Valentine's Day Makeup

 

Yay for Valentine's Day! I thought I'd take the opportunity to do my makeup love themed, especially since I'm working in the salon all day today.

My face makeup is simple... my regular routine of NARS concealer and Laura Mercier setting powder. I used a light sparkly pink blush and my regular Opal highlighter from Becca.

My lips are a Wet n' Wild matte stay forever lipstick thingy. It comes in a lip gloss type container because it's a liquid lipstick. It's highly pigmented and dries matte. It also DOESN'T BUDGE. I love it because I can eat with it on and it lasts all day. It's one of my favorite lipsticks and it only cost $3... IF YOU HAVEN'T TRIED WET N' WILD, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO. It's a fabulous brand.

 

 

I filled in my brows lightly with a little Anastasia dip brow in Chocolate.

I used Lancome Grandiose mascara. 

My eyeliner is actually two Makeup Forever Artist Shadows, applied with a damp angled brush.

I started with the bright pink on the inner corners, and used the red for the outer corners and the wings of my eyeliner. I used Sugarpill Charmy (WHICH IS ONE OF THE NEW SHADES THEY RELEASED AND THE ONE I BOUGHT AT IMATS) on my lids and into my crease a little. It's a very pretty soft shimmery peach color.

I drew the little heart by hand using the same pink eyeshadow I used for my eyeliner. I used the same damp angled brush. I topped the heart with Urban Decay glitter liquid liner. 

Much love and Happy Valentine's Day!

BKL

 

IMATS LA 2015 (International Makeup Artist Trade Show, Los Angeles)

FAIR WARNING. This blog post is one heck of a doosy. (I have no idea how to spell doosy.) Anyway, this post is going to cover a makeup tutorial, my day at IMATS, the people I met, AND my IMATS haul. I hope you're in for a ride! ;3

I'm going to start right off with a tutorial on the makeup I did for IMATS. 

This look is actually one of my favorites that I've ever done... and it is pretty damn simple.

 

Product List:

• NARS radiant creamy concealer in "custard"
• Laura Mercier loose translucent setting powder
• an unnamed berry colored Sephora blush
• Becca pressed highlighter in "opal"
• Anastasia Beverly Hills dip brow pomade in "ebony" 
• Stila eyeshadow single "kitten"
• Tarte lights, camera, lashes mascara
• Rosebud Perfume Co. Minted Rose lip balm
• Sugarpill eyeshadows in "hysteric" (discontinued), "goldilux", "love+", and "flamepoint"
• Becca Ultimate Creme Eyeliner in "Belle Epoque"
• Urban Decay Heavy Metal liquid glitter eyeliner in "distortion"
• unnamed brown and dark shimmery brown eyeshadows

 

  For the sake of simplifying this post, which is already going to be super duper long, I am not going to go over my foundation/blush/highlight/eyebrow routine for this look. It is the same as I did in the previous post. Instead I'll focus on my eyes and lips.

 

eyes:

My eyes were already primed with concealer and powdered. I started by using the Becca creme eyeliner with a Sephora angled brush. The eyeliner itself is really very pretty. It's a deep, dusty plum color, with a little bit of  iridescence to it. I lined upper lid with the liner, adding a small wing. If you make a mistake with this eyeliner, no worries! It is fairly easy to wipe off. I had to redo one of my wings because I was unhappy with how it came out. Yes, even makeup artists make mistakes. We're all inevitably human and makeup artistry goes along with practice and making mistakes. Don't get discouraged!

Once my perfectionist mind was satisfied with how my eyeliner looked, I dipped the same angled liner brush into Sugarpill "hysteric" loose eyeshadow and went over the Becca eyeliner with it. This added a brighter purple color and even more shimmer to the eyeliner. Finally, I took my Urban Decay liquid glitter eyeliner and went over the eyeliner yet again, adding lots of glitter.

I highlighted my brow bone with Stila "kitten" eyeshadow and used two brown eyeshadows to darken up my drop shadow. (under my eye)

Finally I finished off my eyes with mascara, starting on my lower lashes and then going onto my upper lashes.

 

 

 lips:

This looks hard, but it really isn't. All I did was put minted rose lip balm all over my bare lips, and then I used the same angled brush that I mentioned previously to fill in my lips with eyeshadow. Yes, eyeshadow on lips!

All of the eyeshadows I used for my lips are Sugarpill.

I started by filling in my whole mouth with "goldilux" loose eyeshadow. (remember, I used a Sephora angled brush for the application of eyeshadow)... Goldilux is a super gold, shiny eyeshadow. I then used "love+" to line my lips and darken the corners of my lips. Finally I used "flamepoint" to ombre out the red into the gold. I used Flamepoint to blend out from the red corners of my mouth towards the center. The left the very center of my lips purely gold. 

