Soft yet Cool Look!

I recently had a light-bulb moment (you've got to love those - actually, this particular one made me feel a little stupid - lol).  Those of you who've followed my blog for a while know I've toyed around with the Soft Summer colours, liking the 'soft' aspect of the makeup, but feeling the colours were too muted and dirty looking - I now know I need that extra added coolness and clarity.  However, it took me a while to get around the "but I like the soft colours" idea - I don't know why I've been deluding myself for so long - why did I think I couldn't create a 'soft' look with my cool winter colours???  That was the 'I feel stupid' part of the light-bulb moment!!!

So I read my Cool Winter colour list and then went to my makeup bag and decided to get to work - here is my Cool Winter 'Soft' makeup look - I hope you like it:

One thing about this look is that the colours are very different than the Soft Summer shades - the colours I used are not muted, dusky or soft in nature - only the application of the makeup is soft!!!  I have always seen smokey eyes as a soft makeup look - its only when dramatic shades are used, that the look becomes 'dramatic', but to me a nice smokey eye is softer than a harsh eyeliner look or a liquid line on the eye.  I used Navajo as a base (Bobbi Brown) and then used a 'fluffy' eyeshadow brush to apply Cabaret eyeshadow by Marcelle from the lid into the crease.  I used Blooz eyeliner by MAC and smudged contrast (a sapphire royal navy colour with a hint of purple) into the upper lash line to soften the effect of the eyeliner.  I used Gentle blush (a raspberry shade) and applied Make Up For Ever #89 blush as a pop of colour (this colour in an INTENSE violet-fuchsia blush - there is nothing muted or dusky about it).  I then had to really think about what I would do for my lips - I didn't want to make the mistake of using a soft summer shade - i wanted to make it 'distinctly' cool winter, so here is what I came up with - I used a neutral lipliner (the same colour of my lips, again, not a dusky, muted shade) - I then used Make Up For Ever blush #89, applied it to my finger and blended it into the liner to create a soft, yet lighter fuchsia shade - I then very lightly added a touch of Mitzi lipstick by NARS (a light pink shade) - just enough so that my lips wouldn't be dry from the blush - the end result is a distinctly cool, yet soft coloured lip look.  I highly recommend playing around with blush and eyeshadow shades on your lips, especially if you can't find the colour you want in a lipstick.  Cool Winter includes Icy Violet and Icy Pink in the palette, so why not use these shades on your lips and play around with different liners to create a custom look for you.  I'm tired of putting myself in a box - i'm an artist - and I'm going to rock the Cool Winter palette and create combos that are right for me!!!  I hope you enjoyed this post - its a little more 'wordy' than the others, but I really wanted to express my passion about colour and particularily working with a specific palette - its not about limiting yourself, its about creating variations within your palette!!! Hurray Cool Winter!!!