30 Day Makeup Challenge: Day 15, Blue Eye Shadow

 Blue eye shadow is notoriously hard to wear for day. I think there were some moments in the nineteen sixties and seventies in which is was perfectly fine. I can picture some ladies with big hair and nipped in waists in the typing pool on Madmen wearing it, but those days are gone.

So color me bold when I put on this matte cool French blue on my lids. What's really nice about having hooded eyes is that when you look straight ahead, mostly folks can't see what color is on your lids. So you can create a dramatic surprise by adding unusual shades and finishes to that area. I like to put some shimmer, some sparkle, one bright color, or even a bunch of colors there as a little gift for folks who are paying attention.

 As you can see, this look is a bit gentler in artificial indoor lighting. I like the way the purple tones come out here.

So here's what I used:

Eyes:

• MAC Soft Ochre Paint Pot as primer
• Urban Decay Vice Palette Chaos on Lid
• Urban Decay Vice Palette Disruption on Crease
• Urban Decay Vice Palette Lace to blend Crease Color up into browbone
• Maybelline Eye Studio felt tip eye liner on lash line
• NYX Slide On Eye Pencil in Navy on Water Line
• L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara in Carbon Black

Here are some tips on working with blue eye shadow:

• Ground the blue with a neutral in the crease and blend them together there
• Finish it off with black eye liner along the lash line
• Blend the shadow a lot, and then pack on more. Sometimes blue shadows aren't as pigmented as we'd like, so they can get patchy. If you really want to be sure to get full coverage, start with a white or, even better, a black sticky base like a NYX jumbo pencil or some other creamy shadow base.
• Go smoky and put something dark, a blue, gray or brown, in the water line
• Restrict the blue to the eyelid if you want to go a bit more stealth on it, and avoid the crease
• Use a nice light concealer under the eyes to make your smoky lash line stand out, and to avoid the sense that it's just the veins and circles under your eyes showing through instead of some nice blue eye liner that you chose to rock today
• Keep the rest of the face pretty neutral, both to feature the eyes, and to avoid an overall clownish appearance
• Since blue eye shadow can be a bit old lady, but it can also be a little Rock n' Roll and glam, wear stuff that fits the Rock n' Roll style - like the black leather jacket I wore here

So what do you think, Beauty Fans? Comment below.

Thanks for coming by my blog!

Love, BeautyJones

30-Day Makeup Challenge Day 3 - Glitter

This is how I show my glitter, Baby!

Busted out my Chanel Illusion d'Ombre on the lids, which is frankly, some pretty astounding stuff. My shade is called Épatant, and I looked it up, and, loosely translated, in English, it means, 'Awesomeballs.' Seriously.

This shade is silvery, and has lots of superfine glitter, and sticks very well, and has this spongey texture. I guess all of these Illusions d'Ombre have that. The color at first looks silvery gray, but it also has a bit of cool blue and green in there, which is very refined. It just does not disappoint.

I put some NYX glitter cream palette glitter over the top, which did flake off a tiny bit, but most of it stayed very well. I used the red gold and yellow gold glitter colors, just in the middle of my eyelids.

Considering how glitter is usually considered way too glam to work for day, I'm super-pleased with how today's glitter challenge went. I even got compliments on the look from coworkers.

Here are the other products I used to get this look:

skin79 Triple Function BB Cream, Orange - too light, so I add some Dr. Jart BB Cream in super medium dark.

Sleek makeup Face Form in Light - this is all you need for the cheeks - highlight, Nars Orgasm dupe blush, and neutral contour.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balmstain Endlessly Named in Honey - love this stuff, but really, brevity is the soul of wit, people. Edit your product names, wontcha?

Maybelline Super Plushy Plush Mascara - this does clump a bunch now that I've had it a while and it's setting up a bit.

StarLooks December Palette. I used the matte burgundy shade, middle row, second from the left, in the crease.

So I'm having fun with this challenge. Tomorrow, smoky eye look. Okee dokee!

Love, BeautyJones

 

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Tarte Carried Away Palette First Look!

Thought I'd try out the Tarte Carried Away palette today. The result was a stronger look than any I did this week. I wore this with a bright red blouse and the reddest of the Maracuja glosses that came in the kit.

I put Georgia Peach all over the lid from crease to brow, then did a gradient from inner to outer edge of the lid: Tuscan Sun on the inner third, Coral Reef in the middle third, then Acai Jungle on the outer third, and in the crease, blended up into Georgia Peach on the browbone.

Was a touch disappointed with the pigmentation of the Coral Reef shade. It looked so bright and pretty in the pan, but took some building to get impact on my eye. Maybe it's better wet, or over a base cream like the NYX jumbo eye pencil in Milk. Acai Jungle had a bit of green in it, which was a surprise, and it made for a more strong, makeup artisty type look. I think that Acai Jungle has a color shift from brownish burgundy to deep forest green. Definitely psyched to try more of these quads, so thanks to my sister Mary for getting me this awesome kit!

What do you think?

The rest of the products were pretty much the same things I used on the rest of the looks this week. The Tarte Maracuja foundation in light is still shockingly yellow to me, but just a touch of my skin79 BB cream lightens it enough to match my skin better.

Didn't have time to do my brows. Eek! My bangs hid it, mostly.

The Maracuja red gloss wore off within an hour, so I put on my new L'Oréal Colour Caresse Wet Shine Stain in Endless Red. Have you tried these yet? I really like these! They go on wet, and once they set, they feel kind of like gelatin, lots of staying power, but they feel emollient. I think there's some alcohol in there, which evaporates and leaves that long-wearing soft slick feeling stuff. Once even that wears away, there's a stain left on your lips. Really interesting product, not like anything I've tried. Go check them out! I have the Lilac one, the Caramel one, the Red, and the the Coral.

Doing the Tinker Bell Half Marathon in ten days, People!

Hope you had a nice Thursday!

Love, BeautyJones

 

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No Raccoon Eye Video for My Mom

Recently I had a chance to visit my Mom in NYC and have dinner for her birthday. We got to chatting about makeup, and she was asking about how to put on eye makeup so it doesn't move around and streak downward to create that dreaded Raccoon Eye.

I realized that since I got serious about beauty blogging in March, I've been doing lots of research on this, and have come up with some pretty good tips and helpful products.

So here's my video on this.

Apologies if I'm whining too much about the heat in my office during the vid. Could have been a hot flash. Who knows?

Anyway, Mom--This one's for you!

And Lovely Readers, I hope you enjoy and I hope there are some pointers in here that help you out a bit on that never-ending quest to keep your makeup looking fresh all day long!

As always, please let me know how you liked this, and feel free to share in the comments below!

Let me know, too, if there's a particular product or technique you'd like to know more about. I feature lots of my drugstore favorites here. The only hard-to-find item is the OCC Lip Tar, which you should really check out. I got mine at The Makeup Show LA, but you can buy them online, too. I also love my Wet n' Wild palette. All those fun subtle shades with such strong pigmentation. This look is great for every day wear, too.

And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube Channel, and to this blog on Bloglovin, or in Google+, or in the RSS Feed Reader of your choice!

Happy Friday!

:)BeautyJones

July 4th Manicure and FOTD

Products to follow. Happy 4th, everybody!

<3BeautyJones