Back to Basics: Eye Shadow Application

Hello My Beautiful Girls!

I decided to start a new section entitled "Back to Basics" in which I will teach you the techniques of the trade! I think one of the most important is eye shadow application. I've used some crazy colors so that it's easier for you to see where you are supposed to put the color and what shapes you should create for the best looking eye. You're going to need at least three shades: one light, one medium, and one dark.

Step one: Take the medium shade of your desired color and apply it from the lashes, into the crease, and up to the brow bone.
Step Two: Using a color a couple of shades darker than the one you just applied to your lid, make a "C-shape" starting about a quarter of the way out from the corner of the eye. Extend it to the outer corner--this will be the apex of the shape-- then bring it back in to the middle of the eye just above the lashes.

Step Three: Take the lightest color and apply it just under the brow, starting beginning of the arch and ending at the corner.
Step Four (optional): Take another light color such as a white or cream and apply it from the inner corner to the center of the eye for some extra highlighting.

Make sure you blend after the application of each color and then once again at the end and that's all there is to it!

Have a lovely day!

Anna

Daytime Party Look

One very common misconception within the fashion world is matching. I say...the shoes do not have to match the bag, the toenails do not have to match the fingernails, and the makeup most certainly does not have to match the clothes. As you'll see, I think that blue eyeshadow would have been overkill.

This past weekend was extremely busy for me! I had my sister, Madeline's graduation from high school and then a 25th wedding anniversary party. I didn't mind because it just provided me with more opportunities to create some new looks.

A close up

I absolutely adore this look since it incorporates two of my favorite products: Sephora Rouge Cream Lipstick in Love Test (hot pink), and Urban Decay eyeshadow in Half Baked (shimmer gold).

First I put the Half Baked all over the lid. Next, I took the lightest brown (any cream, bone color) from the Good Girl palette by Ulta and applied it just under the eyebrow. Next I took the medium shade from the palette and made a C- shape starting in the crease of the eye with the apex at the outer corner, ending at the middle of the lid. In the same manner apply a couple more shades of medium brown to add dimension. I used YDK and Smog by Urban Decay. Then, take a dark brown ( I used Twice Baked by Urban Decay) and stipple it into the outer corner of the eye. If the gold color that you have applied to the lid has faded dust another layer from the inner corner of the eye to the middle of the eye to make the color pop again. Please please please do not forget to blend!

Now for the eyeliner. Unless I am going for a very dramatic look such as one for a night out with the girls or a formal event, I hardly ever use black eyeliner. A chocolate brown or a grey is much less harsh and is more appropriate for daytime. Lately I've been using the Ulta Smokey Eyes Automatic Eyeliner in Espresso. Gently pull the lid towards the outer corner to ensure a straight line. For daytime I like to apply the eyeliner from the middle eye to the outer corner on both the top and bottom lid and then blend the color towards the inner corner for a softer look.

Tip: To ensure long lasting eyeliner that does not smudge use a small angled brush and press eyeshadow in a similar color along the lash line where you just applied the eye pencil.

To finish off the look sweep the eyes with mascara and the cheeks with the color of your choice. For mascara I have been using Rimmel Lash Maxxx in Extreme Black, but like most you I'm still in search for the perfect mascara. So please, if any of you have found it let me know!

Then for my favorite part: the hot pink lipstick! Like I mentioned earlier I used Sephora Rouge Cream Lipstick in Love Test. Make sure your lips are soft and exfoliated before you apply anything on your lips (for a quick exfoliant-moisturizer mix a little sugar and olive oil in a bowl and scrub it all over your lips until they are smooth). For this look simply follow the natural lip line. If you feel that hot pink lipstick is NOT an adventure you'd like to partake--before I walked out of the house my mom suggested I tone down the lips, but I refused-- then simply tone it down with a lighter pink gloss or a nude lipstick on top.

It seem as if these looks take a long time, but with practice I promise you can do it from start to finish in ten minutes or less!

Have a lovely day!

Prom/ Girl's Night Out

Hello Lovely Ladies,

Most of you are probably at an age where you can look back at your prom with fond memories (or maybe not so fond). I'll never forget the excitement I had slipping into my very first gown; I felt like a Hollywood Starlet! Even for my high school dances I always did my own hair and makeup and often times was the last one done getting ready because I would usually end up doing everyone else's!

My junior prom and three of my beautiful best friends!

Here is the look I gave my sister for her prom. She is already gorgeous so I didn't have to do much to make her drop dead gorgeous!

And a close-up

After applying an eye primer I swept the lid up to just under the brow with the white shimmer labled "brow bone" from the Don't Steal My Thunder palette by Wet n Wild. I fell in love with this palette after I borrowed it from my friend Mary Ellen for a night on the town during our trip to England and haven't given it back (shh don't tell her)! Next, I applied the silver shimmer color all over the lid. Then using a fluffy brush, apply the black labled "crease" in a triangular shape starting from about the center of the eye and ending at the end of the brow, extending to the corner of the lash line as seen in the picture.

Tip: Before applying the black dust a fair amount of powder beneath the eyes. That way if any particles fall onto your face it won't get absorbed into the skin and you can simple sweep it off when you're finished.

Finally, I applied Ulta eye shadow in Iceland (a shimmery white) from the inner corner to the middle of the eye and Ulta eye shadow in Sin City (a matte black) in the outer corner of the eye to add dimension. Make sure to blend blend blend! You want the colors to seamlessly change from one to the next. Then I used my trusty black Urban Decay liquid liner in Perversion and applied it to the upper lid with a swoop at the outer corner. And for the final touch...falsies!

With a dramatic eye such as this it is important to tone down the rest of the features. It's best to go with a nude or light pink lip to finish off this show stopping look!

I hope you liked this look, have a lovely day!

Introduction

Ever since I can remember I’ve had a love for cosmetics. As a little girl I would lock myself in the bathroom and spend hours looking at all of the treasures that my mother stored in her vanity. Eye shadow palettes in every color of the rainbow, cracked pots of rouge, and tubes upon tubes of lipstick! Nearly every weekend I would go to my grandparent’s house for “nake overs” and to play dress up with my Auntie and Nonni where we would spend the entire day putting on pretty dresses, chunky and outdated costume jewelry, and of course caked on the makeup. My mom was never very fond of her four-year-old coming home looking like a forty-year-old, but these beauty sessions are some of my favorite childhood memories.

In grammar school and junior high I would try to sneak out of the house after applying what I thought was a light coat of mascara, but was always sent back in to wash my face as soon as my mom noticed my black, buxom lashes. When I got to high school I was finally allowed to start my own collection of treasures and I began to experiment with colors and application techniques under the guidance of my very talented mother. In college my passion has only grown, tempting me to spend my savings on new products that strike my fancy and to spend hours watching videos and flipping through the pages of magazines to satiate my desire to learn more.

Luckily for me I’ve always had a love affair with cosmetics, flirting unabashedly with the different looks I am able to create. However, I know for some the word “makeup” can evoke visceral reactions such as nausea, heart palpitations, sweaty palms, and rapid respiration. That is why I am here: to take you step by step in expressing yourselves in a beautiful, quick, and relatively inexpensive art form. In the words of Gene Simmons, "The makeup is simply an extension of the personality and colors, clothing, makeup all express something.”

I am learning to be an artist; pots of powder and tubes of liquid are my medium and the face is my canvas. My tools are the fingers that God has given me. Each masterpiece as unique as the face of the girl whose beauty I am blessed to enhance.

Have a lovely day!

Anna