Follow Me on Instagram!

Instagram

December 29, 2012

The Eyeshadow Experience



 Dear make-up nerds and eye shadow noobs alike,
Today while putting on my normal-everyday makeup I had a sudden urge to be glamorous. Normally when I want a little extra flair, I brush on one of my many shimmery shadows, add liner, mascara, and call it a day. But this simple sparkle fix wasn’t quite satisfying my inner movie star today. I wasn’t going anywhere extravagant, but looking at my bare-lidded reflection I decided it was time I got a little more creative than just one tone shimmery eye color.
Recently I’ve been taking to telling women around me that it’s important to take those extra steps through-out the day that make you feel beautiful. This could be as simple as wearing a new pop-of-color lip gloss…making sure your cuticles are moisturized… or even just giving yourself five minutes of quiet time in the morning to sip tea and download (A calm woman is a beautiful one). As I prepared to embark on my eye-shadow adventure, I reminded myself that it’s okay to take an extra five minutes or so to make myself feel like my best me.
With my feel-good mantra chanting in my head, I did what every girl in beauty distress does…I YouTube’d it! There were plenty of videos that showed me how to do smoky eyes and shimmery night looks, but I wasn’t looking for a night-on-the-town look for my afternoon errands around town. I did eventually happen upon a couple of helpful videos that illustrated the proper places to put what shade, how to blend, and what brushes to use, (one of the videos I used to get a general idea below) but even after following step by step… I felt I still appeared to be a shimmery raccoon-looking mess. 



My conclusion after about a half hour of fooling around with my mediocre selection of shimmer packed gold-orange and white-pink shadows was this:
-                          I need to invest in some matte and velvet finish shadow palettes so I don’t look like a glitter fairy threw up on my entire face.
-                          I need to learn how to prevent fall-out while applying so I don’t end up with matching freckles of shadow color.
-                          Look especially for palettes with neutral colors that compliment my very fair skin and blue-green eyes. I’m not the kind of girl who wants to where violent or green shadow everyday.
-                          It might not be a bad idea to take a look at the slightly more expensive brush choices to replace my mini drug store set as I progress.
-                          Do some research and find a cheap brand of eyelid primer that I could find at my local drug store.
-                          Invest in palettes with three to four complementing shades that have a variety of matte and shimmer finish. (This conclusion was hard for me because I so desperately wanted to immediately be like the pro-makeup girlies who design their own trio’s from single pots. I consoled myself by remembering that even the pros had to start somewhere).
So with optimism and a new adventure ahead of me, I ended up settling on my normal-every day simple makeup with bare lids, liner, and mascara. I plan to go drug-store hopping in the very near future (and maybe a little trip to target as well) to buy a couple of simple and cheap options to experiment with. Because I’m just starting out, I will resist the temptation to travel to Sephora and buy ungodly priced brushes and paint pots. For a beginner who will probably hit pan just by practicing, I believe sticking with $5 trios and mini brush sets will work just fine. Once I return from this mission, I will record my findings and buys as well as fresh questions that I am sure I will have about the mysterious world of eye-shadow….

            Till Then!
                        Love, Lizzie