Thursday, November 21, 2019

A Complete Guide to Fall 2019 Makeup Looks - Looks 5-6

A Complete Guide to Fall 2019 Makeup Looks - Looks 5-6

*All products in this post purchased by me. Not sponsored. 



Welcome back to my Fall 2019 Makeup Guide!  Today's post will contain one look for day, and one for evening. Both of these looks can be worn by anyone, but definitely lean on the fun side!  Again, both of these looks can be worn with the foundation and brow routine outlined in the previous post.  However, I do strongly urge you to start with the eye makeup for both of these looks for easier clean up. 

Here is how to get Look 5:

The Trend: Neon

There are a number of color trends this season.  We are seeing makeup looks in rosy tones, mauve, rose gold, terracotta, and pastels. Yet the real standout has to be the reemergence of neon.  For those of us old enough to remember the 80s, neon may bring up feelings of nostalgia. Others may be a little bit frightened by the thought of wearing colors that are so bold, especially in the daytime. Luckily, the look that I created is something that even the most timid person can pull off.  As pretty much every person in the world probably knows by now, Jeffree Star Cosmetics launched a collaboration with Shane Dawson.  I have the two palettes, Conspiracy and Controversy, which were gifted to me by my wonderful cousin Sandra. Thank you!!  

The Conspiracy palette contains a very bright, neon yellow eyeshadow with a matte finish, called Food Videos.  This shade sits in the middle of the palette and is extremely unique. I don't own anything else like it in my collection, and I don't think that I ever have. Like all of the Jeffree Star Cosmetics eyeshadows I own, the formula is rich and provides full-on pigment that lasts all day. These eyeshadows do not require an eyeshadow primer under them, but due to the fact that one of my eyes is slightly hooded, I tend to always start with a primer for extra insurance. As with most soft powder eyeshadows, you can expect to see some fallout in the pan.  If you are careful to just dip in your brush and tap off any excess, it will not land on your face.  That being said, I still recommend doing your eye makeup first, but that is mostly because it will be easier to clean up the edges of this eye look. 

If you do not have this palette, you can grab any neon eyeshadow that you have in your collection, or opt for a neon liner or pigment instead (as long as it is eye safe). You will also want a black eye liner, a good sharpener and a brush for drawing on the neon eyeshadow. One of the ways to make super bright colors more "wearable" is to use them as an accent. Rather than coating your lids in this super bright hue, using it as eyeliner (paired with black liner) is a fun way to dip your toes into the trend without going overboard. Choose a brush that you are comfortable using to draw on liner with.  This may be a fine liner brush, or an angled eye brush.  It really is a matter of personal preference. 

The look is achieved with a simple method, but you do want to take your time and practice patience. This is especially true if you are a beginner or not someone who wears liner often. Begin by priming the eyelid with your favorite eyeshadow primer.  Then after sharpening your black eye pencil, tight line your upper lashes, and apply the black pencil to your lower water line. Going into the Conspiracy palette, brush a light layer of My Pills (soft pink-beige with matte finish) all over the eyelid as a base. To emphasize the crease of the eye, apply Tanacon (neutral light brown matte) into the natural socket of the eye with a blending brush.  Define lower lashes, by smudging Diet Root Beer (soft chocolate brown matte) along the lower lash line with a pencil brush.  You may want to take a small tapered brush without any product on to blend the shadow out a bit. 

Neon is easiest to wear when paired with black liner and other neutral colors. I lined my upper lashes with a black waterproof liquid eyeliner from Urban Decay.  

Now for the fun part!  Line your upper lash line with Food Videos (neon yellow matte), keeping it just above where the black liquid liner was placed. I used a very fine liner brush that I picked up from an art supply store, but use whatever type of brush you are most comfortable with.  Build up the intensity of the shadow until you reach the level of opacity desired. I recommend pressing the color on using the side of the brush.  The stamping motion really allows for maximum color payoff. 

