Monday, February 5, 2018

A Ridiculous Post

Yes I realize this is ridiculous.  I'm not a beauty blogger, and I know you aren't coming here to read about makeup tips.  Shoot, I'm the person who goes to other blogs for that!  But why should I let that stop me from writing about something that I don't know a lot about?  Hey, we all have to start somewhere.

I'm approaching my two-year anniversary of having my upper eyelid surgery, and between thinking about that and trying to come up with things to do that don't involve spending any money at the moment, I decided that I'd break out all of my eye shadow, watch some You Tube tutorials, and attempt to make my eyes stand out a little more than usual - after all, I paid to have them look better, I might as well make some effort toward that, right?

Here's what I have to work with:
The first palette I bought after my surgery - Extreme Neutrals by Laura Mercier.  Can you tell what my favorite color is?  They don't seem to sell that color separately, which frustrates me, as there's no way I'd buy an entire new palette just for one color.
The second one - this also came with two blushes (which are in a tray under the shadow), a lip gloss, and a mascara - I thought this would be handy for travel.  It's actually pretty heavy and bulky and I only brought it with me on one trip...oh well.
I received this one in a Target beauty box recently - it's by Sleek, and is teeny tiny, but a full-sized palette is pretty reasonably priced - I think about $12 at Ulta and Target. They have other colors that I prefer, but it was nice to get to try this neutral set.
Here's the rest of the eye shadows that I own - the two pinkish shades on the left were bought in a futile attempt to replicate my favorite color from the Laura Mercier palette.  Not even close, unfortunately.
I am not lacking in brushes - my most recent purchase was the big blending brush on the far left, and that was nearly two years ago, while all of the black-handled brushes are at least 20 years old, no joke.  If you wash them occasionally, they last forever.

Most of the basic eye shadow tutorials I looked at have you do the same thing - put a really light color on the inside of your eye and under your eyebrows, put a darker color above the lid (I have to do this with my eye open, or else I end up going too far down on the lid), and then a lighter shade on the lid - and then blend the whole shebang together.

Take one - Sleek palette:
Turns out, it's hard to get a shot showing your eyelids without making stupid faces...

Jeff and I went out for lunch, so he got to see it.  His take?  "It looks like you but not like you" - ahh, men.  Honestly, I felt like the shimmer of the eye shadows that I used accentuated the *ahem* fine lines and wrinkles on my eyelids, so I probably wouldn't use those shadows again.

Take two - Bobbi Brown palette:
I had a hard time getting that light shadow in the corner to blend in, and I was pretty meh about the palette in general - browns just don't excite me all that much.

Take three - Mac eyeshadows (not a palette):
I didn't have time to take the pictures until after I came home from working in the gift shop, but I swear, I started out the day with lip tint.  

This was a combination of light and dark purples, plus their light sand and charcoal gray that I use for every look as my version of eyeliner - it's a powder eyeshadow that I apply using a flat angled brush.  I think I like this look best of all...I'm just not super into neutrals, hard as I try.  I like some color!

Take four:  Laura Mercier palette:
This one turned out all right, but what you're seeing here is after I applied and then removed the first try; half of the neutral browns have a reddish tint, and I do not look good in anything on the red/orange/peach spectrum.  It helps that I also used my favorite color from that palette, Candy Mauve, on my eyelids.

It's been interesting to push myself to try the colors that I think I should be using, based on all of the neutral eye tutorials that I watched, and my reaction to how I looked while wearing them.  I'm learning that shimmery eyeshadows are not my aging eye's best friend, and I'm learning that I still have the tastes of a 13-year-old girl who is just starting to experiment with make up - I like some color, although I have moved beyond the gaudy turquoise blue that I used to own.

That said, I'm still drawn to those colors, and while I don't want to look silly, I think it's OK to have a little fun with makeup.  There's also a lot more I could be doing - I don't own any kind of undereye concealer, and I probably...er, definitely could benefit from using some.  But hey - I don't go to work, so forcing myself to put on a little bit of eye makeup and swipe some foundation and blush on is a lot for me, especially if it's just Paco who sees me during the day.

While there are a ton of makeup tutorials out there, I recommend this one from Dominique Sachse - it's a good start, although I didn't do nearly all of her steps as I hit that good enough stage well before she did, LOL.

