megan fox inspired look

She’s one of those celebrities that loves to rock a classic cat-eye liner, with barely there shadow or no shadow at all, lots and lots (and lots) of mascara, and either a red or pink lip. While browsing images of her on Google trying to find a different look I can attempt to recreate, I came across a picture where she had golden green shadow on. One thing I absolutely love about her is that she has heavy eyebrows. They are prominent and frame her eyes beautifully. On another note, the amount of contouring done on her cheeks is insane, but then again it was a magazine photo shoot so I guess it makes sense. I’ll be doing a separate post some time soon on how to contour your face in a way which can make you look thinner.

Now on to my take of this look. It’s not the exact same as hers; I’ve made a few changes to suit my liking. She has her liner smoked out at the outer corners of her eyes. It also seems like she has a bit of black eyeshadow on the outer corners as well. I decided to stick with a regular, but slightly thicker, winged line without smudging or smoking it out and pass on the black eyeshadow. I also passed on the fake lashes. You can achieve the same effect by just applying a few extra coats of mascara.

Let’s begin:

Step 1:
Apply a tiny bit of primer on your eye lids. This not only helps prevent your eyeshadow from creasing, but it also makes any colour you put on your lids stand out more. I’m using a sample of Too Faced Primed & Poreless face primer, since I ran out of eye primer (as I’ve mentioned in my first makeup tutorial).

     

Step 2:
With your ring finger (or an all-over eyeshadow brush), pick up some forest green eyeshadow and apply it to all over lid. If you have a golden green eyeshadow then just use it and skip Step 3. If you don’t, like myself, then use two separate shadows to achieve the same colour outcome. I’m using MAC’s Eyeshadow in Humid.

     

Step 3:
Again, with your ring finger (or an all-over eyeshadow brush), pick up some gold eyeshadow and apply it on top of the green. I’m using L’Oréal HiP Duo in Flare (only the gold half of the duo).

     

Step 4:
Using a crease shadow brush, pick up some brown eyeshadow (shimmer or matte, depending on your preferences), tap off the excess, and place your brush on the outer corner of your eye in your socket and move the brush in a back and forth motion, applying the shadow to your crease. If you’re not sure where your crease/socket is, just take the bottom of the brush and gently apply pressure to the part of your eye right above your eyeball and below your brow bone. If your brush goes in, then you’ve hit jackpot! I’m using the dark brown colour of a sample size of Shiseido’s Luminizing Satin Eye Color Trio in BR307 Strata.

          

Step 5:
Using an angled liner/brow brush, create a thick winged line above your lashes using gel liner (liquid or pencil liners also work and don’t require a brush). Start from the inner corner of your eyes and draw a thin line close to your lash line. As you move further down to the outer corner, increase the thickness of your line and wing it out. Apply liner to your top inner lash line (always stop your line at the point where your inner lashes end to make your eyes look more awake and open). For the waterline, only apply the liner halfway in from the outer corner.

                    

Step 6:
Apply a heavy coat of mascara on both top and bottom lashes (I use Lancôme’s Hypnôse Drama in Excessive Black). Next, if your eyebrows are thin and spacey like mine, fill them in with an eyebrow pencil to get that intense effect Megan has. If not, then you can skip this part and you’re done. I’m using Lancôme’s eyebrow pencil in Sable.

     

So here is the finished look:

I really hope you liked this and found it helpful. If anything seemed unclear, please let me know and I’ll be happy to explain it better! I leave you with a picture of me in sheer bliss at my ‘makeup station’ during this process!

Happy smizing! xx

a pop of colour

I’m nervous! This is my first attempt at a makeup tutorial and I don’t know how it will turn out, but hopefully you guys will like it! I opted for taking pictures of the steps I took to achieve this look instead of making a video, as I do not feel comfortable enough to speak in front of a camera just yet, but I’m sure I’ll get there eventually!

So let’s start!

This is one of my favourite looks to do for pretty much any outing. It’s subtle enough to work as a daytime look, if you stop at Step 5, which is what I usually do for my every day face; if you continue all the way to Step 7, then the look will be good enough for a nice night out (especially if you’re one who does not like to over-do the amount of makeup in the eyeshadow department, like me. If you are, I’ll be making more heavy-eyed makeup tutorials some time in the near future). Now, let us go through the steps!

Step 1:
Apply a tiny drop of eye primer to your lids. This helps prevent your eyeshadow from creasing and keeps it on your lids all day. I’m using a sample of Too Faced Primed & Poreless face primer, since I ran out of eye primer. Mental note: Must head to Sephora!

