MAC Chili Lipstick

I inspired myself with my last 'orange-red' lipstick post :) As I was looking through my makeup kit to try other orange based shades, I stumbled upon Chili lipstick by MAC and realized that this shade is everything 'autumn'. It's spicy, rich, warm, red. Its wearable for day and night - it's a complex colour, yet absolutely stunning. I decided to play around with this shade - I tried to add as much 'orange' as possible to this look without looking clownish - however, I discovered something amazing - my skintone 'Loves' the orange - nothing that I applied seemed 'too much' - another checkmark in the direction of a golden, true autumn skintone :) I started this look with my basic face, meaning I started with a fresh, clean and cleansed face, applying a touch of concealer and my foundation of choice. Lately, I've been combining Laura Mercier's tinted moisturizer with Revlon's Golden Beige Foundation. Next, I applied Gingerly Blush by MAC. For the eyes, I mixed MAC amber lights and Saddle and applied this to the lid into the crease, blending into the crease very well. I used Urban Decay's Burboun eyeliner (my new absolute favourite eyeliner) and smudged the upper lashline with a blend of saddle and Brun eyeshadows by MAC (I used this same mix for my eyebrows). I used Loreal Voluminous mascara and finished off the look with a swipe of MAC Chili Lipstick (no lipliner required or used in this pic). I recently purchased this orange scarf and wanted to include it in this pic, as its a beautiful 'burnt orange' shade that compliments Chili so well. I really look forward to showing you some more 'natural' orange-peach toned makeup looks soon. I've very inspired by all things 'true autumn' again!

The 'Orange-Red' Lip

There is something very regal about carrying off an orange red lip. As a style look, it's all about creating an impact, but it has a slight 'edge' when compared to the classic red lip! It has a 'fiery' appeal actually!!! I decided to create a look where the focus is on the lip, leaving a more natural version of bronze/gold on the eyes (using the 'Too Faced Natural Eyes Palette' with a light smudge of Urban decay Burbon liner and just a 'touch' of MAC amber lights eyeshadow in the crease). Gingerly blush by MAC is my current go to because it adds the warmth I need, but in a very subtle way. To create an edgy, modern Orange-Red Lip, I started out by lightly lining my entire lip with Revlon Sienna lipliner - I wanted this orange-red to have 'some' depth, without being too brown (staying warm dominant vs looking too clear/contrasting). I used MAC So Chaud Lipstick - my absolute favourite shade for creating an Orange-Red lip. Another shade you can check out if you want that 'wow factor' orange-red that is more clear/contrasting is NARS Heatwave! If you're cooler toned and the orange-red simply doesn't work no matter what you do - try doing a Cherry red lip and lining your lips with a coral-pink liner before you apply your lipstick. You'll get that same fiery red look without leaving your cool makeup palette! One thing about the Orange-Red lip look that I like the most, is that my eyes appear more blue. Orange and Blue are opposites on the colour wheel, so one way to bring out any blue tones in your eyes is to wear 'orange' tinged colours. If you're an autumn with blue eyes, copper and orange will be your best friend!!! Hope you enjoyed this post!

Make Up For Ever #17 Lipstick

Gold and Amber - the sound of these colours just brings the essence of warmth alive. In my admiration of the warm autumn palette and stepping into it once again, I couldn't help but want to customize a makeup palette around gold and amber shades. I started with creating a look around the lipstick Make Up For Ever #17 - its a pure gold/amber shade - in this photo I'm just wearing the #17 - no lipliner, no gloss, nothing but the #17 - at first I thought it would look too gold as a lipstick shade on its own, but it works!!! On the eyes I used the classic 'Amber Lights' shadow from MAC on the lid into the crease. I then used Urban Decay eyeliner in 'Burbon' - its my new favourite product and absolute new favourite eyeliner. I love, love, love this eyeliner for the warm autumn palette. I smudged a little bit of MAC saddle into the upper lashliner and also used saddle for my eyebrows. MAC Gingerly was used as the blush! Sometimes its really fun to pick out a classic colour from your personal colour palette and just have fun draping yourself in that colour and creating a makeup look based on that shade. I went all out with the gold/amber, even finding an amber toned scarf! Its practically matches the Make Up For Ever #17 shade. Recently, I've been playing around with the #17 and different lipliner shades - I can't wait to share that post soon with you!!! :)

