All posts tagged: look

Marsala

It’s always fun to anticipate Pantone’s color of the year, partly because I rummage through my makeup stash to see if I find anything that’s “on trend.” The Color of the Year for 2015 is Marsala, a gorgeous warm neutral red that’s proven to be divisive among the beauty community. I kind of really, really like it! Even if it does make me quite hungry at times. “Much like the fortified wine that gives Marsala its name, this tasteful hue embodies the satisfying richness of a fulfilling meal while its grounding red-brown roots emanate a sophisticated, natural earthiness.” Auxiliary Beauty created a Marsala FOTD a while back, referencing some art that, to her, evoked Color of the Year. Though I’d like to claim that I had been as cultured as her, the first thing I thought of when I found out about the color was food. HEH. Anyway, marsala or some derivative of it seems to have been the color of choice for drapery in the olden days. Check out Jan van Eyck’s The Arnolfini …

(Another) No Makeup Makeup Look: Bright Eyes

“No makeup” makeup has a strong presence in the beauty world, and the opinion on this is split into two factions: the people who appreciate and love it and the people who don’t see the point. Over the last few months, I’ve gotten several anonymous comments about how my makeup is being “wasted” and is useless because you can’t detect it on my face. (That’s a whole other story.) I’m personally a fan of the no makeup makeup look. There’s nothing wrong with enhancing your features and going for subtlety. Understated is good. Plus, there are actually people who can’t wear wild makeup looks to work. I am not one of those people, but I still dig these looks. Also, I don’t really feel comfortable with the thought of someone actually being able to see foundation, etc. on my face. Why on earth would you want that? I would not wish that upon the most annoying of the people I am annoyed at. I don’t really have evil foes.

One Week NARSissist: 5 Looks

Reviving my “One Week Series,” which I have done only twice before, using the Urban Decay Naked and Urban Decay Naked 2 palettes. In case it isn’t obvious yet, I will use an eyeshadow palette for five days, and the looks that I come up with will be cataloged here. I used to post them on five different days, but I thought that for this round, I’ll just post the looks all in one spot. I’ve picked out the NARS NARSissist Eyeshadow Palette, which I’ve reviewed here. While I love it, part of me is also ambivalent towards it. Using it for five consecutive looks will allow me to form a more educated opinion about it, I guess. Shari has reviewed it a week ago and was not impressed. I think this is a perfect palette for the series, though, as majority of the shades in this palette are part of NARS’ permanent offerings. If you miss out on the palette or don’t like the reviews but you see a look you’d like to recreate, …

BNT Girls Collaboration: SNSD Mr Mr Makeup (Seohyun)

Before my batch of BNT Girls (possibly) disbands, we thought we’d cook up a makeup collaboration featuring looks from SNSD/Girls Generation’s new video for the song, Mr Mr! You can watch the video here: We each picked a girl who wore a makeup look we wanted to recreate! I’m not sure what time the other girls are planning to post their looks, so I’ll just add the links as they come. 🙂 Anyway, I did this look back when I still had long hair! I was picking between Yuri and Seohyun, but Seohyun had the look I wanted to recreate the most: (It took me a while to remember their names, haha. I’m not a big fan of K-Pop, but that’s only because I don’t know where to start. But that’s another story.) I never would have thought to pair purple eye makeup with a red lip; that just seems to cross over to super bold territory for me. Still, I persevered.

Make That Face Monday, Monday, Monday: Tegan and Sara (Heartthrob Album Cover)

Riding on a show high, here’s a very easy talk-through tutorial on this lewk by the Quin Twins, donned in a photography used for their latest album cover, Heartthrob. Tegan and Sara is a Canadian pop duo that recently performed here. I am still kind of reeling from the awesome experience, which I have posted about on my blog here, in case you care to read about it. 🙂 Anyway, I chose this look because it is deceptively neutral. It is quite wearable and “safe,” despite having orange and violet eyeshadow, a super strong contour and frosty/pearly pink lips. I love how it kinda dupes everyone into thinking that you are wearing neutrals/an “everyday” look because it’s not so loud and not so bold. I don’t know, I didn’t notice their makeup was so colorful, did you guys? That contour, though! I can’t recreate/wear/pull it off. Also surprised at the pinkness of the lip color selection! And with all the tough-face posing I was doing, I just had to take a break and smile a …

FOTD: Sachi’s Mermaid Party

Here’s a look I wore to my goddaughter’s first birthday party, which was held last Saturday. It was themed “Under the Sea.” Sachi Elise was in full-on mermaid costume, so I thought I’d follow suit even just a little. I injected a little bit of Ariel in my makeup, though I decided not to go with a red lip… just because it was a children’s party. Instead of a red, I put on my default “Disney princess” lip, which is MAC’s Betty Bright. The full effect of this lip is displayed in the last photo below. It is probably one of the only bright lipsticks that I love. For the eyes, I tried to capture Ariel’s mermaid… ensemble. I used the Laura Mercier Artist’s Palette for Eyes from 2012, which I have said to be my favorite palette of all time. Sadly, LM has ceased to be cruelty-free, so I opted out of the Artist’s Palette for 2013. If you can still get it, try it out since the one I have is perfect. All …

Made-Up History: Gustav Klimt’s “Judith I,” 1901.

Apologies for skipping out on last week’s Made-Up History post! I was working on the last minute details of my latest one-man exhibit, which opened on Wednesday, and couldn’t really play with makeup and do other things. But anyway! Here is a peace offering. If you’re new here, Made-Up History is a series I’ve been doing in which I translate some works of art into makeup looks. 🙂 I’ve already made a bunch, and you can check them out here. For this week’s post, I have Gustav Klimt’s “Judith and the Head of Holofernes,” or “Judith I,” which is one of the first works of art that Klimt infused with gold leaf. He popularized this technique and made a name for himself when he created the much-postered-up work, “The Kiss.” I’ve also always been drawn to the story of Judith and Holofernes, because she is definitely a strong woman in my eyes. She is one of the few brave women in Biblical accounts, though her book is part of the apocryphal texts, which means that …