Ask the girl who knows a lot about makeup

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
181

Just got a chance to get back and answer your questions, vifslan. Sorry about that!

If it’s alright, I’m going to start by showing you my makeup today and hopefully that can give you a little insight as to how I sort pick what colors to do. Forgive me, as I just shot these pictures quickly right here at my desk, so they aren’t the best lighting, but you’ll get an idea!

Eyes open up close. Eyes closed up close.

I did my whole make up in less than 10 minutes today because I am a lazy, lazy bastard. When I sat at my makeup desk (yup, I have a whole makeup desk), I looked at everything and thought to myself, “Hmm, what haven’t I used lately?” Yellows! I have’t used yellows in forever. Now, yellows are traditionally considered a “no no” by makeup conservative folks, but I think ANY color can look amazing if done right. My little trick to bright colors like yellow is just to put a teensy bit right in the middle of my lid, then blend the edges on either side. That way, you get a pop of color without looking like a total drag queen (there’s a time and a place for drag makeup and my tax business isn’t it).

A rundown of products:

Mac Studio Fix Concealer in (I think) NW 25 all under my eye to cover those Italian circles.
Mac Shadestick in Beige-ing all over the lid, up to the crease but not above it.
Mac Eyeshadow in Shroom under the eyebrow as a highlight.
Mac Rose Blanc Shadow (far left) on the inner 1/3 of my eyes.
Mac Chrome Yellow Eyeshadow right in the middle third of each eye.
The outer third, then blended way above the crease is a color I don’t have the name of handy…it’s out of a Mac holiday palette and is an irridescent brown, blue, green color.
Then, right in the crease, I have Mac’s Brun EyeShadow lightly applied and blended out.
My eyeliner on the top is Mac Fluidline in Blacktrack
Eyeliner on the bottom “waterline” is just a cheap black Rimmel liner.
Under my eyes, the outer half is that iridescent color from above and the inner color is Rose Blanc again.
And Mascara is Mac Studio Fix Lash in Black Fix.

Then I have powder all over, blah blah blah. But we’re mostly talking about eyes. Anywho, that above sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t a lot.

So, that’s my suggestion: pick something you want to try- yellow, turquoise, whatever- then just pick colors that are in the same family (I did a warm yellow, so I made sure all of the other colors were warm, too). The trick, I think, for playing with color and not looking like a drag queen is to pick one statement color, then focus everything around that. Don’t try to do several shades of hot pink unless that’s the look you’re going for. Now, you could take one of those shades of pink, though, and layer it with some nice neutrals to make a lovely everyday type of look. You just have to pace yourself! :stuck_out_tongue:

The unified theory of eye shadow is just like any art- the color wheel! Colors that are opposite of each other really “pop”. So, this is why blue and brown look great together, brown and green, etc. But again, these aren’t hard and fast rules. Do what you like.

I have to rush to an appointment right now, but I will answer the second half of your questions when I get back! :slight_smile:

182

Do I have a natural instinct for color? Yes and no. I mean, I - like everyone- make some bad choices :D. I think that I’ve just come to know what looks good on me and what doesn’t (bold colors = good. Pastels= I look dead). By the way you describe yourself, it seems like aside from hair color (mine’s dark brown) and age, we’re a bit similar. I really suggest trying the one bold color technique! It’s very important to have a big collection of different neutrals-- varying shades of brown, golds, tans, etc. With lots of options for neutral bases, you can really work with whatever bold color you want- sort of in the way I did today with the yellow. I know you say you want more than that and you absolutely can, but I think if you really pack on that bold color, it’ll really pop. If you want to do more, I suggest watching Queen of Blending’s videos on Youtube. She does some very. . . in your face. . . looks, but I adore her and her style! You can totally take her looks and tone them down a bit for daily use- lord knows I do. Or just rock it out, too!

Darker eye shadow on the outer half of the eye and a lighter shade on the inner half should open your lid up on the bottom. Please don’t use actual liner if not on your water line! I know some folks love this look (some of my friends do it), but I think it just looks positively…80s. Personally, I do my water line, but if you aren’t comfortable with that, just have a nice shadow under your eye. Use a nice, thin angled brush and blend the shadow out a bit. It’ll look great!

And if you want to use that pencil, you can do a few things. One, which is my favorite way to wear a bold liner, is to do a super sandy neutral lid, then have that big pop of color as my liner. This with lots of mascara looks GORGEOUS in the summer. The other option is if you do a super bright eye (like QoB up there), you can certainly use that bright liner on the top or bottom, but i’d put a little coordinating shadow over it to set it.

183

I’m confused again. What is the waterline? Inside of the eye, or under/over the lashes?

