Urban Decay Mainline

It's official - I have found my 'holy grail' favourite eyeliner - Urban Decay Mainline!!!  Mainline is the most stunning shade of teal!  It is the PERFECT match to my new favourite 'Tisse Venitien' Chanel eyeshadow palette!  It also works with my personalized palette and the natural colours found in my eye-pattern!  Since Mainline is such a stunning teal, I wanted to pair it with a light pink palette.  I started with a new foundation I'm trying by Arbonne called 'Rosy Beige' (love this foundation shade).  I first applied MAC Brit Wit as a blush, but felt I needed for 'oomph', so I applied MAC Desert Rose on top.  For the lips, I combined two Burts Bees products - the grapefruit lip shimmer and the Ocean Sunrise Lip Gloss!!! Light Pink and Marine is such a stunning combination!  For the eyes, I applied the lightest shell shade from the lid into the crease, then used the silver-grey in the crease.  I lined my eyes with Mainline, then used the darkest green of the eyeshadow palette to smudge into the upper lashline. I finished with a coat of black mascara :) This look is definitely a 'keeper' for me! I feel very chic in this makeup and I'm so happy and confident with how my personal makeup journey is evolving!!!

The Eyes Have It

Creating various colour collages has always been an interest of mine - I love seeing how colours fit together.  I've realized that the eyes are a collage all of their own - they are like a mosaic of various specks of colour put together so beautifully and originally! Here are just a few pics and close ups of the colours found within my eyes:

This grey-green shade is a close up of the flecks found near my pupil - what a unique and interesting colour! 

Discovering the beauty of your personalized colours is such an interesting process.  Its almost as if your 'eyes' are being opened to a whole new world of colour! They say that the eyes are the window to the soul - they are also a window to your own best colours!!!

Dusky Pink and Marine

I have to admit that I am currently addicted to the Ocean-green/Marine and Dusky Pink colour combination.  It has that summer feel and I just feel more 'expressive' wearing these shades.  Perhaps, some of that freedom feeling is because I know these colours are in my personal palette, but I think there is more to it.  Dusky Pink has always been an elegant colour to me.  Its rich and muted, and it looks 'chic'!  Marine blue/green is equally as elegant - it has that special 'mystical mermaid' effect.  The Chanel eyeshadow quad in Tisse Venitien is the perfect - I'm learning to really play around with the various shades in the palette.  Today I used the lightest colour from lid to crease (its a seashell shade), then applied the silver-grey shade into the crease.  I used Urban Decay liner on the upper lashline and smudged the lighter green into the liner.  I used a deeper grey liner on the lower lashline (Urban Decay 'Smoke').  For the Dusky Pink shade, I used Quo lipliner in Dusky Pink and then blended MAC's Myth lipstick into the center of the lip and blended it out.  Desert Rose Blush by MAC was the perfect blush choice! Now that my hair has more ash tones, its fun to play around with cooler toned makeup.  I'm the most excited about the Marine blue-green shades - I love the pop of colour without it being overwhelming!  Its dramatic, yet soft!  I think that my next 'mission' is to find a marine coloured scarf!!!

Tisse Venitien Eyeshadow Quad by Chanel

I'm completely in love with the Tisse Venitien eyeshadow quad by Chanel - its exactly the palette that my natural eye colour has been screaming for.  I've tested and tried many eyeshadow combinations, but this is my ultimate favourite.  I've discovered that in order to make this palette work the best, I need to tone down the lip.  In my last post, I teamed this eyeshadow quad with a deeper neutral called 'La Raffinee' by Chanel, which is great for an evening Chanel look.  However, for day and to really give the eyes all the attention they deserve, I went with a blend of two of my favourite NARS lipsticks - Catfight + Blonde Venus.  This combination creates the perfect pink-rose-beige and doesn't overpower the look.  Also, the Desert Rose blush by MAC is the perfect side-kick to this lipstick blend! In my last post, I used a grey eyeliner, which is also more of an evening statement/smokey eye look.  I decided to play around with a liner called 'Mushroom' by Urban Decay - its a cooler toned taupe-muted grey shade and its fantastic with the Tisse Venitien palette.  Now that I'm using colours that really work with my natural palette vs relying on a system of colour analysis, I feel very free to play around with shades I know work vs trying to fit myself into a category.  If I had to settle on a colour palette, Soft Summer or Soft Summer Deep would be my ideal choice and those palette swatches are great guides, but there is an even better colour swatch/guide and that's YOU!!!

