Wednesday, June 12, 2019

What To Do With Pigments



Pigments, sometimes referred to as loose eyeshadow, can be an inexpensive and fun way to create custom colored makeup products,  break you out of a rut and enhance creativity. Many brands offer pigments and most offer them in good sized jars. If you are interested in trying pigments for the first time, I recommend buying a color that you can use in more than one of the below mentioned ways. Remember a little goes a long way.

They can get messy if you aren't careful, so I recommend putting a towel or some paper down before playing with them. Also, have a plate or small dish handy for mixing. Soy sauce dishes work great for if you do not have a traditional mixing palette, otherwise you can purchase a really inexpensive art palette with wells in it for creating new color combinations. 



If you are always searching for a perfect shade of rose gold, antique gold that pull a little green, or favor duochromes, mixing pigments together yourself is a great way to get the exact color you want. 

Brands I like: Furless Cosmetics. Anastasia, Makeup Geek and Colourpop all offer beautiful options.

Pigments can be used dry or with a mixing medium. Some cosmetic brands sell transformers intended specifically for this purpose, but there are a variety of other mediums you can use that you probably already have around the house. 

Here are some of the ways I like to use cosmetic pigments:

1. Eyes: Foiled eyeshadow (wet your brush with facial spray, or add eyedrops to pigment sprinkled out on a plate and mix until you get the intensity you want), eyeliner, colored mascara (use clear mascara), glitter brows (brush on metallic pigments with clear brow gel). For an editorial look to your pictures pop a little pigment onto your eyes by mixing it with an eye gloss or clear lip gloss that is eye safe. 
2. Highlighter: By itself brushed onto high points of the face, mixed in with face lotion, cream, or a face oil. 
3. Blush: Use solo, or mix with a clear balm, jelly or face oil. This is a great way to experiment with fun blush colors like a pale lavender, or orangey tone. Mix one of these colors with a bit of a shimmery peach or pink to keep it wearable. 
4. Lips: Mix with lip balm, clear gloss or sheer lipstick.  This is a good trick to remember come Halloween. No need to buy a whole tube of an unusual colored lipstick for your look, just mix some pigments together for any lip color you can imagine. Apply metallic or lighter colors to center of lips. Make sure the pigments that you are using are lip safe first. 
5. Hair: Add to a spray bottle with a little bit of facial spray  and mist lightly, or mix into clear hair gel.
6. Body: Add to your favorite body lotion or body oil. This looks especially lovely on the legs in summer with a bronze or gold pigment. If you are very fair, an opal / pearlescent pigment will also work. 
7. Nails: Mix in with clear nail polish. 
8. Foundation: Just a tiny bit mixed in with liquid or powder foundation for a lit from within glow. For a take on the yoga skin trend, mix in a gold, silver, champagne, or shimmery nude pigment in with your foundation plus 1-2 drops of facial oil. 
9. Primer: Adding a slightly metallic pigment into your primer helps add luminosity and a brightening effect. Try pigments in colors like nude pearl, or bronzed pearl depending on your skin tone

I prefer pigments with a pearl or metallic finish because I find them more versatile, but matte pigments can be a lovely option for blush, eyes and nails. I find bright matte colors can be easier to wear in pigment form because you have better control of the intensity. 

How do you like to use pigments?




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