Category Archives: Eye Liner

Eye Liner Pretty Much Rules

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One eye liner and a few seconds is all you need to create a day or night look for your eyes. Forget about mastering eye shadow application, a great liner is all you need. Don’t believe me? Click HERE

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Permanent Makeup; As Awful As It Sounds

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Is there a hidden camera on me? Because I’ve been scrubbing away at your eyes for a good 5 minutes and this eyeliner isn’t budging! Oh, it’s tattooed on you say? That info would’ve been fantastic about 6 minutes ago before I nearly rubbed the skin off of your eyes. I felt like a kid trying to blow out trick candles on their birthday cake, wiping and wiping with nothing coming off. Tattooed makeup 1, me 0.

Tattooed brows, lip, and eye liner was all the rage years ago when women discovered an easy way to have makeup perfectly placed at all times. Problem is though, it’s rarely (if ever) that perfect.

Here’s an ‘after’ pic from a company’s website that does the procedures. They’re calling it a success, but I’d say it’s not good, or even, or modern for that matter. Your face is at the mercy of someone who is one extra cup of coffee away from giving you a jagged line around your eyes that resembles the Dow Jones report. Who wants eyeliner in the presence of wearing no makeup anyway? It looks weird by itself which forces you to apply it more often just to balance things out.

Eyeliner trends come and go, do you really want to commit yourself to having a plum colored liner all the way around your eyes for the rest of your life? Yes black is timeless, but it eventually fades and looks like a blueish prison tattoo.

I’ve met dozens of women who have had permanent makeup done and most of them  say they wouldn’t do it again. Today’s makeup is waterproof, smudge-proof, and flake-resistant so it’s meant to wear all throughout the day. I can’t come up with one solid reason as to why makeup should be permanent, and neither should you.

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So Happy Together; Pairing Up Products for Creative, New Looks

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You may not buy things with the intention of using them together, but a little creativity could help you to really see the value in what you have and be able to use it differently.  Here are a few examples of the power of pairing.

Primer + Bronzer = Beautiful, Bronzy Skin

When the temperature starts to heat up for summer, the weight of your makeup should change.  Heavy looking foundations look harsh in the sunlight, so try mixing a shot of bronzing fluid with a primer. Putting the bronzer into something colorless will lighten it a bit so you can use it all over the face for a natural looking bronzed glow. Using the primer evens out the skin’s texture so your skin looks great without foundation.

Napoleon Perdis Auto Pilot Skin Primer used with Noah’s Naturals Glowing Bronzer Fluid
Primer alone, bronzer alone, then both mixed together on the bottom.

Using a lightweight primer like Napoleon’s that isn’t just a silicone gel is more ideal for mixing. Noah’s Naturals bronzer is made without parabens, glycol, and petroleum so it’s gentle enough to use on the face daily.

Liquid Eye Liner + Angled Lining Brush = Lasting Liner That’s Easy to Apply

When it comes to an eyeliner that lasts, liquid is at the top of the food chain, the formula stays on all day and doesn’t smudge. Unfortunately, if you don’t have a steady hand, applying the liner with the wand that’s included can be impossible. Instead, apply the liner with an angled brush so you have better control and a more precision point.

Flirt! Opening Line Liquid Eyeliner in Grapevine shown with Angular Shader 1/4″ brush (just a few dollars from an art store).
Get some liner on the tip of the angled brush

Now you can use a liner that lasts with an easier-to-use brush.

Nude Gloss + Different Lip Liner Shades = Custom Gloss Colors

Finding a gloss that’s perfectly nude (doesn’t lean toward pink or beige) isn’t easy, but once you find one, grab it up. You can wear it solo when you want muted lips (for when you’re wearing more color on your lids), or you can mix it with different lip liner shades to make custom gloss colors.

See, perfectly neutral and nude. Estée Lauder High Gloss in Golden Goddess.
Use the neutral gloss with any color liner, Estee Lauder Double Wear Liner in Pink and Spice are shown.
Now you have a look that has more color than a gloss alone, but is lighter in weight than a lipstick. 

Dense Concealer + A Touch Up Brush = Quick Coverage

Very few women need to wear foundation. Just covering up redness with some concealer usually evens out the skin using fewer steps and a lot less blending. Just be sure to use a thick concealer like BECCA’s Compact Concealer, it will give you coverage that mimics a foundation’s. When you use Bobbi’s Touch Up Brush to apply it, you’ll get a look that’s almost airbrushed. I haven’t found another brush I like as well for applying concealer because it can work it into the skin so perfectly without wiping it all away.

