Wedding Makeup Series Part 2: What should I look for in a makeup artist?

If you didn't catch my first post on whether to hire a makeup artist or not for your wedding, you may want to click here! If you're looking into hiring one, read on! Grab a cuppa as it's a long post! I know I won't have covered everything, so if I've missed something, please ask me and I'll help if I can. I’m not as up to scratch on hairstyling, but these questions should work for both.

 

 

First and foremost, look for your artist (duh!). Googling makeup artists in your area may come up with all sorts of artists - for fashion, TV, film, stage, special effects, etc. While plenty work in many areas, not all will be suited for your needs, so obviously look for bridal specific websites or pages on their websites.  Once you've found one you like the look of, take a good hard look at their website or page. They should have a variety of examples that look like they're from different, real life weddings and events (this goes for your wedding photographers as well!). Before and after shots can be helpful when choosing, although this is dependant on their clients agreeing to put the before shots online so plenty of artists won't have these. Make sure your artist is local or local-ish to you before you contact them - a lot of artists will travel to you, but that will almost definitely cost you more.

Before I start on specifics, remember: no one can choose your makeup artist but you! You need to go with your own gut feeling about who will work best for you, and remember if you have a trial with someone and you don't like them, you don't have to book them. I've listed some things to think about/questions to ask below, but a lot of this may be answered on the artists website, so click around and have a read through first! There are a million and one specific questions you may want to ask your artist, but don't be afraid to ask , no matter how silly it may seem to you. It's your money, face and wedding day photos after all!

 

Questions to ask/Things to think about:

What makeup do you use? This is a question that will make most pros roll their eyes if you ask them, but it can be important. The answer you're looking for, unless you have a specific question in regards to allergies or similar, is something along the lines of "I use a wide variety of brands to ensure I get the best results on the day." You are not looking for "I only ever use MAC/Chanel/whatever!" A good MUA will have a wide variety of brands, (often including professional brands that most people won't even have heard of) but trust me, if you like the results you've seen on their website, then it's good stuff! If you're hung up on only using one brand, I'm really sorry but you need to throw that thought right out of the window!  I don't know *any* makeup artist that only uses one brand unless they work for the brand.

 

What do you charge and what is included? Now this is a minefield, as there will be a huge variation in cost for makeup artists and this can depend on so many things - what city you are in, the size of your bridal party, whether you're having hair and makeup, or one or the other. However, your artist should be able to give you a clear breakdown of costs of costs and what is included, for example "Brides Makeup and hair + Bridal Trial (Bride Only) = £XXX, plus bridesmaids/MOTB hair and makeup £XXX each, (wedding day makeup/hair only, no trials)" If it's not clear, ask for a breakdown. Sometimes prices will be listed online, but in my experience, most will give you a quote for your party instead, as putting something like  'Bride + 2 Bridesmaids incl. Bridal Trial = £XXX" online will result in people contacting them and saying 'But it says £XXX! Why won't you do my nine bridesmaids, my mum, my mother-in-law, the Vicar, my cousins, dog and next door neighbour for that amount?!!", so don't be suspicious if they're not. 

And remember - makeup artistry isn't cheap. It doesn't have to cost you the earth, but it's worth Googling and comparing artists in your local area to get a good picture of what you 'should' be paying. I can’t tell you what you should be paying because it varies so much, but don't expect it to be twenty quid, okay? A skilled makeup artist will be worth the money, I promise. Once you’ve set your date, start researching so you can get a good idea of what it will cost and start working it into your budget.

What is this contract? Why am I paying a deposit? Your makeup artist, like every other vendor you're hiring for your wedding, is a business. I will say it again - they're not a person doing it for a giggle, they're a business. It's in their interest to protect their business, so like other things you'll get for the day, you will most likely have to sign a contract, pay a deposit, or similar to guarantee your booking. Like anything else you might have to sign for your day, read it carefully. It will most likely have boring details like cancellation policies, etc.

I have scars/pigmentation/scalp issues/tattoos/allergies/another skin issue/tattoos I want covered. Can you help? This won't be relevant to everyone, but if you do have an issue, it's better to let your makeup artist know straight away so they can look after you to the best of their abilities. If you're looking for them to do makeup on other people in your wedding party and one of them has an issue, make that known as well. A good makeup artist should be able to cope with any of the above 'issues', but it does make it a hell of a lot easier on them if they know beforehand, and you know any concerns you have will be looked after. Win-win.

With regards to covering tattoos or large birthmarks, etc., this is often a service you'll have to pay extra for, so make it known before you get your final price - no-one is going to do it on the day for you if you haven't told them first! It's time consuming, a different skill and using probably different products - that's why it'll cost more.

How will you ensure my makeup/hair will last on the day? Again, every  artist will have different ways of ensuring this. All artists should be able to tell you they'll use thing such as long wearing foundations, setting sprays, layering techniques, or a combination of these or similar techniques to ensure a long-lasting look. Someone MUAs will build a little touch-up kit for you to take with you (often these will have powder or blotting paper, q-tips, a lipstick or sample of the lipstick you're wearing, breath mints etc.), some will purchase a lipstick on your behalf for you for you to take, and some even have an option where they will charge extra for them to stick around and do touch-ups after the ceremony, etc. Again, this is something that’s probably going to be on their website, but it may be worth talking about in your initial consultation if you have concerns. It's certainly worth talking about if you're getting married in a different climate than you're used to, or in a particularly hot/humid time of the year.

 

What happens at my trial? Lots of people don't understand why you have trials for your wedding, but they're for lots of reasons! Basically, it's to make sure you'll be happy with your makeup on the day – you’ll be discussing your skin/hair type and how to care for it before the day, your dress style and colour scheme, what style and colours of makeup you like, what you'll need for touch-ups – everything! All of this also cuts down on time on your wedding day when you'll feel like every second counts. Your artist will talk you through how they do their trials, but they can be really fun as you get to see your ideas come to life! Your artist may ask for a photo of you before your trial too, so they can see your skintone/hair type, etc. At the end of the session, you most likely will have seen your final look - squee!

