Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Vday Look with UD Naked 2 Palette

Okay, so I'm about a day or I suppose two days (seeing that it's midnight where I am) late on uploading my Valentine's Day makeup look. Everyone that knows me, knows I absolutely hate Valentine's Day and it's my least favorite holiday of the year. No I'm not a bitter, single person. I just think Vday is dumb. However, this year I decided to have a positive outlook on the day and embrace it with a cool, romantic smokey eye. Yes, I wore this exact look to work. It's a pretty soft look so I feel as though it was work appropriate. However, I vow one day I'm showing up wearing red eyeshadow and they can cope. I know some people wouldn't be comfortable wearing such bold looks to the office but honestly I think it's fine. Anyways, back to the tutorial. I recently purchased the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette a couple weeks ago after much deliberation about purchasing it in the first place. Hookay, here's my UDN2 story. I was really excited when I received the email from Urban Decay announcing this new palette. I love the original Naked palette. It's the perfect palette for day to night nude/natural looks. My only complaint with it was that all the colors were warm toned and there was only one matte eyeshadow in the whole 12 pan palette. Don't get me wrong, I love me some shimmer, but you do need a couple mattes to balance out a look (IMO). I was very curious as to the colors in this new Naked 2 palette. Finally it was released end of Nov./beginning Dec.? And I'll admit I was not very impressed with it. I thought a lot of the colors looked comparable to the original Naked palette and they even had the same color in both--good ole' Half Baked. I swear that color is in every single UD palette. I looked at other beauty bloggers sites and there were a ton of comparison/side by side swatches. I talked myself out of buying it then. For the most part the colors looked similar. But, of course, I kept watching tutorials with the Naked 2 and I loved all the taupe/greys that encompassed the palette. I love taupe/mauve/grey tones in general. Then I had a realization that this palette was the cooler toned of the two. At that point, I had to have it. And honestly, had Naked 2 actually been the original and the original came out as Naked 2 (uh I hope that's not confusing) I would have not purchased the warmed toned palette that is now the original. I'm just so in love with the Naked 2, it's by far my favorite palette and I love playing with it. Don't worry, my Naked palette still gets love. It's lucky it came out first so now I have both palettes in my collection. That concludes my long winded UDN2 story. I hope you enjoy this soft, grey/taupe smokey eye. I really played the look up with eyeliner though. For some reason I have gotten into the habit of winging out my eyeliner in all my looks. I just think it makes my eyes look a tad bigger and it seems to be the trend. As always, enjoy!

Face:
Smashbox Photo Finish Primer
Lancome Teint Miracle Foundation in Buff (2W) mixed with Benefit Girl Meets Pearl
Benefit Boi-ing Concealer in 01

Giorgio Armani Lasting Silk powder in 04
Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess bronzer
MAC MSF in Petticoat
Fresh Satin Luster cream highlight in Winter Rose

Eyes:
Too Faced Eye Shadow Primer
NYX Jumbo Pencil in Cottage Cheese
All these colors are from UDN2:
Verve- lid
YDK- Crease and inner corner, lower lashline
Tease- Crease
Blackout and Busted- mixed together in the inner V of the lid and lower lashline
Bootycall- highlight
MAC Fluidline gel eyeliner in BlackTrack- upper lashline--I also used Blackout over it to set the gel
Stila Kajal eyeliner- waterline/tightline
Benefit Speedbrow
Lancome Doll Lashes Mascara

Lips:
MAC Subculture lipliner
MAC Innocence, Beware! Lipstick






Thursday, February 2, 2012

Turning Page Inspired Look

One day I will have the time and courage to actually post videos on my YouTube page because then this look would make more sense. I just hate my voice when I hear it played back, but I have a camcorder and I just need a good way to film and learn how to edit and I'll be good to go on my first video. It's in the works folks :)

This look was inspired as I was listening to Sleeping At Last- Turning Page. A lot of beauty gurus will do looks inspired by a song and that's what I did for the look below. I would say it's a grey-purple look. Obviously smoky because that's my signature look. I tried to do a gradient effect but I think my colors were too similar so it didn't turn out as perfect as I'd like but overall I'm pleased with the look. What's interesting is the lipstick because it looks more brown-pink on the lips but the lipstick color is actually more mauve-taupe and I layered it with a lavender color dazzleglass...so I don't know if the lighting is picking up the right color. This is also one of the first looks I have done with my Inglot shadows. Inglot is a makeup company baed out of Poland and they have amazing eyeshadows for only $5 a pan. I am absolutely in love with them. They are so soft and easy to blend. My only complaint would be that because they are too soft you get more eyeshadow than needed and it's wasteful. However, the pan size for these shadows are relatively large so it's not that big of a deal. They can just be messy and get all over my desk. I should do a review and swatches of them. They are so pretty! Anyways, enjoy!

Face:
Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation in #4 mixed with Benefit Girl Meets Pearl
Benefit Boi-ing concealer in #01
Giorgio Armani Lasting Silk Powder in #4
Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess
MAC Beauty Powder in Briar Rose
Benefit High Beam

Eyes:
Laura Mercier Eye Base in Wheat
MAC Paint Pot in For Effect
Inglot #376 blended into crease and on lower lashline
Inglot #434 on lid
Smashbox Putty blended in middle of lid only
Smashbox Blacktop added to crease for more definition
Smashbox Mist in the inner corner
Too Faced Cut the Cake in the inner corner and lower lashline
Inglot #354 as a highlight
Lancome Artliner in Noir on upper lashline
Stila Kajal pencil eyeliner in upper tightline and waterline
Benefit Speed Brow gel
Benefit Eye Bright in inner corner
Lancome CILS Booster XL mascara primer
Lancome Doll Lashes mascara

Lips:
MAC Lipliner in Draw Me Close
MAC Lipstick in Soft Sable
MAC Dazzleglass in Via Veneto-- my favorite lipgloss of ALL time.