I just wore this look over the weekend for my parents’ anniversary party.  Being it was for an event, I strayed away from my basic neutrals and wanted something a little more dramatic.

-  With the eyes, I started off with a light shimmery lid and then smoked out the corners with an indigo blue eye shadow.  Specifically, I’m using MAC’s “Plumage” in the corners which is the only dark blue eye shadow I even attempt wearing.  It is a warm indigo blue and compliments my skin very nicely.  As a bottom liner, I layered a thick black pencil in the lash line followed by a liquid teal liner.  I LOVE colored eye liner on the bottom, it visually makes the eyes look lighter than they really are!  

-  I wanted soft, warm cheeks and picked a pastel coral.  The coral also contrasts with the blue tinted eye makeup being that orange and blue are opposite colors on the color wheel.

-  For the lips, I never like anything too light unless there is a hint of brightness which is why I went for a light, bright baby pastel pink color.  It adds a subtle brightness to my face but not too light to the point where it washes me out.

I’m wearing my new Ardell Double Up eyelashes in the #203 style. (WOW, do they make a difference or what?!)

[Your thoughts?]

Here is a summer inspired daytime look with bronzy eye shadows in shimmery textures and gold accents with a pop of color on the lips.

-  Typically, I like my daytime eye makeup to start with a super light lid and softly blend a neutral tone with a darker the outer crease for extra definition.  I decided for this look to start with a slightly more darker lid color in the bronzy tones and keep the colors within the same color family.  This creates a softer blend with less contrast, but it still captures a nice visual effect.

-  In terms of the cheek color, I applied it very softly and in a pinkish color with a coral undertone.  I always gravitate towards pink and coral blushes in a matte texture for the cheeks.  Again, my face needs that added brightness!

-  For the lips, I wanted something glossy and hot pink.  It came out bright (but not too overly dramatic) and sort of looks like a watermelon type shade.  I’m wearing MAC’s “Viva Glam Nicki” lipstick with MAC’s “On a Holiday” plushglass (this lipgloss was a limited shade that came out a couple months ago).

[Beauty Confession] - By default, I’m obsessed with lip colors and always have been.  For me, a great lip color is equivalent to a great style accessory, so depending on what I’m wearing, this will greatly impact my lip color selection.  I also tend to stick with brights, especially in the summer, because I need color to contrast my fair skin.

[What are your favorite lip colors to wear in the summer?]

As a makeup artist, I love being experimental with my makeup although I would say that my makeup style is fairly consistent.  Lately, I have been going for a more soft, feminine, and romantic type of look.  By that, I mean softly blended eyes with soft pinky lips/cheeks.

-  With eye makeup, you can still create a soft, daytime look with high contrast.  The key is your color selection and eye shadow placement.  With this look, I choose a nude matte shadow that pretty much blends with my skintone.  I added a soft shimmery beige taupe into the entire crease and then popped it with a dark brown shadow for extra definition and contrast.  I also cannot forget to mention there is a soft shimmery brow highlight, which also adds subtle contrast.

[Beauty Confession] - When it comes to eye shadow, I am experimental with my color selection, but my placement is always consistent.  I know what works best and never deviate from the placement because this is so incredibly crucial!  Personally, I believe it’s more crucial that the color selection itself!  (Although of course they both are key components of the outcome of the eye makeup).

-  In terms of the cheek color, I have really been loving pinks, especially brighter variations.  In all honesty, I’m most loyal to coral blushes, but as I said, I like to play with new things and experiment! ;)

-  I totally didn’t plan for the lips to match the cheeks, but they are pretty similar in color which created a monochromatic color scheme.  It kind of just ended up that way and I do like the outcome despite the lack of contrast!

[What does your daytime look consist of?]

I wanted to share a soft smokey look I created with shimmery greys and a touch of lavender.  I added some brightness to the cheeks and finished the look off with a nude lip color.        

