When I use to work full time I received a lot of compliments from my customers and co-workers about my make-up, especially my eye make-up. I remember one customer specifically who stopped me abruptly and stared straight at my face and said "I just LOVE your eye make-up!" I was a bit embarrassed at the time and did not quite know how to handle the compliment because I wondered if I was wearing a bit too much eye-makeup; after all shouldn't she have said "I love your eyes" and not your "eye make-up"? Because if I really did a great job, it would be my eyes that get noticed and not my make-up.
Since then I started styling blogging and I have gotten a few questions about my eye make-up and one request for an eye make-up tutorial. Well I don't have a tutorial for you, I tried, but the pictures of me squinting in the mirror trying to put on make-up plus the close up of my wrinkles and skin flaws, was too painful for me to look at...so I certainly don't want to put any of you through that misery. Instead, I'm just going to share a few tips on what works for me, what products I use, and a couple of videos I found on YouTube that demonstrate these products and I think are fantastic.
Now here is my first confession. I really, really, really don't like spending a lot of money on make-up and skin care. I mean, the prices of that stuff is crazy isn't it? The last time I stopped in a Sephora store I bought two itty bitty little containers of make-up: a concealer and a eye shadow primer, and it costs me $54.00! YIKES! Needless to say, I haven't been back in that store since May and I hope to not have to revisit anytime soon. That being said, if I really like a product, I will pay that, but I don't feel that all the make-up that I use has to be high end.
So here is what I use on my eyes. First I moisturize just the under eye area and not my face. Why? Because I have super oily skin and if I added moisturizer I would have a zit (Yes, I still get pimples at the ripe old age of 53, can you believe it?) the very next day. Plus, I usually use a tinted moisturizer as my foundation anyway so I do not need any extra moisturizer. Right now I am using a Clinique moisturizer that I received free when I purchased some other Clinique products awhile back. Even though it says it's for very dry skin, I find it a very light and airy moisturizer, and it is perfect to put under my eyes. It isn't greasy at all. I do give it a few minutes to dry before I add my concealer.
After my moisturizer and primer is on, I add concealer to my under eyes. A lot of women do not use concealer because they don't need to. They just put foundation under their eyes. I unfortunately inherited my under eye circles from my father and so under-eye concealer is a must for me. I am currently using this product:
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Sold HERE It's actually a color-correcting fluid. In all my 53 years of life, I have never been 100% sold on any concealer and I have been on a constant quest for the perfect concealer, which I have yet to find. This product was my latest attempt. It's o.k., but I think I bought the wrong color and I would like to try the other one next time I need to replenish it. I bought the pink shade which is described to "Brighten dark areas" and I think I needed the peach shade which is described to "Masks circles/spots". When I put this on, it definitely looks too light and pink for my skin, so then I put my foundation over the top of it. Once the eyes are totally prepped, that's when the fun part begins: I add the eye shadow. Now I don't match my eye shadow to my clothes (that's something we used to do in the eighties!), but I do want my eye make -up to compliment what I'm wearing. So in other words, if I'm dressed for fall or winter, I will not wear light eye shadow, but I will choose darker, smokey tones. My absolute favorite eye shadow palette that I have ever used in my entire life is NAKED by Urban Decay. It is very pricey, $54.00 a palette, but it will last forever (except the high lighter, but we'll talk about that later). It comes in four different color palettes to choose from. I currently own two palettes: Naked 2 and Naked 3, but I would love to own Naked Smokey as well. |
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Sold HERE |
What I love about these palettes is that there are so many choices and no choice is wrong. You literally cannot make a mistake when applying your eye make-up for all the colors within each palette go together and blend so well together. Just pick a light, medium, and dark shade along with a highlighter, and your good to go!
To achieve the look in this picture, I used Naked 3. I put the "Dust" color in my inner eye to brighten and open my eye. Then I put the "Buzz" color over the middle lid and under my eye. Yes, you heard me right, 'under my eye'. It really opens up and brightens the eye...especially for us middle age women. You will see a demonstration of this in the two videos below. Then I pick a darker color to put in the corners and crease of my eye, usually "Factory" or "Dark Side" depending on what I'm wearing. I then use the darkest shade in the palette for a eye liner, in this case it is "Blackheart". I finish off the look by applying the lightest shade "Strange" under my brow and again under the eye to highlight it. I then apply mascara, and that's it.
When you watch the videos you will notice that they both use eye liner and pencils too. I do not. I do not like the way eye liner looks on me, plus I would feel uncomfortable wearing that much eye make-up. I love it on everyone else, but just not me. Plus I feel a heavy eye liner would just accentuate my dark circles.
So here is the first video. It uses the Naked 2 palette which is what I use during the colder months of the year for it's mostly taupes and grey-beige shades. But remember, I skip the eye liner part. I just use the darkest shade in the palette as my eye liner.
And this video uses the Naked 3 palette, which I am wearing in the first picture in this post. This is the palette I use during the summer months as it's mostly pinks and rose-hued neutrals. If you like a softer eye make up look, this is the palette for you!
These are just two of my favorite YouTube videos, there are thousands more available on the YouTube site. I picked these two because I loved the look and they were quick and easy to follow.
I honestly cannot say enough about this eye make-up. The colors are gorgeous, the make-up lasts all day (with the primer), and it's super easy to use. My only complaint is that there is only one highlighter in each palette. Well, that goes super fast and you are out of it before you used up any other colors in your palette. You can buy the "Foxy" highlighter color from Naked 2 HERE for $28.00 (which I may have to do soon), but I couldn't find the "Strange" highlighter color from Naked 3 listed.
I did read some good news recently that Urban Decay has heard our cries however and will soon be releasing a trio of highlighters!
Aren't they pretty? I can't wait!
Well I hoped that helped even though I could not (or would not) do my own tutorial. I'd love to hear your thoughts about what you thought of the videos and the Naked products. And if anyone knows of a great concealer out there that doesn't cost a small fortune, I'd love your recommendations cause I'm still looking!
Have a Great Day! Amy
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