Catty.

Starting to work more on my Photoshop skills; since I have such a nice camera now, I need to make sure I can make it look its best!

Anyway, this is, at its heart, just a simple cat-eye with dark red lips. But this was the result of watching a whole bunch of YouTube tutorials, mostly by Lisa Eldridge, who is really quite wonderful! I mostly took the techniques, as I'm not a huge Marilyn fan (not that I don't like her or anything, just never been all that interested), but I am definitely interested in creating optical illusions like that. It still fascinates me that the smallest change can make such a huge difference in the immediate perception of one's face--I guess that's really what draws me to makeup in the first place.

I especially used her tips for contouring, as I feel like that's something I still need to work on. I mean, I do it pretty much every day, and definitely every time I wear anything more than concealer and mascara, but I just don't feel like it has as much of an effect as when I see others do it in tutorials and the like. I know the basic areas that are meant to be shaded and highlighted, but the smaller details change between sources, so it's definitely best to get lots of opinions and mix and match to your own tastes. I think one of my problems is the highlighter. They say to use a color three shades lighter than your own shade, but... my shade usually is the lightest shade offered. I'm currently using Pur Minerals for all my face supplies (foundation, contouring, blush, brows), and my foundation is the lightest shade they offer. I quickly learned that I can't even use Urban Decay foundations or concealers because they don't carry a shade light enough and pink enough to come close to me. (Though it looks like one of the new concealers might work; I'll have to try it out.) So the trick is to find something that highlights even for my light skin, without washing out everyone else but me (in which case they wouldn't even sell it). And don't even get me started about creams! I have yet to find a cream that goes on and blends smoothly enough that I don't have to practically scrape my face--which is abrasive and leaves marks (temporarily), since my skin is so light, and then I can't even tell if it's working because my skin's too busy being pink. Such hardships! Alas!

Here, here's another picture. I'll be quiet now.

Please excuse the pictures looking so drastically different in coloring/lighting; they were actually all taken in the same place, but I'm still experimenting with Photoshop to see what I like best. Doesn't help that this whole apartment building is this weird, dull yellow color. I'm having a hard time getting all that yellow out of my pictures without making myself look dead.

As far as technique goes, I did the basic cat eye shape with my Zero pencil, and then went over it and added sparkles/softness to it with the blackish shade from the first Naked palette, a color called Creep. I then used Smog and Sin from the same wonderful palette to shade and highlight my eye, respectively. Top it off with my mascaras--UD Supercurl to curl the lashes, Maybelline Falsies to cover the tips and add length, and that was about it for the eyes!

Seriously, I would have looked dead if I'd taken all the yellow out of this one. Sorry!

I tried using the techniques from Lisa Eldridge's Marilyn video for my lips. I lined first, with a shade slightly darker than my lipstick--in this case, Gash from Urban Decay, then applied several layers of Lime Crime's Glamour 101 with a lip brush, blotting each layer as I'd read in Kevyn Aucoin's book Making Faces. I made several mistakes, and obviously this isn't as good as it could be, but I'm slowly gathering up my repertoire of techniques to call upon later. I also added a touch of white eyeshadow in the center of my bottom lip to give the illusion of fullness, as recommended by Lisa Eldridge.

I guess you could say this look is more of an experiment that a final result. But it was still fun to wear and surprise my boyfriend with!

Products Used:
Eyes:
Urban Decay pencil liner in Zero
UD Naked eyeshadow palette - Creep, Smog, Sin
UD Supercurl mascara
Maybelline Falsies Flared mascara

Lips:
Urban Decay lip primer
UD lip liner in Gash
Lime Crime lipstick, Glamour 101
white eyeshadow from BH Cosmetics 120 eyeshadow palette, first edition


P.S.: What does anyone think of my doing a "boyfriend approval" section or post? Not in a subservient sort of way, but more like "This is what he's going to like about this product, and this is what he's going to complain about," in a comical sense. I'm wondering if I shouldn't change my whole blog style and do this, since it would give me a central theme to work around, instead of just the premise that I have no idea what I'm doing. =P

Supersonic Blue

I'm not so sure blue is my color (even though I've been told blue is good for bringing out brown eyes), but I am very much a fan of matching my eyeshadow to whatever shirt I might be wearing, and on this day I was wearing this shirt:

Yay for Sonic!