How to wear this trend:

-  By default, I almost always wear heavy black eye liner and false eyelashes (even with a soft daytime look), but with a smokey eye, it’s also essential to go heavy with the eyeliner and add drama to the lashes (which can also be done with a good mascara if you’re not into false eyelashes).  With the choice of eye shadows, I like to build a smokey eye with a dark color on the lid mixed with a lighter inner crease and dark (black typically) outer crease.  It creates a nice hybrid when you have two contrasting crease colors (light and dark) that meet in the middle.  I also like a strong, bright highlighter under the brows to contrast the overall smokey effect.

[Beauty Confession] - I am truly not a fan of a nude lip (on myself) the majority of the time, but I do like to step out of my beauty comfort zone and wear a light lip every so often.  Ironically, I own a lot of nude lipsticks but rarely wear them because I don’t feel like I can carry it off so effortlessly being that my skin is so fair.  It requires lip liner for definition (or else it just blends in with my face) and lots of gloss for add dimension and shine.

-  In terms of the cheek color, I always make sure the cheek is bright to add balance to the nude lip.  Personally, I won’t wear a light lip unless there is emphasis on both the eyes and the cheeks at the same time!

I’m using MAC’s “Nude” cream color base on the lips as my lip color and also on the tops of my cheekbones as a cheek highlighter. It’s great to find a product that serves multi-purposes and it’s very rare that I find myself doing that. MAC’s “Nude” CCB is one of my favorite light lip colors!  It’s creamy and also long-wearing.

[Does anyone have some favorite products they like to share for creating a smokey eye and/or nude lip?]

Although I pretty much live in black eye liner, I also really love to experiment with colored eye liners, specifically on the bottom.  In this look, I was using a mint green pencil eye liner on the bottom.     

How to wear this trend:

-  First, I rimmed the bottom with MAC’s “Minted” kohl pencil and then intensified it a little more but adding MAC “Graphblack” technakohl pencil.  With a smokey look, I still want there to be black liner, but in this case wanted to throw in an accent color.

[Beauty Confession] - I almost always pair green eye makeup with pink lips, but wanted to be more experimental, so I choose a light bright peach color.  I definitely like the outcome because the lips are fairly neutral to contrast the darker eye makeup, but it still pops.

-  In terms of the cheek color, I also chose to stick with the peachy/coral family.  I used MAC’s “My Highland Honey” which I have to say is my all time favorite MAC blush that came out from a previous holiday collection (hence discontinued).  I use this blush quite frequently because it brightens up my face and warms up my skin beautifully!

A closer look at the actual eye makeup. It's a smokey look with a shimmery deep green to compliment the mint green liner.

[Does anyone experiment with colored eye liners, if so, what are your favorites?]

I wanted to create a soft, pretty look for the spring that incorporated flushes of floral inspired colors such as delicate rosy pinks and purple accents on the eyes.     

How to wear this trend:

-  Although I don’t tend to wear a lot of color on my eyes, I do like wearing purple blended with lighter tones.  I also find purple universally looks great on everyone.  I am wearing MAC’s “Deep Damson” eye shadow in the outer crease, which is strictly sold at MAC Pro locations (or on their MAC Pro website).  It’s a deep eggplant purple with a matte finish.  I love this eye shadow!  It’s very comparable to MAC’s “Sketch,” but “Sketch” has a slight shimmer.

-  For the cheeks, I wanted a bright rosy pink to give a flush of color to my face.  I typically favor coral based blushes on an everyday basis, but sometimes I really like wear a rosy bright pink to add extra vibrancy, especially in the spring.

[Beauty Confession] - FYI, I love blush. I always tell people if I were on a desert island and could only choose ONE makeup product, it would be blush!!!  NO DOUBT!  Blush not only gives life to the face, but it just makes everyone look happier, youthful, and more physically attractive! (Seriously, what’s not to like about blush?)

