How to Enhance Blue Eyes With Makeup

Hello, ladies!  It's Caroline again.  Today I'm going to talk about how to make blue eyes stand out with your makeup.  The other girls might be putting up posts on how to enhance their eye colors as well, with either clothes or makeup, so stay tuned for those!

Let's get right down to it.  I'll just say, though, that as a general rule, you should use the color that makes you feel prettiest.  If you wear green eyeshadow every day and it makes you feel confident, keep wearing that green eyeshadow, and don't worry about makeup "rules."  But if you're not sure what colors to buy and you want to make your eyes brighter and more vivid, these tips might help you out.

Myth:  Blue eyeshadow makes blue eyes pop.

Fact:  Warm eyeshadows (brown, gold, pink, etc.) make blue eyes brighter and altogether more... Boom.

The issue with blue eyeshadow is that it can overwhelm your eye color.  A stark, bright blue might make your blue eyes look a bit dull because it might be more vivid than the color of your eyes, and a dark blue might wash out your eyes a bit.  You can always use dashes of blue, whether in your eyeliner or a bit in your crease, if you feel you've found the perfect blue for your coloring, but warm colors are generally the best for noticeable enhancement.

Blue Eye Color Enchancement by jabberbabywokky featuring a shimmer eyeshadow

Your best bet is to buy eyeshadow palettes that feature browns, golds, yellows, pinks, and flesh toned colors.  Here's why:

via

If you look on the color wheel, oranges and yellow toned colors are directly across from blue toned colors.  Generally, colors opposite each other on the color wheel serve to bring each other out beautifully because of the stark contrast.  Blue is a very cool color, and so warm colors make it pop.

Here is a quick picture tutorial on how I enhance my eyes.  Mine are a grey-ish blue, and I like to use dark browns and golds.  I rarely use pinks because I'm very fair-skinned and they tend to make me look tired.

{Step One} Prime the eyes.  I used MAC's Paint Pot in the shade Painterly.

{Step Two}  Put a pearly color on the brow bone to lift and highlight your brows.

{Step Three}  Apply a wash of gold all over the lid up to the crease.  I'm using a deep, true gold from a Sephora palette.

{Step Four}  Using a small blending brush, apply a light, or medium, brown shadow in the crease.  I am using a brown color from a Tarte palette.

{Step Five} Using a pencil brush, or any brush with a point, apply a slightly darker brown shadow to your crease at the outer edge, blending it inwards from that outer edge.  The brown I'm using is from the same Tarte holiday palette as the one before.  This just gives your crease a bit more definition.

 {Step Six}  Blend everything out with a taupe color or something close to your skin tone. Again, I'm using a taupe from the Tarte palette.

 {Step Seven}  Apply a brown eyeliner to your lower lash line, as close to the waterline as possible without actually putting it on your waterline.  

{Step Eight}  Using the dark brown that you put in your crease, or the lighter brown for a more natural effect, smudge out the liner a little bit.

 {Step Nine} Using your finger, apply a very bright, shimmery white or pearl shade to the very center of your lid, and a little in your tear duct area.  This will make the look more fresh and perfect for day time wear.  If you're going out at night, skip putting this color on the middle of your lid and stick to just putting it in your tear duct area.

{Step Ten}  Curl your top lashes and apply your favorite mascara to the top and bottom eyelashes.

And now you're done!  Finish off with a bit of pink lip gloss (I find pink lip gloss helps make my eyes stand out, too) and you're good to go!

Products Used:
1. Painterly Paint Pot - MAC
2.  Cream shimmer shadow from a Holiday Palette - Tarte
3.  Mix of the two gold shades from this Palette - Sephora
4.  Both dark brown colors from the Holiday Palette - Tarte
5.  Long-Lasting Natural Eyeliner - Tarte
6.  (From the bottom up) Sigma E35 Travel Brush, MyGlam blending brush, Sigma Pencil Brush, Sephora Eyeshadow Brush, Sephora Eyeliner Brush
7.  Coup de Theatre 2 in 1 Mascara - Bourjois
8.  Nail Polish in Beauty Bandit - H&M
9.  Nail Polish in Bella's Choice - H&M
10.  Maybelline Lipstick in the shade Pink & Proper, and Stila lip gloss in the shade Blush

I hope this tutorial helped out you blue-eyed girls!  Let me know what you think, and if you have any questions, I'm happy to help you out in the comments section below.  

