FOTD: Embrace Your Monolids with Smudged Cat Liner!

Hello everybody, how’s your weekend so far? I met my friend N for a drink last night, and thought I’d experiment with makeup for a bit. I saw this smudged cat liner tutorial on Jen’s site a while ago and have always wanted to see how that works on me. This is my second copycat attempt of the week, but Jen’s tutorials are just SO easy to follow and I love her take on monolids, so please bear with me!

List of products and breakdown:

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in 53 Light Beige
NARS Stick Concealer in Custard (swatch and review coming soon)
Tarte Smooth Operator finishing powder
Bobbi Brown Sable on eyebrows

For my eyes, I first put Bobbi Brown Sable down in the contour area. Jen used Buck from the Naked Palette, but I wanted to see how Sable works as an eyeshadow. The result wasn’t bad. It’s darker than Buck so my contour area was a little more “contoured.” If I want a softer look I’ll go with Buck next time, but otherwise Sable rocks as a contour shade! I then did the first half of my lids with MAC All That Glitters. It’s a nice everyday shade to have, but it’s not earth-shattering per se. I appreciate how it is slightly more understated than Urban Decay Sin for example though! My brow bones were highlighted with Bobbi Brown Bone, and inner corners with Urban Decay Virgin.

Now the star of the show, namely eyeliner! I lined my upper lash line with Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Gel Eyeliner in Blackest Black, and my lower lash line with whatever was left on the brush and not all the way in. As I have mentioned before, those with monolids are more than likely to benefit form not lining their lower lash line all the way in, as it might close their eyes. Then I took my Urban Decay Zero to add a line on top of the gel line, proceeded to smudging it out with a Q-tip (cotton bud for the non-Americans lol). I smudged the lower lash line out with Darkhorse, and the upper lash line with Creep. The twist is dragging this line out at the end, the way you would do a more dramatic cat cat, and then softly bringing the line back so that the angle doesn’t look too sharp.

Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes (review coming soon)
Tarte Exposed on my cheeks
Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Soft Matte Bronzer to contour
Chanel Rouge Coco Mademoiselle. Since my lips were a bit dry, I layered it on top of a lip baln, which also softened the look a little.

Here are some close-up photos so you can see the eyes better. Excuse the tiny bit of fallout at the outer corner from Creep. I didn’t see it till it was too late!

This is a very friendly way to wear cat eyes, because the line Creep creates is soft enough. I particularly recommend this to gel liner beginners. Even if you can’t create a crisp line yet, it’s OK because you will have to smudge it out not once but twice, and that covers a multitude of sins. The only thing that might be a little tricky is how to wing the ends out. The trick is to follow the angle of your lower lash line. Sometimes I line my lower lash line before I do my upper lash line for this reason. It is a very good indicator as to where your wing should go.

Some more pictures so you see it from different angles:

My hair isn’t as curly in these photos because I didn’t use mousse. I normally only do it after shampooing my hair, and then I let it be till I shampoo next! Pretty lazy :p

That’s it for today. If you want to see more monolid looks (whether it’s me being a copycat or tricks I’ve figured out myself), remember to follow Mostly Sunny on Twitter or Bloglovin’. I hope you guys are enjoying your Sunday! Stay tuned because I have some pretty exciting posts coming up (budget-friendly professional-quality brushes, NARS Spring 2012, just to name a few)!

Sunny xx

FOTD: A Darker Shade of Green with Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone & My Two Cents on Monolid Eyeliner

Hey everybody, happy Friday! Aren’t you glad you made it this far? What are your plans for the weekend?

Last night I was invited to the welcome event of the city I live in, and I thought I’d play a bit more with my Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone palette (swatched here). It turned out to be a bit more intense than what I would usually wear, but since the event was at night I thought I could get away with it. Anyways, without further ado:

List of products and breakdown:
Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in 53 Light Beige
Tarte Smooth Operator finishing powder
Bobbi Brown Sable on eyebrows

I applied the crease shade of the right column in the outer half of my eyes, dragging the color in. I used the eyelid color for the inner half of my lids, blending the color in with the crease shade. I highlighted the inner corners with the browbone shade, and my brow bones with Bobbi Brown Bone.

I lined my upper and lower lash line (rather thickly) with Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Gel Eyeliner in Blackest Black. I smudged the upper lash line with Creep and lower lash line with Darkhorse from the Naked Palette.

Maybelline Magnum Volum’ Express Black (waterproof)
Cargo Beachblush in Cable Beach on my cheeks (swatch and review coming soon).
Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess bronzer
Top of my cheekbones and the bridge of my nose were highlighted with Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Bronze (swatch and review coming soon)

Bobbi Brown Nougat on lips

Here are the closeup pictures of my eye:

The look turned out to be more intense because proportionally there was more crease shade than what I would normally use. The olive green eyelid shade was really intensified by the darker crease shade! I do have to warn you while the crease shade is very unique, for bigger areas it is not the easiest to work with. It is a bit patchy, and I had to take my time making it smooth. Also, excuse the fallout from Creep. I tried to smudge my upper lash line out with the tiny little eyeliner brush that came with my Maybelline gel liner, and I don’t think it is designed for powder products.