-  I’m really happy with the lip color because it’s really soft, but still manages to complete the look very effortlessly.  I’m a HUGE fan of MAC’s sheen supreme lipsticks (which I will definitely talk more about in an upcoming post).  I’m specifically wearing, MAC’s sheen supreme lipstick in “Supreme Style”.  It’s naturally very glossy to begin with, but I layered a little bit of MAC’s “Right Image” cremesheen lip gloss over it with “In Anticipation” prolongwear lip liner.

For the eyes, I started with a light shimmery lid color all over and softly blended a matte eggplant purple on the outer corners. For the cheeks, I wanted a rosy pink with a light shimmery pinkish nude on the lips.

[How do you like to wear your spring makeup?]

This is the makeup I wore with yesterday’s [Outfit Post].  I wanted to create a soft daytime look with the emphasis on peachy nude lips.  It’s like a creamsicle shade and I’m absolutely in LOVE it which is why I wanted to share the look along with the lip combo.  I think it may be one of my new signature lip combos this season.  It’s just perfect for spring!    

How to wear this trend:

-  I’m really not a huge fan of a super nude lip during the day (because I’m way too fair to pull it off effortlessly) unless there is a hint of brightness, in this case a light peach.  The actual lipstick I chose, MAC “Creme D’Nude” is very nude and something I would never wear by itself unless it’s vamped with a lipliner (absolute necessity with this lipstick to build depth) and a brighter gloss.

-  For the cheeks, I chose a bronze blush with a shimmer which is something I almost NEVER do.  I wear matte blushes 95% of the time which is just my personal preference.  I figured I’d try a shimmery blush to change it up, not just for experimental purposes, but also because I wanted the skin to be bronzy and extra radiant with a sunkissed glow.  So if you notice my cheeks look extra dewey, its due to the shimmery blush.

-  Although I think this lip color can really go with a lot of different things, I decided to go with shimmery brown eye shadows to also coordinate with the bronzy cheeks.  All my makeup choices are in the warm color family and just blend together really nicely.

[Beauty Confession] - As I just stated above, I tend to only wear matte blushes.  I maybe own about three or four blushes that have a slight shimmer while the rest are completely matte.  (Shocking, I know but I like the shimmer to hit the TOP of the cheekbones only with my NARS “Albatross,” every single day!  It’s my highlighting staple!)

Here is a closer look at the eyes, although I wanted the focus to be on the lips. As you can see, the eyes feature soft shimmery brown shadows with a soft contrast.

The lip combo is: MAC "Nice 'N' Spicy" Pro Longwear Lip Pencil (FYI I am OBSESSED with these, they really last all day and go on ultra smooth), MAC "Creme D' Nude" lipstick, MAC "Richer, Lusher" Cremesheen Glass

[Do you like this lip color for the spring?]

Over the weekend, I created a plum smokey eye starting with a gun metal grey as the lid color with light lavender in the inner corners blended with deep purple on the outer edges of the crease.  The contrast between these colors are subtle but still noticeable.      

How to wear this trend:

-  I really wanted to keep the rest of the makeup fairly soft.  Whenever you create a smokey eye effect, it’s best to keep the rest of the makeup more understated since the emphasis is mostly on the eyes.

-  For the cheeks, I chose a soft warm color with a glowing effect and the skin appears to be very dewy as well.

-  In terms of the lip color, I decided to go with a light bubble gum pink.  I didn’t want to choose anything too bright because I wanted a visual balance and cohesiveness with the final look.  I just didn’t want both features (the eyes and lips) competing at once if that makes sense!  I also didn’t want to go too nude on the lips and felt keeping it in the pink family was the best choice.

[Beauty Confession] - Although I’m very experimental with lip color, my go-to color tends to be bubble gum pink shades with my all time favorite MAC lipstick being “Saint Germain,” which is a blue based, semi bright bubble gum pink.  I’m also a HUGE fan of YSL’s #22 Pink Celebration lipstick, it’s simply amazing!  I just think these pinks best suit my style and it really pops nicely.  I feel like I really need bright colors to contrast my fair skin.

[Do you like to wear plums on the eyes?]