BECCA’s Compact Concealer and Bobbi Brown’s Touch Up Brush
Applying the concealer this way gives as good of coverage as foundation, but with better control.
Blend the concealer in to get as little or as much coverage as you need.

What look are you trying to achieve? Chances are, you have a few things laying around that when paired together, can make all the difference.

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Make Up FOR EVER Aqua Eyes, Grammy Style Studio 2010 and Adam Lambert

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Today I was lucky enough to go to the Grammy Style Studio at Smashbox Studios in Hollywood. It was a gorgeous event complete with designers, champagne, and of course makeup. I was there to check out Make Up FOR EVER and see first hand what the line was all about.

Couldn’t you just play for hours?

The candy color makeup for which they’re known served as decor.

They had 4 stations set up with their best artists giving complete makeup applications to Grammy nominees and press.

And then there he was. American Idol star and the latest ‘it’ pop sensation Adam Lambert checking out Make Up FOR EVER and chatting with the artists about how he loves their HD Microfinish Powder.

So in person, he’s pretty much the way you see him on TV. Lots of makeup, jet black funky hair, and piercing eyes. He was reserved and quiet but took time to talk with people and take photos. Really sweet.

Ok, now for the goods. Here’s me after the application. Wow right? So it’s way more than I normally do (which was the point) but it was fun. Aqua Eyes was the clear winner for the best do-it-all in a snap product that makes appliying eye makeup much easier. You can use them for lining or for shadow and they’re a true waterproof (and smudgeproof) formula that glide on easily and blend in well. I wore 12L a blueish green that gave a ton of intensity and bold color on top and on the lower lash line. In the inner corner I wore 17L Pistachio, a light green with a hint of pearl to it that I was so infatuated with I smeared a little on the back of my hand (it’s a makeup artist thing) to see the color more clearly. With all of the commotion, I forgot to take it off before I left and then tried unsuccessfully to rub it off in the car several times. It wouldn’t budge or smear. I’ve never come across a pencil that was soft, blendable and a long-wearing. I can’t wait to get a few of them in my kit. 

They’re available in 25 shades, and 4 are brand new. I’ll be getting 23L Champange to brighten up the lower waterline and inner corner, and also Forrest- the most perfect deep green since green liner is so sexy and wearable.

A big thank you to Make Up FOR EVER for the invite to the Style Studio which left me scratching my head yet again wondering how I got so lucky to have this amazing job.

Aqua Eyes

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Three Custom Color Specialists Opaline Creme Eye Definers

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At first glance, I thought it was just a purple creme eye liner. But wait, that’s not purple, it’s actually…brown?

In one of the coolest uses of color theory, Three Custom Color Specialists take black and brown creme liners to a whole new level. They’ve noticed (like I have) that when a black or brown liner is applied to the lid, they often times dull out.

For instance, I love an ultra jet black liner, but sometimes after it dries, it looks sort of grayish. Then there’s brown which can lose so much depth that I have to draw over the liner with a deep brown shadow to intensify it.

Their solution? Adding a hint of blue pearl to Aurora (their black liner) for a jet black that stays that way well after it dries, and some violet pearl to Jupiter (the brown) to brighten and deepen the brown chasing away any signs of dullness. Adding the blue and violet hues also make the whites of your eyes seem extra white because of the contrast.

To the eye, the shades look a little skewed but on the skin the colors are vibrant black and brown. Of course makeup artists wouldn’t create just any formula for these one-of-a-kind colors- they’re smudge proof, transfer resistant and carry a texture that binds to your brush in a way that virtually applies itself.

$22, 2 Shades, ThreeCustom.com

Three Custom Color Specialists Opaline Creme Eye Definers

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L’Oreal Extra Intense Liquid Pencil Eyeliner

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L'Oreal Extre Intense Liquid Eyeliner

L’Oreal has made me very happy. Their new Extra Intense Liquid Pencil Eyeliner gives the depth and glide of a cream or gel liner, (you know the ones that come in a pot and require a tiny brush and steady hands to apply?), with the absolute ease and precision you can only get from a pencil.

Since I apply eyeliner for a living, it’s pretty easy for me to use gel liners daily, which  I wear only for their long-lasting formulas. Sometimes though, it’s just so much quicker to use a pencil and the 16-hour wear time of this formula means I can trade the gel and brush for a pencil that glides on rich black, brown, and gray in one easy swipe.

3 Shades, $8.50, Drugstores Nationwide, Drugstore.com

L’Oreal Extra Intense Liquid Pencil Eyeliner

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