The Makeup Box

Weekend FOTD: Soft Glimmering Bronze lids and Metallic Nude Lips

—

A quick but polished look with a bit of glimmer on the lids and lips. This is something I might also wear for work, though I might go a little easier on the eyes and not make it so smoky.

Read More

Blue Lagoon Tutorial: Color-block Eye Look with Nude Lips

—

I got a request recently for looks to wear with nude lips.  One fun option is to wear a colorful eye look with it, because you can get away with a lot more colors on the eyes than you would if you were wearing a stronger lip color.

I’m placing 3 strong colors side by side (coppery-bronze, a golden-aqua, and a vibrant purple). 

—

You will need:

• A navy base - I used an old Sasatinnie blue gel liner, but any metallic pencil would work.
• A bronze/tan shadow - I blended a whole bunch of peachy tan browns from the 88 Warm palette but you can just use any brown soft tan shade you have.
• A medium blue-green shimmer - I used Lakeshore by Coastal Scents, which reflects gold. You don’t have to use a duochrome like I did. A nice strong aqua or teal would work just fine.
• A strong, bright grape - I used a Coastal Scents hot pot again, in Amethyst.

Read More

The Copper Cat - Graphic Winged Eye

—

This is an updated recreation of a winged graphic eye, below, that I did awhile back, except this time, I used a copper metallic shadow instead of purple. You can always switch the lid color according to your preference.

This latest version is a little more precise and not quite as dramatic, so it’s up to you which version you prefer to try.

This eye shape can be done for:

• Mono-lids, hooded lids, regular lids
• Any eye color; though copper looks especially good with blue eyes, or if you are a woman of color.

Read More

Lakeshore: Sage-green and blue shadow tutorial (Coastal Scents Hot Pot)

—

I’m on a roll with these hot pots! Today, I’m using one of my ABSOLUTE favorite shades in the collection.

Lakeshore is a gorgeous duochrome smoky green-blue with a golden sheen, and very close in appearance to a much more expensive and inaccessible shadow shade “Chrome” from I Nuovi. Using duochromes is always fun because they have enough dimension to make any look more “complex” than it really is.

Despite the $1.99 price tag, the texture for this particular shade is great; smooth and creamy-feeling, and the payoff is really good as well. If you like oceanic shades, this is definitely one shadow to have in your collection.

—

Step 1: Use a flat angled brush to first apply a deep-dark navy shade (Coastal Scents Rainstorm) thickly along the upper lash line like a liner. Extend at the outer corners just slightly. If you own MAC Deep Truth, just use that instead.

—

Step 2: Using a fluffy blending brush, I applied a soft sage-green shade (Coastal Scents Spruced Up) to the inner 1/3 of the lids. 

—

Step 3: Using the duochrome blue-gold, do a V shape, wrapping the green applied earlier. The lower leg should be along the lash line and the top leg should be right along the hollow of the socket line.

—

Step 4: Reinforcing the dark blue. At the outer corner, run the same navy from earlier (Rainstorm) along the outer curve, smoking it into the blue-gold slightly. Curve down into the lash line.

—

Step 5: Run the navy along the outer half of the lower lash line, and the duochrome blue-gold along the inner half, using the flat angled brush.

Then curl lashes and apply mascara.