If you follow me on Musings of a Housewife, you may have read about the party I went to last week where I met up with a makeup artist who basically told me I was doing it all wrong. Okay, okay, so I have a bit of a flair for the melodrama. He didn’t exactly say THAT, but he did make quite a few suggestions as to how I could improve my makeup colors and application.
You can read all about it here. It’s a tad, um, lengthy. I know, you’re shocked. The long and the short of it is, I went to a party. There was a makeup guy. He said my eyes are hazel. (For 36 years I thought they were brown.) He said I should not wear blue eye liner ever again. (Funny, when I see photos of myself, I feel like the blue jumps out. I guess it does.) He said I should wear plum and lavender shadows, not the browns that I usually wear. He said I should never wear brown anything anywhere. (I’ve worn brown shadows and liners for years.) He said I should not line all the way across the top lashes as I do, er, did. Rather I should do the thing where you start at the middle, get thicker towards the edges, and then do the same on the bottom. (I always line all the way across the top and never wear anything except sometimes a bit of shadow on the bottom.) He also said I should apply blush below the cheekbones because my face is long and thin. And finally he recommended a reddish gloss as opposed to the lighter pink I’ve been sporting.
So as you see, there is a lot I was doing wrong. Or, at least, in one artist’s eye view, there is a lot I can do better. I realize that makeup is an art, not a science, and this is just one artist’s suggestions, but I liked how I looked when he was done and I’ve been in the market for some new makeup so on Saturday I traveled down to his shop for some loot. I came home with eye shadows in the purple palette, eye liner (inexplicably in a blue/black — that goes on kinda blue — I am so confused about his never wear blue recommendation on Thursday that I may actually call and ask WTH that’s all about), the lip gloss, and a face powder.
So on to the fun part. Just to manage your expectations, it is REALLY hard to capture makeup without professional lighting. I feel like my eye shadow is a lot darker in person. Here are some photos of how I was doing my makeup before with blue eye liner and neutral gold/brown eye shadows.
I tried blue because I read it as advice for brown eyes in Carmindy’s book. Oh, here’s a shot from above.
According to the guy I met on Thursday, my eyes are hazel and blue is taking the whole contrast idea a step too far. Lavender is better for hazel eyes. And I should never wear brown. I used to wear brown all the time. See — brown.
And this is the plum/lavender eye shadows with the blue/black eye liner applied to the outer half of the eye on top and bottom.
I’m still thinking it’s too blue.
Because it still looks like too much blue to me, I tried going over the blue with a black liquid. I think I like this better??
What do YOU think? Oddly, the brown still looks the most natural to me.
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I like the brown best out of those too. It gives your face a welcoming, warm glow type of look.
But I think the lavender/purples may work for a more modern look that would brighten up your face. Next time you’re at Sephora try Urban Decay in Grifter (cooler, this is the one that looks best with my lighter brown eyes) or Asphyxia (warmer) with a dark gray liner. It’s one of the combos I’m rather fond of right now and looks to be compatible with the Spring trends.
I love that first picture of you so much. It is one of my favorites.
I love your make-up in the red shirt. Great color on you!!!!
I actually do like the make-up on your eyes on both of these bottom shots. BUT I don’t think the make-up on the first looks bad AT ALL – it looks good, too.
This is the thing about make-up artists, I think. They are artists! So, they create and have opinions about what looks good on their subject at the time. Depending on what time of the year it is and what they are wearing I think make a huge difference. To say that you should never wear navy is really not something every artist is going to say.
Also, if your eyes are more brown than green in the hazel family then blue is of a complementary color whereas plum is complementary for green.
You might really have more flexibility with your make-up because of your eye color.
Although the blue looks good, I really like the brown. I don’t think the purple is too bright but that could be the lighting. I have eyes the same color as yours…not quite hazel but a little more goldy/green than dark brown. One color that I always love is a beigy/pink. The pink part brings out the green in hazel eyes but straight pink looks a bit too much like pinkeye.
Hmm… I honestly think they ALL look great.
But I do have to say that the plum color is really pretty – and it totally makes your eyes pop.
Actually, plum/purple is one of those colors that looks good on lots of people, but I feel like very few people actually wear it. Why is that?
so funny..I love the way they all look too. I think you are so brave to have all those closeups on your blog lol. You have gorgeous skin! I really like how they eyeliner looks on the last ones rather than across your whole eye. But, the truth is, they all look great!
Well I think you look lovely in all the pics, so I wouldn’t stress about it too much! I do think the new stuff looks good, but wear what you feel like looks best with what you’re wearing that day. I will have to experiment now with what looks best on me as far as lining my eyes.
Truthfully, I think the brown makes you look a little older—or is it better to say the other makes you look younger???
Also, the shimmer of the eye shadow was just a tad too much—not a lot mind you as you wear a perfect amount of color. But just an observation! My daughter has hazel eyes and she just began wearing some richer purples and it looks fab :0)! Really pops.
I enjoy your blog!
I like them all. The first shot and the one in the red are my favorites but that has more to do with the lighting, probably, than the make-up itself. It’s hard to really judge, like you say, without a first hand look at you in natural light, but one thing that does sortof stand out about the lavenders vs. the browns is that, to me, those coolor colors seem to blend better with your skin tone, which may support the guy’s theory about your eye color, too. They sho look brown to me, but what do I know?
You are a beautiful woman. You’d look good in anything!
Like I said on your personal blog, it’s plum all the way baby. Srsly girlfriend, PLUM makes your eyes POP.
Ok. Wow. For reals. That lavender etc. stuff that he recommended REALLY makes your eyes pop! It’s not like it was bad before, but really, when I look at the pictures where you took his advice all I see are your beautiful HAZEL eyes.
You need to keep his suggestions! And then send him my way, please.