The Makeup Box

Driftwood: Seafoam Green and Rich Bronze Look for Day (88 Warm Palette)

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Straightforward does not need to be boring. Here’s a look that you can easily wear for day because I matched a soft seafoam green with a rich brown and soft champagne. The green is almost “faded” in tone so it’s definitely a bit more fun, but not too loud for work or school.

The first shade is located near the bottom left corner of the 88 Warm palette. (You can get this from both Coastalscents.com as well as BHcosmetics.com. I don’t detect any difference in the quality and they’re likely to come from the same manufacturers.)

The Neutrals are near the central column. The first is a deeper cocoa bronze right at the bottom, right of the middle. The champagne comes higher up to the left of the center, a little above the maroon shade near the center of the palette. Both of the neutrals are shimmery, so if you prefer mattes, you can always replace the ones I used with similar shades on the palette.

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Step 1: Start by buffing the seafoam green onto the inner half of the lids.

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Step 2: Now, buff the rich bronze-brown onto the outer half of the lids. (This shade looks quite similar to MAC Bronze shadow, but is slightly lighter.)

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Step 3: Now, pack some pale champagne gold onto your brush and then spritz it with a little water, eye drops or Fix+. THEN pat it gently down the center of your lid, going over and building up as needed, until you get a nice gold sheen.

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Step 4: For definition, I ran a bronze pencil along the inner corner of the lower lid (Sephora Flashy Liner in Flashy Copper) and a dark navy blue to the outer half of the upper lid. I used a discontinued MAC pencil called Blooz, but as with all pencils, you can use ANY similar shade from any brand you choose. As long as the pencil has good color payoff, the brand doesn’t matter.

Then just finish by curling lashes and applying mascara or falsies as needed!

Elven Green Dual-Color Eye Tutorial (Coastal Scents Hot Pots)

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Green is a beautiful color but it can be garish all on its own too. 

Here’s a simple way to wear a rich green look but keep things still looking classy and “grown-up” for Fall by pairing it with a burgundy brown. I’ve done this before, and using a rich red-toned brown brings out the green better than if you use just a regular dull brown, taupe, grey, or black.

I paired Coastal Scents’ Kiwi Green Hot Pot with Cherry-Chocolate, both old favorites of mine, and then I jazzed it up with a little pale green glitter around the inner corner of my eye, which you can leave out if you’re wearing the look for day.

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Step 1: I began by applying the cherry-chocolate shade to the outer half of the lids and also lightly along the outer halves of the lower lash line. 

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Step 2: On the rest of the lids (inner halves) simply pack the green shadow.

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Step 3: This is the optional step; use a little glitter glue (brands like Sally’s has some) or clear mascara to pick up some glitter and then gently press it along the inner portion of your socket line, following the hollow above your eye ball.

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

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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!

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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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”.

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Velvet Bloom (Wet n Wild Knock On Wood Trio, with MAC Rebel Lipstick)

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A rather straightforward look (which I believe will be flattering on most people) featuring soft eyes a rose-colored lips for those who want to play up their pout more than their eyes. 

It’s getting to the end of Summer, so I wanted to start getting into the duskier, more romantic colors like rose, cocoa brown, dusty pinks. This made me whip out Rebel lipstick from MAC and my Knock On Wood trio from Wet n Wild. 

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Step 1: I used the middle shade in the Knock on Wood trio (soft chocolate brown) and blended that lightly onto the inner and outer 1/3 of the lid. The color should go up to the hollow of your socket, so even if you have hooded or mono-lids, you can wear this look.

If you don’t have the Knock on Wood palette, this is a pretty easy shade to find. I just recommend shades that aren’t too metallic for this look. Go for something matte or semi-matte, to get that soft-focus finish.

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Step 2: In the center of the lid, I used the softest shade in the palette, the dusty beige-pink browbone shade at the top, and just blended it on, buffing into the brown earlier so there are no obvious lines.

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Step 3: To finish the eye, I simply used a pale beige/ivory shimmer pencil (Majolica Majorca #71, or ANY ivory eye shadow if you don’t have a pencil) to brighten just the inner corners. 

Then I finished with black mascara on top and bottom lashes.

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The finished eye should look satiny and subtly contoured, but not like a ton of eye makeup.

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On the cheeks, I dusted on a soft pink (Bourjois Little Round Pot Eyeshadow #15; use any soft pink you have that isn’t too strong or bright!) and then slicked on MAC Rebel over my lips, which looks really dark and vampy in the tube but goes on a lovely rose color.

Punky-Pretty (Fluorescent Hot Pink with Smoky Cut-Crease)

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This is a very dramatic look pairing hot pink with a smoky dark russet brown. Definitely more for the clubs or a party than a day out with the girls!

I used new shades from my BH Cosmetics shadows:

WM20 - An true matte hot pink

MS12 - Dark sparkly blackened red-brown

WS07 - A mid-tone satin mauve pink

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Step 1: First run a black khol along your upper and lower water lines.

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Step 2: Using a pointed brush for control, first draw a line diagonally up and out at the outer corner of the eyes. Then pick up more shadow and run it along the socket line, stopping before you reach the inner corners. 

Smoke the entire line out to get a really thick brown swatch.

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Step 3: Pack a neon hot pink along the entire lid, leaving only the inner corners empty. Then run the pink along the outer halves of the lower lash line as well, extending the line up and out, right under the dark brown wing created earlier (below).

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Step 4: To illuminate the eyes a little, apply a paler mauve pink to the inner corners of the lid. 

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Step 5: Finish by checking to see if you need to touch up your black liner. (To help it last longer and look more intense, dab a matte black shadow over the pencil to set it.) 

Then finish by curling lashes and applying black mascara.

Poison Ivy Green (Lush Green Makeup)

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I was inspired to do a green look since I just did a post on green items I liked, and since I seldom combine matte and shimmers, I figured I should do a simple look showing how you can use an “accent” shade down the center of the eye as a subtle way to enhance an eye look.

You’ll need

• a pale green (almost lime) matte shadow. I just used the 88 Matte Palette
• a dark matte brown. This is a generic shade you can find from most places, and I simply used one of the darker shades in the 88 palette
• a shimmery medium green (the one I used was L’oreal’s Permanent Kaki Infallible Shadow)

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Step 1: First create your outer V. Run the dark brown along the outer halves of your socket line, using your own bone structure as a guide.

The easy way to visualise where the arc should end is to imagine a line going from the outer corner of your eye up to the end of your brow. Don’t let the color extend past there or you could make your eyes look droopy.

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Step 2: Finish off your outer V with the dark brown and smoke it out a little to soften the look, and then pack a pale lime-tone green onto the rest of the lid. 

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Step 3: Now, pick up a medium metallic green shade, and then go over the center of the lids where the green and brown meet. This not only softens and blends out the color but also layers a very nice transition shade over the 2 matte shadows earlier, without turning the look into a very metallic or shimmery one.

(If you want to jazz up any matte look in future, just use a shimmer as the transition color instead of another matte. It adds dimension but doesn’t look over the top.)

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Step 4: Finish by running a brown pencil along the upper and lower lash line, then curling lashes, and applying mascara.