Face Chart Favorite: Smokey Gray-Brown lids, Soft Pink Lips

Face Chart: Gray Eyes; Pink Lips

My last weeks favorite face was also its simplest and quickest.  A bike to work face with a cool medium gray lid, a soft pink lip, the usual Cinema Secrets nude peach blush and Aveda bronzer. NYX nude on nude palette was the source of the eye shadow and the lip. Mascara was the Great Lash Waterproof stuff in black.

This was the face on me.
Needed a bit more concealer between tear duct and bridge of nose, but oh, well.

So why is this a favorite? It's a bit dramatic, and it's still a day look. Who doesn't have a bit of drama in their day? But this is the kind I like. The kind that brings out the golden tones in my eyes, rather than the red veins and the cray-cray.

NYX nude on nude palette.
Eyelids: Top Row, 3rd and 4th from Right
Lips: 4th from Left

From a 3/4 angle you can see the shape of the eye. Looks more winged out than I realized.
Strong and balances out the strong color of this dress.

And to think, on the day, I thought this one didn't come together.

What's your favorite daytime look? How dramatic do you feel comfortable getting under daylight and office light?

Let me know, and share what works for you in the space below!

And see that Eiffel Tower widget top left on this page? Click on it to subscribe to BeautyJones on Bloglovin, the awesomest blog-following App/Site ever! If you haven't tried it, you really should check it out!

Cheers!

:)BeautyJones

Swatch Saturday: Naked Cosmetics Harvest Moon Collection

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So I'm starting a series here on the BeautyJones: Swatch Saturdays

Other folks do this series, but I thought it would be a great exercise, since I had yet to swatch anything for you, my dear readers.

Turns out it takes practice and a lot of skill.  Had to do it once, and start all over again and then, wouldn'tcha know it, it's kinda overcast here in Lovely LAlaland, which never happens. But enough of my trials and tribulations, here's the star of our show...

Naked Cosmetics Harvest Moon Collection

Naked Cosmetics!!! 

Naked Cosmetics Gorgeous Display at The Makeup Show LA.
Harvest Moon is the third row from the bottom.
DROOL!

I bought this gorgeous stack of loose pigments at @TheMakeupShowLA, which is a wonderland, as I believe I have mentioned once or twice. @pursebuzz was there doing a talk about brushes with Crown Brushes, and she said these pigments were her favorites. Now, drumroll please, the swatches!

Inside in Low Light, but then adjusted by magic iPhoto pixies

This shot shows the basic colors pretty well. The upper row is on bare skin, and the lower row is on Urban Decay Primer Potion.

DUO CHROMES! How I love them. These have so many shades and change so nicely in the light. They are hypnotic. They go with my eyes, which means I now need to do a look using only these.

So here's a grid below. Naked Cosmetics so needs to name each shade. They must have spent tons of hours making these pigments gorgeous.  Just a few more hours, and, voila, some nice memorable names. Here are mine. They aren't necessarily the most awesome, but I would remember these. Maybe you would too!

Cheers, and Happy Saturday, Dear Readers!

Let me know if you like this format, and just let me know what you're thinking about, in the comments below.

:)BeautyJones

Product
Naked Cosmetics Harvest Moon
Colors	Description	The Name it Needs But Doesn't Have
01	Duo chrome: White with Peach, Pink, and Pale Gold Iridescence	Mothkiss
Colors	Description
02	Duo chrome: Orange with Pink and Gold Iridescence	Barbie's Bender
Colors	Description
03	Duo chrome: Yelow with Green and Gold Iridescence	Lemon Mint
Colors	Description
04	Duo chrome: Grass Green with Orange and Gold Iridescence	Dragonfly
Colors	Description
05	Duo chrome: Antique Gold with Green and Yellow-Gold Iridescence	Gramma's Julep
Colors	Description
06	Duochrome: Brown with Teal and Pale Gold Iridescence	Chocolate Opal

Harvest Moon Collection: Inside with Flash

Look how the flash loves to light up these little beauties!

Naked Cosmetics Harvest Moon Collection Outside with Elusive Sunshine

Look at all the freckles on my arm!

Naked Cosmetics Harvest Moon Collection Inside with Ambient Morning Light.
Isn't it crazy that the two photos above are of the same products? Love that changeable duo chrome color!

