The Makeup Box

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.

Cloudy Pink-and-Mauve Eye (using MAC Shadows)

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I haven’t done a girly, soft, easy-to-apply eye for quite awhile, and this is a slight variation of a previous look (Napolitan Ice-Cream look), with shimmery shades replacing the matte ones, and an overall plummy tone.

The colors are flattering for most skins, but you might want to adjust the shades and make them stronger and deeper if you have a very deep skin tone.

The 3 shades I used were from MAC:

• MAC Vex - a soft grey-beige with a pink sheen; I don’t really know of a dupe for this as it’s a very unique color. If you need, just look for a soft beige shade.
• MAC Da Bling - Pearly Barbie-esque pastel pink; a similar but cheaper shade would be NYX’s Pink Oleander.
• MAC Shale - Deep smoky brownish plum that’s actually neutral enough as a soft smoky lid shade for school and work. Try NYX Eggplant but use a light hand as that’s a more intense shade than Shale.

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Step 1: This step is actually optional. If you want the overall look to be softer and subtler, you don’t need to use a plum base. I just like the intensity for a tutorial. I filled in my entire lid with a plum colored pencil from Rimmel called 220 Perfect Plum. You don’t have to use a pencil if you’ve got a cream shadow in a similar shade.

I applied it to the lower lash line as well. Make sure you smudge out the edges with your fingers after you’re done, so there are no harsh lines.

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Step 2: Take the soft pearly grey-beige and apply that to the inner half of the lids. Then on the outer half, apply the smoky plum.

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Step 3: To add the finishing touch, apply a soft pearl-pink down the center of the lids. (As you can tell this is my favorite trick for adding definition to the eye and also more dimension to your eye shadow shades.)

Just make sure not to blend it out too much as you want to keep most of the color in the center.

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Step 4: Finish with black mascara or false lashes!

Warm Santal Blush Eye with Full Lashes

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Pink can make you look like you have swollen eyes, but a quick trick for reining in the color so it just gives a subtle warm glow rather than being a full-on pink is “layering”.

What you want to apply under that should be a deeper shade with a hint of pink in it, such as plum or violet. You can also use charcoal or black but you’d lose that warm blush effect. 

I used Benefit’s Creaseless Cream shadow in Stiletto for the base, and then 2 pinks from BH Cosmetics pans WM20 (neon matte pink) and WM04 (pastel matte pink). Go for shadows that are quite bright, because they will blend into a much softer shade.

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Step 1: First apply the plum cream shadow all over your lids, up past the hollow of the socket line. Make sure you blend out the edges and run it along the lower lash line as well.

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Step 2: Layer on the pink shadows. I applied a soft pastel pink to the inner halves and down around the inner corners as well. The on the outer half, I applied a neon pink. As you can see, only a faint hint of pink goes on, so it’s not going to look too crazy. 

I did not bring the pink shadows up past the socket line, because I want the pink to be surrounded by plum at the outer edges. This helps to define your eye contours.

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Step 3: Run a black pencil along the inner rims of your eyes, and then once more above the upper lashes.

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Step 4: Using your finger, smudge out the black liner above your upper lashes, so that you get a nice smoky gradient instead of a harsh black line. 

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Step 5: Apply dramatic false lashes. I used Eylure Miss Eylure lashlets in “Alice”. I can’t exactly remember what the equivalent style is from Ardell, but most brands DEFINITELY have a similar version. Look for rather full but spiky strips that are longer at the outer corners. 

That, or you can just wear mascara and skip all this!

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Nail polish shown: Essie Splash of Grenadine

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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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.

Bubble-gum Gleam: Bright Pearl-pink Lips with Smoky Peach-pink lids

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I haven’t whipped out the bright sugary-pink lipsticks for awhile now, so today, I thought I’d do a SUPER-simple party look featuring black and pink.

You’ll need:

• A black shadow (I used L’oreal’s Eternal Black)
• A peachy-pink shimmer shadow (I used MAC Crushed Metallic Pigment in Rose Light, but L’oreal’s Forever Pink would work perfectly)
• Black mascara
• Soft nude-pink lip pencil (MAC Hip n Happy)
• Shimmery bubble-gum pink lipstick (NYX Jupiter is that perfect 80’s pearl pink)

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Step 1: Simply pack the black shadow all over the upper lid, not extending up past the socket line.

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Step 2: With a clean brush, gently press a shimmery pink down the center of the lid.

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Step 3: Then with that same brush which now has some pink and some black on the bristles, simply buff out the edges of the black shadow to remove any harsh lines. You won’t really need to pick up anymore shadow.

Then finish the look with black mascara on the upper and lower lashes.

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Step 4: Apply any soft pink blush.

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Step 5: Fill in your lips with a pale pink pencil like MAC Hip n Happy (if you have pale to medium skin). If you have darker skin that that, you can actually skip the pencil. It’s just there to add some color to the pearl pink and prevent it from turning into that 80’s porn-star look. 

Finish by applying a coat of the shimmery pink lipstick!