So this is basically just another colorful smoky look with my BH Cosmetics 120 palette, first edition. I faded the colors from shimmery white in the inner corner, to baby blue on the lid, to a darker but still pastel blue in the outer corner and crease. I also was very happy to use Urban Decay's 24/7 liquid eyeliner in Bobby Dazzle for this look. I love the color Bobby Dazzle, and Dime, as it is very similar. FYI: Urban Decay uses the same names for the same color across their products, which is very helpful to someone like me who has memorized the names! Bobby Dazzle is a liquid liner as well as a shade of the Stardust eyeshadows, among other things I'm sure. It is a sparkly, shimmery white or silver color that is just a tad lighter and whiter than Dime, which is more silver. But I love them both.

You know what else I love? Vapor. (The eyeshadow color, that is.) I used it again, just like in my last look, as my brow highlighter color, and once again it did not fail me. Definitely my go-to color when I want to lighten things up.

And a full face shot with my boring tinted lip balm again. I can't help it; I'm a lip balm addict. Nothing else feels as good!

Products Used:

NYX eyeshadow base in White

BH Cosmetics 120 palette, first edition

Urban Decay eyeshadow in Vapor

UD 24/7 liquid eyeliner in Bobby Dazzle

UD pencil liner in Perversion

UD pencil liner in Dime

UD Supercurl mascara

Maybelline Falsies Flared mascara

Girly Cloud

This look was actually inspired by, of all things, an episode of Tabatha's Salon Takeover on Bravo. This is that show that I only watch when I'm at my mom's house, no one else is home, and I'm lonely/bored to tears/avoiding doing something important like getting dressed and actually leaving the house. Anyway, one of the hairdressers in one of the many episodes I watched had a really pretty pink and purple gradient look, so I decided to try it with my 360 colors of BH eyeshadows. While I didn't actually use all 360 for this look, I did use quite a bit, enough to make me wonder if having lots of colors might actually be a bad combination with my perfectionist ways...

The eyeliner is unusually sloppy, as I'm noticing now, but I enjoy doing a gradient of eyeliner like that. In this case, I used pencils because I was lazy and wanted to leave the house within the next hour, not to mention they blend better than a liquid would (though they might blend while they're still wet... I'll have to try that!). But the breakdown is: light pink on the lid, fading into dark pink and purple on the crease and below the eye, with a light, shimmery silver as the inner corner and highlighter color. I also always use a black pencil (lately it's been Urban Decay's Perversion) on my inner lash lines, usually only on the outer two-thirds of my upper lid and the outer one-third to one-half of my lower lid. Of course this varies if I want to go for a darker look.

I like doing these angled shots to get both eyes. Also, I gotta say, Vapor from Urban Decay is the best highlighter color I've found yet. It's a translucent white shimmer that doesn't go on too thick, so it provides little color but a lot of shine. I have it here from my inner corner all the way up under my brow. It blends very nicely as well, though I expect nothing less from Urban Decay.

And then I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to use my new favorite lip gloss, from the Urban Decay Stardust collection, called Glitter Rock. It's a super-glittery hot pink sort of color, not remotely my usual type, but for some reason I was drawn to it, and my boyfriend, the ultimate impulse buyer, got it for me on the spot. Now I wear it pretty often for no reason at all, just to have some sparkle on my lips even if I'm not wearing much eye makeup. It's just fun! It's a little sticky, of course, but not as bad as some, and the pretty color makes up for it. That being said, it does stay on quite well and for a long time--long enough to annoy my boyfriend that he can't kiss me without getting sparkly!

