Face of the Day (FOTD)

If you saw a girl all dressed in black with a gunmetal grayish purple cat eye fondling the asparagus at Whole Foods in Novato last night, yup, that was me. 🙂

It’s been a long week, so last night I decided to reward myself with makeup for dessert. Before I left to hunt and gather at Whole Foods, I opened Urban Decay’s Book of Shadows Volume IV, scanned a few of the included QR codes with my phone and watched the corresponding tutorials.

One of the videos is for a dramatic purple-ish cat eye look (it’s actually called the “Purple Cat Eye”), and that’s the one I chose.

The Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol. IV kit/palette comes with five very sci-fi QR codes, which work a little like bar codes. After installing a free iPhone app to read QR codes, I held the phone’s camera up to the code. The phone scanned it and then opened a link to the video. Each tutorial features Urban Decay’s Executive Creative Director Wende Zomnir and a model, on whom Wende completes the look while describing each step in the process, including which products and brushes to use.

The look is a sultry twist on a classic cat eye using products from the palette — perfect for an evening out, or for any time you’re in the mood for something a little naughtier than a simple smokey eye. It involves makeup for eyes and lips, but the cheeks are bare.

Unfortunately, these pics don’t convey one of the coolest, most unusual things about the cat eye part of the look — how the colors subtly flash from gray to purple and back. I think it looks more gray than purple in these pictures than it does in real life.

[Continue reading…]

Today I started reading the new Urban Decay Book of Shadows, Vol. IV ($64), and it’s quite the page turner so far. 🙂

Urban Decay’s latest tale stars 16 eyeshadows (10 of them new) and a host of other interesting characters, like Supercurl (Full name: Supercurl Curling Mascara) and Potion (Full name: Eyeshadow Primer Potion).

I’m a sucker for science fiction, and when it’s good like this, I feel compelled to cosplay! — in a manner of speaking. I based my makeup this afternoon on the first of five tutorials in the story, the lovely “Crystallized.”

The book/palette comes with five special QR codes, which work a little like bar codes. After installing a free iPhone app to read QR codes, I held the phone’s camera up to the code. The phone scanned it and then opened a link to the video.

Cool…

Each of the tutorials features Urban Decay’s Executive Creative Director Wende Zomnir and a model, on whom Wende completes the look while describing each step in the process, including which products and brushes to use.

[Continue reading…]