celebrity-inspired looks #3 - elizabeth henstridge at the guardians of the galaxy l.a. premiere

I swear, I'll do a celebrity look that isn't Elizabeth Henstridge. Eventually. But I had to attempt the seriously awesome smoky eye and red lip pairing she wore to this premiere--you can find pictures here. I'll take suggestions for other celebrity looks anyone wants to see!

(This is the last post I'll be making with my blonde hair! Good thing, too, since it's misbehaving a lot today.)

Okay, let's get lipstick out of the way. From what I could tell in the pictures I've seen, she was wearing more of a sheer red lipstick, though some pictures made it look more pigmented. I suggest going the sheer route especially with a strong smoky eye like this, but if you want to go full red, go for it. Lipstick Queen's most popular lipstick is a tinted treatment that fit so well. And one day, I'll have a camera that doesn't desaturate reds!

Elizabeth has some amazing eyebrows but they looked a little lighter than usual, so fill in your brows with a light hand, and set the hairs in place with a tinted brow gel. The secret to lightening your brows a bit is to run some powder through your brows while the gel isn't fully dry--translucent or tinted powder would probably work best, but I wanted to be fancy and used a gold eyeshadow.

For the eyes, take a gold shimmer to the inner corner of your eyelids, blending carefully. Next, use a deeper bronze-brown shade on the center of the lid. I added a glittery deep brown shade on top of the original colour just to give it some more dimension. Take a dark brown to the outer corners of your eyelids, and then blend all three of these together.

Blending with a brush would be ideal, but I'm a rulebreaker and just use my fingers. That won't work for everyone, so choose a method that works best for you. I suggest blending the lighter shade into the darker shade so you don't risk darkening your entire lid.

Tap a matte deep brown shade into your crease and blend that toward the inner corner of your eyelid. For your lower lid, take a bit of the gold eyeshadow and some of the dark brown shade and blend that into your lash line. Line your upper waterline and lash line with a matte black eyeliner, and your lower waterline with a brown eyeliner. (Since my eyes water a lot, I set the lower waterline with a matte brown eyeshadow. Totally optional.) Swipe on a few coats of mascara, and if you'd like, put on some false eyelashes. Elizabeth seems to have really long eyelashes and mine are stubby, so I put on some partial falsies that only cover half of my lash line. Make sure you glue these on correctly because I 100% messed mine up!

For the face, take a foundation a few shades deeper than your skin tone and blend it just underneath your cheeks for a little contouring, and then dust on a peachy-pink blush to give some colour to your cheeks. Because the eyes are so intense and you have a bit of a noticeable lip competing, you need to have a little blush on your cheeks to keep you from looking washed out.

BROWS
Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow pomade in Dark Brown
Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel in Granite
Urban Decay eyeshadow in Half-Baked (bronze)

EYES
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Inner corner - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Half-Baked (bronze)
Center of lid - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Smog (golden brown shimmer) + Shiro Cosmetics loose eyeshadow in Nic Cage Raking Leaves on a Brisk October Afternoon (coffee brown-black with gold and red sparkles)
Outer lid - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Darkhorse (bronze-plum shimmer)
Crease - Paula's Choice eyeshadow in Coffee, Urban Decay eyeshadow in Buck (brown matte)
Lower lid - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Half-Baked (bronze) + Darkhorse (bronze-plum shimmer)
Upper lash line + waterline - Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion (matte blackest black)
Lower waterline -  Hello Kitty Charmmy Kohl Eyeliner in Chocolate Milk (shimmery brown) + Paula's Choice eyeshadow in Coffee
Lashes - Maybelline Volum' Express the Mega Plush mascara in Blackest Black
Falsies - ecotools Naturally Beautiful Lash System in Barely There

FACE
Urban Decay Naked Skin liquid foundation in 1.0
Benefit boi-ing concealer in 01
Under eyes - It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Corrector Concentrate Cream in Light + Bye Bye Under Eye concealer in Light
Contour - Maybelline Fit Me foundation stick in 235
Blush - NARS Blush in Orgasm (peachy pink with shimmer)

LIPS
Lipstick Queen Medieval Tinted Treatment (sheer red)

orphan black clones series #5 - helena

HELENA.

Okay, Orphan Black does such a good job of turning your expectations of a character a complete 180° from what it was originally. Helena is now more of a sympathetic character than ever and I love that.

Obviously I don't have blonde hair or hair with any natural texture, for that matter, but I slept in braids (which took me three hours... Let's not talk about it) and took them out this morning. It looks more frizzy than floofy like hers, so next time I would try bigger braids, but I'm never attempting this again.

For her "eyeshadow", there wasn't really a procedure for this. I just took matte eyeshadows and layered them until I got something close to her sunken-eye look and blended it haphazardly together. Messy is key here! I actually made the under-eye section way too dark and then had to lighten it up with some liquid concealer which seemed to work pretty well. The lipstick is a matte nude that I had to use two separate shades to get close to what I wanted, but it seemed to work well enough.

I also have a picture of me with red lipstick on like she did (SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED s2e05!) getting ready to shoot Rachel here, and I wanted to do red lipstick because none of the other clones take their lip colour this far.

Also, I've decided I want a jacket like Helena's, so that might happen in the future. Who knows? I only had a white tank top that looks a little bit like her outfit post-rebar stabbing, but without the lace. I also took a picture posed like this in my sister's bedroom (because mine is a mess, let's be honest) BUT I hate how it turned out, so you'll only get to see it if you ask very nicely.

No close-ups because there's nothing special about this!

