The Makeup Box

Soft Mauve Pastels - Stacked Liner and Purple-toned Lips! (MAC Asian Flower)

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I’m not a fan of MAC’s Sheen Supreme Lipsticks, because I find them goopy and poorly-formulated compared even to the drugstore versions. It’s too soft so a lot of product comes off unevenly and clings to your lips in patches. 

This is more a tutorial just to demonstrate what you can do with a softer purple-toned lipstick, and here are 3 alternative products to try because they have easier textures to work with:

• If you are very pale, try NYX Power. 
• If you are fair to medium, try Inglot Lip Paint 59 or Revlon Lip Butter in Gum Drop
• If you have caramel-to-dark skin, use MAC’s Up The Amp.

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Step 1: I first packed the purple shade to the inner half of the lids, going all the way up to the inner corners of the brow. It’s going to look really weird right now, but just bear it. The whole point is to create a soft, water-color effect on your lids, and not keep the color narrowly confined below the crease.

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Step 2: Using the orange, go from the center of the lid outwards and extend SLIGHTLY in a wing-like shape. The color also goes up past the socket line, to just under the brows. What you’ll get on your eye is a sort of trapezoid shape with a flat “table-top”.

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Step 3: The trickier part is stacking the liner, but then it’s really not super hard to do. You can skip this if you don’t have a purple liner since the effect is very subtle. (That, or you can put this on your Xmas wish-list. Yes, I’m such an enabler…)

1. First apply a THICK line of the purple shade.
2. Then after it sets, apply a THIN line of black below and very close to the lash line AND under the lashes as well just so you don’t leave a pale visible line of flesh below.

I find fine brush tips are easier to control than marker-pen type felt-tips, but whichever you can get a neater line with would work. And yes, using 2 gel liners will work too though the line might not be quite as crisp as liquid.

NOTE: You CAN choose to go with either just black or purple liner, instead of stacking both, but this is more subtly dramatic.

Soft Velvet-Lavender (MAC Crystal and Satellite Dreams)

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After the really bright and acidic looks, it’s time for a break with a softer, more wearable option that you can throw on for work or play.

I dug out some MAC shadows that I forgot about, and the only thing you need to remember is that you can easily soften a bright color for work or school by layering it over a soft tone like I did here.

• Deep smoky brown or grey (I used BH Cosmetics MS17, a soft grey)
• A pale duochrome lavender grey (MAC Crystal) 
• A brighter medium true purple (MAC Satellite Dreams)

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Step 1: Simply ground your look with some definition and shape by applying the smoky grey to the outer 1/3 of the lids and along the lower lash line. It should blend up to the socket line only, not any further as this isn’t a dramatic shape.

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Step 2: On the rest of the lids, and the inner half of the lower lash line, apply the soft lavender grey. If you have deeper skin tones, go for a truer purple because Crystal can end up looking just pure grey on very dark skin tones. 

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Step 3: Now pick up the strongest color, the medium bright purple (Satellite Dreams for me) and just pack that down the center of the lids, over a part of the pale lilac earlier. Without this step, the look can seem almost neutral because of how soft the pale shade was. This is the step that gives the look a little oomph and a beautiful transition from light to bright to dark.

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Step 4: Finish with mascara, and that’s all there is to it.