184

I found this handy diagram. The waterlines are inside the lashes, the very edges of your lids.

185

That is incredibly awesome. Thank you!

186

Diosa, on your suggestion in this thread, I bought the gel eyeliner from MAC. It seriously goes on easier than any eyeliner Ive ever tried to apply. I wouldn’t have believed it, but it just brushes straight on.

Thank you!

187

Yeah, that diagram is great! I know a lot of people don’t want to do their waterline because they think it will make their eye explode, but I’d say if it doesn’t cause you discomfort when you do it, you’re fine. I do it every day and have since I was 16- I’m not blind yet :slight_smile:

I actually JUST went to Mac on my lunch hour and bought myself a refill on Blacktrack! How funny. Two points! If it starts to get gunky, just toss it out and get a new one-- once it starts to dry out, the application goes to poo. This is usually several months as long as you take care of it, though! Also, Fluidline makes a great base for shadows (I use the black one for smokey looks). So, multitasker! :slight_smile:

188

I just started using gel eyeliners too! I bought a Maybelline gel liner a couple weeks ago, and I love it. I just got a MAC Blacktrack but I haven’t used it yet.

Question for Diosa, since you’re obviously a MAC girl. I went into a MAC store a couple months ago and got them to match foundation for me (Studio Sculpt in NC 15 - so white I almost glow in the dark!). Now I’m a little bit more tanned (but only barely), and the foundation looks quite lighter than my skin while I’m applying it, but once it’s blended in with a stippling brush it seems okay and well-blended. When should I go and see if I need a darker shade? I’m not used to wearing foundation, so I’m not sure. And when I’m more tanned would I probably be a NC 20 or 25, or would it be NW instead (more tanned is also more yellow??). Or should I just get a staff person there to match me again?

189

Follow up to my last post, since I didn’t have time to edit and add:

I’m going to a wedding this weekend and I’m a bridesmaid, and I’ve been using tinted moisturizer/tanner on my legs/arms/shoulders/neck (not sunless tanner that works quickly, but just makes you a shade or two darker if you use it for a week). So now my neck looks slightly darker than my face. Other than trying to get my face in the sun more and tan a little before the weekend, would it be a stupid idea to go a shade darker on my foundation for the wedding so my face is a closer shade to my neck and chest?

190

Personally, I keep two shades of Studio Fix (I don’t use foundation, I just use their heavy powder)- my “winter” color (NC 40) and my “summer” color (NC 42). Throughout the year, I just blend the two colors together to match whatever shade I am; sometimes it’s mostly 40 with just a titch of 42, sometimes it’s half and half, etc. Every so often, I tan a lot and when that happens, I actually just mix the 42 with some darker bronzer.

So, long story short, if you want to, I’d go to Mac and explain that I’ve gotten a tan and might get a little darker (since you might, what with it being early in the summer)-- then they can match you with something a bit too dark, so you can mix it. As far as whether you’d need NW or NC, that color base doesn’t really change whether or not you have a tan- I’m NC all the way through, whether I’m super white (for me) at an NC 35 or super tan at NC 44.

No need to darken your foundation, just use some bronzer! You can actually get some really good bronzers at the drugstore, so no need to spend a bunch at somewhere like Mac (unless you want to :D). Just make sure you bronze that line between your neck and face so it blends out evenly and you’ll be fine. I don’t tan my face intentionally (what? I rationalize that I am ok with being wrinkly everywhere but my face. . . yeah, I know it makes no sense), so this is what I do.

191

Hijack: Hah, looks like last time I was foundation-matched at MAC, I was a NW 15. :stuck_out_tongue: (110 with the MUFE HD foundation.) Now that’s super white.

192

Ha, yeah, just a bit. :smiley:

When I went into Mac yesterday, I wanted a nice light peachy blush and had picked one-- the girl who worked there suggested I get a darker one, “since you’re . . . sort of. . .” I cut her off and said, “Brown? Yeah, you’re right, I’ll get the darker one.” :stuck_out_tongue:

193

My sister’s method of matching foundation is to grab the lightest shade available, so I’m slightly better off than she is. I had a MAC makeup artist match their foundation to me, and with the MUFE HD, I asked a Sephora salesperson to help. The funny thing is, I had looked at all of those MUFE shades and kind of blanked at the sheer selection, then immediately gravitated to the 110. The salesperson blended about 4-5 different shades around my jawline before agreeing that 110 was the one.

I had a pretty bad sinus infection last week on my vacation, but used NARS’ Blush in the Orgasm shade and Burt’s Bees lip gloss in Sweet Pink (a nice nudeish-pink) to not look utterly ghastly in the vacation photos. (My dear husband thinks I’m lovely, so I get tons of photos taken of me while we’re on vacation.) I also recently grabbed some Stila Lip Glaze in Papaya shade from Sephora - oh, how that store keeps luring me in… I’m terribly tempted to get the MUFE color-correcting primer in green.

