Hey, Bright Eyes

Every year there's a new "IT" color trend for each season and sometimes it can be a little scary to play with. Anything outside the neutral color spectrum for most people is sketchy at best. Well, won't be frightened of bright colors ever again.

For eyes this winter season, the trend is a classic: The smoky eye. The cincher to make it updated is giving it a colorful twist! Instead of using your black and brown… you'll use color. You'll soon be proclaiming that blue and purple is the new black.

Blue and purple?! Don't panic. I'm sure you’re flashing back to the 70’s Barbie doll eye shadow or the iconic image of Mimi Bobeck from the Drew Carey Show, right? Maybe you’re stuck on thinking of a giant bruise. Well toss those nightmare images out the window. I’m talking about a more sophisticated use of bright colors. Remember: Classic smoky eyes. No Fear.

Again, bright colors can be downright scary if they’re just slapped on randomly, but we're almost at the dawn of a shiny new year. It’s time to make a change! It's time to be daring! You want to make a statement. If you’re not into the full burst of color—start slow and tone it down. Work with your classic smoked look in your brown or blacksand add a splash of color over the top to mute it down or maybe just use the bright color in the very center of your lid. Remember the key to a smoky eye is blending. Well, your key to color is the same thing: BLENDING.

Above are a couple of examples of a colorful smoky eye that I did with some of my favorite bright colors by Ben Nye. The tones I used were Ben Nye's Lumiere Grande Colors in Cosmic Violet, Amethyst, Royal Purple, Ice Gold, and Cosmic Blue. These colors have amazing pigment that stay bright through out the day or evening. They come in large cakes and are a steal at about $9.00 a color.

Now you can finish off your look with a nice gloss or nude lips and add a bright spot to your drab, gray winter. Don't be bashful... go on and flash those bright eyes.

To Line or Not To Line? That is the Question!

Okay so this is not Shakespeare, but it is a question that I’m asked more often than not. Should you line the lips? Well, that really depends on a few things. Lining the lips can be a corrective technique or a fashion decision. Let me explain.
CORRECTIVE
Like fingerprints, lips come in all different shapes and sizes. Lip liner is used to help correct simple things like thin lips you’d like to make fuller, bleeding lipstick, giving a more definite look to shapeless lips, or balancing out uneven lips. If you’re trying to correct an issue you have with lipstick, this is a great reason to use a lip liner.
Making Thin Lips Fuller
One of the most popular trends are full, sensuous lips. Lining thin lips just outside the natural line will give the illusion of fuller lips.
Liner Tip – Feather or color in from the line onto your lips to keep from having that obvious “liner look” when your lipstick starts to wear down.
Stopping Lipstick Bleed
If you’ve got fine lines around your lips, or if you’re just a weird freak of lip nature (like me) and lipstick just slides off your lips, this is a perfect reason to wear liner. Lining your lips will create a makeup-based wall to stop the lipstick from sliding where it’s not supposed to. Once you’ve applied your liner, powder it down then apply your lipstick. This will set the liner in place and keep it from moving.
Liner Tip- If your liner’s tip keeps breaking when you sharpen the pencil it usually means the liner has been dropped and the inside pencil has shattered. You’ll need to replace the liner.

Shapeless Lips
So your lips don’t have that cute bow or a full enough bottom. Well, you’ve got to sketch out the shape you want. Using a freshly sharpened liner sketch (meaning short, quick lines that connect, not one big drawn on line) the shapes you want to create just beyond your natural lip line. Then apply lipstick as usual.

Liner Tip – If you keep the tip of your liner sharp it’ll keep your lines crisper and less noticeable, giving you a much cleaner and natural look.

Uneven Lips
Ah, yes, another reason I personally use liner when I wear lipstick. I have what I like to call “Joker Lips.” I have a big bow on top and a full bottom lip—but when I smile--the top sides of my lips disappear and I look like the Joker from Batman when I wear lipstick. So I correct them with liner to fill out the thinner bits, using the fuller part as a guide, I just round out the line.

Liner Tip—Use liner colors that are approximately the same color or just a shade darker than the lipstick you plan to wear. This will keep the liner looking more natural.
FASHION
You remember that wave a good while back where girls would line their lips in a really dark color and then fill in the lips with a nude lipstick or gloss? That was a fashion choice. Whenever you make a conscious decision to do something different for the sheer look, that’s what we’re talking about here.

Now with fashion you can be creative, or copy a recent trend from any of the magazines. You’re only limited here by your imagination.

Liner Tip—Putting creamier liners in the freezer for give minutes will make it easier to get clean lines when using them.