Do you have references? If a makeup artist gets good feedback, they'll probably be shouting about them anyway on their website or Facebook page because they're great for their business, but if not and they're something you feel comfortable seeing, feel free to ask!

What qualifications do you have? In some countries/states you need qualifications to practise makeup or other cosmetology/aesthetic services, but in some you won't. Make sure if you have local laws requiring qualifications that your artist is legit and has what they need to work, but remember that regardless of this, the persons work should speak to you instead of what school they went to. You can be qualified through the roof but that doesn’t mean you’re necessarily any good. You don't need to ask what school someone went to if their work speaks for itself.

How do you chose what look to go for? Can I send you pictures? Gathering makeup looks that you like can be really helpful to your artist – much like when you go to the hairdresser! Sending them a link to your Pinterest board with 1,001 totally different images on won't help them work out what you're looking for though, so try to narrow it down and if you can, let them know what it is you like about the look, i.e., "I love this colour eyeshadow," "I like the pin-up vibe here," “This hairstyle would suit my dress.”   Bear in mind one look may look totally different on different people, so if your artist tries to explain how to change something to work for your skin tone or eye shape, please listen to them!

I’m a person in black/Rainbow Brite Impersonator and I wear crazy/heavy makeup day to day. Can you still help on my wedding day? I know lots of people who wear ‘non conventional’ makeup still want help on their big day. If you normally wear a lot of makeup or a certain style of makeup, mention this to your artist and/or show them photos and stress you want to look like you! They may even ask you to wear your usual style to your trial so you can nail your wedding look together. If you do wear this style of makeup and your artist won't listen to what you want and work with it, don't book them. It's a simple as that. There will be someone out there who will help you make a 'bridal' version of you, I promise.

 

Keep hygiene in mind!

This is probably the most important part! A quick Google of 'how can I tell if my MUA is hygienic' should tell you all you need to know, but if your artists kit looks dirty, smeared or dusty, if their brushes don't look clean, if they double-dip products (i.e., use the mascara brush that comes from the tube when it's not a fresh tube that they will only use on you, apply lipstick straight from the bullet without disinfecting before and after, applying lipgloss from the tube), have dirty nails, don't have disposable mascara wands, if they don't sanitise/wash their hands, any one of these is a massive red flag. Run away, run away, run away. You might feel comfortable sharing makeup with a friend or sister (I may share a lip balm with my sister for example, but my professional kit is cleaned both during and after each shoot or client, and I make sure they SEE me doing it!) but a professional needs to keep clean at all times -risking giving a client pinkeye is not even thinkable and that is NOT something you want to deal with on your honeymoon. Seriously, hygiene is so important in a professional for health reasons, plus people who don’t clean their kit usually don’t take care of it in other ways – dirty brushes don’t blend as well, unsharpened pencils won’t get as crisp a line, etc., so you won’t get as nice a result anyway!

Disposable mascara wands.

My mate’s doing my makeup!

What about if you want a non-professional to do your makeup? A friend, a cousin, etc.? This is sometimes awkward, because we're all awkward talking about money with friends and family. If they're good at makeup, whether they're pro or not, and they're close to you they may well offer, which is great! Someone offering to do your hair or makeup is a really nice gift, no? However, whether they're a pro or not, you should still ask them to do a trial, and you shouldn't take them up on the offer if you're not 100% confident they'll do a good job. If it's someone close to you, things can get pretty awkward if the result is not what you were expecting. You don't want to hate the makeup on the day and associate those feelings with your friend! You can always use the 'I'd prefer you to relax and enjoy the day,' line which is pretty legit, and lots of people do genuinely feel that way about people offering them services on the day. However, if you do want someone close to you to do it and they don't mention it, ask them what they'd charge - they may give you a good rate, and you won't know if you ask. If they do offer it for free, it's nice to maybe give them a gift if you can, but at least make sure you shout about your makeup to everyone you know and help promote them a little.

Generally speaking, if someone doesn't offer, please don't ask them to do it for free , especially if they're a pro and that's how they make their living. It's not a nice conversation for them to have and you won't get the answer you want. It's their business, after all! Too many makeup artists and hairstylists get people crawling out of the woodwork when their wedding comes around and it's very frustrating. This goes for all services – cakes, photography, etc. I don't mean to lecture, but it's a bit of a pisstake.

 

 

Phew! Well, I hope that helped someone out there! If you can think of anything I’ve missed, please let me know! I'm going to be addressing those of us who are doing our own wedding makeup in my next posts, as well as putting together an inspiration gallery for bridal makeup.

Do I Need to Buy Different Makeup For Halloween?

Halloween is just around the corner and if you're like me, you'll want to have both an awesome costume and not spend any money. Sadly these hardly ever go hand in hand, but luckily for beauty bloggers, MUAs and makeup geeks, we have a lot of makeup at our disposal which can really help when Halloween or other fancy dress occasions come around. While I would never discourage people from buying funky special effects and theatrical makeup, it's not easy to get hold of good quality stuff and just isn't something most people are going to uses. This post is going is about what makeup is worth buying for very casual SFX use and what you can use that you probably already have.

 

White foundation: White foundation is *so* handy to have for Halloween! It can be hard to find, especially at this time of year, but Illamasqua and larger Barry M stands in the UK both carry them, and brands like Kryolan and Ben Nye both have them available online to buy fairly cheaply. A white foundation can be mixed with so many things - it can be mixed with other foundation colours to change them, or used all over the face or body as to create a blank canvas to allow you to colour your skin. To an extent, it can be mixed with loose pigments as well. Foundation is worth getting as opposed to greasepaint or facepaint as you can use it after Halloween is over - mix a little to lighten your usual foundation and you've got yourself a darn good highlighter! If you're planning on doing this, try and get the type of foundation you normally use, i.e, cream or liquid. I really dislike the nasty cheap cream makeup you get at Halloween – it smells bad, it doesn’t apply well, you can’t store it or use it more than once due to the packaging and it’s almost certainly worse for your skin than your usual makeup.