If desired, apply false lashes or just coat your own lashes with lots of black mascara. I used EcoTools Everyday Length Naturally Beautiful Lash System.

For extra staying power (and to help camouflage the lash band), I applied My Ride's Here (deep black matte) over the liquid liner with a black angled brush.  I winged out the black liner just a bit, making sure the bottom connected with the black pencil in my water line.       

Here is the final look:


To get even more use out of the Conspiracy palette, I used Pig-ment (soft petal pink matte) as my blush, and a tiny bit of Ranch (cool metallic silver) as my face highlight. 


While I did wear this look in the daytime, it was a weekend. Depending on your occupation, neon may be a bit much for the workplace. To keep the focus on the eyes, I opted for a natural looking glossy lip. 

Look 6

The Trend: Glitter liner

This trend is best left for evening makeup looks, preferably when going to a special event. I recently wore this to a wedding that I attended. All of the evening looks that are currently popular choose one feature to make the star.  You want to emphasize eyes or lips, not both. There are so many options when it comes to glitter liner. Again, I recommend that you work with what you have.  My only true rule is that you are sure the glitter you are using is eye safe. Craft glitter is not OK to use for this look as it could cause serious damage to your eyes. You will also want a good glitter glue, some liquid liner and a black mascara. 

This look can be achieved by using an actual glitter eyeliner.  Urban Decay makes several fun colors of metallic and glitter liquid liner that are very easy to use. If you have a pressed glitter eyeshadow, roll-on formula or liquid eyeshadow any of those will work as well. I opted for my favorite glitter of all time, Lit Cosmetics loose glitter. You will also want to have some matte eyeshadows handy.  I used the Jeffree Star Cosmetics Mini Controversy Palette


Below are some swatches of the above glitter options.  I recommend testing out the product you are going to use on the back of your hand to see how it applies.  This will give you a better idea of the size of the glitter particles, and how it will actually appear on the eyes before you actually paint it over the glitter glue. 


I really tested out a lot of products before deciding on the Lit Cosmetics lavender color glitter. To begin, apply an eyeshadow primer if desired (optional) followed by your lid color. I used Exposed (soft matte lavender) from the Mini Controversey palette, patting the color on my eyelid until I reached the desired amount of coverage. To highlight just under the brow, I used Cry on My Couch (matte neutral light tan) and down blended to create a seamless transition between the lid color and highlight.  Since we are using glitter here, I recommend keeping your under brow highlight matte and pretty close to your natural skin tone. To emphasize my crease, I swept on Diet Root Beer (soft chocolate brown matte) with a fluffy brush.

After your eyeshadow is applied, you will want to use a black eye pencil to tight line upper lashes and lower water line. Next, grabbing your black liquid liner, apply a very thin line across the upper lashes.  You do not have to wing it out, but rather you want to hug the lashes with the brush of the liner. Let the black liquid liner dry completely, then take a silver liquid liner and draw a line on top of the black liner. I used Bobby Dazzle from Urban Decay, a whitish silver with iridescent sparkle because it has a nice fine brush that is easy to use. Once that completely dried, I used a fine liner brush and coated it with Too Faced Glitter Glue before dipping it into my glitter from Lit Cosmetics.  Lit Cosmetics also makes a fantastic glitter glue that makes their loose glitters very easy to work with.  I ran out of mine, so opted for the Too Faced Glitter Glue instead. I prefer to work on a stainless steel palette to mix the glitter and glue together.  If you don't have one, you can work off of a plate or simply dip the glue coated brush into the glitter directly from the pot. Once the brush has the right amount of glitter glue and glitter on it you can test it out on the back of your hand first if desired.  Otherwise, go ahead and pat the glitter on right over the silver liner. 

If desired, you could omit the silver liner and go right to the glitter.  You could also omit the glitter and just use Bobby Dazzle as there are fine iridescent sparkle particles in it.  It really depends on how much glitter you want.  I chose this layering technique because I find the liquid liner serves as a nice base to fill in any gaps.  It also creates more of a multidimensional sparkle look to the liner since there are now two different sizes of glitter on the eyes. Once your have completed applying the glitter, use a pencil brush to apply a little bit of Diet Root Beer to the lower lash line.  Follow with multiple coats of black mascara on top and bottom lashes. 