Last week, I decided that I was going to create a daytime look that incorporated blue eye makeup.  In all honesty, I don’t like to wear a lot of color on the eyes and probably wear blue about once a year.  So it was time to change that!  For many, I think blue is one of the hardest colors to play with on the eyes because it’s just tricky finding the right shades of blue that will accentuate the eyes.  

My absolute favorite shade of blue to use on the eyes is indigo because it’s a blue with a hint of violet.  I also like cobalt blue which is a much brighter variation of blue and sometimes play with a light shimmery powder blue if I’m going for a wintery snow princess sort of look (which is not often or ever for that matter)!  Personally, I stay far away from navy.  For whatever reason, I just don’t feel it compliments my coloring.

[Beauty Confession] - Back when I was in college (prior to pursuing makeup artistry), one of my first MAC eye shadows was, “Flashtrack,” which was a dark navy blue with slight shimmer.  I would wear it randomly and never understood why I felt like I looked sick when I wore it.  (Really, I remember having those thoughts but never pinpointed it to the eye shadow initially).  I grew to realize that it’s not the most flattering color in the world on me and if I was going to make it work, it required a lot of work in terms of what other colors I would have to blend it with.  So it’s definitely not a color I could just throw on effortlessly!  I ended up giving the eye shadow to my mother years later and it ironically turned out to be one of her makeup staples!  (Who would have thought?)     

How to wear this trend:

-  As I have mentioned in previous blogs or that you will quickly grow to learn, I am all about a strong bottom eye liner.  I actually really love using colored liners on the bottom because they truly bring out the eyes more than a colored eye shadow (since the liner is CLOSEST to the actual eye).  I chose an indigo blue and heavily lined the bottom and then still rimmed a touch of black pencil liner to add more depth.  The top liner remained a shark liquid black.  (FYI, I wear liquid black liner on top every day!)

-  Being that blue is such a cool color, I really wanted to keep the rest of the makeup in the warm color family.  Naturally, the warm colors just compliment my skin tone best, so I warmed up the cheeks with a coral blush.  In terms of lip color, I really pondered on my options, but ultimately ended up with a mid-tone pink with a little brightness so it would pop.  I was also thinking about coral (to contrast the blue) but since I already had coral on the cheeks, I didn’t want the lips to match.  I also initially played with nudes and even tried pairing with a taupe lip, but the pink still looked the best in my personal opinion.

-  I chose to keep the lid color fairly neutral, specifically a champagne color with a light shimmer.  I added an indigo matte color in the outer corners of the eyes and blended it very softly since this was a daytime look.  If I was going for an evening look, I would have probably tried wearing the blue as the lid color, to prep for a smokey eye effect.
 

I incorporated blue in the bottom eye liner and on the outer edges of the eyes. Even though I'm not a blue person (in terms of eye makeup), I honestly was really happy with the outcome. I actually was really sad to have to remove the makeup at the end of the night, that's how much I liked it! That's why it's always good to be experimental and that's what I'm all about!

In this [Makeup Trend Focus], I wanted to create a look with more emphasis on the eyes.  Even though I’m wearing a smokey eye, you can see it’s much more understated and not too overly dramatic. 

I created what I call a “nude smokey eye.”  By that I mean that the lid color starts off nude (light color) and that the outer corners of the eyes is where it gets smokey and there’s a higher contrast.  Typically, people think of a smokey eye being very dark and ton a of black, but you can still create a smokey eye starting off with a softer color and then layer with darker colors to create depth. 

How to wear this trend:

-  My favorite element of a smokey eye (no matter how you layer your shadows) is eye liner, specifically bottom liner.  I love eye liner to begin with, but when it comes to a smokey eye, I like to go even heavier with the eye liner.  Meaning, black liner rimming the entire eye and really smoking out the bottom.  I achieve this by also smudging black shadow over the pencil eye liner on the bottom.

-  With this look, I also kept the cheeks and lips soft.  I wanted light nude lips but nothing TOO nude.  If I was doing a full blown BLACK smokey eye, then I would have gone more nude with the lip color.  I actually used a brown/bronzy blush although it’s kind of hard to tell in the photo in my opinion.