Tarte Lip Surgence in Energy

I'm not normally a 'gloss person'!  I don't like that icky, sticky feeling on my lips.  But I honestly have to say, that I absolutely LOVE the Tarte Lip Surgence lipgloss.  I got the colour called 'Energy' in one of those Sephora treats that they give you when you start collecting points with purchase.  It applies quite transparent/sheer, but within a matter of minutes, your lips take on a very pretty pink tint.  I'm not giving up or leaving my lipstick world anytime soon, but I'm definitely interested and curious to open the door to testing more lipgloss varieties.  I decided with the gloss look that I could do a soft 'taupe smokey' eye, so I blended MAC's Swish and Quarry and applied that on the lid into the crease.  I then used Satin Taupe in the crease.  For the liner, I used the chubby liner stick from Sephora called 'Dark Taupe Shimmer' and then blended Satin Taupe and Copperplate by MAC and smudged it into the upper lash line.  The blush I used was Dessert Rose by MAC!

Bobbi Brown Pink Mauve Lipstick

I have been on the search for 'YEARS' to find a lipstick that is sophisticated and classic for everyday.  I didn't want a true red, I wanted a shade that was a little more subtle.  I feel that when I wear Pink Mauve lipstick by Bobbi Brown, its the perfect shade.  It's medium in depth and gives my face just the right amount of colour - not too light and perfect intensity:

It's a shade that is somewhat between plum and a deep rose.  I absolutely love wearing it everyday!  On certain days I still like something even more natural/light - but this shade just makes me feel elegant!!!  You've got to love a lipstick that just lights you up every time you wear it!!!

Personalized Palette

I decided to try a little experiment and take a close up pic of the colours that naturally exist in my eyes and natural lip colour.  I wanted to first see if this would help me discover a certain colour palette pattern.  Did the natural colours in my eyes fit with the blues/greens of the soft summer, true summer etc etc.  Its amazing to me how we can overlook our own 'personalized palette' - and how its important to return to use colours that our 'best'.  In this sense, I'm not talking about 'colour analysis' - I'm talking about 'Self Analysis' - I'm talking about taking the best colours within YOU and creating your own palette thats perfect for you.  What I'm noticing is that I fall somewhere between a Soft Summer and a Deep Winter - does this mean that I'm a Soft Summer 'Deep' or a Deep Winter Soft - I'm not sure yet - but I'm okay with that because instead of studying the colour palettes, I'm starting to study myself!!!

Here is a little taste of the colours that are 'ME' - the blues/greens are a digital close up of my natural eye colour and the pink is the colour of my natural lip/gum shade (also a digital close up)

Soft Summer Deep

My venture into the Soft Summer palette world has been nothing but amazing.  There is a harmony with this palette that I think that I've 'overlooked' - in an attempt to wear bolder, warmer, more intense colours, I by-passed Soft Summer because I didn't want to be held back by what I thought were boring, neutral, soft colours.  Wow - how wrong was I???  THe soft summer palette, it turns out, is elegant, classic, pretty, feminine and inspiring.  In this photo, I'm not wearing any lipstick at all - this is my natural lip shade and it just seems so harmonious with the rest of the makeup - MAC Dessert Rose Blush, Cool toned foundation - Loreal true match in C4, MAC Quarry and Satin Taupe as shadows and Sephora Dark Taupe Shimmer Stick as a liner with Annabelle's Taupe liner on the bottom eyelid!  In my next post, I'm going to try and digitally create my palette, based on the colours that are found naturally in my eyes.  Really looking forward to experimenting more with Soft Summer and Soft Summer Deep.  :)