Step 2:
With your ring finger (or an all-over eyeshadow brush), take any natural toned eyeshadow (shimmer or matte, depending on your preferences) and cover your whole lid with it. I’m using Benefit’s Creaseless Cream Shadow/Liner in R.S.V.P. It is a gorgeous creamy light rose gold (Salmony? I’m bad at describing. The picture can do that for me!).

     

Step 3:
Using any eyeliner, line the top of your lash line (use a liner brush if you are using gel liner). I prefer a thin line of gel liner applied as close to my lash line as possible. I’m using the black gel liner by Maybelline EyeStudio and applying it with an angled liner brush.

          

Step 4:
Using the same liner, line the inside of your upper lash line to create the image of fuller lashes. Some say that using gel liner on the inside of your eyes is bad for you, but I haven’t had any problems with it so far. If you’re uncomfortable with the idea, then just use a pencil liner.

Step 5:
Apply your favourite mascara generously on your upper lashes. I’m using Lancôme’s Hypnôse Drama in Excessive Black. This mascara has a very wet consistency, which gives you ample time to add more coats (for a more dramatic look) without it drying up too fast and limiting your coat-adding desires!

     

Step 6:
Take any coloured eyeliner you like and line your waterline and lower lash line as well. I chose a turquoise blue kohl liner (not a brand or anything; I bought it at a pharmacy a long time ago in Dubai) because it went well with my outfit for the day. I also think adding a colourful element to a simple look like this really brightens it up and adds a bit of oomph, giving your eyes that pop that grabs attention!

     

Step 7:
I chose to put mascara on my lower lashes as well to round up the look, but you can skip this step if you want.

So here is the finished look:

 

I really hope you liked this and found it useful. Any makeup look requests are more than welcome so please let me know if there is any particular look you want me to do or any colours you want me to use!

Happy smizing! xx

PS. Smizing is the action of smiling with your eyes (: Thank you Tyra Banks!

my favourite drugstore products

Barely my second day with this whole blogging project, and I’ve already gotten my first request! Super excited! So as you can tell from the title of the blog post, I’m going to be sharing with you guys my favourite drugstore products, from foundations all the way to lipsticks/glosses. To get a better view of the pictures, just click on each one and it’ll enlarge (for your viewing pleasure ;) haha).

Foundation:

This is going to be a bit of a ramble, I am truly sor… *ahem* SO, depending on your skin type + your personal preferences, you have the option of choosing between liquid or pressed powder form. Let me make this quick and easy: you do not want to look cakey. Ever.

If you have dry/normal/combination skin, pressed powders can have that effect on you. Plus, they do not blend into your skin as well as liquid foundations do, so the finish will look rather unnatural. Pressed powders are good for those who have oily skin, as it absorbs the oils and gives your face a nice, matte finish. Other skin types can benefit from pressed powders as well; they can be used to touch up your makeup on the go or if you start to feel like your face is getting oily/sweaty from the heat. Just dabbing a bit of it all over your face will rid you of the shiney-ness-ness.

Liquid foundation on the other hand is great for most skin types, but I would not really recommend it for oily skin. I personally love liquid foundation. My favourite drugstore one is the new Maybelline FIT Me foundation. I find that it blends SO WELL with my skin, gives me a nice natural finish, with a bit of dewy-ness, and no cakey-ness (I’m on a role with the ness-es). YAY! That is because liquid foundation absorbs into your skin instead of just chillaxin’ on top of your face, like pressed powders do. This foundation has a light to medium coverage though, which is great if you DON’T want to look like you have a lot of makeup on (which you never do unless you’re going to some fancy shmancy wedding).

Concealer:

I prefer to use either liquid or cream based concealers, not powder concealers. I’ve tried so many concealers and concealer combos to cover my dark circles but I can’t find anything that works better (from the drugstore category) than combining these two products: Garnier Skin Renew Anti-Dark-Circle Roller and the Maybelline Mineral Power Concealer. The Garnier product isn’t so much a concealer; it’s more on the sheer side, and the roller tip is good to de-puff swollen lower lids, providing a cooling effect on your skin (it also has caffeine in it, to wake you up). After I apply that, I use the Maybelline product to get a more opaque coverage.

