Lately I found I had been wearing far too many neutral looks and I was boring myself with my makeup in the morning. Neutral colours are so easy and safe to play with… but they just don’t get me excited. When I wear something more vibrant on my eyes, I actually feel better. I can’t explain it any better than that really. Colour makes me happy!

I *love* this one. It’s not particularly hard to achieve, I just think it’s the colour combination that I love so much. Excuse the derp face – I find if I smile in pictures, my eyes crinkle up too much to actually show what the shadows look like on a full face shot!

Eyes:

1. Inglot AMC Shine 15 (shimmery orange) all over the inner two-thirds of the lid.
2. Inglot Matte 382 (matte red) on the outer third of the lid and blended slightly into the crease.
3. Urban Decay Naked in the crease to blend all the colours together.

MAC Brule was used to highlight my brow. And, of course, I used MAC Blacktrack fluidline to create the wing and applied L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara to my top lashes. For brows, I used MAC Omega.

Rest of the Face: Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum foundation in 52 Vanilla with Revlon‘sBronzed & Chic bronzer on the high points of my face. I used Tarte Charisma on my cheeks and since that blush has enough shimmer to it, I didn’t bother with a highlighter. On my lips is Benefit Ultra Plush Gloss in Coralista.

I wore this one out to a (friend of a) friend’s Christmas party. Red, gold, false lashes. All the staples of holiday season makeup!

Eyes: To make the white-gold eyeshadow show up better, I have to lay down a white base. For that I use NYX‘s Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Milk. Make sure to keep the white base below the crease and also blend it out so you don’t have any harsh lines.

1. On the inner two-thirds of the lid, pack on the white-gold shade in MAC‘s Illusionary: Burning Ambition duo (limited edition from several years ago). And when I say pack it on, I mean, PACK it on. This stuff is fallout city and gets everywhere, but it’s really way too pretty to ignore.
2. Using the brown side of that same duo, apply it to the outer third of the lid and sweep it through the crease.
3. Using the white-gold shade again, use it to highlight your brow and to blend out the brown shade in the crease. This is a LOT of shimmer and it may even be overkill for some people. You’ll notice that the brow ends up being more gold, while the lid colour is has more of a white-cast due to the base that we put down.

I used MAC Dipdown fluidline to create the wing and applied L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara to my lashes. False eyelashes are Ardell Demis applied with Duo adhesive.

Lips: Since the eyes are so shimmery, I stuck with a matte red. I used MAC Brick lipliner to line and fill in my lips, then followed it up with MAC Russian Red lipstick.

Rest of the Face: Foundation is Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in 52 Vanilla. I used Joe FreshSand bronzer to contour since it’s matte.  On my cheeks is Tarte Exposed.

With this one I just knew I wanted it to be bright! I also tend to get stuck in ruts and keep re-using the same colour combinations because I generally know they’ll work. While trying to break out of that rut, I ended up going with a fail-safe colour palette anyway. Whoops!

Eyes:

1. From the MUA Pretty Pastels palette, I applied the second shade from the left on the bottom row all on the inner half of my lid. The shade looks rather peach in the pan, but as you can see, it came out almost white.
2. Using the Sleek Acid palette, I applied the first shade on the top row (a fuchsia pink) to the outer half of my lid and pulled it through the crease.  Then, using the same palette;
3. I took the bright purple colour directly below the fuchsia and dabbed it right in the outer corner of my eye, on top of the fuchsia. You’ll need to blend some of the edges otherwise it’ll be pretty stark.
4. I then used Urban Decay Naked to very lightly blend out the bright fuchsia.

As per usual, I used MAC Brule to highlight my brow. Followed it up with MAC Blacktrack as my liner and L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara. MAC Omega was used to fill in my brows.

Lips: NYX Strawberry Parfait

Cheeks: Wet n Wild Heather Silk

Rest of the Face: My foundation is MUA‘s Matte Foundation in Shade 1 Soft Sand withRevlon‘s Photoready bronzer in Bronzed & Chic.

No full face for this one because I was only messing around. I wanted to play around with my Too Faced A Few of my Favorite Things palette and then it kind of developed into this glitter bomb.

I first used NYX‘s Jumbo Eyeshadow pencil in Black Bean and applied it all over the lid as a base. I then;

1. applied Too Faced Party Time on the inner half of my lid (this really needs some kind of coloured based or it’ll apply very, very sheer). I really packed this one on.
2. Too Faced Soiree was applied to the outer half of the lid and through the crease. I didn’t use a blending shade to fade this colour out, instead I very slowly blended it up through the crease. I also used this shade on my lower lashline.
3. I don’t usually number my liner in my diagrams, but there were a few steps involved with this one. I first created an inner and outer wing with Maybelline‘s black gel liner. With the inner half of the wing, I made sure to do it far out enough so that I could leave a gap near my inner tearduct and drew the line right back to my lower waterline, creating a small triangle. After the gel liner had set, I use Too Faced Glitter Glue and went over top of the liner. Once that became tacky, I used MAC Reflects Glitter in Transparent Teal and placed it on top of the liner.

I used MAC Feline Kohl Power pencil to line my upper and lower waterlines. I appliedL’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara heavily to my upper and lower lashes. The small crystal was from some set that I got at Michael’s a few years ago and I stuck it to inner corner of my eye with some Duo clear lash adhesive.