That's all I did! The best part about this is it is surprisingly long-lasting. I ate, drank, and talked with this look on my lips and it lasted all through IMATS and that night without one single touch up. Right after I applied my lips I took a sip out of my cup of iced tea and there was almost nothing left on the cup at all.

 

 

Tip: After you're done applying all of the eyeshadow on your lips, use your ring finger to blend and meld all of the colors together, especially the corners of your mouth.

 

DRUMROLL PLEASE...

IT'S THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR...

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN! 

IMATS!

 

It was times like this that I really, really wished I had a better camera than just the one on my phone. I would've vlogged like crazy if I had the means to do so. Instead, I took as many pictures as I could on my smartphone and called it good. One day in the near future I will start making videos and putting them up on YouTube. Anyway, that's a whole 'nother story.

I took some pictures of the entrance to the convention both on the outside and inside. There was literally no line at all to get in, which is partially because I was a half hour late and partially because I went to pro night, which is for professionals only. (less people)

Normally on a regular IMATS non-pro day, the lines are pretty horrendous. 

 

I tried to take some pictures of how the expo hall looked so that my readers who haven't been to IMATS can get a sense for how it is. It is basically an enormous room with tons of booths. Each booth is a different vendor... mostly makeup brands of course.  

It was not nearly as crowded as last year, when I went on a non-pro day.

 

 

It goes without saying that I had to stop and take a selfie with the Sugarpill booth. 

IT'S JUST SO DAMN CUTE.

Besides, I freakin' love their makeup!

 

 

Besides the expo hall, which is where you do most of your shopping etc, there is another portion of the convention that is in a connected room.

The second room is still giant, but smaller than the expo hall. 

This area is where they have speakers, makeup displays (usually special effects makeup), and booths for makeup artistry schools. There is usually people doing special effects/prosthetic makeup demos on models in this area, too.

The picture below was a part of that room called the "makeup museum". It had tons of props, supplies, tools, casts, etc used for special effects makeup by the famous artist, Dick Smith. Everything seen in the picture was actually used by him on set when creating monsters.

He worked on films like The Exorcist and The Godfather.

  

 

I had to take a picture of this beastly bust, below. It was just too cool!

 

 

PEOPLE I MET

I'm now going to go into the people I had a chance to meet at IMATS. I the great thing about conventions like this is you get a chance to meet people you admire and look up to, even learn from them.

I had the opportunity to sit in during the second half of film makeup artist, Steve LaPorte, giving a lecture in the second room of the convention. Steve is another famous special effects makeup artist, known for his work on Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Terminator 2, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Van Helsing, X-Men: First Class, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. 

That is quite the resume!

He was honestly such a nice man and I felt to blessed to get to listen in on his talk.

   

 

As he was speaking I wrote as many notes as I could. All I had was a very small mini notebook in my bag, but I made it work. Some of the most important things I took away from his talk were as follows:

• Take 14 minutes every day to calm your mind and think. Even if that means waking up 15 minutes early when you have to be on set at 4 am. He told us how important it is to take a moment like that every day to calm and recharge our minds, and get ready for the long day of work ahead.
• Being potentially successful as a makeup artist is only a little bit based on your skill, a lot based on your experience, and completely based on you communication skills. It is more important to start out in this field with strong communication skills than it is to start out with more technical makeup skills.
• Don't touch an actor when the director is talking to him or her. Wait until the director is done speaking to start working on the actor again. He told us that from personal experience, directors can get snappy sometimes and it is best to not get in the way when they are talking to their actors.
• Steve also talked about the importance of treating actors just like any other human, or even a friend for that matter. "We are in the people business," he said. He talked about how it is best to treat the actors with a kind heart, even if they themselves are crabby from a hard day. Embrace them as people and working with them will be much easier.

That was most of what I got from his speech. He was truly inspiring and had a great sense of humor about the way he talked to us. He seemed like such a sweet man.

 

 I got to meet Ve Neill!

Ve was a key makeup artist on movies like The Hunger Games, The Host, Beetlejuice, and Mrs. Doubtfire.

She is also a judge on Face Off.

She was a really sweet woman and I loved that pop of maroon she had in her hair!  

 

LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST:

I met Shrinkle, AKA Amy Doan, founder and owner of Sugarpill Cosmetics. 

Amy is a very huge inspiration and role model for me.

