Quick Taupe Smokey Eye

I needed to do a smokey eye in a hurry so I applied all the eyeshadow in this look with my fingers! I've realized that I am actually better at apply non-matte eyeshadows with my fingers than with a brush. For me, it makes blending so much easier and everything apply much more quickly. Plus no brushes to wash!! (speaking of which... need to wash my brushes asap!)

Here I used my favorite taupes, WnW Nutty and MAC Satin Taupe (which may or may not actually be a taupe?). I kept my skin simple and dewy (thanks to glycerin and some highlighter!) with a natural lip. I haven't layered lipstick and lipgloss in MONTHS and forgot how nice it looks.

My creases were being weird/normal! The one that is usually a semi-monolid creased today which made wearing and applying a darker eye look much easier. Normally, my lids are mismatching which makes darker eyeshadows harder to pull off without looking like a crazy person. My eyes will sometimes crease weirdly to match. No idea why it did that today, might've been the liner I was using?

Click past the jump to see more photos and products I used

Rainbow EOTD: Urban Decay Bright Greens

Today's color of the day is green! I almost never wear green eyeshadow even though it's my favorite color, and if I do it's a wimpy almost-neutral like olive so I decided to go all out with a bright green. The colors didn't show up very well on camera, it was even brighter in real life. 

I experimented with the eyeshadow shape to create a sort of reverse cut crease. I packed the matte bright green (UD Chronic) onto my lid, barely blending the edges at all, and then I swept the shimmery lighter blue-green (UD Green Goddess, see swatches below) into the crease. I purposefully didn't blend them together because I wanted there to be a contrast between the two. Overall I thought this was a pretty interesting and successful eyeshadow shape so I'll definitely be trying it in the future! :)

Here you can see the clear distinction between the matte and shimmery shades

Click past the jump to see more photos and swatches of the eyeshadows I used! 

Rainbow EOTDs: NYX Purples

Part two of my rainbow eye looks is PURPLE!! I love the look of purples on brown eyes and I find that it is probably one of the easiest bright colors to wear on the eye. For some reason though I wear purple even less than I wear greens or blues.

In this look I went for a deep blue-purple. The star of the show is NYX Purple eyeshadow (from the trio) which is a stunning purple with a beautiful blue duochrome. I applied it in traditional asian-eyelid fashion, below the "crease," to create a pop of color. This way of wearing brights really makes them more wearable and practical in my experience than pulling the color higher up in the crease.

 

Click past the jump to see more photos, swatches, and products I used!

Rainbow EOTDs: Red

This week I wanted to branch out from my usual neutral eye makeup looks into bright colors. I have so many color eyeshadows but I almost never use them as I prefer the ease of applying a bright lipstick over bright eyeshadow.

Today I decided to start with the first color of the rainbow, red. Now red is notoriously difficult to use as an eyeshadow because it tends to make you look sick. I have never worn true red eyeshadow so this is my first attempt! I'm not convinced it was a success though.... :/

Excuse the super cool-toned lighting because of the cloudy weather. I am not this pale and blue in real life!

 

Click past the jump to see more photos of the look and the eyeshadow I used!

FOTD: Nutty Taupes

Taupes are a beautiful hybrid of grey and brown. Many makeup lovers are weak at any sign of taupe. I love taupes but rarely use them because I find it hard to pair blushes and lipsticks with them without it clashing on my warm, yellow-based skintone. 

I tried giving my favorite taupes another try today. Wet n Wild Nutty is a beautiful shimmery warmed taupe that is a wonderful shade for all over the lid. I usually like to wear it by itself for an everyday sort of look but decided to go all out with taupe today and so I added MAC Copperplate to the outer 1/3 of my lid and in the crease. Copperplate is Matte2 and is one of my favorite matte eyeshadows. It is a medium-dark taupe that is cooler than nutty. Both shades are wonderfully pigmented and apply really smoothly. 

Clockwise top left: WnW Nutty, MAC Copperplate, Revlon Vintage Lace

Click past the jump to see what other products I used and more pics! :)

Forgotten Gem: Milani Intermix Baked e/s

The "forgotten gem" series will showcase products that I've owned for a while but I have recently rediscovered and now love. Today I'll review Milani Baked Eyeshadow in Intermix.

(Warning: I am horrible at describing colors so I'll give it a shot and let the photos do the rest of the talking) The individual vein colors are shimmery cream white, medium bronze, and dark brown. The veining is much more beautiful than in the pic above, where for some reason I decided to smoosh the product and mess up the veining T_T.

They combine to create this beautiful warm, slightly taupey brown with gold/champagne colored shimmer. It is such an easy all-over the lid shade, though if you want to darken the crease I'd go with a matte shade to avoid becoming too shimmery.

Swatched in one layer dry/wet, in indirect natural light

Now I do not understand AT ALL what the point of baked powder products are. I know it is produced in a different way but I don't really understand what the point is. I do know that baked formulas tend to be more powdery than regular ones, which is a quality I usually don't like.

The baked formula makes for a powdery texture like most baked products but I find that it has less fallout than other products I've tried. It applies really smoothly and evenly and blends really well. The shimmer does tend to be blended away easily, which could be a good or a bad thing. Applied wet, the shimmer intensifies and forms more of a sheen.

Swatched in one layer dry/wet in direct light to show the sparkles

This lasts a good while on me over primer and works really well over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy and similar products.

Overall I think these Milani baked eyeshadows are really great quality for the drugstore price (and compared to higher end baked products as well). They are made in Italy, just like MAC mineralize products are.

Have you tried these Milani Baked eyeshadows before? What are some of your favorite makeup rediscoveries recently?