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