 

Eyeshadows used over a white base to create a fantasy look. (Yes, I know it’s pink.)

Matte eyeshadows: See above. It may take a little longer than using cream makeup, but blanking out your face and using shadows means that most of us won't be spending money on expensive theatre makeup and you avoid those god-awful cream palettes that pop in in costume shops. A good neutral palette can be really helpful at Halloween - a couple of deep browns, a black, a cream or white and a grey can be really helpful for creating undead or dirty looks or aged makeup. A matte plum, red and yellow can also be useful for bloodied or bruised looks. Always, always go with matte if you can - shimmery shadows don't tend to go well with spooky makeup, and shimmery makeup in photography can both look gritty and contribute to the makeup looking washed out.

Setting powder: If you're creating any looks with cream based products or even with just more makeup that you're used to, a translucent setting powder . For purposes of costume makeup, any old setting powder will do. Pressing a larger amount than usual over the makeup with a puff and then brushing the excess off will keep your makeup good n' fixed.

Using a felt liner pen to sketch out villainous eyebrows!

Felt tip liner pen: Seriously, these are great for everything. Liner, obviously. Drawing fangs, stitches, 'cracks' for creepy dolly looks. Freckles, eyebrows, 'shadows' for pop-art makeup, widows peak hairlines for Dracula, KISS makeup... everything. Plus they're cheap and intuitive to use.

 

Using eyeliners to sketch out a zombie jaw.

Cheap lipsticks and eyeliners: Or even your more expensive lipsticks and eyeliners, this one is really about thinking outside of the makeup box. Eyeliners easily double up as lip colours or to draw designs on the face - your black eyeliner will save you from buying a black lipstick you'll never use again! Lipsticks can be used in place of cream paints or to colour eyebrows.  Just bear in mind the textures of what you're using if and whether that will need to be set, as well as whether what you're using is eye or lip safe. Eyeliners easily double up as lip colours, lipsticks can be used in place of cream makeup, cream eyeshadows can be used all over the face, blah blah blah blah. I would add to do a patch test of your usual makeup to see if it stains – something that might not stain your lips may stay a different texture of skin, for example, so do a wee test!

Mascara: Mascaras are great for drawing beards, moustaches and darkening eyebrows. If you're a girl going a a dude, or a guy going as a pirate or someone who needs an odd beard shape, your mascara will really work wonders. Wipe the excess off your brush and dab it sideways gently on the face to get stubble.

Sponges: Sponges might seem obvious, but ripping and tearing the surface of the sponge can be really useful for creating mottled, gross effects on the skin.

A translucent setting powder and some lipliners that I use often for regular makeup lined up with some special effects goodies…

If you buy *one* thing from a special effects store or brand, some good fake blood will really be worth it and can be got fairly cheaply – I love Ben Nye's Fresh Scab/Thick Blood. Please, please steer clear of the cheap, 99p fancy-dress shop blood - it looks horribly fake and can really cheapen an otherwise good look. If you do get this, get a couple of tubes and try play with adding coffee grounds or pigments to get a more realistic, less syrupy-looking effect. It *will* look better than neon cheap blood, I promise! Another thing I see a lot at Halloween that is really awful is crappy ‘scar putty,’ often in kits with aforementioned crappy cream makeup, that mostly just falls off or  ends up looking like blobs of chewing gum on the face. If you need something to add texture, or to create scars or zombie flesh, buy a small cheap bottle of liquid latex from eBay or Amazon and play layering that with toilet paper and other textured stuff you might have lying around like cereal (srsly, porridge oats can be awesome!) Something that is even more fool proof but a little more expensive is a substance called rigid collodion, also available from SFX makeup retails. Please read up on this before using as it’s NOT something you want to get near your eyes, but it’s basically a liquid you paint on your skin and as it dries, it contracts and creates a puckered scar-like effect which you can then apply makeup over to look like really realistic scars!

While this post  may seem obvious to most of you, I've told so many of my friends that they don't actually need to buy all that much, or if they do, to buy something they will actually use again that I thought it was worth writing!

What are you going as for Halloween? *Be prepared* for my costume!

Anatomy of a Photoshoot

Most of you will know by now that I do some makeup work on the side - it's by no means a full time job for me (yet! Fingers crossed!) but it is something I work very hard at and put a lot of hours into. A friend of mine made a comment last week that made me realise that most people simply don’t know how much work goes into a photoshoot! I did a beauty shoot just over a week ago and this post documents everything that goes into it - from my point of view, anyway! Preparations for models, photographers and stylists are of course all different but take just as much if not more time. Not all shoots involve this much planning, some require more and some less. Each one is different.

My friend Yat Tang was the photographer for this shoot and it was his concept. I’ve worked with him a few times and his work is beautiful. In a more professional setting he would be the client, and everything would need to be approved by them. He sent me this inspiration board:

And then I set up my own Pinterest board to gather my thoughts and ideas as well:

 

Once I'd seen the models Yat had cast, I came up with a rough face chart for each and sent them to him for approval:

 

One of the looks involved making a hair piece which I knew would really help take the photos to a better level.  I spent a couple of hours in the shops searching for bits and bobs for it, and I also went foraging for leaves, twigs etc. I then spent an afternoon making the head piece which was very tricksy actually! I don't always make things for shoots, but if it's applicable I like to add that extra level of my creativity and it often impresses the team as well. Other things I might make include nails and other head pieces, like this and this.

Here I am sewing hair donuts together to get the size and height I want. Hair donuts can be very expensive in some places so I bought el cheapo ones from Primark and made with the scissors!