Trendy Liner with Gloss
A popular trend is people wearing lip liner all over their lips then washing it over with a close lip gloss color in place of lipstick. This gives a high shine and wet look as opposed to a matte or shimmer of a lipstick.

My personal favorite brand of lip liners are by Ben Nye. Their colors are beautiful and the most common matches to any variety of lipstick shades and natural tones. They usually run about $8.00 which is far less expensive than $14.00 or more for similar quality brands. MAC’s Spice is also a dead match of Ben Nye’s pencil of the same name.

So now you’ve got the straight line answer on lip liners. Go on, make that choice, will you? Or won’t you?

Brush-a Brush-a Brush-a… Part I

Makeup Brushes are everywhere, but there are so many different shapes, hair types, and designs... and they're not exactly the least expensive tool to pick up. How do you choose from the masses? Why are they so expensive? What brushes do I really need? Am I using the brush for right purpose? What makes a quality brush? Well then, let's hope I can help clear up some of those questions for you in the next few blogs.

Today we're going to focus on what type of brushes most people really need. A lot of makeup brushes are great, but most people may never use them on themselves. With a girl's standard makeup battalion we'll talk can't live without essentials.

What Brushes Do I Really Need?
This question really depends on what make up you actually wear, but for the purposes of this article we'll say you wear a standard beauty makeup for a night out. If that's the case most people would use a brush to wear: Foundation, Concealer, Blush, Eye Shadow, and Lip Color.

Foundation Brush
There are many different foundation brushes out there. This type of brush is really a personal preference choice. You can apply foundations with a sponge if you prefer. I like to use a foundation brush for more fluid foundations and a sponge for cream foundations.

Concealer Brush
This is a great type of brush to have. You can choose from a number of sizes and materials with concealer brushes. A brush for concealer lets you blend underneath the eyes without pulling at the fragile skin there. The skin beneath your eyes is the thinnest anywhere on your body. If you normally use your fingers you can A) contaminate your makeup with bacteria and B) you may pull too hard at the skin causing fine lines later down the road.

• TIP-- For concealer it is a great idea to get a filbert brush. All filbert means is that the brush has an oval rounded edge rather than a flat square edge. Since we're working on more rounded areas of the face like the orbital lobe (around the eyes) a round shaped brush just makes the job easier.

Another great use for this brush is to gently set your concealer with loose powder to keep it from moving or creasing. Who wants the fine lines we might already have let along any false ones? Plus two uses for the price of one? What's not to love?

Blush Brush
Most people use blush and if you use a powder blush, this is a definite tool you’ll want in your arsenal. There are blush brushes in a number of different sizes and two basic shapes.

The size depends on how exact you want to be with your application. Smaller brushes lend themselves to more precise application, while the larger spreads the product a bit more liberally.

The shape of your blush brush can be a basic round brush or it could be cut to form an angle. Personally I like the angle blush brush when I want to do some contouring and the round blush brush when giving just a soft glow to the cheeks and skin.

Eye Shadow
Oh this is where I could go crazy with brushes! Brushes for eyes are a must in the kit, even if you have only one or two basics. I suggest two brushes to make things easy. That way if you use a dark and a light color you have one brush for each.

Fluff Brushes are great for applying or just sweeping shadow onto the lid and brow bone. This is what I like to call the "light color" brush. There are a number of sizes available and I find that it’s a comfort level as well as the eye area I have to work with: More eye area a bigger brush, less eye area smaller brush, but over all it’s up to the user.

Crease Blender Brushes are fantastic for applying color to the crease area. It’s got a fully rounded tip and lends itself to precision placement, but it’s still soft enough to blend with to get just the right look. This is what I like to call the "dark color" brush.

Lip Color Brush
If you’re a lip gloss girl, then you shouldn’t really have to worry about a lip brush, but if you like lipstick this may be something to definitely look into. Lip brushes tend to come in two shapes the filbert (rounded) and flat (square). Personally, I like the flat brush for applying lip color. The flat edge cuts a really sharp look along the lip line, making it look classically neat and straight.

• Tip – Using a lip brush when initially applying your lipstick will make any lipstick wear longer. You will actually push the product onto the lips staining it better than when used directly from the stick. Touching up from the stick is great for the convenience, but when applying the whole face try out a lip brush.

That really covers the basics of what most people use on themselves. So you don't need six bajillion brushes, unless you're a self-proclaimed brush whore like me. I just love brushes and can never have enough-- probably why I'll continue more brush questions in the next few posts.