Love, 

Caro

Back to the Basics Pt. 3 - Primers

I wouldn't be too shocked if you've never heard of primers.  They are not a necessity, however, they should be put in the category of basics because of how absolutely wonderful they are and the improvements they offer.  Those of us who use either foundation or eyeshadow have all experienced the side effects of not wearing a primer at one time or another.  Has your makeup ever appeared cakey, or disappeared halfway through the day?  What about your eyeshadow?  Has it faded, or creased more often then not?  A primer could be just what you need.

Face Primers

A face primer is used to create a clean canvas for your skin.  After you moisturize, apply a thin layer of a foundation primer and spread it onto every inch of your face with your fingers, focusing on the spots you put the most foundation. It will give your face a little bit of a clean, slippery texture.  Not slimey, a slippery dry sensation.  This preps your face, keeping it clean from the oil and toxins of the makeup.  It keeps your makeup looking fresh all day, prevents cakiness, and gives the skin a protective mask.

You can also use color-correcting primers.  If your skin is particularly blotchy and prone to redness, try a green primer.  The green is opposite red on the color wheel-  it will balance and cancel out the redness of your face.

Some good face primers:  1, 2, 3

Eye Primers

Eye primers are a lot like face primers.  They give eyeshadow and eyeliner staying power and a clean canvas that prevents creasing.  Before eyeshadow, eyeliner or mascara, apply a thin coat of an eye primer (do *not* use a face primer- they are not interchangeable) and blend with your ring finger.  Now you are free to apply eyeshadow and eyeliner galore.

I even use a matte, skin-colored eye primer on the days I don't wear eyeshadow, because it makes me look more awake, and cancels out any puffiness or veins I may have.  It just gives a clean finish.

Some good eye primers:  1, 2, 3


Quick note-  My next BTB will be on foundation.  Because there isn't one right or wrong way to do foundation-  I've asked the rest of the girls who apply foundation on a regular, daily basis, to share their routine!  Enjoy, ladies!

Emilyann

And yes, my music tastes are as much of a schizoid as this post

Hey, It's Caroline! Last night, I decided I do too much of the same thing with my hair.  Since one of my possible future career choices would be to work as a hairdresser, I thought that I should really get playing around and figuring out new techniques.  

So I made a fauxhawk.

Fauxhawk [noun]= A hair style reminiscent of a mohawk, but without shaving the sides of one's head.

And I really like it.

I wanted to wear it today, but my hair wouldn't cooperate because I washed it this morning.  And clean hair is a bad hair day, in my opinion, because it's so soft and fly-away that it won't do what I ask.  

I managed to get one ok picture, and I always manage to put the camera in front of my face.  Sorry.

See?  It's funky.  And I would totally wear this in public.  I could do a more dramatic one, but I don't want to frighten my mama.  I'm not a punk, mom, I promise.  I got the idea for this from Gwen Stefani, because she has probably the coolest rockstar style ever.

Today's look was a complete 180.  I had a long reading for school (Paradise Lost) that I really needed to get done, and I promised myself I wouldn't do my makeup until I was done.  So at 2:30 in the afternoon, I put on my makeup, and did it in a sort of vintage, pin-up type way.  I just took these pictures a few minutes ago.  I got the hair idea from the movie Walk the Line, about Johnny Cash.  Reese Witherspoon looked so cute with this hair, which is incredibly simple.  She played June Carter and yes I did just go from Gwen Stefani to June Carter.