Halfway there…

And finished! Sewing real leaves together is a pain in the butt! It’s not the most fabulous thing in the world but trust me, it looked great in the photos.

The day before the shoot, I spend up to two hours cleaning my brushes and packing and re-cleaning my kit. It doesn’t always take that long, but if I’ve left it till the last minute and have no clean brushes left, which I do all too often, it can take a while! I’ll double check everything before I leave for the shoot at least twice as I have a huge, huge fear of leaving my brushed behind! I could substitute many things for something else in my kit but no brushes = disaster!

My first model, Donna, was at 9.30pm and we shot with her until 1pm. She had a pretty simple, soft look with oranges and pinks. Her hair and makeup took perhaps an hour and a half, maybe a little longer. This sounds like a long time considering the look but it's important to get it right. Her headdress was made on the day as we were using fresh flowers. Here's a timelapse video and some BTS shots of getting ready and starting to shoot:

 

 

Beauty Shoot with Donna Time Lapse from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

 

As you can see, Jade isn’t dressed up at all! If you’re only shooting headshots, quite often a model will just wear what they came in or something on the top half. Lots of beauty shoots are just shot in a strapless bra.

I hope this illustrates that behind the scenes things aren't always as glamorous as people image them to be! Lots of studios in London are in unromantic places such as business parks, hidden behind car parks, on industrial estates, etc. When I first started going to studios I wondered if what I’d gotten myself into was dodgy due to the locations!

Finally, here are some of the images:

It seems like a lot of work and it is, but seeing a beautiful image you helped create is so amazing. There's nothing like it! After a shoot, there’s not much work for me and the model – obviously I have to clean a lot of brushes and my kit, but you soon get used to doing this all the time and have a little routine so it doesn’t take too long. Small things like packing dirty brushes separately from ones that haven’t been used helps a lot.

Hope this was interesting to some of you - please check out Yat, Donna and Jade's pages, and if you're in the London area, Dock House Studio.

How To: Create an Eye Look With One Eyeshadow

Oh yes, one eyeshadow my friends! This is a really, really simple basic tutorial. Like, super simple. There are a couple of tricks you can do to make one shadow look better than just slapping it on alone, especially a shimmery, metallic or duochrome shadow. It’s great to able to do this in a rush or if you’ve got limited space to take makeup with you and you still want to create an impact. Also if you’re *just* starting out in makeup, or struggle with blending, this is a good one to read because one shadow applied well is never a bad thing! Also if you’re just staring out, you can do this look with one brush!

 

 

As always I try to go into detail in these ‘how to’ posts but if I’ve missed anything, please just let me know. You can use a loose or pressed eyeshadow for this look.  A shimmery, duochrome colour or one with different coloured sparkles to the main colour of the eyeshadow will look really good as well.

Step One: Grab an eyeliner pencil – any colour will do as long as it’s dark – the darker the better - and has no glitter particles. All my black pencils are AWOL so I grabbed a grey one. One that can be smudged out easily is good.

Draw a rough winged shape with the liner (see here for tips on how to draw a good wing)  and then smudge it out a little (you can use your finger for this.) The reason we’re doing liner first is it’s going to add depth to your shadow, but you don’t have to be super precise with it. Also if you have a duochrome shadow, it’s going to help bring out one of the colours in the shadow more than the other, so it will look like you’re wearing more than one colour. You can do a little patch test with your eyeshadow over your liner on your hand to see how the liner will affect the shadow first, if you like.

Step Two: Now take your shadow - a shimmery eyeshadow is the best to use. Pat it all over the lid, taking care not to go past where you drew your wing. (If you do, clean up under the wing with a cotton bud soaked in makeup remover.) If you have trouble placing your eyeshadow and not making it too ‘big’ for your eye, apply it inwards from each corner of your eye, don’t sweep it outward. Pack it on all the way up to the crease of the eye – again, you can use your finger for this. You can see that where it’s applied over the liner, you get more depth! This adds more dimension and definition and is much for forgiving than using liquid or gel liners if you’re a newbie.

Then, using with a blending or fluffy brush, take a small amount of the shadow on it and use little circular motions to blend the colour out just above your crease. Add a little more eyeshadow if you feel you need it, but try and take care to make it a nice soft line. No harsh lines please! If you’re just getting started, choosing a brush can be kind of hard, but this brush is my most recommended brushed to newbies because it’s fluffy enough to blend with, but dense enough and a good shape to pack eyeshadow on with too. Plus it’s only £1.50!

Before you finish up, add a little more colour right in the centre of your lid. Look straight on in the mirror and apply the colour right over your pupil. This just intensifies it a little bit and makes your eyes pop a little more – there’ll be more of a reflective surface on the centre of you eye and that’s going to make it look nice and big and round! If you like, you can dampen your brush for this part to make it extra intense.

Step 3: Finishing up time! The basics are done, it’s up to you how you want to finish it. I chose a *really* shiny colour so I chose to leave my lower lashline bare. I think it makes more of a statement but make sure you conceal any darkness under your eyes well. Adding false lashes that sweep upwards will help compliment the slight wing shape, but if you’re not good with false lashes just curl your real ones and add a good two coats of mascara.

 

If I was going out, I’d pair this with a nude cheek and a really bright pop on the lips – probably pillar-box red.

 

I know that was super basic, but I hope it helped someone!