First of all, she is so damn cute and kawaii. I am seriously in love with her style and sense of fashion. She also is soooo good at doing her makeup. She always uses Sugarpill eyeshadows in her makeup routine somehow and all of her looks turn out so bright and colorful! (not to mention does eyelashes doe)

She is also vegan and hikes all the time in the Los Angeles area. She owns her own makeup line!

There are so many reasons I look up to her.

Her boyfriend also happens to be a prominent Drag Queen and tattoo artist. Yup, she's mah role model.

Also, did I mention that she said she liked my lips? She didn't even know that I had used all Sugarpill eyeshadows to achieve the look but she liked my lips, so that's good enough for me. ^_^  

Follow Amy on instagram @shrinkle

 

I thought I'd throw this pic in of my hand covered in swatches of Sugarpill eyeshadows, of course.

 

 

Besides the three amazing people I mentioned above, I also saw my makeup artist friends, Jacqueline (@makeupbyjacqie on instagram) and Tricia (@tricialeighmakeupartist on instagram) while I was roaming the expo hall! Go check them out. They're both amazing artists. 

HAUL TIME!

So, I took a generalized picture of everything I got at IMATS including pamphlets, papers, badges, products, samples... etc

 

 

Sigma brushes was kind enough to give me a free travel-sized smudge brush shown below. 

 

At the Morphe brushes booth I ended up buying a plain white single eyeshadow for my Z palette at home and two new brushes. I bought an eyeshadow blending brush (shown on the right) and a denser, flat eyeshadow brush (shown on the left) for packing color onto the lid.

The blending brush is so incredibly soft. 

 

You probably could've guessed it, but I couldn't leave IMATS without buying some Sugarpill eyeshadows. Sugarpill released nine new eyeshadows on Friday, the day I was at IMATS. I got to swatch them all and after much debate I finally settled on buying Penelope and Charmy, which are both new Sugarpill shades. Penelope is a bronze coppery color with lots of shimmer, and Charmy is a peachy pastel color with light, delicate shimmer. 

 

I will make sure to mention in a future post what I thought of the new brushes and eyeshadows I bought!

Much love!

BKL 

Sunset Eyes Makeup Tutorial

ALRIGHT. LET'S DO DIS.

I got some new Sugarpill eyeshadows, and of course, I instantaneously had to try them out and play with them. Sugarpill is a wonderful brand. If you haven't used their products, I really recommend you try them out. All of their eyeshadows are cruelty free and a lot are vegan. Sugarpill specializes in bright, vivid, pigmented, and shimmery eyeshadows... definitely worth a try!

product list: 

• NARS radiant creamy concealer in "custard"
• Laura Mercier translucent loose setting powder
• a pink unnamed blush
• Becca pressed highlighting powder in "Opal" (my favorite)
• Anastasia Beverly Hills brow pomade in "ebony"
• Bite Beauty matte creme lip crayon in "clementine" (limited edition shade)
• NYX lip liner pencil in "852 pumpkin"
• Tarte lights, camera, lashes mascara
• Stila eyeshadow in "kitten"
• Sugarpill pressed eyeshadows in "buttercupcake" "flamepoint" and "love+"
• Elaina Badro and Sephora brushes

 

Now that you know the products I used, let's get on to the how-to!

steps:

