"Severine" from Skyfall Inspired Makeup Look

Inspiration Photo

 It's no surprise that one of the first things I notice when watching a film is the makeup. I love getting ideas from movies and other makeup artists. I actually did this look awhile ago and I have finally have the time to post it! I saw the Skyfall trailer and I fell in love with Severine's makeup. (Side note, I have never seen any James Bond movie. Yes, life fail, I know.) She had daring bold eyes paired with a dark lip. Anyone that knows me, knows I love  dark, smokey eyes and vampy lips. I will add that the lip gloss used for this look was not my favorite. It feathered a bit and was not as opaque as I would have liked. When re-creating this look, I suggest using a dark plum lipstick instead of a gloss. Or if you use a gloss put a lip liner under the gloss so that the gloss is less likely to feather.

This look is perfect for a date, night on the town or the approaching New Years Eve. Despite the look being rather bold, it is quite simple and uses very little products. I will have the products listing below along with the technique I used on the eyes. As always, enjoy!

Face:
Lancome Tient Ultra 24 Hour Foundation in 110 Ivoire
Benefit Boi-ing Concealor in 001
Benefit Hello Flawless powder in Petal
MAC MSF in Petticoat
BareMinerals Bronzer in Skinny Dip

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
The Balm Meet Matt(e) Palette in Matt Batali eyeshadow (on the lid and winged out in the outer corner and lined on the lower lashline and smoked out)
Anastasia She Wears it Well Palette in Almond eyeshadow (blended out into crease)
Too Faced Pencil eyeliner in Black (lined close to the upper lashline and smoked out/ also line this along the waterline)
Too Faced Better than False Lashes Mascara
Benefit Browzings in Light mixed with Matt Batali eyeshadow

Lips:
BareMinerals Moxie lipgloss in Daredevil

My 'Everyday go to Makeup'

"What is your go to makeup routine?" is one of the most common questions I get asked. After years of trying this and that, I have finally found (for me) the perfect routine and colors for an every day, any event look. This makeup look is easy, quick and perfect for work, after work events, parties, etc. You can play up the neutral eyeshadows with a grey or dark purple for a more night time look. However, with the eyeliner, I think it works well for night too. I have pretty much found my holy grail of products with this look. Whenever I'm in doubt or if I'm running behind, this is the look I always do.

My current favorite eyeshadow is MAC's Jest. It's such a lovely pink champagne color with a hint of light purple in it. It's gorgeous and I use it in so many looks. As always, enjoy!

Face:
Laura Mercier Spackle Primer in Champagne
Revlon Colorstay Whipped Foundation in 150 Buff
Benefit Boi-ing concealer in 001
Benefit Hello Flawless Powder in Petal
NARS Blush in Sin
MAC MSF in Perfect Topping

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
MAC Jest (all over lid and inner corner on lower lashline)
MAC Quarry (in crease)
Urban Decay Busted (lightly in outer-V and the outer part of the lower lashline)
Urban Decay Foxy (highlight)
Lancome Artliner in Noir (upper lashline)
Too Faced Pencil Liner in Black (waterline)
Maybelline Lash Stiletto Mascara
Benefit Browzings in Light

Lips:
Tarte Lip Luster in Adored

Halloween Series- The Vampire Diaries: Katherine Pierce

Inspiration Photo

 It's my favorite time of year! Yes, finally it's almost Halloween. I have a planned a few halloween makeup looks. So check back for more.

This look is based off one of my favorite characters in The Vampire Diaries, Katherine Pierce. She plays a 500 year old vampire and her makeup is always flawless. It's a quite simple smoked out look. This look will go well with any vampire costume or just an elegant night look for those non halloween events. I also used my new Anastasia of Beverly Hills "She Wears it Well" palette and I love the colors and consistency of the eyeshadows. They blend like a dream and it's interesting that this is one of my very first all matte looks. Enjoy!

Face:
Fresh Twilight Primer
Lancome Teint Miracle Foundation in Buff 2
Bare Minerals pressed powder in The Skinny Dip
Benefit Boi-ing concealer in 01
Benefit Hello Flawless powder in Petal

Eyes:
MAC Paint Pot in Painterly- all over eye lid
Anastasia Beverly Hills "She Wears it Well" palette:
1) Almond- all over eye lid
2) Onyx- in the outer V
3) Toffee- to blend out the edges of Onyx
4) Frosting- Highlight
Too Faced Pencil Eyeliner in Perfect Black- upper lashline and lower lashline smoked out and all the waterline
Maybelline Lash Stiletto Mascara
Benefit Browzings in Light

Cheeks:
Nars Blush in Sin
Tarte Amazonian Clay Shimmering Powder in Rose

Lips:
MAC Naked Lip Liner
MAC Runway Red Lipstick

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

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.

Tourist Inspired Look

No I didn't see that awful movie. However, I saw some movie pictures and was inspired to do this Angelina Jolie look from The Tourist. I really like the neutral eyeshadow paired with an intense eyeliner. This could also be toned down for a really nice daytime work look. Personally, I think this look as is would be work wearable :)

I didn't really like the pink lip I paired it with. It was too pink and cool-toned. I think a more natural color like MAC Creme d' Nude or even a peachy/gold pink would work best since it's more warmer look overall.

Also, I am not wearing fake eyelashes in the look. So yes, those are my natural lashes.

Cheeks:
MAC MSF in Petticoat

Eyes:
UDPP
Spell Cosmetics Corset applied on lid and outward
Too Faced Like a Virgin and Pillow Talk blended into crease and outward
Urban Decay Virgin as a highlight
LORAC Front of the Line Pro liquid eyeliner in Black on upper lashline. I winged it out and I also added the line on the inner corner to make the eye look bigger. Black liner can really make your eyes appear small :(
Stila Kajal eyeliner in Onyx on lower and upper waterlines
Fresh Supernova mascara in Black

Lips:
MAC Phlox lipstick

Smoked Berries

Instead of studying for the LSAT in two weeks, I decided it was time for a (way overdue) new post. I couldn't think of  a better way to procrastinate but by updating my makeup blog. Also, I recently purchased a few things from the new MAC holiday collection, so I have been wanting to play around with some holiday looks. This is the look I did tonight with the Crush pigments in Smoked Berry:

*And I plan to do a Breaking Dawn inspired look. Yes, I'm a dork. It was my favorite book of the series so I was really excited about the new movie. However, my favorite movie is still New Moon. The Breaking Dawn movie wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be.

Cheeks:
NARS Luster Blush
NARS Albatross Highlighting Powder

Eyes:
MAC Let's Skate Paintpot all over lid
MAC Crushed Pigment in Pearl all over lid
MAC Crushed Pigment in Rose Light in middle of lid and blended into crease and outward
MAC Crushed Pigment in Spicy Smoked blended into crease
MAC Crushed Pigment in Roasted Chestnut in crease and outer-V
Lancome Artliner in Noir on upper lash line
Stile Kajal pencil eyeliner in Onyx in waterline and smudged out
Lancome Doll Lashes Mascara
Benefit Speed Brow in Light

Lips:
MAC lipliner in Subculture
MAC lipstick in Soft Sable
MAC Dazzleglass in Pleasure Principle