How To: Create A Black Smoky Eye

Most of you reading this will be super clued up on smoky eyes, but it’s one of the things I get asked most for help with by my friends. I taught a friend to do a look very similar to the one in this post a couple of weeks ago, and she said I should write it up because she found it so useful. Like the others in my How To series, this is quite an in depth post, so grab a cuppa! This look can be easily adapted for monolids, but this tutorial is for an eye with a crease. The look we’ll be doing is this:

 

You will need:

Eye Primer (See my primer post here)
Black eyeshadow ( matte)
Cool brown eyeshadow (matte)
Skin tone coloured eyeshadow or face powder (matte)
A silver or gunmetal colour (shimmer/satin)
Pencil and/or liquid liner as preferred
Mascara
Flat, paddle like eyeshadow brush
Fluffy blending brushes (preferably two)
Small detailer brush

As you can see, it’s a matte black smoky eye,  but it’s not too deep, dramatic harsh looking so will go with lots of dress styles and personalities! I’ve chosen matte because that’s what springs to mind when I think of the word smoky, but you can use shimmer if you like, especially if you’re new to makeup as a lot of people find them easier to work with. Many people are really scared to use black eyeshadow, and it’s something even people who are more used to wearing makeup struggle with sometimes , so before I go into the full how-to, some general tips for the look:

Keep a spare, clean blending brush handy in case yours gets too dirty to blend effectively
Do your foundation and concealer after your eye makeup so you can clear up any fall-out
Don’t worry if it’s not totally perfect – it’s called smoky for a reason! In my opinion, slightly messy dark eyes can look great, so relax
Never ‘cut’ your eye in half – if you put a colour on and it’s not going all over the eye, make sure it goes 1/3 or 2/3 of the way across, never half way. Going half way across the eye and stopping in the middle can make your eye shape look very odd!

1: Base Colour

Apply your eye primer and let it set.  If you want to apply a black base to really make your colour dark, then do so now. You could use a kohl pencil or a black paint pot, and just take it up to your crease. I didn’t want to go too full on, so I chose not to, but you could and it won’t affect the rest of the instructions in the post! Then pack your black eyeshadow with a flat paddle brush onto your entire upper eyelid, to the crease in your eye. Don’t worry about  being too neat at this stage, but take care not to extend the black too far past the end of your lid. You might have seen this diagram before in regards to eyebrow shaping:

Line B is a pretty good guide as where your eyeshadow should stop – when you’re learning and figuring things out, at least. If you go too far out past your line B, you’ll be applying makeup outside where the socket of your eye is (have a feel!), which when you think about it, means you’re not really defining your eye any longer. We don’t want to go too far with our black colour at this stage as we still have to blend it later.

Step 2: Inner Corner

Taking a small detailer brush, dab a silver into the inner corner of your eye and gently fade the colour out with small sweeping motions along your lower lashline Using the same small sweeping motions motions, fade the colour out upwards towards your crease. You can see in the second photo that I’ve placed the colour slightly above the black – this is so it can join up when we blend our crease later.

The reason I picked silver/gunmetal is simply because it’s easier to blend into black than a gold or a pale shimmery champagne or skin tone colour without looking muddy or dirty, but of course you could use one if you wanted to. The rest of this look is matte, so a little touch of shimmer is really pretty in my opinion (and shimmery colours are easier to blend, generally)

(I should made a note at this point that the order of these steps doesn’t matter too much, these are just the way that doing an eye makes sense to me!)

Step 3: Lower Lashline

Apply a soft eyeliner pencil to the lower lashline from the outside corner to about 2/3 of the way in, and smudge it in toward the inner corner, starting at the outside with what black shadow is left on your flat paddle brush. Add a little more black shadow on the brush if you need to. Go gently across to meet up with the silver. You shouldn’t have any problems with blending the colours together as you won’t have much black product left on your brush by the time you meet up with the silver.

If you like a darker look, or if you don’t want to apply liquid liner later, you can use the same technique on the top lashlines too.

Step 4: Crease Colour

This is probably the trickiest part of the whole thing and where the smokiness comes in – you want a nice blended crease. It’s very hard to explain how to do this part in writing, but I will say one thing that will really help newbies… STEP AWAY FROM THE BLACK!

I don’t use black to blend out a black smoky eye. Especially with mattes, black can be very difficult to blend and can often look muddy, patchy, and you won’t get a nice faded-out effect once you’re done. On the left is a smudged black shadow, and on the right is a smudged cool brown shadow - they don’t look that much different, do they?  Dark, cool colours like browns ( or purples and navy blues) are quite often going to be more pigmented and less patchy looking than black eyeshadows, so if you’re scared of or new to black, go for a brown (or purple or navy) to blend out your crease. You’ll still get the depth you need, and you’ll get that faded-out effect much more easily.

Again, it’s hard to explain how to blend, but take a fluffy blending brush and just a little shadow at a time. I usually use a MAC 217 for this as the slightly flattened shape fits nicely in my crease, and I like natural hair bristles for blending powder products a bit more – I find that shadow clings to it a little better. Crown do a nice dupe as well for much cheaper.

When blending, look straight ahead for both eyes, and keep your eyes open. If you look down too much or have your head at an angle when you’re blending, you won’t necessarily be applying far up or out enough and you won’t see anything when you open your eyes or when you face forward again. Anyway, start with your brush in the outer corner as shown and find your socket.  Sarting there, blend in little circular motion, and as you take the colour in toward your nose, use smaller windshield wiper motions. Add more product if you need, but don’t go in with too much – you can always add more, but taking it away is pretty much impossible, so tap off any excess. Make sure to hook the colour up with the silver you placed earlier.

From time to time, look at your eyes at different angles to see if they’re even from different viewpoints. See how the shape looks really different from this angle compared to the last photo? It’s a little weird, but looking at a different angle can be really helpful if you’re not sure if you need to add extra to one eye and not the other! Making sure you’re doing your makeup in a mirror where you can see your whole face, and not just one eye at a time is always really helpful for this.

Step 5: Additional Blending

Phew! The eyeshadow part is nearly finished! Take a clean fluffy brush and some either some skin coloured shadow or your face powder, and gently blend out any hard lines or edges on the top of the brown shadow you’ve just applied. Use the little windshield wiper motions again. This is a really useful little step and makes the whole thing look a bit more polished.

