Makeover: Sarah C - The Return

It's Sunday, and, as always, that means it's a makeover day Chez Lippie.

Remember Sarah C?

She had a pretty dramatic Theda Bara-style makeover last time, but she also wanted to learn how to use bright colours in a simple, and  subtle way.  We had a look through my entire eye-shadow collection - which took quite some time - and Sarah decided on MAC's Humid, which is a glorious tropical green shadow.  With Sarah's olive skin-tone, and gorgeous brown eyes, it was a lovely choice.

We used the same base as last time, and then primed the eyes with Urban Decay Primer Potion, and used a tiny hint of MAC Behold to define the crease:

Once that was in place, we used Humid as a liner:

 

We added a layer of L'Oreal Collagene mascara, and finished with a slick of Prescriptives lipgloss in Stellar:

Here's how she looked after:

 

Pretty as a picture.

Face of the Week - Korres

This little lot was supposed to be saved for a makeover, but when it arrived I fell in love with some of it so much that I had to give it a trial run for myself:

I'll talk more about the foundation and mascara (at the back) later, but I wanted to talk about the shadows today, they're lovely.  I got 77s Plum (on the left) and Base 12s which is a pale taupe colour, with a twist, here's how they look in the pan:

(top -  with flash, bottom - without)

I'm not sure how visible it is in the pic there, but the pale taupe has a gorgeous - and unexpected - hint of iridescent pink, and I was delighted with it.  The shadow had been a little banged up in the post, so I'd had to smoosh it back down into the pan a bit, hence why it's looking a bit bumpy there.  It was during this that I discovered that these are really silky soft, buttery-smooth shadows, much silkier than anything I own from, say, MAC for example.

Here's how they swatch on the skin:

 (Left - with flash, right - without)

They start off pretty sheer, but the colour is buildable. I've swatched them here on bare skin on the left of each pic, and over base on the right.

I used the 12s as a colour wash all over the lid, and added the plum on the outer corners and worked it into the crease, I found them very blendable, and loved how my eyes looked after, so much so, that I've worn this look a couple of times this week already!

The eyeliner is really very soft and blendable too, I got the blue-black shade, and it's very beautiful, but I couldn't pick up the gorgeous colour on these pics for some reason. I'll try and post pictures of it  that actually do it justice next time I use it. Please enlarge the collage to see the colours.

Korres Cosmetics are available from Liberty, or online at ASOS.

Makeover: Donna

Meet Donna:

 

Donna has the most lovely eyes, but she told me that she's got out of the habit of wearing shadow recently, and was looking to learn how to apply dramatic "winged" eyeliner.  When Donna does apply colour to her eyes she uses a lot of teals and purples, but we discussed something a bit different and decided that orange was the way forward!  I broke out my pro palette and got to work:

As always, we start with the base.  Donna has great skin, with some lovely freckling, so we just used a tiny sweep of Lily Lilo powder foundation as a base and left it at that:

Then we got to work on Donna's eyes.  I used this palette:

Mainly concentrating on the second row from the left there, I used the second and third shades down as a colour wash all over the eyelid area, using the slightly darker shade as a contour in the crease:

The peachy-orange really brings out the green shades in Donna's eyes, yet it's not too in-your-face.  However, I'm disappointed with the quality of the shadows themselves, the colour pay-off is pretty poor, and even attempting to foil with them doesn't improve it very much at all.  I was hoping for a much more dramatic look.  Still, the colour wash is pretty, and works well enough, just not quite well enough.

Then, onto the liner.  For this, I used Urban Decay's liquid liner in Roach, which is one of my favourite shades of all time, it's a gorgeous burgundy-brown shade that's flattering on almost everyone, as it's less harsh than black.  For a really dramatic look, I always draw the liner in a tiny right angled triangle shape right next to the lashline:

I start by drawing the upright at the outside corner of the eye, then draw a line from the inner corner to the top of the line, then fill in the triangle with the coloured liner.  It's a lot more simple than this sounds, and I'll bring you a step by step guide to how to do this soon.

Here's how the eyes looked when I was finished, we used two coats of mascara, and I think this is a great dramatic look.  Yes, it could have been a bit more dramatic, but overall I like this look.  Then I made a mistake, attempting to make up for the lack of drama in the orange eyeshadow, I thought a bright orange lipstick would be in order.  All I did then, was gild the lily:

Actually, the lipstick itself is a great shade for Donna (it's a Stila one, I've forgotten the name of, but I'll find out), it's just too much with the winged liner. We toned it down later with a more neutral lip, and it looked much more in balance.

Thank you, Donna!  I'll not gild the lily next time, I promise.

Makeover: Anna

Another Sunday, another makeover ... please meet Anna:

Anna came to me a couple of weeks ago, wanting to look more polished, and also to see how to create a smokey eye that would suit her beautiful grey-green eyes.  We decided on a neutral brown palette from Pixi to create the look around - I can't read the name on the packaging anymore, sorry - and I thought keeping the focus on those lovely eyes was definitely the way forward.

