The Makeup Box

The Purple “V-liner” Look: Simple Work/School-friendly Makeup (Wearable for Girls with Glasses!)

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When you wear glasses, it tends to hide most of your eye makeup but the bonus is that you get to wear stronger colors than most people do.

This is a fun and straightforward liner look that works for most eye shapes, because it extends into the socket-line. It’s not going to look like too much straight-on if you wear glasses but from the side and every time you blink, there’s a surprising stroke of color that will show up.

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Lavender-Chocolate: Soft luminous purple andbrown eyeshadow look that goes with pretty much any Lip color

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This is a color combination that is not a typical beige-toned neutral, but still goes with pretty much any lip color you want to wear. It’s also soft enough that you can use a light hand (skip step 3) and just wear it in the day for work or school.

I used just 2 shadows:

• A pale lavender (Coastal Scents Hot Pot in Ice Ballet)
• A deep rich brown (Coastal Scents Hot Pot in Rich Walnut)

Other than this, I had a chocolate brown pencil and black mascara.

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Requested: Soft and Peachy Lids, Cheeks and Lips

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Here’s the inspiration for the look, and while I don’t have the same kewpie-doll features or the porcelain skin of the model, this is the basic way you can recreate the look for yourself.

The key to the look is a matching coral/peach tone on the cheeks and in the crease, echoing a glossy soft coral lip.

Because this is using hazy, matte shades, I would say it’s probably going to work better on pale to medium skins. If you have dark skin, you can definitely still create the effect but you would need a much deeper taupe brown and a stronger peach/brick shadow in order for the look not to go chalky.

You will need:

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Soft Duochrome Violet:  Quickly transform your neutral day look into a glam evening look!

Great for:

• Those who work where makeup needs to be subtle
• Most eye colors since it’s a blend of so many tones
• Monolids and regular lids
• Pretty much any skintone

Note: If you have very pale or dark skin, you may need to lighten or deepen the brown shades a bit.

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Rihanna Neutral-Eye Makeup: Tips and Tutorial!

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One of the recurring themes in Rihanna’s makeup is that of a neutral but defined eye, and strong lips.

She always has groomed brows, brown shadow in the crease, subtle contouring and not too much color on the cheeks, paired with a lip that she changes out every which way depending on her mood and outfit.

This is a very clean, CLASSIC look that would take you from weekday to weekends, BBQ to club easily. 

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Here’s a quick breakdown!

Skin:

Rihanna’s base is always pretty matte. She isn’t a huge fan of shimmery highlighting or a “dewy” finish in most cases. Try an oil-absorbing or mineral powder foundation to minimize the shine, but don’t over-apply powder, because you don’t want a flat and heavy look.

Her skin is usually still quite luminous looking.

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Cheeks:

Rihanna seems to skip blush a lot of times, opting for subtle contouring along the cheekbones instead. Always look for a bronzer that is not too red/copper. It should have taupe/grey tones so it can mimic actual shadows on your skin.

Look for a pressed powder 2 shades deeper than your actual shade and use that as a contour instead!

Occasionally she throws in a nice warm coral/pink tone just on the peaks of the cheeks, above the contouring. Most of the time, it doesn’t look too shimmery. Try Fleur Power from MAC (Pinch o’ Peach if you are pale).

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Brows: 

Rihanna’s brows are always groomed and filled in with a soft taupe brown. Instead of using an eyeliner pencil which can be too pigmented and strong-looking, I do suggest looking for a waxy, less pigmented brow pencil or even a matte taupe eye shadow instead, since these will give a much softer effect.

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Eyes:

Rihanna likes definition. And why not? She’s got those gorgeous cat-eyes and definition with liner and contouring emphasizes their shape.

The key thing is her liner. She often rims the inner lid with black, and pulls the liner into a very short and subtle flick at the outer corners, more to emphasize the tilt of her eyes than to look very obvious on its own.

Step 1: Begin with a matte brown for contouring the crease. There is one thing to remember. Rihanna usually doesn’t pull the contour all the way to the inner corners. Start at the center and blend straight outwards.

This is a tip to “lifting” your eye shape and creating a more cat-like look.

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Step 2: Liner is key to Rihanna’s look. The emphasis for Rihanna is usually the outer half.

There are 3 steps.

1. Start from the outside in, and draw a straight line from outer corner to the center of the eye. It should be thickest on the outside and disappear to nothing at the center. As a finishing touch, use your nail to scrape the outer corners of the liner outward and up slightly, to make a very short (and very easy) wing.
2. Line the inner rim of the upper lash line (under your lashes) all the way from inner corners to outer. This emphasizes and defines the eye shape but doesn’t weigh down the lid with a lot of black. 
3. [Optional] Rihanna likes to line the inner rim of her lower lash line as well, but she doesn’t do this 100% of the time. You can skip this if you prefer (and especially if your eyes have a tendency to water). If you have narrower or smaller eyes but want that catty effect, do what I did below and draw the line only halfway so you don’t “close up” your eye.

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Step 3: In some shots and looks, Rihanna’s lids look like they gleam a little. If you have oilier lids, just leave out this step as your natural oils will create that sheen.

If you need a little extra sparkle, dab a tiny bit of shimmery beige or champagne right in the center of the lids. This creates that nice gleam. 

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Step 4: Finish with mascara! You can emphasize that catty look by pulling your mascara wand diagonally up and out at the outer corners and simply concentrating on the outer lashes. If you prefer falsies, then use half-strips at the outer corners. You don’t want to make things too dramatic, because you lose that fresh, sexy look Rihanna is channeling.

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Lips:

This is where you go to town. Rihanna has sported tons of colors so don’t restrict yourself.

• For a good deep red, try MAC’s Russian Red or Ruby Woo with Auburn lip pencil.
• For a deep dark shade, Film Noir or Wet n Wild Cherry Bomb are great. (You can also fill in your lip with a kajal or khol pencil and dab a little deep red or plum over for a super-dramatic effect - just make sure it does not contain any lead in the ingredients list!) 
• That, or go au naturale with a tiny bit of clear gloss or lip balm!

The Basic Neutral Eye Tutorial (Good for Mono-lids and Hooded Lids)

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I’ve mentioned before, and will repeat, that the main tip for applying color and definition to the hooded or mono-lid eye (including those with very small or undefined double-lids) is to make sure you apply color along the socket line, NOT the crease/fold of your lid.

This is a very basic shape using just a:

• Matte beige
• Matte Black
• Metallic brown

Step 1: First apply a flesh-colored primer to the lids and then pack a matte beige to the inner 2/3 of the lids.

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Step 2: Using a small pointed brush, apply black shadow in a diagonal swatch inwards frmo the outer corner of the eye, like above.

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Step 3: Using a rich brown and a pointed detail brush, run the color from outside in along the socket line (feel for the hollow arc above your eye balls), and stop before reaching the inner corners. This will be your guiding line for the eye shape.

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Step 4: With a blending brush, pack more brown from the outer corners inwards, blending and smoking along the socket line that you drew earlier.

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Step 5: Using a flat angled brush, pick up some black shadow and run it along the lash line frmo outer corners in. The line should go all the way to the inner corner along the upper lash line, and only half-way in along the lower lash line. Do the upper lid first so you have minimal shadow on the brush when doing the lower.

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Step 6: Finish with black mascara and you’re done!