If you need to, take a bit more dark brown and blend out the outer corner of your lower lashline. You can use your flat paddle brush, and gently do a little windshield wiper motion on the underside of the black – your blending brushes will be too big for this area. Again, this is a just to make it look a bit more polished and so it matched up to the top. The upper and lower lashlines don’t need to fully connect (my eyes always water there anyway, so personally I don’t bother) but there shouldn’t be a big old gap between the two or it can look a bit jarring.
 

You may have noticed that I didn’t add a highlight to this look. Of course you can if you want, but I chose not to. I really like an almost wholly matte smokey eye, and sometimes it can be hard to find a highlight colour that won’t be too shimmery against your pretty much exclusively matte look. I find with this look, because you’ve created a nice gradient with the black-brown-skin tone, if your brows are nicely groomed, your natural skin colour will help create that lifted effect anyway. I also find a lot of drugstore palettes lack a nice mix of textures, so sometimes it’s just easier to skip! For example, the Sleek Storm palette has a matte black, brown and tan you could easily do this look with, but the highlight colours are chunky and very metallic!  It’s really up to you whether you choose to add one or not.

Step 6: Quick Winged Liner Tip!

Well, that’s your shadow all done! Now you can add liner, brows and mascara as you wish. I pretty much always wear winged liner, and I’m going to do a separate post on that at some point but I do have one tip right now! When doing your wing, imagine you’ve drawn liner along your lower waterline and you are following it out toward the end of your brow, like in the top photo. If you trace your upper lashline and follow that out, this will make your liner point slightly downwards. Every eye shape is of course different, but this is a good rule of thumb in my experience.False lashes are always fun and dramatic, so of course you can add those if you want. I was heading downstairs to sit on the Xbox so I couldn’t be bothered!

I finished my look by filling in my brows with powder so they looked defined but not too harsh. I then went full out with a red lip, and kept my cheeks neutral. The best thing about a black smoky eye is you can wear pretty much anything on your cheeks and lips and always look pulled together. Yay!

Products used:
Eyes: Sleek Black, Inglot Dark Brown and skin tone shadows, Wet N Wild Silver, Urban Decay Perversion pencil, Miss Sporty Lash Millionare mascara, MUA Professional Brow Kit
Cheeks: MAC Buff, Boots No 7 Vital Enlightening Highlighter
Lips: LA Colors Lip Liner in Forever Red, Wet N Wild Shine On Lipstick in 514A Cherry Frost

I hope that was useful to someone! Thanks for reading all the way if you did! If you have questions, or I if I missed anything stupid or obvious, please let me know.

A Guide to Primers and Bases

Eyeshadows can be tricky buggers. Getting them to look the same colour and texture as they are in the pan, plus getting them to stay put throughout the day can be a nightmare! If you’re reading this, you’re probably aware there are products you can use to help with both of these issues. Sadly the lingo can be pretty confusing – there are primers, bases, eyeshadow “helpers,” mixing mediums, glitter glues, foiling liquids and much more!

I’m going to go through the products you can use to stop your eyeshadows from creasing and then products you can use to help increase the vibrancy of your eyeshadows. The two main categories for this are primers and bases and that’s what I’ll be focusing on today. Please be aware that everyone has different body chemistry and so different products will have different results on different people!

This is a long one, folks!

Primers

Our eyelids are one of the oiliest parts of our face and this can cause our eyeshadow to “crease,” fade, and collect in the folds of our eyelids during the day. Even people like myself with very dry skin can have oily lids. The effort involved in applying nice makeup for an important do or even a long day makes this creasing and fading REALLY annoying! Eyeshadow primers help with this by creating a barrier to stop the oils on your lids from messing with your eyeshadow, stopping them from creasing and helping to keep their vibrancy throughout the day. The reason I personally will always call products that prevent creasing a primer and not a base is that if something causes or contributes to creasing, it has no business going on first and therefore no business calling itself a primer!

Here’s what I mean by creasing – you can see the shadow is collecting in lines all over my lid where my eye naturally creases.

Primers go on first, onto clean lids before anything else, hence the name! (Primer, premier, first, blah blah blah.) Primers normally come in a a tube with a wand applicator and generally have a thin, concealer-like consistency and colour. Apply a very thin layer over a clean eyelid and blend out over the lid – you can do this with a finger or a brush. Allow it to dry for a couple of seconds and then apply your eyeshadow on top. Some brands will have a slightly tackier texture than others so can it take a while to get used to blending over the top of them. It can also take a few goes with a new primer to determine how much or little of the product you need to use! Because there aren’t really defined criteria for what makes a primer a primer, if you want your eyeshadow to stay put, make sure you’re buying a product that sets and doesn’t stay creamy or you’ll still end up with creased makeup! Most primers are in that neutral concealer-like colour, so if you’re picking up something bright green, it’s probably not meant to prevent your eyeshadow from creasing.

 

When deciding which primer to use, research what you’re interested in before purchasing as some primers are quite expensive! See if you can find a blogger whose reviews you trust who has the same needs as you – for example, very oily eyelids – and find out what they use. If you’re stuck, try a budget version first – the MUA one is very good and only comes in at £2.50, and e.l.f does one for only $1/£1.50, so you won’t be too out of pocket if they doesn’t work for you!

Primer examples:

Urban Decay Primer Potion*
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
MUA Professional Eye Primer*
NARS Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base
Artdeco Eyeshadow Base
E.L.F Eyelid Primer

 

Primer FAQ

Can’t I just use foundation on my eyes?

You can use a foundation over the lid to help colour stick or to even out veins or discoloration on the lid, but you’ll still have the problem that the makeup will collect in your creases throughout the day. Powdering over the foundation will keep it in place a little longer, but you won’t get the longevity of a primer. Foundation can sometimes mess with certain application techniques as well, such as foiling.

It’s still creasing!

You could be using too much product, or too little – stick it out a little while longer and try using different amounts. Make sure you’re applying it into the creases of your eyes. It could just be the wrong product for you - many bloggers I know have had to purchase several primers before

I’ve been using my primer for a while and now it’s stopped working!