BROWS
Anastasia Beverly Hills Beauty Express brow kit in Brunette
Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel in Granite

EYES
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Paula's Choice The Nude Mattes Palette: Beige, Café au Lait, Chestnut, Plum Taupe
Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette: Faint (warm, dusty brown matte)
It Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Matte Luxe Transforming Eyeshadow Palette Vol. 1: Sunrise, Sunset
Saucebox Cosmetics Etude palette: Biscotti, Caramel
Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in 15 Fair

FACE
Urban Decay Naked Skin liquid foundation in 1.0
It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye concealer in Light

LIPS
NYX Cosmetics Soft Matte Lip Cream in London (mid-tone beige) and Athens (matte peach beige)
OR
Maybelline Color Sensational lipstick in 645 Red Revival (deep red)

review - paula's choice the nude mattes eyeshadow palette

Charlotte requested that I review this ASAP, so here you go!

Even though I 100% do not need another neutral eyeshadow palette, Paula's Choice has a 15% off deal until the end of April so I caved. I'm weak when it comes to makeup, okay?

Availability: paulaschoice.com (This is a referral link that will save you an additional $10!)
Shades: This palette has 12 shades, 11 matte and 1 highlighting shade.
Price: $40, but if you use the code AMGSHOPAPR15 before April 30th, you can get 15% off.

(1) Cream, (2) Beige, (3) Pink Sugar, (4) Café au Lait, (5) Tan, (6) Chestnut, (7) Clay, (8) Plum Taupe, (9) Gunmetal Grey, (10) Chocolate Truffle, (11) Coffee (12) Onyx.

About:

This unique eyeshadow palette features 11 velvety, true matte shadows plus one highlighting shadow in universally wearable shades—the kind you’ll find in any good makeup artist’s kit! In fact, the experts at Paula’s Choice consulted with makeup expert and YouTube sensation Wayne Goss on the creation of this palette.

The superbly blendable and buildable shadow colors range from soft ivory to rich brown and smoky black, making them versatile for day, night, or any time in between. The slim, mirrored case is recyclable and includes a professional-quality brush that allows flawless application and unlimited looks.

Ingredients:

Talc (texture enhancer/absorbent), Mica (texture enhancer/mineral pigment), Magnesium Stearate (binding/anti-caking agent), Dimethicone (silicone-based texture enhancer), Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Polybutene, Synthetic Wax (binding agents), Mineral Oil (texture enhancer), Methylparaben, Propylparaben (preservatives), Iron Oxides (cosmetic pigment).

... One day I'll get the hang of swatching, I swear. That being said, don't let these swatches fool you--the shadows are really wonderful and blend like a dream. I had to put in black lines in the above photos so you could see where the lightest three shades are. Unfortunately, I'm very pale so the first shade is only slightly darker than my skin, and the flash blew out all of the colours.

I also need to learn how to use eyeshadow brushes, but that's a story for a different time. I should stick to finger painting because it's gotten me this far.

As for wear time, I have exceptionally greasy eyelids, so I expect that most people will have better experiences than me. When I used primer and a layer of translucent powder, the eyeshadows lasted five hours before creasing. With just primer, I barely made it an hour and a half before they started to crease. I think my experience is completely atypical, though, so I'd advise you trying this palette for yourself, especially if you're looking for a neutral palette that has mostly matte shadows.

orphan black clones series #3 - rachel duncan

Time for a third clone! So, I have to admit that Rachel fascinates me a lot, as she seems to be a bit of a red herring villain at the moment. That being said, I think her motives are rather unexplained and I can't wait to see what her real story is.

This look is based on this picture. I really tried to give a withering look but it just looks like I'm tired. Which is pretty close to the constant, pervasive truth! Obviously, I don't have blonde hair, nor is my hair short enough for a bob, so I improvised. I couldn't replicate the blonde, of course, but I put my hair into a faux-bob using this tutorial. My hair is incredibly thick so if I do this again, I'm going to leave less hair for the braid that is tucked underneath the rest of the hair, but otherwise it seemed to work well enough. (It looked so much better in person than in all of my photos...)

Rachel is very polished and since she's got blonde hair, her eyebrows seem to be a bit lighter than the other clones'. She's also got a bit of a tan in comparison with everyone else, and that might be more noticeable because of her hair colour. I had to apply bronzer all over my face, which looked HILARIOUS in natural lighting but didn't seem to do too much in flash photography.

For the eyes, take a very pale grey-brown shimmer shade and tap that into the inner corners of your eyes, drawing the colour out toward the center of your lids. Take a darker grey-brown shade to the rest of your lid. Using a matte brown shade, blend the colour into your crease and take the excess to your lower lids along the lash lines.

Take a flat liner brush (I used Wayne Goss' Brush 08, which is a ridiculously tiny push liner brush and I think I'm in love with it) and load it with a black cream liner, then tightline your upper lash line and line your lids. I used a pencil liner instead of a cream because I didn't want to open one up and have it dry out. Use a few coats of mascara on your upper lashes.

I spent a good ten minutes trying to find a lip colour that would mimic the one Rachel used and I think I got close, though hers appears to be more red-brown than mine, which leans more warm pink.

BROWS
Anastasia Beverly Hills Beauty Express brow kit in Brunette
Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel in Granite

EYES
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
bareMinerals mineral veil
Inner corner - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Verve (oyster shimmer)
Outer lid - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Pistol (light gray-brown shimmer)
Crease - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Tease (pale brown matte)
Under eye - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Tease (pale brown matte) + Paula's Choice eyeshadow in Cafe Au Lait
Liner + waterlines - Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion (matte blackest black)
Lashes - Maybelline Volum' Express the Mega Plush mascara in Blackest Black

FACE
Urban Decay Naked Skin liquid foundation in 1.0
Benefit boi-ing concealer in 01
Under eyes - Benefit Fake Up Concealer in 01 Light
Too Faced Milk Chocolate Soleil bronzer

LIPS
rms beauty lip2cheek in promise (warm salmon pink with golden shimmer)