194

I’ve been experimenting with the L’Oreal HIP cream eyeliner and really love the results. There’s definitely a learning curve to apply it with a steady hand, but I like the sharpness and definition. Now I want to play with some eggplant and a dark blue!

Thankfully the rain is preventing me from taking a lunchtime trip to Sephora and/or Ulta. It would probably be disastrous.

195

Actually, I meant to post about this in this very thread. The other day, I was in a drug store and noticed L’Oreal now has three shades of primer, included a greenish one. Here’s an Ulta link. Much cheaper (plus I imagine it will go on sale/ you can get coupons) and it appears to have decent reviews.

196

I have two questions:
First, does any company make really light foundations/powders? I’ve found that drugstore brands’ “ivory” or “porcelain” are still too dark. I have skin that’s as fair as possible without actually being albino, with slight pink undertones (so warm rather than cool). While I do freckle, I take care not to encourage them on my face.

Second, anyone who has seen pictures of tv/movie stars sans makeup notices that they look a lot more like the common rabble without any makeup on. Is it the makeup that makes the difference, though? Or are the pictures deliberately chosen to look as different as possible? With how some of the natural pictures look, I can’t imagine anyone looking at them long enough to think they’d have potential with the right makeup… Anyway, if you made up the average woman how stars are, would she look as radically different too?

197

I’m pretty darned light-skinned; my skin tone has charitably been described as “porcelain” or “alabaster.” In MAC’s line, I was matched to their NW 15; (NC/NW) 15 appears to be the lightest shade they have from what I can see online.

With Make Up For Ever’s HD foundation, I matched to their 110 shade. (On my current monitor, those shade swatches don’t appear very representative.)

The nice thing about “department store-level” makeup lines is that there will be testers and someone who can help you match shades. I just walked into MAC and Sephora, respectively, and told them I wanted a foundation to match my current skin tone.

As for celebrities minus makeup, I posted this link in another thread. It’s video, so no picking and choosing of the worst/best shots. The weekend hosts of the today show, Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford, went on air for an episode minus any makeup. I thought Kathie Lee was almost unrecognizable without the makeup job. The text at the link talks about how they have “perfect skin” without the makeup, but I think they just mean no blemishes; obviously there are color differences and imperfections that are visible.

198

For the first question, I’m too tan to specifically answer that one. **Ferret Herder ** definitely had good advice, though. You may also try to find Asian brands, as they carry light shades, too. Maybe something like Shiseido? Maybe some other light skinned folks will pop in with some advice.

To the second question, I really do think makeup makes an ENORMOUS difference. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’m ugly without makeup, but with makeup, I’m definitely more… “Hollywood pretty” (I think). Another example is Kim Kardashian without makeup- I don’t think she’s an ugly girl at all without, but she’s a knockout with.

So yeah, I really think it’s almost entirely the makeup making the difference. I definitely think a glam makeover could make the average woman “Hollywood pretty,” particularly since most women either don’t wear makeup at all or use terribly outdated, improperly applied techniques.

199

Honkey, here! :slight_smile: Here are a couple of pictures to prove my whiteness.

I’ve basically given up on any actual foundation matching my skin, but Shiseido is a good place to check out. Urban Decay used to have a light shade that actually worked (it was called Apparition :D), but they got rid of it. :frowning:

I haven’t found any mineral foundation that is light enough yet, and I’ve looked at Bare Minerals, Bare Escentuals, a brand that was sold at Sally Beauty Supply and a few others. They all end up having an orange cast to them.

I keep meaning to try Amphigory’s Illusion foundation; it looks very promising. It’s a gothy company that caters to the pale set.

200

Hmm, on my work monitor they look a lot better. Anyway, note the descriptions especially on the MUFE cosmetics - the three lowest-numbered foundations all specify pink undertones. The MAC foundations often have “NW” or “NC” listed before the number; IIRC these stand for “Neutral Warm” or “Neutral Cool”.

If you’re not sure, try to ask for a little sample to try at home, or go outside with the patches applied and check yourself out in natural light.

Oh, and I should warn new MAC customers - typically their makeup artists are decked out in majorly glam makeup, but I have yet to find one who hasn’t respected my intentions for what I wanted to do with makeup. (Frankly, I had a far more pushy Mary Kay rep inflicted on me by a friend, who kept saying, “Well, this is a ‘Night Out’ makeover style,” and stuff like that.) If I just go in for a concealer recommendation, they might ask if I need anything else, but there’s no pressure.