After three days of neutrals, I'm glad to get back into some color!

The '60s saw the disappearance of the wingtip, and the coming of even more dramatic lashes, a la Twiggy. Women would actually draw on bottom lashes, and having lashes clump together in points was considered stylish. The waterline was lined with white, and the eye was lined in black. Blues and greens were popular colors.



Products used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Charlotte Ronson All Eye Need Palette in Nicole (Yellow)
Make Up For Ever Eye Shadow #5
Bare Minerals Ready Duo in The Vision (Illusion)
Buxom Lashliner in Leatherette
Buxom Insider in Pearl
Stila Major Lash Mascara

Women of the 1950s still loved a neutral eye, although there were a few differences. Brow arches were very defined; the wingtip became essential, and the line became a bit thicker; and shine fell out of favor as matte lids became the new desired look. The application technique changed, also. Three primary shades were used. Beneath the brow, a highlight (lighter than the skin) was used to emphasize the brow arch. Beneath that, all the way down to the lashline, went a shadow that was as close to the skin tone as possible. Then, in the crease (or slightly above), a darker color was used to create dimension and depth.



Products used:

Kat Von D Concealer in Light
Manly Palette #63, 65, 71, 116
Buxom Lashliner in Leatherette
Stila Major Lash Mascara
Urban Decay Lush Lash Mascara

Tomorrow: '60s! I am so excited for some color!

I stayed true to the '40s wingtip and, since women were still adorning their lids with Vaseline in the early part of the decade, I went with a shimmer to echo that shine. Then it was blend, blend, blend, walk out the door bleary-eyed, and talk to no one until I got to Caribou Coffee. ;)

Products used:

Kat Von D Tattoo Concealer in Light
Lorac Baked Eyeshadow Trio in Movie Star
Lorac Front of the Line PRO
Stila Major Lash Mascara
Urban Decay Lush Lash Mascara

Can we just take a minute to look at Angelina Jolie from last night's awards? Everything is flawless. Her dress, her accessories, and-- especially-- her makeup. This is a classic 1940's-1950's look. The phrase "Old Hollywood glamour" gets thrown around fairly loosely, but that's exactly what we're seeing here.







To replicate Angelina's look, try these products:

Complexion

Meaningful Beauty Glowing Serum (QVC, $62). This serum will moisturize and give you a lit-from-within glow before you put on any makeup. You've got to have radiance on the red carpet!
Sarah McNamara Miracle Skin Transformer (Sephora, $48). Prime with this product to create a smooth canvas for makeup application. This multi-tasker minimizes pores and fine lines, evens out skin texture and tone, and protects the skin with SPF 20.
Make Up For Ever Mat Velvet Foundation (Sephora, $34). The complexion of that era was matte and flawless. Rather than go for the HD version of the foundation, use this one to keep the shine down even further. Best of all, unless you have extremely oily skin, you don't need a powder on top.
Cargo Medium Matte Bronzer (Cargo, $28). It looks like Angelina's makeup artist skipped the blush and sculpted her face with bronzer, emphasizing her cheekbones. Cargo has long been a red carpet staple, and this bronzer is the best in the business. Use it just below your cheekbones to draw attention to them.
Make Up For Ever HD Powder (Sephora, $30). For a perfected, airbrushed look, tap a tiny bit in the cap (like sprinkling cinnamon on your latte), dip your powder brush in, tap off excess, and apply to face with a rolling motion. The biggest mistake you can make with this powder is to over-apply.