1. Foundation. Surprisingly enough, I used no foundation at all for this look. Any and all of the coverage that I got came from the NARS radiant creamy concealer. I start by dabbing it on any spots I have on my face and under my eyes, where my dark circles are. I then blend with my finger. After those problem areas are taken care of, I dot the concealer all over my face, focusing on areas where I have redness. (like my nose, and lips etc) I then bleeeeend it out with my ring finger. I really love using this concealer as my "foundation" because it is so light on my skin, provides medium, buildable coverage, and it has a natural finish. After I'm satisfied with the coverage, I set it with the Laura Mercier powder. I lightly dust the powder all over, but I focus it on my undereyes and anywhere I know I get greasy easily, like my T zone.
2. Blush and Highlight. I chose a pink blush because I think pink went so well with the colors that were on my eyes. If I had chosen a blush that was too warm it would have been way too many super warm colors on my face. So, I chose a pink instead of an peachy blush. For my face shape (oval/heart) I put my blush along the length of my cheeks back to my temples, and not so much on the apples of my cheeks. This is especially nice because I chose not to use any contour in the look and lengthening my blush like this helps accentuate my bone structure. After I am happy with my blush, I sweep the Becca highlighter onto the tops of my cheekbones and up and around over my temples and just over my eyebrow. This is the classic "C" shape of highlighting. After I highlight, I go back in with my blush and finish off my cheeks one last time.
3. Eyebrows. I use a Sephora eyebrow brush in this case. It's an angled natural bristle brush. Remember when using ABH dip brow that a little goes a long way. I also have very naturally thick eyebrows and I don't need a ton of product to fill them in. Even so, it is easy to overdo it. When I pick up product onto my brush I barely tap the end of the bristles into the dip brow. This is usually enough to do one whole eyebrow. I always start with the outer points of my brows, because this is where I want most of the product to go. I darken and define the outer corners, and then use what is left on my brush to lightly fill in the inner portions of my eyebrows.
4. Eyes. My lids were primed with the same NARS concealer and then powdered with the Laura Mercier powder. I started with highlighting my brow bone just under my eyebrows with Stila "kitten". I blended that down from my brow to just above my crease. I then pressed "love+" onto my lid, then blending up just barely into the crease. I used "flamepoint" as my transition color. I blended flamepoint into my crease and upwards just barely. Finally, I took "buttercupcake" and blended it between flamepoint and kitten. After that I went back with love+ and brightened up my lid. I then moved onto the drop shadow. (which is the lower lid, under the eye) I used an Elaina Badro pencil eyeshadow brush to put a fair amount of buttercupcake underneath my entire eye and around, matching up to the shadow I had on my lid. I then took flamepoint and did the same thing, but with only a thinner amount of it under my eye. (I am creating a sort of ombre effect, just like I did with the top of my eye.) Finally, I dampened a Sephora angled liner brush and picked up some pigment from love+. I used this to line just under my lower lashes. I finished off my eyes by using Tarte mascara starting on my lower lashes and then going over my upper lashes twice. No falsies were used this time.
5. Lips. I lined my lips with the NYX liner, going just barely outside of my natural line. I then use the bite lip crayon, blending with my finger.

I would like to make a note about color theory here.

I have green eyes. Do you notice how much they stand out with the colors I chose?

When choosing an eyeshadow, if your goal is to make the natural color of your eyes pop, using the complimentary color of them will definitely do that. 

green eyes: the complimentary color to green is red. This is why my eyes are popping so much next to my love+ eyeshadow. If your eyes are more of a blue-green, then a deep, burnt red-orange compliments best. If your eyes are more of a light, yellow-green, deep red-purples look best. Now, not everyone with green eyes will want to wear red eyeshadow, so a good replacement color is purple. Purples and maroons look stunning on anyone with green eyes, because they have enough of that red tint in them that they still make green pop.

brown eyes: Brown is technically the result of mixing all colors together, and it is a neutral color. Therefore, there is no complimentary color for brown. However, there are some colors that still go great with brown eyes, depending on the kind of brown your eyes are. If your eyes are more hazel... (say, they have a little bit of green or yellow in them) purples do a fine job. If your eyes are an amber or light brown color, dark neutral colors will really make your eyes pop. If your eyes are dark brown or almost black, light, bronze, and neutral colors look best. Even tones of pink/taupey colors look good on really dark brown eyes. I also LOVE gray tones on any shades of brown eyes. Gray is also a neutral color, like brown. So, the key to making your eyes pop is using the right shades of gray for your eyes. Light brown and amber eyes look almost like they are glowing when they are set against deep, dark, steely, smokey grays. Dark brown eyes pop with lighter grays, ashy neutral tones, and silvers.

blue eyes: The complimentary color to blue is orange. If your eyes are a very dark blue, almost purplely blue, a light, yellowy orange looks best. If your eyes are closer to blue-green, dark, deep burnt red-orange looks best. I realize that most people with blue eyes won't necessarily want to wear orange eyeshadow. Purple, blue, and browns are beautiful substitutions. (Gray is beautiful too.) I think blue eyes are the most versatile when it comes to what colors you can wear on your eyes. I personally like super bronzy smokey eyes on blue-eyed people. A dark navy eyeliner compliments blue eyes very well. Purple has just enough warmth in it that is also acts as a great compliment to blue eyes.

If you find this confusing, I don't blame you. Here's a simple trick to picking eyeshadow that will look good on any eye color: A natural, neutral eye looks good on anyone. Put a base vanilla color, and contour with a light brown in your crease. Done. Secondly, if you noticed, purple was mentioned for all three eye colors above. Purple is extremely versatile and can be used for a pop of color and to accentuate any eye color, especially if it is done subtly.

There you have it!

Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

Viva la Sugarpill!

BKL

 

Purple Hair!

 

My hair is purple! Not just purple purple...but, PURPLE. Like, SUPER PURPLE. I love it. No, that's an understatement. I'm in love with it. Bless the hair color gods!

 

So, you wanna know how I did it?

 

No bleach, permanent color, lightening, or damaging dye was used at all to achieve this.

