doo something crazy – take runway to real life!

last week, i was glued to the cut and bella sugar scoping the newest fashion and beauty trends premiering at new york’s fall 2010 fashion week.

overall, i was unimpressed with the beauty looks sauntering down the runways…i was especially disappointed with stila’s work and their subsequent packaging of these “looks” – bland palettes of neutral matte shadows. blech.

BUT i was completely inspired by the matte red, glitter frosted lips featured at doo-ri! talk about innovative!

the look at doo-ri was created by MAC cosmetics and was extremely minimal except for the standout lips, which were achieved by lining with MAC cherry lip pencil and MAC ruby woo lipstick and pressing turquoise glitter all over the lips and silver glitter in the center of the lower lip. a quick, easy look with a lot of flash!

i was dying to try it out and today just felt like the perfect day! for eyes, i prepped my lids with bobbi brown creaseless cream shadow in navajo (the MAC artists used foundation, but i’m experimenting with this base) and then brushed on MAC iridescent powder in silver dusk. i didn’t line my eyes to keep the look minimal, but i did have some leftover black liner from last night that i decided not to totally remove for splash bit of grunge, dirty look. i curled my lashes with a shu uemura lash curler and applied one coat of diorshow iconic mascara (none was used at doo-ri).

i quickly concealed under my eyes, applied a light layer of foundation – this week i’m experimenting with giorgio armani luminous silk foundation in 4, and brushed silver light on my cheekbones – my own personal touch. i don’t have cherry lip liner, so i used stila contour no. 1 and applied ruby woo straight from the tube. i wet a flat artstore brush and then applied heavenly naturals mermaid scales glitter all over my lips, following up with makeup forever glitter no. 2 (silver) in the center of my bottom lip. of course the MAC artists used MAC pro glitters, but these are just what i had on hand.

note: you don’t have to use true cosmetic glitters for this look – craft store glitter would be just fine, but don’t use craft glitter on eyes because its hexagon shaped (i.e. sharp corners!) and can cut your eye. YIKES!

great look...creepy shadow!

the look was dramatic, fun and *totally* wearable in real life! ruby woo is crazy matte and the color stayed perfect all day (even the glitter)! i LOVED wearing this look and would definitely recommend trying it out for something spontaneous!

did you notice my hair looks a little more platinum? thanks to a great reccomendation from the fabulous kristin, i toned my hair using clairol shimmerlights shampoo! its pure violet shampoo and conditioner and really got the brassiness out! $8.99 for 16 oz at ricky’s? HELLS YES!

jordan and i then had an impromptu photo shoot on the roof of our building – something you should also try!

 

my best friend, jordan!

 

on the L train

my dress by in god we trust, boots by jeffrey campbell, gucci aviators and vintage fur from my grandmother
i have no idea what the hell jordan is wearing, as usual, haha (the petticoats are mine, the blue is betsey johnson)
xo!

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more warm & cozy fun

after my date with mathieu, i fell in LOVE with the warm & cozy shadestick, an amazing glittery copper.

photo from temptalia

my best friend geoff is getting married in october, and i’ll be doing the makeup for his beautiful bride, jessica. jessica is all about rich purples and fall themes involving pumpkins, so i immediately thought of warm & cozy!

the happy couple!

for a quick trial, i used warm & cozy as a base and blended the outer corner and into the crease with a shadow from MAC’s permanent line, antiqued. to combat all the shimmer on the base of her lid, i used MAC blanc type, a very light matte beige as a highlight. for a soft but precise line, i used MAC kohl power in teddy.

i am in LOVE with teddy! its a beautiful chocolate with just a hint of bronze and because its a kohl, it smudges softly and just leaves a beautiful smoky look.

jessica has uneven skin with some redness, so i spot concealed with CG smoothers concealer in fair. this is a *fantastic* concealer! i followed up by applying urban decay cream to powder foundation in illusion with my MAC 187 brush. this foundation is hands down the best i have ever used! you can layer it for heavy coverage, or just use it in spots – it gives the full coverage of a foundation but dries to a beautiful matte powder. as my mentor, kelsey deenihan told me, it dries like velvet and she uses it for almost all of her red-carpet beauties!

i finished up by giving jessica a light glow with MAC by candlelight mineralize skinfinish and a swipe of chanel rouge allure in pretty (DCed, alas) followed by stila lip glaze in kitten.