Here is the final look:



As you can see, I also kept the lips neutral for this look. Brows were groomed, but natural looking and the rest of the face makeup was quite subtle. 


These photos really do not capture how lovely this look came out. The way the glitter caught the light as I moved was simply stunning. I used concealer to clean up any edges, and since I used a glitter glue, there were no stray glitter particles stuck to my face at the end of the night. Finish off with a spritz of your favorite setting spray and this look will last all night!

I tried to make all of the looks in this guide easy to apply and wear.  My final look in this series will be next, with a focus on glossy lips for evening. Please let me know if you try any of these looks in the comments below.  What are your favorite makeup trends this season?


*All products in this post were purchased by me, or gifted to me by a family member.  This is not a sponsored post.  I do not get paid to write reviews, or include any specific products in my posts.  All opinions are my own. 


Monday, November 11, 2019

A Complete Guide to Fall 2019 Makeup Looks - Looks 2-4


A Complete Guide to Fall 2019 Makeup Looks - Look 2-4




*All products in this post purchased by me.  Not sponsored. 



As promised, this next look will be all about the perfect lip colors for Fall 2019. This post will show three looks in total, all daytime appropriate. All three of them will begin with the same foundation and brow makeup.

For your foundation:

  1. Prep your skin.  I recommend a good moisturizer that is appropriate for your skin type.  If there are parts of your face that get particularly shiny or oily throughout the day, you may want to add a primer to those sections. 
  2. Prepare your tools. Wet your beauty sponge and decide which brushes you will use. This comes down to personal preference, though I will offer guidance along the way.
  3. Apply your foundation. Start with the areas of your face that need the most coverage first.  Work in light layers, allowing the product to soak into your skin before adding more. The goal is to even out the skin, but we still want it to look like skin.
  4. Add the finishing touches.  Now you can add your liquid highlighter and concealer as needed.
  5. Set everything with a light layer of powder. Be cautious not to powder too heavily over the areas that you want your liquid highlighter to shine through. Depending on your skin type, you may want to leave the tops of your cheekbones powder free.  Otherwise, you can add a powder highlight over your powder at the end if desired. 

For natural looking brows:

  1. Choose your weapon(s). Decide on a pencil, pomade, powder, wax, gel or any combination that you desire. 
  2. Brush your brow hairs up with a spoolie. If necessary you may trim just the tips with a small pair of scissors, but natural brows are in so I recommend doing as little cutting/tweezing as possible. 
  3. Start by emphasizing the bottom of your brow with the product(s) you chose in step one above. This will help even out the shape of your brows. 
  4. Draw hair like strokes through any sparse areas of your brows with your pencil or brow powder.
  5. Give a final brush through with your spoolie to blend in the product and set with a brow gel if desired. 


Now for Look 2


The Trend: Red lips (try crimson or oxblood)

This season lipstick should be worn in a very effortless way.  With your foundation on and brows groomed, all you need is a swipe of lipstick and you are ready to go!  Lipstick can be worn in a stain or glossy (concentrated in the center). For a more casual look, you may want to try a red that leans more gingerbread or even plum in hue. 

Some of my favorites are: Urban Decay in the color Gash, Jeffree Star Cosmetics Velour Liquid Lipstick in Designer Blood or Redrum, NYX Pump it Up Lip Plumper in Scarlett, Too Faced Melted Matte Long Wear Lipstick in Gingerbread Man. 

I used Redrum from Jeffree Star Cosmetics, painting it onto the center of my lips then spreading it over the rest of my lips using my pinky finger. 

Here is the final look:





I did end up adding a touch of mascara to my lashes after curling them. However, if you feel comfortable feel free to leave your lashes bare. 