Copper and Gold Look

After my 'Look' vs "Best Colour' post, I decided to put together a combination of a warm autumn Look and my warm autumn best colours. Basically, this is the best of both worlds. I decided to take key elements from the warmth of copper, bronze and gold. I started with my basic face of concealer, tinted moisturizer. I then used the medium toned highlight shade in the too faced 'natural eye' palette to apply above my cheekbones, on the bridge of my nose and forehead. I mixed two shadows - saddle and amber lights and applied this from lid to crease, blending the crease well. I used Marcelle's Dark Brown eyeliner and smudged it with the darkest bronze-gold shade in the too faced-natural eye palette. I then applied a black-brown mascara. I used the mixing technique once again for my cheeks, blending MAC's Trace Gold with Sunbasque. For the lips, I wanted to create a GOLD-NUDE shade - I first applied MAC's Etcetera lipliner and then used Makeup for ever #17 lipstick!!! Voila - a true warm look - a great look to wear with golds, bronze and copper shades. ALso a great look for the winter months when you want a 'warm' nude lip and more smokey eyes!!!

Defining a LOOK vs SEASONAL Analysis - A-Ha Moment

THis is going to be one of those 'multi-layered' posts - basically, I've recieved a lot of feedback and emails about my recent deep autumn and deep winter experiments. Some people have been asking 'wait a minute, but you were draped as a true autumn? What ever happened to that???' OR questions like "Why are you still experimenting, by now shouldn't you feel comfortable in one season?". My 'A-Ha' moment came from a question posed to me by a reader Amy (THank-You Amy), who asked me to consider this: "how much of either make up season did you have to use to look "right" in the colors? Was one more immediate vs. the finished face looking well put together ?". I sat back and thought about which makeup looks just blended in and which (although harmonious as a makeup look overall) was 'forced' i.e. didn't immediately BLEND into my face. This question reminded me about the colours that always 'immediately' blended in or the colours that I keep coming back to - its always the same - Makeup for ever #17 lipstick and Mocha lipstick by MAC. At the same time, its always the coppery brown blushes and bronze/gold shadows and liners that just blend right in - I'd like to say my skin is Olive, but there is no denying there is a 'golden undertone', which is what one of ladies said who draped me. It was obvious that I've been 'FORCING' certain looks to work because I like the 'looks' not necessarily because the colours themselves work. For example, the classic black liner, deep red lip look - very classic as a look and very Deep Winter - but the question is - do I like the 'look' or the colours'. Knowing deep down that I'm an autumn of some sort, I've been telling myself, but Deep Autumns can wear red and black, 'Problem Solved'!!! Again, trying to fit myself into a mold to make looks I like 'work for me' - but do they REALLY work in the colour analysis world??? Basically, with my makeup artistry skills, I have that inner creativity to make a 'Look' Work - I can basically take ANY palette, study the colours and create a look - and make it look 'Good'! The question is, once again, is it about the look or about my best colours??? If I was asked, what are you BEST seasonal colours, my intuition can't lie anymore - it's True Autumn - the season that I've ALREADY been draped in twice, by two different people - by sci-art? No, not yet, but its clear to me that in both drapping sessions, true autumn was the clear winner. That leaves me wanting to ask - can I come to terms with balancing LOOKS I love with COLOURS that work. Lets face it, black liner and red lips is Black liner and Red lips - it belongs to Deep/True/Cool Winter and Deep Autumn - I can wear Brown liner and Orange red lips in true autumn, but its NOT black liner and red lips!!! It's important for ANYONE in the colour word to be ACCEPTING of both needs/desires - the desire to wear a LOOK and a desire to wear your best colours. If actresses, models and makeup artists can play around with different LOOKS, even if its NOT their season, what's stopping us from doing the same. Yes, I'm a true autumn, but guess what??? Sometimes I want to wear Black liner and Red lips and I'm going to without justifying how devoted I am to my season! I thank Amy very much for making me realize that I need to STOP running from True Autumn as my true season, but recognize that the times when I'm drawn to a certain look or colour, Its my artistic nature that desires that LOOK - but one's season is something very different!!!