And then the whole face together. I tried using a bit of the UD eyeshadow Hotpants to add some baby pink and shimmer to my lips, but it never seems to show up in photos. I may have to find an alternative, even though I love that color on my eyes.

Products Used:

Eyes:

NYX cream eyeshadow base in White

BH Cosmetics 120 eyeshadow palette, first edition

Urban Decay eyeshadow in Vapor

UD pencil liner in Perversion

UD Supercurl mascara

Maybelline Falsies Flared mascara

Cheeks:

Pür Minerals  mineral blush in Diamond Rose

UD eyeshadow in Hotpants

Lips:

UD Stardust lip gloss in Glitter Rock

This Is It.

Obviously I asked for several makeup items for Christmas, and my mom has to be one of the best "Santas" ever! I received Sugarpill loose eyeshadows in Tiara (silver) and Goldilux (uh, gold), as well as Lime Crime lipsticks in Styletto (black) and Glamour 101 (the PERFECT shade of dark red)  from the Lip Noir series. These are my first products from either of these brands; even though I've been stalking them for a long time and drooling over any looks with them on MakeupBee, I'm really cheap when it comes to buying things for myself and just couldn't bring myself to click "Buy." I also received the BH Cosmetics 120 eyeshadow palettes, versions one, two, AND three! (Like I said, my mom is awesome.)

As far as quality goes, I wish the BH shadows had a bit more staying power--they tend to fade after a few hours, even with primer, and the case is about as big as a tablet computer, therefore not conducive to carrying with you for touch-ups. (Of course, I could get one of those cute tablet bags and just carry around the makeup case instead, make everyone think I'm cool enough to have a tablet...) But the Sugarpill is phenomenal in its shine and staying power, as well as just how far a little bit can go! I did my whole eyelid with just the dust that had gotten stuck to the inside of the lid of the container! And it's just as shiny applied as it is in the bottle! The Lime Crime colors are wonderful as well; like I said, Glamour 101 is the shade of red that I've been searching for my whole life. Gotta be my absolute favorite color. Both that and Styletto have pretty good staying power, but they come off when I eat a meal, and unless I blot like hell, they come off on my boyfriend's lips, haha. (Hey, that's a legitimate requirement!) So I've got some work to do with those, because I get the feeling it's just because I'm not really experienced with lipstick.

However, I wanted the black because I'd seen a lot of really cool gradient lip looks on MakeupBee, fading from black around the edges to various colors in the center of the lips, and I thought it was so cool and flattering that I wanted to try. This is my first attempt, so it needs work, but I thought it went with the eye excellently.

And of course I had to go to the lovely Urban Decay for lip- and eyeliner.

Here's a closeup of the lips:

Again, the edges aren't perfect, and neither is the blending, but it's a start. And I really liked wearing it!

And a closeup of the eye:

I absolutely loved wearing this! I'm really starting to like the smoky eye look, I think it's quite flattering (and sexy), and as such I find myself getting better at blending. Sugarpill lends itself so well to blending; it just lays over the other colors and maintains its own sparkle all the while. I loved wearing this, even if my mom might have thought I was going a little goth! But she really is very supportive, and she knows that I like what I like!

It's not nearly as impressive with my eyes closed... Don't know why that is.

You can see the Sugarpill sparkle pretty well in this one!

Man, gotta love the image quality on that camera.

Products Used:

Eyes:

NYX eyeshadow base in White

BH Cosmetics 120 palette first edition (matte red and matte black)

Sugarpill loose eyeshadow in Tiara

Urban Decay pencil liner in Perversion

UD Supercurl mascara

Maybelline Falsies Flared mascara

Cheeks:

NYX pressed eyeshadow in Rust

Lips:

UD lipliner pencil in Gash

Lime Crime lipstick in Glamour 101

Lime Crime lipstick in Styletto