Look 3

The Trend: Monochromatic looks in terracotta and/or mauve


For this look, I used the color mauve throughout the entirety of my face. Again, my foundation and brows were the same as above.  I was inspired by my Cover FX Monochromatic Blush Duo in Mojave Mauve.  This blush is just so stunning and easy to blend. Mauve has always been a color that just works for me. I began by applying the matte side of this blush duo onto my cheeks, and then applied the shimmery side in a light layer over it, focusing mostly on the tops of my cheekbones.  Instead of eyeshadow, I used this same blush duo on my eyes. Using a fluffy eyeshadow brush, I swept a light layer of the matter color through the crease of my eyes, and then tapped some of the shimmery side onto my eyelids. Using a cotton swab, I applied a little bit of the matte color along my lower lash line. For lips, I used a mixture of Urban Decay's glossy pencil in Lovechild and Tarte lipstick in Plummy Rose.  Then I patted just a tiny touch of the shimmery side of the blush duo onto the center of my lips to bring everything together. 

Due to the popularity of monochromatic makeup looks, many brands have eyeshadow and lipstick of the same color.  For example, Jeffree Star Cosmetics has eyeshadow and Velour Liquid Lipstick in colors Androgyny, Celebrity Skin and Dominatrix (to name a few).You may even want to use those eyeshadows as blush for the full monochromatic look!  Have fun and search your stash for colors that will liven up your look but still look good on cheeks, eyes and lips. 

Here is the final look:



As you can see, I skipped mascara for this look.  I did curl my lashes to keep the eyes open and bright. If you must wear mascara, try applying only one coat to the top lashes only. This is a great look for any occasion, and works well in the office, or using a richer color and some liner for evening. 

Look 4

The Trend: Natural makeup

This look is the easiest to pull off, and is suitable for everyday. It is not a "no makeup" type of look, but rather one that sticks to a more natural color palette. 

The Urban Decay Naked Palettes are a great pick for this look. I used the Naked 3 Palette, but you can use any of the Naked Palettes you prefer. You will want two matte eyeshadow colors (one highlight and one contour) and one shimmery color. I used Strange (an extremely light neutral matte pink), Burnout (matte light dusty rose) and Limit (pinky-peach satin) for my three shadows. 

You can use an eyeshadow primer if desired, then take your matte highlight eyeshadow and apply it from lash line up to just under your brow.  Using a crease brush, sweep your matte contour shadow through the crease of the eye. The colors should be light and blended together to keep everything very natural looking. Pat some of the shimmery eyeshadow on the eyelid to bring light to the look. 

Next, tight line your upper lash line with a brown eye pencil. I used Dominatrix (chocolate brown) Lip Liner from Jeffree Star Cosmetics (eye safe). Coat your top lashes only with mascara.  I used Ilia After Midnight Mascara to add some length. For blush, I used Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Exposed (a very natural looking nude color).  You want something that looks very natural and doesn't lean to pink or peach.  Matte formulas are best for natural makeup looks. If you do want to add a bit of a highlight for the appearance of a dewy complexion, use a fan brush to sweep The Balm's Mary-Lou Manizer on the tops of cheekbones. To keep everything looking as natural as possible, I went over the edges of my highlight and blush with a damp beauty sponge from Real Techniques. 

Finish off lips with a thin layer of gloss that is close to your natural lip color. 

Here is the final look:




I hope you enjoyed these daytime appropriate makeup looks. All three are quite easy to apply and are classic looks that never really go out of style, despite being on trend this season.  I have one more daytime look that is a bit more on the fun side coming up, and then a couple of evening looks to finish out the season.  Sadly, here in Chicago it has been quite snowy already so it does not feel like fall at all!

Thank you for reading, and don't forget to follow me on Twitter @MakeupMatters1

*All products in this post were purchased by me.  This is not a sponsored post. I do not get paid to write reviews or include any specific products in my posts.  All opinions are my own. 








Monday, November 4, 2019

A Complete Guide to Fall 2019 Makeup Looks - Look 1




*All products in this post purchased by me. Not sponsored. 