-  I think that false lashes are also a necessity with a smokey eye.  If you’re blessed with full lashes to begin with, then it’s okay to skip the false lashes, but just make sure you load up on the mascara to really pop them.

[Beauty Confession] - I know people that follow my blog already know that I wear false lashes pretty religiously (and ironically barely ever wear mascara).  I’ve also expressed in the past that I won’t go anywhere where I know I’m going to be photographed without them.  That’s how much I believe lashes visually make such a difference!  Often times when I wear them, people find them to look very natural.  (Keep in mind that false lashes come in all shapes, sizes, and styles, so they don’t necessarily have to look fake.  Personally, my favorite lashes will always be the MAC #48…they are super full and long.  I’ll wear other styles from time to time, but this is my signature pair and you’ll find me wearing them 90% of the time in my blog).

I'm wearing MAC #48 lashes (no mascara because I never like to layer mascara over my false lashes; however in this situation, I'd highly recommend it for extra drama) and the bottom eye liner is pencil smudged with black eye shadow over it. The top eye liner is my favorite liquid liner that I wear EVERYDAY - MAC's "Rapidblack" Penultimate. It's a liquid pen with a thin felt tip, so it's exceptionally easy to use (even if you're makeup challenged) and the application is always smooth!

The overall look is soft, but still smokey thanks to the exaggerated black eye liner.

Here is my first [Makeup Trend Focus] where I want to share a look I created with orange coral lips.  This upcoming spring season, I am seeing a lot of bright colors for lips, especially orange.  I know for many people, orange doesn’t seem very wearable, but it’s actually quite flattering.

I naturally love these shades and  feel anyone can carry off a brighter lip color because it looks great on all skin tones.  Bright lips give the face life and vitality while also making a fashion statement…or should I say, beauty statement?

How to wear this trend:

-  Personally, if I’m going to wear a bright lip (which is definitely an element of my signature style), I like to keep the rest of the makeup more effortless.  Meaning for the eyes, I wear soft, nude eye shadows with little actual color.  I still wear black eyeliner around the whole eye and MAC #48 eyelashes because I still want the eyes to stand out, but not the focal point of the look.

-  Being that coral is warm based, I like to keep the cheeks warm to compliment the lips and the overall skin to have a glorious glow.  I always wear bronzer and a highlighting powder, but in terms of blush, I actually chose a bronzy blush, but popped a little coral to brighten the cheeks even more.

-  If you look at the photo closely, I used a blue based eye shadow highlighter under the brows.  It’s MAC “Vellum” eye shadow which I truly love, but I honestly only wear it sparingly.  I absolutely LOVE a blue-based highlighter coordinated with a coral lip.

[Why?  You know what my one word answer is going to be:  CONTRAST]  Blue and orange are opposite colors, hence they contrast each other.  In this situation, it’s a subtle contrast but worth noting].  

[Beauty Confession] - Although this is a lip focus, I have to say, I’m exceptionally impressed on how well my skin photographed being that I have had some skin issues (which have been majorly improving thanks to new skincare products–to be shared soon), but the secret is, I am wearing a NEW foundation in this photo.  I heard that NARS has great foundations, so I went to Sephora and asked for a sample.  In these photos, I’m wearing the NARS Sheer Glow Foundation.  I matched myself to a “Deuville” which seems to match very well, although today I went to the NARS website to read about the foundation colors and I think I will go back and try one more shade to be sure before making a purchase.  I will talk more about this foundation in a future post as well, because it’s truly magnificent.  I just can’t get over how flawless my skin looks!  (I don’t wake up with perfect skin, trust me)!

The lip combo: MAC "Lasting Sensation" lip pencil, MAC "Watch Me Simmer" lipstick, MAC "Richer, Lusher" cremesheen glass

[Do you like orange coral lips?  What are your favorite products to achieve this look?]