Welcome to my first theme week: decades of makeup! Normally, I'll start theme weeks on Sundays, but I went out today and really wanted to do something dramatic.
Now, I absolutely love vintage. I've got a collection of hats, jewelry, clothes, shoes, gloves, etc. from the 1920s to 1950s. While the '40s and '50s were my favorite era for fashion, the Roaring Twenties are my absolute favorite years for makeup!
This is a look I learned from the Make Up For Ever Academy (eyes & lips). I'll go through this one step-by-step.
Complexion
A 1920's complexion was matte, pale, and flawless. The makeup of the era was inspired by what the stars of the silver screen wore-- pan cake foundation. My face is unfortunately only one of those three (pale) so I got some help from a few of my favorite products. I dabbed a bit of Pores No More in the T-zone areas where my pores are enlarged, and mattified/primed my entire face with the Clear Prep FX. After that, I concealed. Benefit Lemon-Aid takes care of the dark circles under my eyes, while the two shades of Kat Von D concealer take care of slight redness and acne scars. To create the flawless look, I used Cover FX cream foundation, which is what I love any time I need full coverage, and perfected the face with Smashbox Halo and then a light dusting of Make Up For Ever HD Powder.
Eyes
Eye makeup in the '20s was dark and smoky. Steps to recreating a '20s smoky eye:
1.) With a concealer brush, cover your lid in Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in #2 (Gray). Blend up slightly past crease.
2.) Lift up on your brow and, with an angled eyeliner brush, apply a thick line of Make Up For Ever Aqua Black at the lash line. Smudge the edges of the line with a round smudge brush in circular motions to soften.
3.) Using the product left over on the smudge brush, line the bottom of the eye. Start in the outer corner and work inward to create a soft look.
4.) Go back and intensify with Aqua Black. Rim the entire eye, including the waterline, using a diagonal downward motion. Blend in with a regular smudge brush.
5.) With a blending brush, take a small amount of NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in Purple Pearl and gently apply a thin veil on the outer edge of the crease for a slight purple shimmer. Hold the blending brush horizontally and parallel to the lid, and sweep on gently.
6.) With a small, natural-hair eyeshadow brush, apply Make Up For Ever Eyeshadow #307 directly on the upper lash line. Blend up to the edge of the purple shadow. Also apply to the lower lash line.
7.) With a heated lash curler, curl your lashes. (If you don't own one, use this trick: heat up your regular eyelash curler by holding your blow dryer to it.) Apply two coats of Stila Major Lash Mascara to the top lashes. Layer one coat of Urban Decay Lush Lash mascara over the top. On the bottom, apply Stila Major Lash Mascara with a concealer brush.
Lips
The Make Up For Ever Academy has a five-step technique to perfect lips. Before lining the lips, I plumped and conditioned my lips with Peter Thomas Roth Un-Wrinkle Lip.
1.) Line center of top and bottom lips to establish symmetry (I used Make Up For Ever Aqua Lip in 8C).
2.) Establish width. Line up the corners of the lip with the irises of your eyes. A 1920's lip can be narrow (early in the decade) or filled in to the corners (later in the decade.) I chose the latter to make the look more wearable.
3.) Starting in the outer corners, draw in one motion from the outer corner to top center, then bottom center.
4.) Fill in the entire lip with pencil.
5.) Apply lipstick (I used Make Up For Ever #43, Moulin Rouge) with a square-tipped lip brush. Don't press the outer edge of the brush to the lips; drag instead.
To add volume, you can apply a darker shade of lipstick in the center and create depth by lining the outer corner of the lip. The educator recommended using Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes in 0L (black) and blending; I dabbed just a bit in the center of my lips, and contoured on the outer edge as well.
What do you think? Which decade are you looking forward to seeing?
I have that lipstick and it never looks quite so flawless on me, so I'll definitely be trying your application steps tomorrow!