Deep Autumn Vs Deep Winter

I got some very interesting feedback about my Soft Autumn vs Deep Autumn post and has sparked some interesting conversation by email and on FB - it got me thinking about some other 'neutral' season comparisons. I've always been drawn to Deep Winter and have played around with this season a lot but have never really done a good visual comparison between the two. I decided to put a collage together so that the deep autumn and deep winter makeup looks can really be compared to each other. On the left side of the visual, are my Deep Autumn looks - my eye colour in the center and my baby pic is in the centre, leaning right. On the right hand side, you'll see my Deep Winter makeup looks - again, your feedback is much appreciated!!! I look forward to creating some deep autumn/winter cross over looks soon, so stay tuned for that:

Soft and Natural Makeup Look

I created a look that is both soft and natural - the shades lean warm and I think this is the 'perfect' office day wear look - I've been experimenting with the nude lip and softer palette. This look has colours that are a mix of natural, warm-neutral shades and gold/light pink shimmer:

I started this look with my MAC concealer palette and Laura Mercier Bisque tinted moisturizer. I then used MAC's 'all that glitters' eyeshadow as a highlight and eyeshadow shade. I used Grey Utility liner on the upper lashline and smudged it out with a mix of mystery and embark shadows using an angled brush. I used urban decay 'smoke' eyeliner on the lower lashline and loreal voluminous mascara in black. I also mixed two blush shades (a gold and pink-salmon shimmer shade) - I used MAC Trace Gold with Makeup up for ever #133 - To finish off the look, I lined my lips with Laura Mercier Chestnut Lipliner and filled them in with Loreal Doutzen's nude lipstick! There was a lot of 'mixing' going on to acheive this look, but I love that because its the best way to create custom colours that are right for you. This is the best trick for when you purchase a product that you don't like or that doesn't suit you and you are left wondering what to do - sometimes you can still make colours work by blending them in with other shades. Its also the best way to make your personal colour palettes work for you - mix shades and you will discover how colour harmony works to you advantage!!!

Deep Autumn Vs Soft Autumn

I decided in the New Year that I wanted to simplify and minimize my makeup 'wardrobe' - so I've revisited some of my all time favourite looks - I went through my camera, picture galleries and this blog and I couldn't help but notice how much I loved both the Deep Autumn and Soft Autumn palettes the best on me. Most recently I've been drawn to the DA palette, but there is a huge part of me that just adores the Soft Autumn palette. So I decided that I'd love to hear what you think and get your feedback on two recent looks that I created! Here is a recent Deep Autumn Makeup look:

And here is a Soft Autumn Look that I just created today:

I'd so curious and excited to get your feedback on this - I'm finding that when looking at the colours - because both palettes are neutral and warm, there is some overlap, but I'd just like to get your opinion about 'deep' vs 'soft'!!!

MAC Myth Lipstick

I have a secret addiction to watching 'Real Housewifes of Beverly Hills', which I guess is not a secret anymore :) - I'm not into the drama aspect of the show, but I absolutely LOVE to watch how these women live, the clothes they wear and their makeup. I'm definitely NOT in envy of their lives, I think I watch it more for entertainment purposes :) - THat being said, I DO have a favourite character on the show - Yolanda Foster! I was reading an interview that she did about her style and she mentioned a few key things that she always keeps in her makeup bag - MAC Myth, NARS Belle de Jour, NARS Fantasia lipliner, MAC Grey Utility eyeliner. Now, my skintone and look are nothing like Yolanda's - she has platinum blonde hair, a fair skintone, blue eyes. I'm definitely warmer, darker hair with a neutral skintone. However, I wanted to see if I could use some of these products and create a 'Yolanda' look that would suit almost anyone - so here it goes:

I started with a neutral concealer (I used the concealer palette by MAC), Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer in Bisque. I then used a highligh shade that is actually an eyeshadow - MAC 'all that glitters'. For the smokey eye, I used the all that glitters shadow and then lined by upper lashline with two liners - MAC smolder and MAC grey utility - I then used an angle brush to smudge out the line. On the bottom lashline I used MAC's smolder and finished with black mascara. NARS Madly was my blush of choice for this look, as its a light shell shade that works well with a nude lip. I didn't have NARS fantastia (the shade that Yolanda wears) but I liked the combination of Myth with MAC Etcetera lipliner, so thats what I used in this pic!!! I have to admit, I'm definitely liking the nude lip look and its a look I'm going to play around with again!!! As for me, I'm off to watch a Real Housewifes of Belevery Hills re-run :)