Eyes
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Eden (Sephora, $19). Match the rest of your matte complexion with this base.
Cargo Essential Palette (Cargo, $32). This palette of matte neutrals comes in three options: Cool, Warm, and Dark, allowing you to match the shadow to your skin tone. (A simple test for skin tone: press down on the veins of your inner wrist for five seconds, then let go. If your skin has a yellowish cast and the veins appear green, you have a warm skin tone. If your skin has a pinkish cast and the veins appear blue, you have a cool skin tone. If you're still not sure, it's best to err on the side of warm). For Angelina's look, skip the darkest shade; the '40s and '50s were a time of natural colors. Highlight your inner corner with the lightest shade, sweep the second shade over your entire lid, and accent the outer corner of your lid and into your crease with the third shade. Blend everything together for a natural look.
Lorac Front of the Line PRO in Black (Sephora, $23). Angelina is wearing the classic '40s-'50s wingtip. For a perfect wing, start lining on the bottom of your eye first, near the center, and draw outward. When you get to the outer corner of your eye, extend the line. Then line from the top center, drawing outward, and meet the other line to make a point. Fill in any blank space.
Benefit They're Real Mascara (Sephora, $22). Unbeatable volume, curl, and length. No mascara matches this one for dramatic lashes. Make sure you start at the roots of your lashes to get the maximum effect, and don't touch the bottom lashes-- concentrate only on the top ones.

Lips

Peter Thomas Roth Un-Wrinkle Lip (Sephora, $30). We don't all have Angelina's lips. For those of us who don't, we can always dream-- and cheat a little. Dab a bit of this on your lips for an instant smoothing and plumping effect.
Make Up For Ever Aqua Lips in 8C (Sephora, $18). Draw the top center and bottom center of your lips first to create perfect symmetry. Next, draw the outer corners. Then, connect the lines and fill in your lips.
Lorac Breakthrough Performance Lipstick in Leading Lady (Sephora, $22). This bold red with blue undertones is the perfect finishing touch for Angelina's amazing red carpet look.

So, what do you think of her look? Stunning? So-so? (And her dress, and all the other dresses... oh, I love awards season...)

After the Roaring 20's, makeup-- much like lifestyles-- became much more low-key. Barely-visible liner replaced thick kohl. Soft brown eyeshadow replaced heavy black lids. And women started to wear Vaseline on their lids to make them shine. The only drama that remained was in the lashes; women continued to prize thick, black lashes.



Products used:

Kat Von D Tattoo Concealer in Light
Manly Palette 64, 65, 71
Sephora Nano Liner in Chocolate
Stila Major Lash Mascara
Vaseline Lip Therapy

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?

So last night, I found myself watching an episode of Doctor Who ("Midnight," to be precise) and subsequently had a dream about travelling in space. So, this morning, when I woke up, I decided to see if I could achieve something like a spiral galaxy on my lids. Success? I think this is something that could be played with.



Products used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Urban Decay 24/7 Eyehadow Pencil in Clash and Delinquent
Avon Big Color Eye Pencil in Night Glisten
Buxom Lashliner
Urban Decay Lush Lash Mascara

Long day, quick post. Most of my looks have been vivid, so today I went natural. I broke out my new Stila palette for this one.



Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Stila In the Light Palette
Buxom Lashliner in Suede
Stila Smudge Pot in Bronze
Urban Decay Lush Lash Mascara

This morning, I was running late, so I went back to a technique I've just learned this month: the crease wingtip. In retrospect, I wish I would have blended the black of the crease into the green of the lids. The tutorial I followed didn't recommend any blending-- I like the look of it with open eyes, but I think it looks better blended. That's what's nice about this project-- it's a learning process for me, too!



Products used:

Sephora Nano Liner in Pure White
Manly Palette 1, 13, 43, 44
Lorac Front of the Line Pro in Black
Urban Decay Lush Lash

Word is spreading about my 365-day challenge, and I'm getting suggestions from people (which I love-- it would be tough to come up with 365 ideas on my own!) A friend of mine challenged me to create a look with white eyeshadow, and this is what I came up with. As a bonus, I got to wear my favorite lipstick today, which usually stays shelved because I wear such bright and bold eyes!




Products used on eyes:

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Eden
Sephora Nano Liner in Pure White
Nyx Ultra Pearl Mania in White
Manly Palette #65, #71
Lorac Front of the Line Pro Eyeliner in Black
Urban Decay Lush Lash Mascara

Products used on lips:

Make Up For Ever Aqua Lip in 8C
Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense in #43 Moulin Rouge