Navy Eye Liner - Shouldn't Work But Does

Ray Morris's book and Robert Jones Color Theory for Makup video and lots of other makeup experts say I should be able to wear navy blue around my eyes because it will do nothing for my greenish hazel eye color.

Well they are wrong.

Navy blue around Eyes; Should work, but does

I love navy blue around my eyes. It works better than purple, because purple brings out the un-pretty shadows near my inner eyes and under my eyes.

Why does navy work?  Take a look and see if you can tell me. I think it has something to do with the golden undertones of my skin.

You can really see the blue here, which I sheered out

Here's what I used:

Skin:

• Skynn Iceland Eye Pen under eyes
• Embryolisse Lait Creme Concentre

Face:

• Skin79 Hot Pink Super+ Beblesh Balm Triple Functions

 Cheeks:

• NYX butt naked palette terra cotta blush
• NYX butt naked contour shade

Eyes

• UDPP (except this is starting to get cakey on me. How about you?)
• Cover Girl Ageless Concealer in second lightest shade
• Smashbox Photo Op Palette: lashline to crease—Butter; V on outside of lid—Peacock; At lashline and below eyes—Azure; in crease—Sable
• Liner 1: Picasso gel eyeliner from the Smashbox Photo Op Palette applied with flat wide tight lining brush
• Liner 2: NYX slide on glide on pencil in Sunrise Blue, drawn on and sheered out with short flat smoker brush
• NYX butt naked fawn shade on brows with angled Real Techniques brush.

Lips:

• NYX Red lip pencil, filling in the outer third of the lips
• NYX Lip Gloss in Salsa. Why is salsa a nude pink?

Which brings me to a bone of contention: Naming of Shades

So, Smashbox.  Here are the shades I"ve used so far from your gorgeous lovely, Holy Grail Phopt Op Mega Palette:

• Butter: a soft yellow cream.  Good. No problem with that. It says what it is.
• Peacock: a cool Samsonite '50s luggage blue with a silvery finish. Huh? Have you seen peacock feathers? They have intense deep blue greens, ranging through teal blues, to irridescent purples. This shade is not at all peacockish.  It's lovely, but misnamed.
• Azure: A deep greenish navy, matte. Again, lovely, but what does Azure mean? It means blue, of course, but its a Romance Language word, which means the Ancient Romans spread it around. Along the Mediterranean we have the Cote D'Azur in France, and in Elba we have Porto Azzurro.  Been both places, thanks to Mom the Travel Agent. So I'm going to tell you that the water there looks like this (See Below.) It's much lighter and more intense than this shade. The Blue Grotto in Capri is Grotto Azzurro in Italian. Again, a greeny intense saturated blue. Not a navy.

Bermuda on the South Shore—see the pnk sand?
Azure is that deep greeny blue shade in the middle out toward the reefs, which are deep navy blue in this shot.

 So I quibble with manufacturers about color naming. I do. It's really really important. A great shade name can evoke your dreams, your fantasies, your dirty little secrets. A bad shade name can be hard to remember because it just doesn't make sense.

NYX made the same mistake with their royal blue eye pencil, which they called Sunrise Blue, which I would expect to be a lot lighter in shade and less saturated. And Salsa lip gloss shouldn't be this awesome shade of nude pink that goes with everything.  It should be a hot orangey red, like salsa is, maybe with some yellow or green shimmer to evoke the cilantro and onion needed to make the stuff.

See what I mean?

Which shade names just don't work for you? Which ones are so awesome you can barely stand it?

Have a great day, everyone!

Today I'm going to try more of those awesome colors in the Smashbox Photo Op palette.

:)BeautyJones

Quickie: Why I Wear Makeup

BEFORE

AFTER

Any questions?

:)BeautyJones

Quick Bike to Work look

Some days when you bike to work it goes a bit pear-shaped.

Yesterday it was Monday, I was a bit behind, and my hair as I blew it dry in my office with the door shut, just refused to come together.

I guess the same thing could happen on any day, but it's particularly stressful when my office is doubling as my dressing room/vanity area, and I can hear folks outside starting to get about their day.

Anyway, my weapon of choice makeup-wise was still the NYX nude on nude palette, but I did a simple brown tone all over my eyelid up to the crease and faded it toward the brow bone with a touch of highlight color. This is the deep brown that has a bit of golden sparkles in it. The basic shape is a 20s style dark pool eyelid, which is kind of the Jazz Age gramma of today's Smokey Eye.

