The Makeup Box

My 5-minute Colorful Half-Liner Eye Look

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This is a super quick eye look that I always pop on when I don’t have a lot of time to do my face, and want an eye that is subtle but still has a shot of fun color. I tend to pair this look with a strong blush and bright lips (a coral-pink mostly).

Image notes: 1st image was taken over the weekend for Instagram, with a translucent gold glitter shadow on (Chanel Illusion D’ombre in Vision). For the other images, I used a shimmery beige to demonstrate. Hence the slight difference in finishes!

You don’t need to be an expert or to have a very steady hand to do this. Plus you have tons of shade options. Any colored liner pencil will work as that accent shade, so pick a violet or a royal blue, even a lime green; whatever you like!

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Romantic Lavender (For anyone desperate for one more last-minute Valentine’s idea!)

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Lavender is a universally-flattering color for most eye and skin colors, and I always consider it one of those shades that functions like a neutral because it goes with everything and everyone. A pearlescent lavender eye like this one can look sultry and dreamy at the same time (as seen on Jessica Rabbit) if you don’t go overboard with the contouring, AND you’ll see you can transform the entire look just by switching out your lip color.

Some tips:

• What you want to be careful of, if you have uneven skin tone or a lot of red/pink in your skin, is to pick purples that lean more silver or blue. 
• If you have mature lids, go with slightly less metallic/shimmery shadows than I used because a high-sheen can emphasize lines.
• If you have very dark skin, pick a purple that is richer and stronger as a soft pastel can look chalky
• If you are layering it over a grey/silver base like I did here (See below), remember that you need to go with a slightly more pink-toned shade than you want because the blue undertones in the grey base will make a purple look blue. You can skip the base, but you lose some of that soft, hazy effect.

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Cotton Candy: Super-Girly Shell Pink Beauty Products

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Now that we’ve gone through the candy-flavored scents, here are a few cotton candy spun-sugar beauty products!

In particular, I’ve been into a lot of shell pinks recently. Pinks that are milky, with a beige-peach tone. Softer than salmon-pink, but not just a nude shade.

For the lids, there are 2 products I particularly love.

• L’oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in 004 Forever Pink: This is a sweet pink with golden-peach metallic sheen. I use this often in tutorials. Great basic pastel metallic pink that isn’t too blue-based and garish.
• Shu Uemura ME 761: The pictures do NOT do it justice. Imagine a swatch of perfect opalescent pink micro-glitter, like a wash of fairy dust. It’s like MAC’s Reflects Transparent Pink blended with a peachy glitter, suspended in a silicone base so it goes on and stays on. You have to see this yourself to believe it.

For the cheeks, peachy-beige pinks are easy to wear for most skin tones. 

• Medium to pale: NYX Angel looks very “beige” but it’s going to show up on the cheeks as a very soft, candy-ish peachy pink. 
• Tan to dark: Try La Femme’s Coral Spice for a similar glow and none of the chalkiness. This is SUPER pretty stroked along the peaks of the cheeks.

On the lips, there is just one two products you can check out:

• Sally Hansen Lip Inflation Xtreme in Sheer Pink is a translucent peachy-pink that’s very lovely, but it CAN be extremely tingly or spicy on the lips if you don’t like plumping glosses. MAC Plushglass in Ample Pink is a similar and less peachy version of this. 
• Trick: If you have your regular sheer light-pink gloss but want to add a little spun-sugar sexiness to your lips, rub a little of the L’oreal Infallible Shadow in 004 Forever Pink over your lips first, then go over with gloss! (This was what I did for the image above.)

Fingers?

Revlon’s Scented Nail Enamel in Cotton Candy.

You remember the Mannequin Hands trend of having “flesh-colored” nails a couple of years back? Well, I’d like to see a mannequin with this sort of shell-pink pearlized sheen to their nails!

The only con is that I need to apply about 3-4 coats to get a completely even finish since the formula goes on a little streaky.

Weekend Face: Golden-Yellow Lids with Pink Cheeks and Lips

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Yellow is such a sunny and beautiful shade, but it’s not always the easiest to wear on the face. This look uses a more wearable version; yellow-gold.

I used a`limited edition shade from Lime Crime called Goldfish, but if you don’t have the Chinadoll palette, you can very easily find similar shades from most brands. MAC Golden Lemon pigment is a brighter, more true-yellow version. You can also find at least one similar shade in the 88 shimmer, 88 Metal Mania (swatched above), 120 2nd Edition (swatched above) as well as pretty much any of the other colorful 120 palettes, I daresay.
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Step 1: Because I’m using a very bright yellow-gold, I want 4o make sure to warm it up by adding some depth beneath. I applied a brown shadow base (MAC Constructivist Paint Pot). If the gold you are using is closer to a coppery or bronze-y gold, you can use a flesh colored or clear base.

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Step 2: Using a fluffy white blender, I just packed on lots and lots of the yellow gold over y lids from lash line up to the socket line. If the shadow you are using isn’t as rich and pigmented as you’d like, use your finger to smooth it on, as this adds extra sheen.

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Step 3: The tricky step is applying liquid liner to the waterline and tightline. For this look, I wanted to make sure there was definition at the lashes, and the black to be very intense and very clean. So I used a liquid liner with a very fine brush (Lime Crime’s Quill) to do short strokes along the inner rims.

Tip: The boo-boo is applying the liner onto your eye ball, which happens, trus4s me! So you want to do it like you are applying liquid liner in a thin line right at your lash base. This allows your own lashes to be a guiding line and stencil to stop your brush from going all over the place. This will take a fair amount of practice. If you can’t bother, just use a black pencil like Milani Liquif’Eye! I just wanted something that wouldn’t smear or run.

Once done with your liner, just finish with LOTS of mascara!

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Final step: I just used my fingers to apply a warm pink (MAC “Weekend Getaway” Lip and Cheek Color) to the apples of my cheeks and lips.

La Femme Blush Swatches

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This is a very quick post just showing you the swatches for 12 shades of La Femme blushes which I purchased from makeupmania.com a while back.

I was in the US on a work trip and it made a lot of sense to grab a palette and 12 full-size blush pans at $2.50 each (which would not have been quite as logical once you add crazy international shipping fees). 

This is a brand which has been raved about by MANY makeup artists because of the incredible pigmentation and value.

Before you go all excited though, do remember that powderiness and TONS of fallout accompany the incredibly-intense pigmentation. If you know how to work with it, or you are experienced at wielding your blush brush, the shade range is huge and each pan is fantastic for the price. 

If you’re looking for dramatic blush or color that can be used on lids AND lips as well, then these are fabulous.

For those who worry about over-application of blush or looking too dramatic or clown-like, it’s better to stick with conventional brands available in drugstores and high-end counters.

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My favorite shades?

I’m still testing most of these out, but so far, I really love Flamingo Pink and Pink Velvet.

The deeper shades like Framboesia and Magenta would be fab on really deep skins because for once, this range is NOT too sheer to show up nicely against darker tones.

There are also many browns and bronze shades in the range which I did not pick up since I already have those in my personal collection. I went for stronger, less-typical colors.

P.S. Pink Blush is actually a shadow which I included in my purchase as a blush because it’s a great pale pink which can be used as highlight AND to cut other blushes that are too strong.