 

Before the purple, my hair was bright orange, pink, and purple. You can see it in my previous posts. My roots had grown out about an inch, so I had an inch of dark brown roots, and then the other colors.

 

Basically, I had to lighten those colors before adding the dark purple to ensure that it didn't end up looking muddy. There are lots of ways to lighten semi permanent hair color without using bleach. Mostly just washing it a lot will cause the color to fade quite a bit. You can also mix a paste of baking soda and warm water and put it in your hair. Let the mixture sit for quite a bit to allow it to pull as much color from your hair as possible.

 

After your old hair color has faded, you can add the new color over it. This only works well if the new color is darker than the previous color. In this case of course, my purple was much, much darker than the previous colors I had. The second color has to be dark enough to cover whatever was left over from the washing/baking soda.

 

Also, make sure you condition the crap out of your hair after rinsing the new dye out to ensure that you keep the integrity and health of your hair.

 

Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, my roots are technically still there. When I put the purple in my hair, it tinted my brown hair purple as well. No bleach needed here!

 

*makeup deets below*

 

 

Makeup:

 

*Tarte tinted moisturizer

*Anastasia dip brow in Chocolate

*Nars matte lip pencil in Cruella

*Tarte mascara

*Urban Decay Naked 2 palette for eyeshadows

*Urban Decay liquid sparkly eyeliner for inner tear duct

*Sephora Collection blush

*Becca pressed highlighter in Opal (MY FAVORITE)

 

 

Fall Hues Makeup

 

I created this look with mostly warm neutral tones, keeping the season in mind. The look is slightly avant garde, with an eyeshadow scheme that I wouldn't usually do and an ombre lip.

 

The eyeshadow is a soft smokey eye with taupes and a little bit of metallic shimmer. From that smokey eye, I put an orange brown transition up from the inner corner of my eyes all the way up to my eyebrows. I actually really like how it came out.

 

For my lips, I outlined them with a burgundy lip liner and then filled them in with a bright orange lipstick. I then blended with my finger.

 

products used:

.Urban Decay Naked 2 palette

.Anastasia dip brow pomade in "Chocolate"

.other shadows

.Benefit Cosmetics "They're Real!" mascara

.NYX lip liner

.Kat Von D lipstick

.Bobbi Brown foundation

 

Kisses,

         BKL

 

 

  

Halloween Glam

Finally Halloween is here! Today I wanted to post about the makeup I did. It's not for a costume per se, but it's great either way. Definitely a bit dark and glamorous.

I paired a smokey people eye with a matte lip, which if not done carefully, can be too heavy. Usually you'll want to stick with heavy colors only on either eyes OR lips, but in this case, it's Halloween! Halloween is the day to break rules. (Especially the rules of what society deems acceptable or not. ) **DISCLAIMER: I said rules not laws.

Alrighty then. Let's get into makeup.

My face is a mixture of Becca foundation and Bobbi Brown, mostly because the shade I have in Becca is too light for me. I used the Bobbi to warm it up a little. I set my foundation with Laura Mercier translucent powder. I then added Sephora Collection blush in a nice berry color (perfect for fall) and contoured my face with a bronzer. The next step is one of my favorites because I'm a makeup nerd. I used my Becca pressed highlighter in Opal to highlight the tops of my cheekbones, bridge of my nose, anywhere I wanted to gleam... which in this case was a lot of places.

I used Anastasia dip brow in chocolate for my brows.

Eyes: The eyeshadow I used comes from all sorts of brands etc. I have a purple and mauve color on my lids, blending out to a smokey gray. I lined my eyes with black pencil eyeliner and applied falsies and UD mascara.

My lips are Nars matte lip pencil in Cruella, my favorite. 

I hope this was helpful! Please feel free to always ask any questions you may have.

Spooky blessings,

BKL

Pop Art Makeup

As I'm sure you're all aware, Halloween is upon us! Fall and Halloween are my favorite time of year. I just love the color palette, weather, and artistic freedom that comes with this holiday season.

I decided to play around with some pop art makeup. The best thing about this look is it's fairly simple and quick to do, with great results. It only took me 45 minutes to complete the look, compared to other Halloween looks that can take anywhere from 1  hour to 4. I had someone ask me on my instagram what I used for the white dots on my face. I used a nyx cosmetics jumbo eye pencil in milk. It's super easy to do. You just place the pencil against your skin and twist, creating an almost perfect circle... certainly good enough for this look. :) The black lines are just black liquid eyeliner. In this case I used They're Real eyeliner from benefit, but any liquid black eyeliner would work just fine.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions about this look.

P.S. Excuse the crappy photo quality. <3

BKL