I have a few friends who this has happened to and we can’t quite work it out! Our skin chemistry can change when we’re stressed, ill, or  when we change medication or birth control. Perhaps an extreme weather change has meant your product has had to work harder! There’s not a lot you can do in this case except try different products once again! Remember to check if your product is old and to replace it if it is.

Do I really need a primer? Makeup artists on Youtube don’t use them!

Makeup artists often have different needs to normal people who wear makeup every day. An MUA may need to change makeup quickly, or they will only need it to last for a few photographs, so using a primer on the eyelids is often needless. This can go for facial primers, too! You and I, however, probably have an eight to ten hour working day, plus a commute, errands to run, kids to drop off and parties and events to go it, and need our makeup to look nice the whole time!

Bases

Now we’ve got our eyeshadow to stay put throughout the day, there are a ton of products you can use to help enhance the look of your eyeshadow, whether you want them to look more vibrant than they do on bare skin, or help the sparkles in the product to stick to your skin. Your primer will more often than not help with this problem a little bit, but as you start to become a bit more confident and experimental with your eyeshadow looks, you often want a little more help.

There are hundreds of products you can use to help do this, and they’re almost always cream products. Using a thin layer of a cream product over your eye primer can provide a base for your eyeshadow to sit on which will both make it pop and help show off the texture. As it gives your shadow something to cling to, it can help minimise the fallout (where loose eyeshadow drops onto your face) you can get all over your cheeks as well.  It’s absolutely essential to use a thin layer or it will be too thick to cling to your primer and will crease anyway. A too thick layer can also cause the products to move around on the lid during application, creating a smudgy gross mess! It can be very hard to blend on top of cream products as they are indeed creamy and sticky, which is another reason you only need to use a small amount:



Can you see how little I’ve applied in the right hand picture? That’s a stark white cream eyeshadow, and I took a tiny blob and spread it on my lid. You really, really don’t need to cake it on – you can see from the left-hand picture it’s enough to get my eyeshadow colour looking smooth and vibrant! This also means your base is going to last you a long time. Many makeup nerds have tons of bases (I must have at least twenty if you don’t count eyeliner pencils) but you can probably get away with just a white cream base like NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Milk, and perhaps a dark base if you do a lot of smokey looks.

Base examples:

NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencils*
LA Colors Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencils*
Kiko Long Lasting Eyeshadow Pencils*
MAC Paint Pots*
Maybelline Colour Tattoos*
Barry M Super Soft Eye Crayon/Eyeshadow Pencils
MakeUp Forever Flash Palette
Ilamasqua Liquid Metals/Cream Pigments*
Any soft, smudgeable pencil eyeliner or gel liner

 

Base FAQ

Do I need a primer if I’m wearing a base?

Not always! Some cream products really are very long lasting on their own – try them in store and see if they set without smudging. If they do, you’ll be able to get good wear out of them on their own, although you might find you do still need to wear a primer anyway for really long wear. Maybelline Color Tattoos and MAC Paint Pots are good examples of this type of product.

I can’t blend over my base!

Chances are you’ve just used too much base. It can be hard to make shadow look smoothly blended out at the edges if your base isn’t blended out underneath, so be careful to do that first before you go in with your shadow.

Can I use more than one base?

Of course! I often use different coloured bases on different parts of my eyelid where I want different eyeshadow colours to stand out, although a stark matte white is pretty much just as effective.

Can I use a base over an eyeshadow?

It  *is* sometimes possible to do this depending on the product combination, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Generally, applying cream over a powder makes a nasty, curdled-looking mess so it’s always best to err on the side of it not working! This also goes for your face – don’t apply lipstick or cream blush over powdered skin!

Does it have to be sticky or creamy? Can I use a face paint, greasepaints or lipsticks?

I often use Kryolan Aqua Colours, water-activated face paints, as a base, but they will dry down and have no tackiness or creaminess, so that’s something to bear in mind. Greasepaints are renowned for being long lasting – after all, it’s stage makeup and actors sweat, cry and dance without it budging – so if you have some, try them out. Lipsticks and lip products often have colours in them that in a lot of countries aren’t legally safe for your eyes, and they are also more likely to crease as they often have moisturising properties. However, I’ve known some makeup artists use them to great effect. Do experiment with your makeup box – if you need a base, you’ve probably got something that will work. Just be careful and use eye safe products.

Are glitter glues bases?

They work in mostly the same way, and go on after your primer, but are more sticky than creamy. You still apply a very small amount, and they’re made for helping glitter or loose pigments stick to your eye while enhancing the sparkle and not falling everywhere!

 

 

Well folks, that’s your basic guide to primers and bases. I’m going to write a separate post on how to alter the looks of your eyeshadow by using glitter glues, foiling mediums, etc., and go over some techniques to create different looks with the same products. If I’ve missed anything at all or if you have any questions, please do just let me know!

*Products I own, regularly use and repurchase.

How To: Cream Blush

I love me some cream blush, I really do! I know most of you reading this will be up to speed with them and already know how to use them, but I’ve realised that a lot of non-makeup nerds aren’t sure how to use them. I love them and think they look beautiful so I thought I’d write a guide to them for anyone who wasn’t so sure. It’s a bit long, so grab yourself a cuppa and a biscuit first!

The product:



L-R: Silk Naturals Cream Blush in Tickle, NYX Blushables Crème Stick in Pink Flash, Darling Girl Sweet Cheeks Blush in U*SA*HA*NA, Inglot AMC Cream Blush in 80, Max Factor Soft Touch Creamy Blush in Soft Pink, MAC Cremeblend Blush in So Sweet, So Easy

Cream blushes are made by SO many companies these days –  you can see from above everyone from indie companies to higher end brands produce them.  If you click to enlarge the picture, you can somewhat tell than the formulas all vary; some are thicker and creamier than others, some may feel greasy, some have more shimmer, etc., so they’re just like powder blushers in that they differ so much from each other. They come in all type of packaging, from tubs to sticks to typical blush pans.

