Lip Of the Moment: Berry Stains (click photos for right-sized shots)
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Like dark lips but not ready to wear it for daily life? Try a stain! I wrote on Instagram that I’ve been a bit crazy over deep berry/cherry stained lips these past few weeks.
I wore nothing but berry stained lips while traveling in NYC and it not only kept my lips moisturized but added some nice, easy-to-apply color without looking like too much. (You don’t want to be worrying about a precise, full-on lip when you’re walking everywhere in the day-time and eating or drinking often.)
Traditional stains like Benefit Benetint give a longer-lasting effect but I prefer balms and sheer lipsticks because they wear away more evenly. The ink-type stains tend to wear away from the center outwards and look quite patchy and uneven over the day.
Also, they can tend to go on a bit too intense and be very hard to control for people who have very pale skin or very dark or red lips naturally.
The ones I’m recommending are cheapies, with the exception of Clinique’s Black Honey, which is the arguable queen of sheer balm-stains. I was running all over NYC looking for Givenchy’s Rouge Interdit in Liv’s Lips, a self-adjusting shade, but that was not available the past couple of weeks so I didn’t get it, but that is a very cool one to take a look at if you can.
The alternatives to Black Honey are Revlon’sJust Bitten Kissable Balm Stain (the name is a mouthful) in Crush, which is a good one if you have medium to deeper skin tones since it’s a bit more intense), and if you’re paler, Cover Girl’s Lipslicks in Hipster is perfect because it doesn’t add too much color. i really glommed on LOTS of Black Honey above for the camera but it’s not that red in real life so don’t worry.
There are SO many other alternatives in the drugstore (just check out all the colored lip balms) and you only need to watch out for these things:
- Sheer balm-like texture that deposits a lot of moisture with not a lot of pigment
- Low or no shimmer and frost
- A dark cherry or berry shade with plummy undertones instead of a brick-brown, fire-engine red, or a brown
Doesn’t work for you?
If these are even too deep for you because you have porcelain skin or pigmented lips, follow that lip-shot above and apply the berry stain right in the center portion of your lip, over a muted pinky-beige lipstick. This softens the color and still gives a stained effect. (Pinky-beige lipstick worn - Rimmel Airy Fairy.)
Le nail art, j’avoue que jusqu’à récemment je m’y intéressais peu, dans ma tête ça renvoyait forcément à quelque chose de très vulgaire, façon Rihanna et ses crochets (genre ça, et vraiment je trouve que c’est très très très laid, même si c’est sûrement balaise à réaliser).
Je n’ai pas l’air comme ça, avec mes produits de supermarché et du PoundWorld, mais figurez-vous que moi aussi, je porte du Dior ! Bon, quand je dis « porter » du Dior, je triche un chouilla puisque je parle seulement de maquillage. Certes. Mais pas tant que ça finalement, parce que le fond de teint Diorskin Forever que je « porte » depuis quelques temps est une véritable deuxième peau :-D
Soft Glamor: Easy Evening/Party/Prom Neutral Eye
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For everyone who is relatively new to eye makeup and not sure how to add some flattering glamor for formal occasions, this is a look you can try.
It’s comprised of neutrals, so it goes with pretty much any outfit, although you can change the lid shade from a smoky brown to any other color and retain the shape and application.
I used a:
- Matte black
- Smoky taupe brown (semi-matte)
- Coppery-beige shimmer
- Silver-white shimmer
Also, a black eye pencil, black mascara, and a single strip of wispy lashes cut into half.—
Step 1: First use a firm smudge brush or angled brush to apply black to the lash line, like you would apply a thick swatch of liner. As always, draw in the outer flick first, parallel to the angle of your lower lash line, and then extend the line inwards to the inner corners.
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Step 2: The main lid shade for the smoky look. I used a deep taupe brown (BH Cosmetics MS17; use MAC Satin Taupe if you have it) above the black earlier, and gently filled in the entire lid EXCEPT the inner corners. Follow the line of the black and wing the brown out at the outer corners.
On the inner corners, run it along the socket line only.
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Step 3: On the inner 1/3 of the lids, apply a peach-tan shimmer. MAC Tan pigment or BH Cosmetics CS09). This doesn’t show up that well on camera but in real life both these shades are very intensely metallic.