Finished it out with some mascara and black eye pencil, and a pink lip. To add some summer feeling, I went a bit heavier on the bronzer/contour.

I have to say, I'm really liking the way my brows look when I use a taupey brown eye shadow with an angled brush instead of a pencil, or the whole wax, stencil and two tones Anastasia thing. The stencil and wax thing does have its place, but I've learned I like free-handing the brows. It's more artsy, and I am a designer. If you don't feel as comfortable doing that, then try that Anastasia Brow Express kit. It really is wonderful to have the stencil helping you find that nice Liz Taylor sculpted brow shape.

Just bought this pink sleeveless dress from Title 9. Love the breezy summer shape and the pretty hot pink color. The material is so cottony soft.

Cheers! Hope some of you are biking to work this month. It's good for you, and for the earth, and for the air.

BTW, my biking has me a little over a pound away from my Weight Watchers goal weight. How 'bout that?

Cheers, all!

:)BeautyJones

Face Chart Favorite: Gold Eyes, Fuchsia Lip

My Thursday Look, A bike to work one!

Gold eyelids, neutral gray-brown crease, matte ivory on the browbone,
and fuchsia lip, with lots of contour

 Now that I'm biking to work 3 days a week -- something I'm doing in May, and some of June, it's a special challenge to change it up with my makeup. I only have a few little palettes at work in my desk.

The NYX nude on nude palette is great for this, though, because not only are there loads of neutral colors for the eyes, there are lots of glosses, which I have been mixing together on my lips, too.

For this eye look, I used the gold on the bottom row on the lid to the crease, a touch of the sparkly brown bottom row, second from right, and the top row left ivory shade on the brow bone. Some Maybelline Great Lash and some MAC Graphblack pencil finished the eye out. I even used one of the browns on the top row to define my brows.

For the lip I used the second shade from the left. It's brighter than it looks in this picture.

Closeup on the eye.

I was wearing a Little Black Dress with this, so the bright makeup shades helped me not look washed out.
Still waiting for a bit more color to my skin. The summer and triathlon workouts at Zuma Beach will take care of that!

How I look biking to work, except with a helmet and gloves

• My folks were in Amsterdam and bought me this amazing Assos jersey. Each panel is a different kind of technical fabric, and it feels feather-light. So so pretty! 
• My knickers are Giordana--my most comfortable yet. Expensive bike wear really is much nicer, especially if you ride a lot, and comfort become key! 
• I wear a headsweat under my helmet for comfort and wicking the sweat away from my head.  Speaking of that, turns out a little sweat is one of the best hair styling products ever!
• I wear a Road ID with all my key info on my ankle, just in case.
• My shoes are Louis Garneau with 3 velcro straps on each, for easy in and out. For the chamois, I recommend Hoo-Hah Ride Glide for women. Cyclists will know why!

 Would you ever ride a bike to work? Has it been way too long since you had that "Whee!" feeling? There are other ways to get that, of course, but riding a bike is a reliable and healthy one! It still feels like it did when you were a kid!

Happy Bike to Work Month! Ride safe--and pretty--out there, Ladies!

:)BeautyJones

Pink Manicure of the Week

I love vivid nails, and since I'm committed to only pink while the Giro d'Italia is on (the Tour of Italy, a bike race like the Tour de France, but in Italy, so even prettier to watch, if that's possible), I'm psyched I found such wonderfully bright colors that harmonize and pink it up together!

Pink nails can be conventional, but this combo is not!

Here is Julep's Portia layered over OPI's La Paz-Itively Hot. I'm holding my new bike-riding sunglasses by Smith in ice blue. I love blue. I love shiny things.

Julep's Portia is a pale cyan blue jelly with small flecks of multi-colored glitter.

From Julep Maven April Box: From Left, Penelope and Portia. See that pretty glitter?

OPI's La Paz-Itively Hot is a hot flamingo pink with a blue-purple irridescence.

The Julep glitter jelly made the blue sheen of the OPI even bluer. Together they make me think of the tropics. Rio as the sun goes down just before Carnival. The hot pink is a great 50s shade, but it gets a little 70s disco gleam with that blue-violet sheen. The glitter takes it up into the stratosphere.

Yay!

What's your favorite pink nail look? Comment and let me know which pink shades you rock.

:)BeautyJones