They are what it says on the tin – blushes with a creamy formula as opposed to powder blushes or cheek stains. While my particular favourites are the Inglot AMC Cream Blush range, in the UK street you can pick them up from Topshop, Max Factor, MAC, Bobbi Brown and Revlon as well as the pocket friendly Collection and MUA. So they’re very easy to get hold of these days!

L-R: Illamasqua Cream Pigment in Emerge, MAC Cream Colour Base in Move Star Red, Milani Color Perfect Lipstick in Rose Hip

Above are a few multi-purpose products that aren’t billed as blush but can easily be used as one! I had to include a lipstick because most lipsticks that aren’t matte will make a great cream blush! If you’ve never used cream blush and are not sure if they’re for you, pull out one of your lippies and give it a try.

Why use a cream blush?

Cream blushers melt into the skin as opposed to sitting on top of it, like a powder. For this reason they look can give a much more natural look and a lovely “skin-real” finish. Because they are creamy, they often give a nice dewy glow as well because they don’t dry down, so they’re perfect if you’ve got drier, older or dull-looking skin that needs some help radiance-wise. They’re best applied with (CLEAN!) fingers in my opinion as the heat of your skin really helps to work the product in to your face, so they’re great for travelling or if you know you’ll need to touch up as you won’t necessarily need to take a blush brush with you. Just as lipsticks can double up as cream blush, cream blushes can double as lip product too!

Is a cream blush right for me?

Sadly cream blushers can suck in that they often don’t wear as long as powder blushers because they often don’t set or dry down fully, so if you have particularly oily skin, they may not work for you – they’ll slip off your skin. It sounds obvious, but if you can test the product in store, do! If the blush is more of a cream-to-powder type, that may work better for oilier skins as it will set somewhat. If the blush feels very sheer or greasy, you know probably it’s not going to last well on you no matter what your skin type! Conversely, if you have very dry skin, a cream-to-powder formula may highlight any dry patches as much as a regular blush might, whereas while a more creamy one still may not last well on you, it may look better on your dry skin.

If you’ve bought cream blushers that don’t do it for you on thier own, I’d suggest setting them with different powder blushes or highlighters to get new colour combinations. They’re normally natural enough that you can do this without clownface happening.

How to use a cream blush:

First, get your foundation on. I’d recommend a foundation that wears pretty well and that will set on your face. If you’re using something like a BB cream or a tinted moisturizer that you have to set with powder because it feels tacky on the skin, I wouldn’t recommend wearing a cream blush with that foundation. It’s just going to mix up on your face, not blend in very well and make a gross mess.

Apply a small amount of your blush. I’m not an ‘apples of the cheeks’ person and prefer to apply my blush more on the backs of my cheeks, but put it directly on where you want your final flush to be!



NYC Blushables Crème Stick in Pink Flash.

When it’s on, start blending it in with your clean fingers until you’re happy with the colour:



The colour level is about where I want it, but the edges look a little bit harsh.  Take your foundation brush that you used to put your foundation on, and start to blend out the edges of the blush so there are no harsh lines. The foundation that’s left over on your blush is going to make blending it in super easy. If you’ve applied a bit too much colour, don’t panic! It can take a little bit of practice to determine how much you’ll need, so just pick up the excess with a clean sponge and carry on blending.

And you’re done!




This is why I love cream blush – it just looks so natural and slightly glowy. (It showed up a little brighter in real life – i was hard to capture on camera!) While I’m all about crazy eye and lip makeup, I want my skin to look good and I really think cream blushers make it look awesome.  Whether you powder or not is entirely up to you – it will make it last much longer, but it will take away the dewiness:



Inglot AMC Cream Blush in 81.

I’ve powdered over the swatch on the left – you can see none of the dewiness is coming through at all. I do often powder over cream blushers because you will still have the natural-looking flush and I don’t always mind sacrificing the dewiness – just make sure you pick a powder that is nice and light and not cakey (Which, you know, I recommend doing generally :/ Illamasqua’s Loose Powder in 010 is really awesome and smells like sweeties). If you want a little shimmer, try mixing a tiny bit of sparkly loose, pigment in with your powder when you’re setting it – something finely milled and not chunky. It won’t have the same natural glow but it won’t look flat either.

I realise not everyone will want to apply makeup with their fingers. Lots of makeup artists don’t like to use fingers on clients for hygiene reasons, some people might be germophobes or not want to get product on their hands.  Personally I keep a little bottle of hand sanitizer on my makeup desk, so I’m not bothered at all. But of course if you prefer, you can use a brush! Make sure you use a synthetic brush – they’ll soak up less product than a natural bristle brush so you’ll use less and it will be much easier to wash your brush! You can even use the brush to transfer the product to your face and then blend it in with your fingers so you’re keeping your hands from contaminating your product.



It’s even harder to tell how much to use when you’re using a brush, so just touch it to the product like I did above. That gave me this result, so it was plenty for this particular product:

MAC CCB in Move Star Red

What NOT to do:



Inglot AMC Cream Blush in 81.

See that? That’s a cream blush that I’ve blended in. It looks gross, right? What’s happened here is that I’ve put it over my foundation and powder. All this is going to do is make a nasty paste that won’t rub in any further! I’ve heard lots of tales from MUAs and online of people doing this, and I’m guessing it’s because they think it will last longer. If you must use powder, do it after you’ve applied your blush.  If you prefer a powder foundation, cream blushers may not work for you, although you can apply your blush first and then your foundation if you’re so inclined. If you’re not sure, make sure you’re hygienic when you’re testing your blush at home and then if it doesn’t work with your skin or preferred foundation routine, you can at least give it to a friend or women’s shelter instead of binning it!




Any questions, please just ask! I hope someone out there found this helpful and sorry to everyone who knew all this already ;p