Here are some more pictures so you get a better look of my face. Do excuse the big post-acne pigmentation spot on my cheek though. I learnt a lesson of not picking at my face before going to bed at 1AM, regardless of how good the idea seems at the time!

Because I have monolids myself, I’ve been thinking what kind of advice I would give to other monolidded girls who are just getting into makeup. Besides using a gel liner, I think beginners will benefit from smudging their eyeliner out with an eyeshadow. That way it will still look good even if you can’t get a crisp line! I would say that those with monolids can get away with more black/dark colors in our eye makeup. If you don’t want to look too dramatic or dark (especially during daytime for example), just remember to limit dark colors to the part of your lids that is not visible when your eyes are open. If you feel like going all out, you can of course do so!

That’s it for today! If you also have monolids, what are your tips for eye makeup?

If you like the look, don’t forget to follow me with Bloglovin’ or Twitter! I’m just getting into Twitter and it’s lots of fun, so come join me!

Sunny xx

Psst for those who live in Belgium, I found Comfort Zone on this website if you’re interested in purchasing one! Other than that it’s pretty tricky to get anything Wet n’ Wild here!

FOTD: Pretty Behind Frame — Eye Makeup Tips for Monolidded Glass Wearers

Hello everyone! Yay, it’s FRIDAY! Aren’t you relieved? What are your plans for the weekend?

Dr. D had a craving for sushi, so he invited me to go to a Japanese restaurant tonight. To show how much I valued the dinner date (fine, a large part of this was me wanting to play with makeup), I decided to make an effort. However, my eyes were still kind of red from an allergy episode a couple of days ago (I shouldn’t have rubbed my eyes after playing with my cats. My bad), so I had to wear glasses. I actually wear glasses at least 5 days a week because my eyes are extremely sensitive. Even wearing daily disposable contacts for two days in a row could make them irritated. I always had issues wearing eye makeup with glasses though. Somehow it always looked weird. Nevertheless, BunBun’s Horizontal Gradient Method tutorial (see here and here) gave me some inspiration, and I wanted to combine glasses with that.

1. I primed my eyes with a sample of Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden. I will do a swatch and review of this, but basically it is too light for my skin tone to be a good eyeshadow primer. However, to combine with glasses it is fine, since glasses cast a shadow in the eye area and make it darker.
2. I used Sin from the Naked Palette all over my lids (not going past my brow bones as usual), Smog a little lower than Sin (as you will be able to see in the closeup pictures, Smog is placed on my “hidden lids”), and Darkhorse where I usually line my eyes. I highlighted my inner corners with Virgin and brow bones with Bobbi Brown Bone. I lined my lower lash line with Urban Decay Bourbon, and then smudged the line out with Darkhorse. I also tightlined my upper lash line.
3. I used one coat of mascara (Maybelline Magnum Volum’), slathered on some Chanel Rouge Coco Mademoiselle, and we’re done!

I’m pretty happy about how it turned out, so I’m going to share my two cents with other monolidded glass wearers.

1. Use a concealer. Again, glasses cast a shadow in your eye area and make it appear darker, so you need some concealer to balance that out.
2. Fill in your brows and highlight the arches. Glasses draw a lot of attention to your brows, and you need them to frame your face more than ever.
3. The horizontal gradient method works better than the vertical one (where you use a lighter color for the first half/third of your lids and go darker towards the outer corners) because a concentration of dark colors on the outer corners could close your eyes up instead. If you are myopic, glasses not only make your eyes appear smaller but also make colors appear darker. Darker colors close to your lash line that people don’t see when your eyes are open will help define your eyes, but darker colors that are very much “on-your-lids” could either be distracting or closing your eyes.
4. Less is more. I’m not always a believer of this rule (look at the 3 coats of mascara and cat eyeliner I usually do), but again, like I said, a strong cat liner or too much mascara can make your eyes look fake behind your frame because they appear to be much more intense.
5. Go easy on the lower lash line. Don’t use a stark black, and don’t go all the way in. Instead of lining all the way in, highlight a part of your lower lash line. This helps open your eyes. If you use black all the way in, you risk closing your eyes.

I know that I can contour to define my cheekbones better and so on, but I was going low-key (read: lazy) today so I skipped all that. I will make sure I find more tips for my fellow monolidded glass wearers later, but for the moment I have the basic eye part covered.

Here are some more pictures. I know this may not look like much, but trust me, it makes a huge difference!

How about you? Do you wear glasses or are you fortunate enough to be blessed with good eyesight? If you wear glasses, are there any tips you would like to share?

Have a good weekend everyone! Stay tuned and stick around!

Sunny xx

Oh and psst I just joined Twitter! The username is mostlysunnyblog, or just click on the button on the left to follow me! Let’s TWEEEET people!