The Makeup Box

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

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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). 

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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.

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Haiku featuring MAC Creme Cup, with special appearances by Essie Not Just a Lady

Pink creme

Trusty companion of mine

Back to MAC we go

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On a more serious note, I do love this nude-pink creme color. It’s my “brainless lip shade” because it goes with all kinds of eye looks and all types of outfits. The texture isn’t perfect because it does look slightly patchy or streaky over pigmented lips, but it’s not that noticeable from a distance, and the shade is lovely. 

Despite my backup, I’m still using that old broken one because I never use depotted lipsticks, and I can’t bear to just throw out the lipstick and bring the case back to MAC.

I’m determined to get down to the last dregs, even though every application is a Herculean feat of rolling-slash-lip-manouvering now that it technically functions like a ball of creamy-pink wax which happens to reside in a lipstick container. 

Smoldering Poolside Party Makeup (Powder Bronzing and 2 Lip Options!)

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If you’ve been following me for awhile, you know I RARELY do any fake-tanning or bronzing. Well, I got a request to do “poolside makeup” and it seemed like the perfect occasion to get really bronze (for me).

The makeup is actually really simple, and I’m using powder products, but if you can just replace everything I used with cream versions if you have dryer skin.

(If you are already very tan, go straight to Step 2.)

Main products:

• MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Dark: I love MSFs for bronzing because they look SO natural. Pick any bronzer that isn’t shimmery, and that has a hint more copper/red than your natural skin tone because a real tan is slightly red-toned, not taupe or grey. 
• MAC Tan pigment (lid shade)
• Sephora Moonbeam Prisma Chrome Shadow for highlighting (TheBalm Mary Luminizer or any other shimmery champagne gold would be perfect. Look for something that is translucent and won’t go on chalky-looking or you’ll end up making your skin look whiter.)
• Black kajal or liner

Step 1: The important thing to looking nice and bronzed is not to use your bronzer as a contouring powder. Use a very soft and fluffy brush (I used Sigma’s F35) to apply this ALL over your face lightly. Then go back over along the peaks of your cheekbones, across your nose bridge, on top of your forehead, and chin with more product so there’s a bit more color there.

This stops your face from looking too flat and mono-chromatic. 

P.S. Also, make sure your skin is dry so powder doesn’t grab in areas and look patchy. Don’t forget all exposed areas of your body need to match your face, so you should be self-tanning there first.

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Step 2: I used my finger to apply a light wash of a bronze-tan shimmer (MAC Tan) all over the lids. The slightly peachy tone works well with the overall sun-tanned tones of the skin.

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Step 3: To add some definition back, I picked up a bit more MSF Natural in Dark with a shadow brush and then ran that along the outer halves of my eye sockets.

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Step 4: For a dewy, golden sheen, I ran a pale golden shimmer along my brow bones and slightly above my cheek bones. (This is the trick because the surface just above the peaks of your cheekbones will catch the light and lift your facial contours better than applying it right on the peaks.)

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Step 5: For smoldering, defined eyes, run a soft black kajal or pencil along the waterline. I like kajals because they are softer and smudgier. Instead of worrying and touching up, and trying to keep your makeup absolutely pristine in the sweltering heat, I’d much rather go with products that look better and sexier the more smudgy they get. 

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Step 6: Use any small brush to smudge out the kajal along the lower lash line, reapply the kajal, and then re-smudge again, until you get a really smoky effect there. (You can keep going here until you pack on and smoke out 3-4 layers. The more you do it, the more “Rock Star”-esque it’ll look!)

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Step 7: As a finishing step, pull the liner up past the outer corners of your eyes following the angle of your lower lash line. Then smoke back in towards your upper lash line. This gives that cat-eye effect, and works even if you have a mono-lid.

Rawrr.

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Note: I skipped mascara for this look. If you have dark lashes, I really recommend just curling them and applying clear mascara. (Especially if your mascara has a tendency to smudge against your lower lids when it gets hot and sweaty.) The dark, smudgy liner is supposed to do the defining for you already.

If you have light lashes or can’t IMAGINE not wearing black/dark mascara, make sure you curl them extremely well and use waterproof formulas that are able to hold the curl, or be prepared for panda eyes and cross your fingers that they will just meld right into the smudgy kajal you applied earlier!

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Cheeks and Lips:

I skipped blusher altogether.

For the lips, there are multiple options.

• Beige-nude: I used MAC Blankety for a soft nude lip because it isn’t too pale against the bronzed skin. This is one way of enhancing a tan without going to Snooki-ville. And if you’re going to use a nude, keep it creamy or glossy, NOT matte. You don’t want to look like a tanned corpse.
• Electric pink: This is one for the drama-queens who want to draw all the eyes at the party. Who says only pale lipsticks bring out a tan? A really bright and blue-based lipstick can give the same effect because of the level of contrast against warm, bronzed skin. I just reined it in by going for a matte texture. Try Barry M 52 Shocking Pink Lip Paint. 

Naughty and Nice: The Pink Nude Lip

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There’s nothing that straddles naughty and nice as well as the perfect “sex-kitten” pinky-nude lip. (Just take it from Kim Kardashian.)

It’s more wearable than a true-nude because the hint of pink/peach adds a little warmth and doesn’t make you look like death warmed over. It’s more “Mod” and stylish than the typical MLBB (My Lips But Better) Pink. It works with barely-there makeup and a full-on smoky eye. It also works on both deeper and paler skins.

There are a myriad of shades and textures available, but the most popular tend not to be visibly shimmery. I personally think MAC is probably the brand with one of the biggest ranges of nude pinks, and Creme Cup (pictured above) is one of my favorites.

Some of the more widely-available and well-known pink-nudes are swatched above. It’s by no means the exhaustive list of course! These just happen to be the ones that I have in my collection.

• The first 2 (Please Me and Pink Plaid) are mattes, and the last/bottom is a gloss (Colorburst).
• Shades like Creme Cup and the infamous Angel - which Kim K’s has single-handedly put on the makeup map - work on both fair and tanned skins but it can tend to work better on those with golden undertones.
• Shades like Please Me and Tea Rose are warmer and rosier, so if you have much deeper toned skin, these would work better for you than paler/whiter shades like Angel.
• If you’re looking for a pink nude gloss instead of lipstick, always pick one that is a tone lighter than the shade you want, because your darker lip color will show through beneath. Good ones include Revlon Crystal Lilac (subtle shimmer) and NARS Turkish Delight.
• If you are extremely pale and every color shows up strong on you, go for a sheer like Maybelline Watershine Pure in B24 (I think this might only be available in Asia) or Revlon Colorburst Crystal Lilac lipgloss.

Tips:

1. If you’re going for a lipstick, choose one that is quite highly-pigmented. Because this shade is lighter than most natural lip colors, wearing something too sheer can mean having pigments settle and show up in your lip lines.
2. If the lip color is showing up uneven, or your lip color is showing through in an unflattering way, blend a tiny bit of concealer around the outer edges of your lips first to mute the color.
3. Condition your lips well. Any flakes and cracks can show up quite obviously.
4. If you own a nude and a pale baby pink, just mix both for your own nude-pink.