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 4: Smoky Eye

Don't try this at home, kids. Valentine's Day eye with shades of rose and pink, and smoky, too? Oh, yeah. that's what you got here!

 

I used these things:

• Of course, MAC Paint Pot in Soft Ochre as a primer
• Base: Maybelline Color Tattoo the Limited Edition Pink color bought at Target
• Lid: Urban Decay Vice Palette in Freebird
• Lid, at edges to model shape: Urban Decay Naked 1 in Toasted
• Crease: Urban Decay Vice Palette in Lace, and Urban Decay Naked 1 Buck
• Crease, Upper and Lower Lash Line and Outer Lid in a V Shape: Sigma Paris Palette: Élyssée
• Browbone: Sigma Paris Palette in Versailles
• Mascara: Stila Forever Your Curl in Black
• Tightliner: Urban Decay 27/7 Pencil in Perversion
• Tightliner sealer: Urban Decay Naked Palette in Creep, and Paris Palette Eiffel - I used the blacks with shimmer to seal the black smoky liner.
• Cheeks: Sigma Paris Palette in Peche
• Cheek HIghlight: Sigma Paris Palette in Lumiere
• Lips: Revlon Just Bitten Balmstain in Darling - love this pale lavender!
• Under Eyes: Cinema Secrets Peach Corrector in Light

 

So I did have the bloops and blips of smeary bits under my eyes during the day, and I used the old cotton buds to blot from time to time, and I kept using a soft fluffy brush to blend out the smoky stuff under my eye.

I think my husband really likes the smoky eye, maybe because it's a bit undone and messed up.

How do you like this look? I thought it was lots of fun.

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!

Love, BeautyJones

 

Posted with Blogsy

Palette Porn: Urban Decay Vice

Hey, Beauty Fans--

Sorry I haven't been posting so much this month. If you've been reading, it's because I've been participating in NaNoWriMo, which is also known as National Novel Writing Month, and it's a movement that supports people in writing a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. This means I've been writing at least 1667 words per day, which isn't a lot, if you don't have anything to do.

But I am also working full time, singing with my employee choir, singing at a friend's party, beauty blogging and YouTubing, and training for the Tinker Bell Half Marathon. You can donate to fundraising efforts for the Team to End AIDS in conjunction with that race here.

Phew!

I'm almost done with my 50k word novel, and November's almost over. So far I'm ahead. You can see my progress on the widget up to the right. I already ordered my winner's tee shirt, so I intend to finish, even though I've got stuff to do pretty much all the time until the finish. It's amazing how much you write when you are busy and you carve out an hour at a time.

So to keep things simple, I started a new YouTube series called Palette Porn. Sometimes I just like to look at palettes. Here's one of my newest faves, the blogger's darling, the Urban Decay Vice palette. Enjoy, Beauty Fans!

Tinkerbell Halloween

Had some fun on Halloween as Tinker Bell. Got a costume at Ozzie Dots in Los Feliz (Hollywood Blvd. just east of Vermont, north side of the street) in no time because they are so organized and well set up for Halloween.

Used my Anastasia brow stencils to do an eyebrow with teal and green colors from my Wet n' Wild party palette and my Crown Brush 180 palette.

Put on my blue-spotted feathery eyelashes. The eye look overall was gold and teal blended carefully into the crease with a neutral matte faun brown shade. The lip was Revlon Just Bitten Balm Stain in Honey with some highlighter from my NYX "butt" naked palette, the pinky-white shade.

Used Skindinavia's fix spray to keep the whole thing lasting all day long!

The best thing was talking to the kids during trick or treating. They were so cute. It felt like really being Tinker Bell!

Happy Halloween!

:)BeautyJones