Makeup Tips/How To

Ever since I started doing different makeup looks for the #MBBInstachallenge, I dunno… Something cool happened. My mind has been opened to different ways to wear makeup, and not just in the traditional sense — like whether I’m going to wear a smoky eye or light color on the lid/darker color in the crease. I feel like I’m thinking outside the box a little more than I used to.

I love looks that are “traditionally pretty” (air quotes), and I have for years, but I feel like I’m more open to trying edgier looks now and wearing them in, like, everyday life.

I did a look today using products from the new MAC Make-Up Art Cosmetics Collection: James Kaliardos Spring/Summer 2017 (there’s some info about the launch, swatches and pics of some of the products down below if you’re interested), and, basically, this look is very much my current style. There are classical elements to it, but it also has an edgy twist.

I feel like I’m entering a new phase in my makeup life where I still like classic makeup or “traditionally pretty” (there are those air quotes again) makeup, but there’s also something unexpected or surprising about it.

Let me walk you through how I did the eyes because, really, that’s what this look is all about.

Start with your basic winged liner

I didn’t do anything fancy with the liner. It’s just a thin line along the top of my lashes with a flick at the end.

My lids, I kept simple and clean, but you could skip eyeshadow altogether. I used MAC Soba Eye Shadow (a MUST HAVE from the permanent line), my favorite satiny golden brown in the whole wide world, and applied that as a wash all over my entire lid, concentrating the color near the lash line.

Then, I took the Jumbo Rapidblack Penultimate Liner from MAC Make-Up Art Cosmetics James Kaliardos and dotted it between my lashes to create an illusion of a thicker lash line before drawing my wing using MAC Into the Well Eye Shadow in Midnight Tryst (a dark matte burgundy brown). It’s a powder eyeliner that you apply with a wet brush, and it’s really good when you want liner with a soft, diffused edge.

Incidentally, I’m wearing the MAC Full Face Kit: Moons of Saturn on my cheeks and MAC Lustre Lipstick in Almondine on my lips, both of which are also from the James Kaliardos sub-collection (there are also two other sub-collections in the MAC Make-Up Art Cosmetics collection. Together the three sub-collections comprise the 50-piece release, and each one is a collab with a different MAC makeup artist. In addition to this one by James Kaliardos, there’s one by Diane Kendal and one by Kabuki.

At this step, this is a look you could wear every day, right? It would be fab for running errands, going to school or going to work.

But let’s kick it up a notch! 🙂

Time to strategically place some sparkle and shine

I used two of the Pressed Pigments from the James Kaliardos collection to do this. First, I applied Light Touch, the light pinkish beige, and packed it into the inner corners of my eyes with a wet flat eyeshadow brush.

I wet the brush because I wanted to intensify the shine and make it VERY reflective.

Once that dried, I buffed out the edges with a tapered blending brush so that the pigment looked like it was concentrated in the inner corner. I wanted it to fade out as it moved up toward the inner part of my brow (I did my best to keep it out of the lid area).

Next, I dotted the darker pigment, deep shimmery grayish purple Black Grape, along the center of my lower lashes and purposefully left it messy, because I wanted it to look grungy and imperfect.

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