of makeup looks, so I just felt like exploring for once. 

I paired a pale sky blue with a dark smoky eye, for those of you who want a little kick to your usual evening routine.

Do let me state upfront that the liner I used (Lime Crime Uniliner in Blue Milk) is quite an expensive option, and I’m not aware of any dupe at this point, so if you want a similar effect on a budget, I recommend trying a matte baby-blue pencil (it will look a lot more subtle) or mixing liner sealant or mixing medium with a pale-blue pigment or shadow to create a liquid liner of your own.

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Step 1: Apply a deep, rich metallic blue over your lids, leaving just the center clean. It’s best to use a good primer beneath so the pigments will show up really strong and dimensional. Make sure to go under the eyes, alone the lower lash line as well, and keep the shape rounded, without any wings or flares at outer corners.

I used a limited edition MAC Shadow called Motorhead but there are PLENTY of beautiful deep blues around from brands like NYX, etc.

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Step 2: In the center, pack on a soft pastel blue (I used I Nuovi Aquamarine dust; you can use a pearly white or silver as well) and gently blend the edges outward into the deeper blue so there are no harsh lines. This should give a really beautiful contoured gleam.

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Step 3: You can finish off with black mascara and leave it be, or you can do what I did (for a kick) and apply a bright, matte baby blue liquid liner along the inner corners of lower lash line, and as a flick at the outer corners. For the lower lashes, to prevent smudging and smearing or general eye irritation, take care to apply to your tightline (where the lashes go into the flesh) rather than directly in the center of the inner rims.

For the flick at the outer corners, as always, follow the angle of your lower lash line. This is the best angle as the flick will work with your natural contours and never look like it is “off”. When your eye is open, the lower and upper lines should look beautiful together.

makeupbox:

Simple Foiled Silver Eye (How to work with gritty shadows like MAC Lustres)

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I was going through my stash of shadows the other day and rediscovered a few MAC Lustre shadows, which I seldom use because the texture is SO hard to work with. These are some of the least popular shadows from MAC (with the exception of a few shades like Tempting) because they look so gorgeous in the pan but give you TONS of fall-out.

Lustres are made up of lots of large gritty chunks of reflective pigments, very much like glitter but not as shiny. This means the little bits tend to flake or dust off, instead of sticking to your skin as well as finely-milled pigments. (Some of the MAC Mineralize shadows are also very much like these.)

So since I was such a sucker back then and snapped up a few shades before I realised how difficult they were to work with, I figure there might be others who love how they look but don’t know how to work with them. 

You can use either a flat shadow brush or a regular blending brush, but the trick is to always apply them damp. If you are using water, you can just dampen your brush (damp, not soaked!) and dip directly into the pot to pick up shadow. If you’re using Fix+ or any sealant or mixing medium, then you HAVE to pick up the shadow on your brush first, and then spray or dampen your brush before applying.

(If you use anything other than water, do not re-dip your brush back into pot.)

Your shadow will go on a lot stronger and stay on a lot longer.

NOTE: In general, most shadows should work go back to normal when dry (except for some poorer formulas so be mindful). Also, make sure your brush is really clean. Any oils or residue on it might transfer and seal over your shadows when dampened.

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Step 1: I wanted a little dimension and depth to the eye look so I applied a little rich, plum cream shadow to my lids. (Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow in Stiletto). I picked purple because the shadow I’m using (MAC Idol Eyes) has a slight lavender tone which I wanted to bring out.

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Step 2: Using a brush dampened with water, I picked up a generous amount of MAC Idol Eyes (silvery-lavender flakes with a soft gold highlight), and smoothed that onto the lids. If you want to get a really foiled effect like I did here, firmly brush in a single direction, then go back and repeat. Don’t rub back and forth in multiple directions. This helps the little flakes of pigments to sit lay flat and really shine.

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Step 3: For definition and a twist on the typical grey/silver eye, I am using the same purple base to line. Just use a flat synthetic brush (you can get plenty at the art store for very little money btw) to pick up a little color and then gently rub it along the lash line section by section.

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Step 4: To finish, I merely curled lashes and applied black mascara. (NARS Larger Than Life, which I happen to have on hand. Any black mascara will work.)

makeupbox:

Atlanteal (Aquataenia Palette)

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Welcome to the maiden voyage of the Aquataenia!

The team at Lime Crime generously sent me their new “Mermaid palette” for review, so I decided to give it a test-run via a tutorial instead so you can see and decide for yourself if you like how it does!

More detailed post with swatches to come at a later time.

Disclaimer: I am not paid by this, or any, company to give favorable features or reviews of products. Any opinions are strictly my own!

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Step 1: Apply the shimmery aqua shade (Atlanteal) onto the lid, within the crease area.

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Step 2: Using a smoky black (I just used my trusty Greed Palette from Wet n Wild; any black will do), apply black very lightly along the hollow of the eye socket from outside. Then blend the heck out of it.

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Step 3: With a thin brush, very carefully run the soft coral shade along the inner half of the socket line.

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Step 4: Run black liquid liner from the outside in. (Lay the flick first and then pull inwards in separate little strokes instead of trying to do it all in one single stroke.)

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Step 2: I applied mascara and then an aqua/teal metallic liner (Milani Liquif’ Eye in Aqua) along the lower waterline. This echoes the color of the lid.

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The finished look once again!

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Lime Crime products are vegan and cruelty-free.

The Aquataenia Mermaid palette retails for US$34.99.