The Makeup Box

Baroque Flower-Girl Shimmer: Smoky Eye Makeup with a Pastel Twist

—

One more queued tutorial for those who are doing any floral or candy-themed looks this Halloween! This is a hazy, colorful look grounding colorful pastels with the strength of a dark shimmery wood-brown so you get the rich sexiness of a smoky eye look, but paired with bright and soft colors so it’s complex but soft.

You just need

• lid shade: a bronze-brown shadow (e.g. MAC Tempting)
• defining shade: a rich purple (I used MAC Satellite Dreams)
• highlight shade: a pale pink (L’oreal Forever Pink)
• pencils: 1 matching the lid shade (brown) and 1 matching the defining shade (I used Bourjois pencils and it might be hard to find for those of you in the US, so just go with NYX or any brand you can get hold of with lots of colorful metallic pencils!)

P.S. You should know that you can actually choose different colors for your look. E.g. grey on the lid, green on the socket and pale blue as highlights. Experiment!

—

Step 1: First, apply a dark eye shadow base over your lids. You can use a grey/black pencil and blend it out, or something like MAC Blackground Paint Pot or the dark primer from the Kat von D line. Just blend it up towards the socket line in a rounded shape. (Don’t wing it out.)

—

Step 2: In the center, on the lid itself, apply the medium brown shade. The dark base below will make it look more intense and also give it a richness.

—

Step 3: Now using a smaller brush and the defining shade, which should be the most colorful and strong of the 3 you choose, run it along the otuer perimeters of your socket, covering the last bits of the dark base you applied earlier. 

Run it along the lower lash line as well so when you close your eyes, it looks like a ring of color surrounding the neutral shade in the center. DO NOT blend the 2 shades into each other! You will get a messy, muddy look.

—

Step 4: Using a soft brush again, pick up some of the pale pink and then apply it to the inner corners of the eyes, fading in an arc above the purple but keeping it strongest at the inner corners.

Then do the same from the outer corners of the lower lid, inwards. Blend it outwards over the tops of your cheekbones if you’re using this for a Halloween look. It’s very “pixie-ish”.

—

Low-cost Burnished Bronze Look for Work/School: Coastal Scents Bungalow Gold (worn on NC25-30 skin)

—

The entire look was done using extremely affordable products. I’m featuring some of my new favorites today. The images on the Coastal Scents site aren’t often accurate so I swatched them above for viewing.

• Coastal Scents Hot Pot in Bungalow Gold - this is one of the newer Hot Pots, a beautiful shimmery metallic-bronze shade
• Coastal Scents Hot Pot in Chocolate Brown - also known previously as S35, this is a deep taupe shade with a faintest hint of plum; often compared to MAC Satin Taupe, although this is deeper and has more grey
• I also used Maybelline’s Gel Liner in 02, which is a shimmery chocolate.

—

Step 1:  Begin by first using a flat angled brush to line the upper lash line from outside in using a deep taupe shadow, angling diagonally downward so there is a slight wing. Run in along the outer half of the lower lash line as well.

—

Step 2: Use a soft blending brush to buff a rich bronze shadow over the entire lid. Blend up beyond the socket line. Then use the angled brush to run the bronze shade all along the lower lash line as well. 

 —

Step 3: Now for the liner. Since you’ve already laid down an angled line earlier using the dark brown shadow, it should be a piece of cake going over it with the brown gel liner now. 

This should give you a very neat but not-too-harsh line.

—

Step 4: Finish by curling your lashes and applying black mascara. I’m using Maybelline Great Lash Black. Any black mascara you like will do.

Warm, Foiled Metal Look

—

This is a look that can go from day to night with just one single change; your lip color.

Both are pretty dramatic looks; make no mistake about it. The eye shadow is foiled for a very dramatic, metallic finish. But the main shade (a beige gold) is still “neutral” enough that you can wear a dark lip with it without things looking too over the top.

—

Step 1: Run some dark copper shadow (try something like MAC Antiqued) from the outer corners of your eyes inward, arcing along the hollow of your socket line, and the lower lash line as well.

Pack a bit more shadow into the outer corners and blend.

—

Step 2: In the center of the lid, I recommend a very high-shine golden-beige shadow. Try applying Urban Decay’s Half-Baked shadow dampened for a high-shine finish. If you have very pink undertones and Half-Baked is a bit yellow on you, try MAC Woodwinked.

—

Step 3: With a flat angled brush or a small detail brush, apply the first shadow (deep copper-brown) wet as a liner thickly along the lower lash line. If you own MAC’s Richground Fluidline, that would work as well.

—

Step 4: I cut a strip of lashes into 2 to create half strips, and then applied each to the outer corners of the eye. (If you’re new to false lashes and find them hard to apply, try this method. Just make sure you get lashes that are longest at the center and equally short at both ends.)

—

Step 5: Finish by applying black liquid liner over the lash strip to hide it completely, and applying a bit of mascara to bind your real lashes into the falsies.

—

On the Lips and Cheeks:

• I wanted a really burnished, tawny look, so I swirled MAC’s Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Dark with NYX Cinnamon blush (a bright vermillion coral) and dusted it high along the cheek bones.
• Natural/Nude lips: Revlon Super Lustrous Lip gloss in Nude Lustre
• Dramatic lips: MAC Deepest Wish Amplified lipstick

Forest: Matte Teal and Metallic Pink-Bronze Cat Eye

—

Dark matte teal isn’t a shade that I normally reach for, because green is a pretty dramatic color in many cases. To keep it from looking to flat and heavy, I’m contrasting it with a luminous bronze. MAC Pink Bronze, like its name implies, has an iridescent coral-pink sheen which stands out very well against a deep aqua-green like Revlon Matte Shadow in Tempting Teal.

I paired it with rather dramatic black gel liner so it’s not the typical smokey eye.

Step 1: Apply a dark black-toned base to the lid. This will keep the green very intense and deep.

—

Step 2: Apply the deep teal green to the outer halves of lids, keep the inner corners bare. With a soft blending brush, gently spread the color inward along the socket line, and then outwards into a wing.

—

Step 3: With the pink bronze pigment (you can use any metallic bronze or copper as well) pack the brighter color onto the inner halves of lids, overlapping the green that you spread inwards along the socket line.

—

Step 4: Now the eye lids are done, apply a black gel liner thickly along the upper and lower lash lines, ending in a long, thick flick at the outer corners. The flick should be a straight, upward extension of the lower line.

—

Step 5: Apply black mascara to finish.