Note: If you’d like me to make a ‘my makeup routine’ video, please leave a comment below and I’ll get on it as soon as I can :)

Eyeshadow:

Hands down, the BEST drugstore eyeshadows I have ever used are the L’oreal H.I.P Bright Shadow Duo’s. The pigmentation on these babies is INTENSE. They come in a variety of different colour combos. I absolutely love them! The ones I own are: Flare 404 (orange+yellow/gold), Brazen 118 (hot pink+brown), Flamboyant 538 (purple+yellow), Forgiving 236 (turquoise+bronze), and Wicked 536 (dark purple+bronze).

Eyeliner:

A lot of people are fans of liquid liners, but not me! Maybe I’m just really bad at applying it or something (I swear, I feel like a kid with a crayon when I use liquid liners… I can never colour within the ‘lines’! Quite frustrating :p). My numero uno kind of eyeliner is gel. It’s safe to say that it has become an obsession. It’s so easy to apply/remove and it lasts all day (test of durability: I’m a big baby… And I mean, I cry a LOT! Liquid liner: dribbled off. Regular pencil liner: faded away. Gel liner: that baby stuck with me like Romeo stuck to Juliet).

My all time favourite drugstore gel liner is the Maybelline EyeStudio. It comes in 4 colours: Blackest Black, Brown, Charcoal, and Eggplant. I currently own the black and the eggplant (or purple). It comes with it’s own applicator brush, which I think is great! The black is definitely very dark and opaque, but I found the purple to be in between sheer and opaque. I had to pick up more product on the brush and go over the line 2 – 3 times before I got it to show prominently. On a side note, you are not supposed to use gel liners on your waterline (wait, what? who said that?!), but I’ve used this on my waterline before and it didn’t irritate me or anything, it actually had amazing hold.

If you’re not a fan of gel liners, then a creamy pencil/stick liner will do a very similar job. The one I sometimes like to use is the Rimmel London Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer. The shade I own is in 211 Sable, which is a gorgeous brown colour. It has a nice, smooth application and comes with a smudger and sharpener at the other end. Yay for two (or is that three?) birds with one Jutti! ^^

Mascara:

One an old classic, and the other a new big hit: the L’oreal Original Voluminous and the Maybelline Falsies Volum (no, not a spelling mistake) Express. I cannot begin to articulate how good these two are. Both do have the same function: volumizing. What I love about both of them is that they just don’t clump. At least, with me they don’t.

The L’oreal tends to be a bit more dramatic and looks a lot darker than the Falsies, but I love the Falsies so much because of the fibres it contains within its formula that seriously lengthen your lashes like no tomorrow (not that I need any more lengthening. God has blessed me with already long lashes and according to my wonderful mother, when I apply mascara, I look like a clown. How meansies of her :( pfft). Anyway, you get the gist of it. Seriously good mascara.

Blushing Blush Blush:

I won’t lie, I haven’t tried many drugstore blushes, but the one I did try was the CoverGirl Blush in Cheekers. It picks up well on my blush brush and the colour is the perfect bright pink shade, giving your cheeks a GAWJUS natural flush :D.

Lipstick:

I was never a lipstick girl, but for the last few months, I’ve developed a loving relationship with it (I even dare to wear bright hot pink or red lips!). My current favourite lipsticks are the new Revlon ColorBurst Lipstick collection. They’re just… perfect. They leave your lips feeling nice and moisturized, and have this amazing creamy consistency. The two colours I own are the 070 in Soft Nude and the 008 in Candy Pink.

AAAAAND FINALLY!!!

Lipgloss:

I don’t usually like lip glosses either because of their sticky consistency (you know it’s sexy when you’re walking down the street, wind in your hair, when all of a sudden some hair sticks to your lips because of your gloss. GUUURRRRLLL, YOU KNOW IT!!!) but the Revlon ColorBurst Lipgloss collection is reaaaaally good. Sticky? Not at all. By now, you’re probably wondering ‘So wait… she doesn’t like lipstick OR lipgloss… so uh… what then?’ and the answer to that is: I was always a lip balm girl, either regular or slightly tinted ones. But now *sniff* I’m all grown up… and *wipes nose on sleeve* I’m a woman… I was forced to move on *blows nose incessantly loud*. Haha, aaaaaaanyway, so yeah. Revlon. ColorBurst. Lipgloss. Awesome. I have the colour 010 in Hot Pink. Another good one I’ve tested but haven’t bought yet is the one in the shade Strawberry. Very purty.

So there you have it, my favourite drugstore makeup products! I do apologize deeply for causing your eyes to burn from reading such a long post but… Naaaaah, you’ll get over it! :)

Comment, rate & subscribe! I’d be very grateful.

Yasmin xx

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