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Step 4: [Recommended for the very pale to medium-fair skins; Optional for everyone else] Dab a bit of silvery-white shimmer right in the inner corners just to brighten things up a little. This is only needed if the tan shimmer is the same tone or darker than your natural skin tone. You’d need a little more brightness at the inner corners for a more flattering effect.
If you have caramel to dark chocolate skin, the peach-tan shade should already pop against your skin.
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Step 5: The lashes. I cut a pair of wispies (fluttery, irregular, natural-looking) into 2 halves and then used one half on the outer lash line. This beefs up your lashes only on the outside, and emphasizes that sultry, catty effect. You want to curl your natural lashes before you apply falsies.
Let the glue dry at least 30 seconds or until you see a bit of the glue going grey or transparent. Then place the inner corner in the center of the lid, and then tuck the outer corner down.
(Half strips are a much easier way to apply false lashes for those who aren’t familiar with it, and cutting a single pair of lashes into 2 is cheaper than buying a single pair of half strips for the same price!)
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Last step: Finish by applying black pencil along the inner rim of the lower lids to just intensify the lash line further, and then you can apply some mascara just to weave your natural lashes into the false ones.
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Tips on cutting lashes:
- Look for lashes that are symmetrical, with longest hairs in the center, and outer hairs equally short.
- The best lashes for cutting have short outer hairs and much longer hairs in the center. This helps if your natural lashes are short, because the short end of the false lashes should more or less blend in with your own instead of sticking out obviously in the center of your eye.
How To Make A Hair Bow For Your Big Day
1. Begin by taking one small section of hair from each side of your head. The bigger the sections, the bigger the bow.
2. Tie the two sections together with an elastic to create a half ponytail. Don’t pull the ends through the elastic the last time you wrap it to create a loop like the picture on the right.
3. Split the loop in half to create two smaller loops and clip one loop aside for later.
4. Use your fingers to spread out the loop and push it flat against your head into a bow shape. Insert one bobby pin going from top to bottom and one going from bottom to top.
5. Repeat on the opposite side to finish the bow shape.
6. Pick up the remaining ends of the ponytail and wrap them up and around the elastic to hide it. Secure it with bobby pins underneath.
(via drugstoreprincess)
Statement Metallic Ombre Lips (Chinese Festival Colors)
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This is a fun tutorial with a twist on the “traditional” ombre lip using a metallic pigment. You can choose any colors you want as long as they sort of stand out from each other. (Test on the back of your hand to see if you like the effect.)
Just because this is the Mid-Autumn Festival period for many Asians, I went with a nice coral red (Revlon Ravish Me Red) and a bright amber-gold pigment (Coastal Scents mica in Metallic Rustic Gold).
The only other things you’ll need are a flat eye brush that isn’t too small, and Q-tips in case you need to clean up any mess.
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Step 1: Simply slick on your lipstick as neatly as possible. Matte lipsticks will allow the pigment to “float” and be more obvious. The glossier the lipstick, the more the pigments will sink into the moisture (and look dull).
You can still use a creamy lipstick. You’d just need to layer on more pigment.
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Step 2: Using your flat brush, press one side of it into the pigment and then tap the brush to remove any excess. If you don’t, all the pigment is going to end up on your chin. Not very sexy.
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Step 3: The 1st step to laying down the color is to gently pat a thin layer of pigment onto the top lip. Go from center outward one side at a time, so that most of the pigments will be concentrated in the center. The first layer you lay down may not be very vibrant and opaque, but don’t worry about that.
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Step 4: This is where you pack a 2nd layer of color down the center of both top and bottom lips. On the top lip, this should give you that nice ombre effect where the gold is most intense in the center and then slowly fades out into the red.
On the bottom lip, I wanted more dramatic contrast (like gold foil pressed onto the lips), so I only pressed the brush down around the center. No ombre, no fading outwards like we did with the top lip.
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If you need to, use a Q-tip to carefully clean up the edges if your lip, but if you didn’t pick up too much pigment earlier, you shouldn’t need to.
Now all you need is minimal makeup on the rest of your face, and you’ll have the most vavavoom lips at the party! (Just be very careful about eating and drinking.)
P.S. @mrlbakerz: It would be interesting to kiss someone though. You’d leave a little gold heart!