outside with flash

natural light - a beautiful warm bride!

warm & cozy with MAC and mathieu francis

on christmas night, my friend rachel packed up her pajamas and came over to my house for some festive apple pie, prosecco and a high-school style sleepover. yep, i said it, we had a sleepover! and it was FUN!

rachel and i live on different sides of town (even though our town itself is very small haha) so we decided since we were going to be up early to run to belk to witness the unveiling of MAC’s warm & cozy and love lace collections on the 26th, we may as well just have a sleepover! total throwback, i suggest everyone try it!

we arrived at belk at about 9:30 am to visit fellow makeup artist and mutual friend mathieu francis!

i asked mathieu to create a wearable winter look for me because its always fun to get other people’s perspectives and try something a little outside the box.

we began with my bare face (eek!) and the warm & cozy face chart mathieu created

mathieu prepped my eyes with cuddle shadestick – always begin with a base! i *love* MAC shadesticks – i didn’t pick up cuddle from the collection, but i did purchase the warm & cozy shadestick, a beautiful copper that makes my eyes look purely amber.

confession: i have NEVER used an eyelash curler on myself IN MY LIFE. for shame, i know, but they’ve terrified me ever since i heard a horror story about someone’s mom using one in college and her roommate walking in, scaring her and her tearing all her eyelashes out. probably an urban legend, but i was creeped, so here is my VERY FIRST EXPERIENCE with the eyelash curler! and also…proper blending is key!

the HORRORS of unblended foundation! (mathieu used mineralize satinfinish foundation)

mathieu blended my foundation with a big fluffy brush (my favorite is the MAC 187 duo-fibre brush, commonly known as the “skunk brush”) and then applied by candlelight mineralize skinfinish to my cheeks – i am in LOVE with this beautiful golden highlighter!

what pretty colors!

and the finished product! i also updated the look a few hours later with MAC on display lipglass.

thanks to mathieu for so much fun!
be sure to check out his youtube!

ms. behavin as a twilight vamp

first of all, sorry i’ve been so dark here recently! school + business things + finals + holidays have been a bit much to handle all at once, so something had to give 😦

but the good news is that it ends tomorrow!

i think i might celebrate by spending my afternoon quietly in the dark and see new moon again…

when my girlfriends and i dutifully went on november 21, i figured it was the perfect opportunity to try out a sample of benefit’s ms. behavin lipstick, which is the official lipcolor of all twilight vampires (applied more heavily to the ladies)

here’s ms. behavin, worn randomly to school one day to test it out

i didn’t love ms. behavin alone – it a silky finish, so without anything under it, it seemed to smear and be less than the creamy opaque i wanted it to be – so for our new moon adventure, i decided to create a rosalie look, centered around ms. behavin and golden eyes!

i kept my face simple with tarte dark circle defense, some light powder and tarte’s cheek stain in brilliant from the three carats collection, described as a “shimmering champagne” for a dash of vampire sparkle.

for eyes, i tried to keep it neutral and shimmery but with added drama, just like rosalie!

i started with stila’s kitten smudgepot all over and followed up with tarte’s glistening powder in sugar daddy.

NOTE: i received a .07 oz sample of sugar daddy with my last tartepro order. from what i’ve gathered, sugar daddy was a body powder that was available in a much larger size, but it showed up at my door it and it was perfect for this look! any rose-goldy type powder will suffice!

i then tightlined the top of my lids with urban decay’s ink for eyes in demolition (my *favorite* creamy brown liner, its gorgeous!) to keep the look defined but still soft. i filled in demolition on my bottom lashline with a pencil brush and applied urban decay’s 24/7 pencil in stash to my waterline.

stash is a great muddy green/gold color and functions to make my hazel eyes look more amber. you could also substitute baked or el dorado pencils if you wanted a more obvious gold tone. i finished it all off with one coat of diorshow iconic mascara for length and one coat of diorshow blackout for drama.

for lips, i was desparate to mitigate the sheerness of ms. behavin because though i love the color, i just wanted more!

the perfect solution: MAC lip liner in vino. i first lined my lips precisely with vino and then filled in with the pencil and smudged it to stain my lips, applying ms. behavin with a flocked lipgloss brush for that just bitten smile!