Oh wait, I do have one tip for you!  Have you ever had a product that seems to run out too quickly?  Chances are, there's plenty of product still inside - just remove the tube that the wand goes into and you'll get many more uses before you need to buy more:
It took a bit of elbow grease, but I managed to pull the tube out.  See how dry the wand is in the before shot?
Here is the after!  There is a lot of product remaining - in this case, it's the eye base I use before putting on eye shadow.  The only thing with doing this is that you can't travel with it as it would leak without the stopper tube, but I just store it standing up with the rest of my makeup, and it works great for me. 

16 comments:

  1. My biggest complaint about most eyeshadows is that they are not matte. They seem to have some frost to them which just serves to emphasize my wrinkles. Hello, makeup companies? Women over 50 do like to wear eyeshadow. For now, I'm just putting eyeliner on my upper lids and highlighting with bronzer.

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    1. Yeah, that frost and shimmer? Not welcome over here, either!

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  2. I keep telling myself that I need to watch make up tutorials. I never knew that eye surgery thing was a "thing" until you talked about your surgery. I could see something like that in my future cus I have the same type of eyes. It doesn't even pay for me to spend time on eye shadow cus you can't see it. I had the hardest time with mascara till just recently. I only put it on my top lashes and it would always flake off (no matter what brand) and I would have black marks under my eyes. I just started putting a coat of clear mascara on first and then the dark mascara on top. Seems to be staying on better now.

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    1. That's how I was, not bothering to put on eye shadow because you couldn't even see it. The eyelid surgery helped - I still don't have those gorgeous deep-set eyes, but that's because I never did, LOL. Interesting tip on your mascara - I seem to get flakes with older tubes...I'm stingy about throwing away seemingly good mascara, even when it's been open and used for way longer than is recommended.

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  3. I like the first one best. It might be because I like that face you're making :) That's a good tip about the tube of stuff. I am very thrifty when it comes to the end of stuff and it not coming out the dispenser. I just empty it into my travel containers. There's always a lot of shampoo/face wash/etc. left over.

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    1. LOL - I could not be serious when I was taking those pictures!

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  4. Honestly, I think you look good in all of them. Each one is natural and not over made up. I totally get the loving the old bold colors. I think Max Factor "Pot 'o Blue" will forever be my favorite blue eyeshadow even though it's long discontinued and definitely better for a 16 year old than a 57 year old haha.

    You should look at Clinque's All About Shadow Single in Angel Eyes. It's my go to base and is a very pretty pink that works really well alone or with other colors as accents. Even though I believe they call it a shimmer, I don't find it too shimmery. If you could get to a Clinique counter you could try it for free before you buy!

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    1. Thanks for the suggestion - I'll have to stop by the Clinique counter and look for Angel Eyes. I love a pink base but they are harder to find than you'd think.

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  5. I love make-up, so this is definitely not a ridiculous post :)

    Neutrals like the ones you have work really well with my skin and hair, so I'm definitely not surprised they don't work as well with your coloring!

    I like Clinique's shadows and liners (and moisturizer, lipsticks, gloss, mascara...) so I've watched more than a few tutorials on their site. It's especially cool because I get new ideas for how to use palettes I actually own. I second Helen's recommendation to try stuff at their counter first. Or go to pretty much ANY make-up counter and have them do an application for you to get new ideas. I did that before my wedding and got a lot of good looks, both formal occasion and everyday.

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    1. I will go to a makeup counter one of these days, but not until I can actually make a purchase, because I know me - I'll find some color I like and go all TREAT YO'SELF which is fine when my budget allows...it does not at the moment, sadly.

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  6. I like the Mac best. I need you to teach me eye makeup. I used to wear a lot more makeup when I was in college, but drifted away from it and I'm sure those trends are not today. I currently use eyeliner and mascara. If we're going out, I use Bare Minerals for foundation LOL! But I do think makeup is fun to play with. You should do a full makeup tips thing at the Clinique counter. I'm not sure if they charge for that now, but it used to be free (especially since they want you to buy the stuff).

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  7. I like the Mac one the best too. I don't wear eye shadow very often but I'm always on a quest for a good eyeliner. Kat Von D makes a pretty good one.

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    1. I cannot do real eyeliner to save my life - just too shaky and heavy-handed. A Mac makeup person showed me how to use the charcoal gray shadow as a liner and that's been my go-to for years now.

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  8. Soooo is it ironic that I’ve been playing around with makeup tutorials and eye shadow palates too? Thanks for this post! I’m also going to check out the one you recommended by Dominique!

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