I took a cream color all over the lid up to the brow bone, and then I used an angled brush to "cut" the crease with a deep brown, and I winged it out.  I then put on black gel liner and winged it out also, and then used my Maybelline "Falsies" mascara to top it all off.  In the last picture, I had to airbrush around the eye because some of the mascara crumbled and left little black spots, and, well, that's just not very professional.  I love the mascara, even though it does leave "crumbs."  I just usually wipe under my eyes every once in a while.

I've started wearing very little foundation, and I've got some great tips on how to work up to being able to feel good about your skin without much, or any, makeup.  It's taken a while, but I've figured out how to get my skin clear and fresh so that I can go with or without.  It's so refreshing to be able to just throw on mascara and be done with it some days, though we all know I don't usually.  :)  I'll have that post up in a few days

Have a great Sunday!

Easy Cotton Candy Eyes

Hey!  It's Caroline and there's no doubt about it..... I'm crazy.

I love to wear vivid colors on my eyes, and sometimes in ways that make others wrinkle their brows in confusion.  But I can't not do it.  It's like painting for me, since I'm a horrid painter.

So today I'm going to do a quick pic-torial on how to do blue and pink cotton candy eyes.  The picture that I took of the final look is poor, but I had no time... just keep in mind it's a lot more vivid and prettier than this picture.

This is the basic gist:

The colors in real life are far more bright and noticeable.

I used these two palettes for the color.

Before you begin, prime your eyes.  This way, the color will last all day without creasing or sliding around.  I use "Too Faced Shadow Insurance" from Sephora.  You could probably order it online as well, or get it at Ulta.  It's pretty pricey, but absolutely worth it.  It lasts than Urban Decay Primer Potion, although that's also a very good one.  But if you use vivid colors, this is your best bet.

Next, pick your brushes.

When you use bright colors, the cheap sponge applicator sticks that you get with palettes won't do.  They don't blend well.  So, from left to right, I used a smudger brush, a blending brush, a small concealer brush, a liner brush, and a crease brush.  The first two are from Sephora, the third is... well I just can't remember.  And the last two are from E.L.F.

Now you're going to start "painting!"  Pat a vivid pink all over your lid, up to your crease.  Don't put it on past your crease.  You can do as many layers of this as you want, depending on how bright you want it be.  Use the smudger brush; a densely packed, short brush is best for patting on eyeshadow without having color fall out onto your cheeks.

This pink from the E.L.F. palette is so pigmented and bright, I only had to put on a few pats.

Next, take your crease brush.  Fill the crease with a vivid, sea-blue, and bring it down from the outer edge of your crease so it touches the lash line.  Don't re-dip the brush in the blue, just use the leftover on the brush to blend that blue inwards a little.  Refer to the picture above so you can see the shape.  You can tell how the blue fades into the pink; blend until it looks like that.

Again, this E.L.F. blue is very vivid.  In order to tamp down the extreme color, take a lighter blue with the blending brush and run it over the crease and the blue eyeshadow in small circular motions.  This helps shadow from falling onto your cheeks and also makes the blend look more natural.

After you blend, take the small concealer brush (these are great for eyeshadow) and smoke out a little black eyeshadow on the lower lashline and the upper lashline.

Don't go overboard with this.  Too much black will wash out the color and your eye color.  Now get your liner brush and a deep colored cream liner and do a thin line along your eyelashes.  

I used the L'oreal High Intensity Pigments in a deep plum color.  The formula of this product is fantastic; very creamy and it doesn't dry up.

After that, you can apply false eyelashes, but I just left mine natural.  Put on some mascara, and I recommend Maybelline "The Falsies" mascara, because it really does thicken eyelashes without having to wear too much mascara.

Plus, like Emilyann said, Vaseline helps.  For about nine months I've put it on my lashes every night, and it's made them amazingly thicker and longer.

Enjoy!  I'll try to get a tutorial video up at some point, but this was the best I could do with time constraints.  

Go forth and play!