A Complete Guide to Fall 2019 Makeup Looks - Look 1

Welcome to another requested post from my Twitter family. This is the first look in a series of easy to apply, Fall 2019 makeup looks. I hope you find this series helpful for creating this season's trendiest looks.

The Trend: Dewy skin, natural brows, blue liner and mauve blush


You can wear any of these trends solo, or together as I have done here.  While it may seem like I am incorporating a number of trends into a single look, I think you will find that they work quite well together. The first part of this look, dewy skin, can really be worn with any type of makeup.

To create the appearance of a dewy complexion, you will want to start off with clean skin.  I recommend a consistent skincare routine that is appropriate for your skin type as well as the climate you live in.  Depending on where you live, you may have to adjust your skincare routine depending on the season.  I recommend starting by removing all traces of dirt and/or makeup with a damp microfiber cloth. These are essentially washcloths designed to grab every trace of grime from the skin.  You can find them at bed & bath shops, or online at places like amazon.com. If you wear eye makeup regularly, a good eye makeup remover is essential. Lately, I have been loving the affordable drugstore option from Physican's Formula.

Once your skin is squeaky clean, you will want to apply a liquid highlighter. I recommend Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector.  I used the color Opal here, but choose one that compliments your skin tone. Apply a thin layer of product allover your face and neck using a flat paddle foundation brush.  If this feels like too much glow for you, simply mix a few drops of liquid highlighter in with your usual foundation. No liquid highlighter on hand? Try mixing a touch of shimmery pigment in with your foundation instead for a similar effect.

Next, conceal as you normally would, and set only your concealer with powder.  You can lightly powder the rest of your face if desired, but we want some of that liquid highlighter to shine through so don't be too heavy handed.



Now for the magic, powder highlighter!  There are a number of great options on the market when it comes to powder highlighting products.  I used an old favorite, The Balm's Mary-Lou Manizer.  Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder, or Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed (try Rose Gold) are also solid choices. Dust a tiny bit onto the tops of cheekbones, above your brows, cupid's bow and bridge of the nose. Start with just a little bit, and build the product up until you reach the desired amount of glow.

I think the tools you use to apply product are just as important as the products you choose (if not more so). My picks for powder highlighter application are the Real Techniques fan brush, or a small contour/highlight brush (such as Furless Cosmetics BC4 or Sephora Pro Highlight #98).

Now for brows.  You can use your regular brow products, just remember full, natural looking brows are on trend. I used Urban Decay Brow Box to fill in any sparse areas, and groomed my brows with a spoolie.  Natural, full looking brows can also be worn with any type of makeup look.

For eyes, apply a very thin layer of your favorite eyeshadow primer to your eyelids, being sure to stay close to the lash line (try Milani Eyeshadow Primer). Grab a navy blue eye pencil, and trace along your upper lash line.  I recommend doing one eye at a time, and going slowly.  Use a smudge brush (I used one from Urban Decay) to smudge out the color slightly, then draw over the line again, winging it out slightly. You can use a cotton swab to correct any mistakes. For the look below, I used Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in the color Ransom. You can tight line with the same pencil if desired. If this feels a little bit too out of your comfort zone, you may want to tight line with your usual brown or black eye pencil instead. 


For blush, mauve is the color for Fall 2019. I used Cover FX Mojave Mauve Monochromatic Blush Duo. You can use just the matte side, or layer the shimmery side over the matte depending on your personal preference. This blush from Cover FX is truly fantastic. It is pigmented, and blends like a dream.

Keep lips neutral, by applying a neutral lip liner and a little bit of lip balm if desired.

Here is the final look:




What do you think? Try this look? I would love to see it! Show me on Twitter @MakeupMatters1.  Make sure you are subscribed so you don't miss the next look in this series (it is all about the perfect lip colors for Fall 2019). 


*All products in this post were purchased by me. This is not a sponsored post. I do not get paid to write reviews or mention products in my posts.  All opinions are my own.