First things first, as always, we start with creating the perfect base.  Anna has some red marks, and a few pigmentation issues, so a foundation that could double up as a concealer was ideal.  I chose Benefit Play Stick foundation in Jax.  I really like these foundation sticks as they're really versatile, and you can amuse yourself painting pictures on your face before you blend them in! (Yes, I am a child).  We dotted a little extra over the problem areas,  blended well, then finished with a layer of Benefit Bluffdust to even out the complexion.  Here's how it looked after:

Already a little more polished! From the eyeshadow palette below, I used shade two as a colour wash all over the lid, and used shade 1 as a brow highlight (this is a well loved and much abused palette, so please forgive how it looks!):

I thought these colours worked really well on their own and would be suitable for a pretty and polished day time look with just a touch of mascara.  Anna wanted something a little more defined however, so I went on and used shade 3 to add some contour definition, and shade 4 as a liner:

 

Then, of course, it was time for mascara, we added a layer of Lancome Hypnose, and it really made her eyes stand out:

After this, we added blush (MAC Blushbaby) and a tiny slick of lipgloss (Prescriptives Stellar) and the look was finished:

Polished, subtle, slightly smokey, and really lovely.  Here's the before and afters:

Still waiting to hear how the date went, Anna!

My Mini-Makeover at NARS

Whenever I'm offered a makeover in a department store, I try and take the salespeople up on it, unless the salesperson falls into one of these two categories: a) is wearing black lipliner or b) works for Benefit.  Sorry Benefit ladies, you're all no doubt wonderful people, but I tend to come away looking like I've let a toddler loose on my mush face with the crazy glue, a bag of glitter and some magic markers.

This week, I went to see the NARS people at Selfridges, and this is how I came out looking:

Normally, I avoid browns like the plague, but I'm really rather liking the look she's created here - and I actually quite like how she's accentuated the fact that my eyes are different colours as well. Unintentionally, undoubtedly, but I like the odd effect - I tweeted at the time that I felt a bit like a drag queen (a midget drag queen to be exact, but the less said about that, the better), but it's grown on me since then.  She used Cyprus as a highlight in the inner corner, and blended both Mekong and Galapagos as the socket shade, and used Galapagos (again) as an under-eyeliner.

 

The flash on the camera is really reflecting the coppery/bronziness of the shimmer in the eyeshadows, in the flesh it's actually a LOT darker, and dramatic, but it made an excellent change from my more natural usual looks.

I have to admit to not loving how the Sheer Glow makes me look exceptionally sweaty though, I have to admit.  Feels nice on, but if it looks like this after only two hours wear, and under powder, it's not something I'll be investing in, if I'm being honest.  She used a flat brush - something I've never thought of, but it seems so obvious now - to apply the lipstick (Falbala) and that's definitely a tip I'll be using again!

I did in fact purchase both Mekong and Galapagos, and here's a more wearable daytime look I created with Galapagos and Flesh by Bobbi Brown:

Again, the flash has washed the colour out a bit here, but it was a fair bit more dramatic than my usual look for the office.  I've used a more matte foundation as well, which I think works better.

Makeover: Gillian

It's Sunday, and that means it's makeover day here at Get Lippie!  Meet Gillian:

Gillian came to me a couple of weeks ago, wanting to look like a sexy 50's bombshell.   Now, this is a look I happen to love, as it's actually pretty simple and quick to put together.  First things first though, the classic bombshell look is dependent on flawless porcelain skin for it to work.  So we used a base of Max Factor Seamless in porcelain to even out Gillian's skintone, and give us a flawless base to work from:

 

We added a little concealer, then powdered down with some Benefit Bluffdust to tone down any lingering redness and give a matte finish, and Gillian was feeling more like a bombshell already!

There are two main elements to the bombshell look, eyeliner, and lipstick, both are crucial, so we'll start with the eyes.  I started by showing Gillian how to define the crease of her eyelid using MAC Behold as a contour shade:

Once this was in place (and Gillian had had a lesson in how to find it for herself) we moved on to liner.  Liquid liner can be tricky for a novice, so I showed Gillian how to use powder and an angled brush to paint on a line that looks just as dramatic and flattering as liquid liner, but takes a lot less practice to perfect.  We used Virgin Vie shadow in charcoal, then a coat or two of mascara:

 

Personally, I think this look suits Gillian down to a tee, and we could just have added a touch of lip balm or gloss right here and we'd have a lovely glamorous look suitable for daywear already!  However, the bombshell look demands lipstick.  So we added a slick of Guerlain lipstick in CanCan red as the finishing touch:

So there you go, quick, simple, with a minimum of products, but the maximum of impact.

Here's the before and afters:

Thank you, Gillian.

Makeover: Louise

This is Louise:

Louise came to me wanting a classic "English Rose" look, as she wanted to look glowing, natural, and make the most of her beautiful blue eyes.  She has a make up bag full of steely greys, but after a chat, we thought something more apricot, and shimmery would be an excellent contrast.

Louise has lovely skin - no pores! - and we didn't need a huge a huge amount of coverage, so as a base, we used Benefit You Rebel in Light.  Louise does have a small patch of broken veins on her right cheek, so to cover them, we used a small amount of MAC concealer patted on, and finished off with a very, very light dusting of Benefit Bluffdust to further counteract the redness, and tone down shininess.

On Louise's eyes, I wanted to use lovely shimmering golden apricot shades, to complement her skintone, and to really make the blue in her eyes stand out. I applied MAC Naked Lunch as a colourwash all over her lid up to the brow bone:

Then we added just a touch of MAC Patina to the outside corner, and as an eyeliner, I used Cargo's Plant Love shadow in Sparrow:

Louise's lashes needed a little definition - actually, everyone's lashes need a little definition, mascara should totally be everyone's desert island beauty product, if you ask me! - so we added a coat of Louise's own Boots mascara:

Then we moved onto blush, and we used MAC's Prism, which is a lovely coral-y peach shade:

Once that was in place, we added a touch of Bobbi Brown's lipgloss in Rose Sugar, and the look was finished:

Here's the before and after, just look at the difference in those eyes!

Pictures by Genna.