Pinterest, Monolid Makeup Tutorial, WHAT?!

I've done this a million times. I'm about to do it again... I apologise for not posting lately!

Okay, hear me out. I've had exams. I actually managed to schedule a couple of posts leading up to my exams. I thought to myself that I'd have time after exams to create posts. I'm been radio-silent since I finished my exams because I've busy. Yea, imagine that. Busier whilst on break than during exam time. WHAT?! 

If you're following me on Instagram, you'd realise how busy I've been. I caught up with some high school friends, showed a visiting aunt around the city, you name it. You might think, "Uh, that still does not take up 24 hours of the 9 days you have off." Well, I'm sorry guys but I'm exhausted. And yes, you heard me correctly! I do not get a month off uni like every other normal Australian student. I only get a week off! WHAT?!

Ty's Blog of Epiphanies on Pinterest

An announcement that I'd like to make: I'm now on Pinterest! WHAT?! Didn't I already have Pinterest ages ago? Yes but that was my personal account. This one is specifically and officially for Ty's Blog of Epiphanies! 

Liu Wen, monolided beauty; source: theplace2.ru

Lastly, I'd like to make a quick mention of my, uh, "upcoming" Monolid Makeup Tutorial. I still haven't filmed it yet. WHAT?! Hear me out first. I don't want to be one of those girls who does a MONOLID Eye Makeup TUTORIAL on someone with double eyelids. I've seen way too many of those on the internet. My dear model/housemate, Ann-Marie, has a busy schedule. I have a pretty busy schedule too. On top of medical school, I'm currently running around like a headless chicken organising a charity ball that's happening in September. We've been having trouble finding common free time to sit down make the tutorial happen. And we do actually find common free time, we prefer to spend it relaxing. So I'm afraid my blogging has been taking the back seat. 

I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not perfect. I'm not going to pretend to be one of those people who are super busy and still have all their shit together. I'm busy and need to get my shit together but I still haven't. I promise you, I am trying and I will continue to try. I really don't want to let go of blogging. It's been my pride and joy. It's just that sometimes life gets in the way of blogging! 

Feel free to share some WHAT?! facts about yourself. How has your week been like? 

Wicked Wednesday: Modern Twiggy Inspired Makeup Tutorial

Hey ladies, here's my Pinspiration Look #2! Click here for #1. Please read on for the tutorial.

I was inspired by this Twiggy-esque photo I found on Pinterest; and decided to do a makeup based on it and on Twiggy, of course.

Pinterest.com

Last.fm

First, please allow me to introduce my gorgeous friend, Sophia (first photo above and photo below), who kindly agreed to be my model for this tutorial. With her slightly outgrown pixie cut, big beautiful eyes and porcelain skin, I knew she's the perfect model for this look. However, fret not. This look works on anyone, which I will explain why in the moment.

Step 1. I prepped Sophia's skin with Estee Lauder's Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator to give her a bit of a glow. This was followed by a layer of moisturiser. After that I got Sophia to apply foundation and she did so with her fingers, which she usually does. Because this is a pretty flawless look, and if you don't have amazing skin like Sophia's, I'd recommend you buff your foundation in with a densely packed flat-top brush of your choice.

Step 2. Cut out two strips of Scotch tape. Stick them onto the back of your hand completely and then peel them off. This is to make them less adhesive so that they don't damage/hurt your eye area when you take them off later. Place the strips of tape on the edge of your eyes at an angle (as shown in the photo above). I lined the edge of Sophia's eye with the tip of an eyebrow. You can choose a different angle if you like. Slant the tape out more if you want a more cat-eyed look.

Step 3. Wet your angled eyeliner brush with water. Make sure to squeeze out the excess water or dab it off with tissue. Dip your brush into a matte black eyeshadow (I used Bobbi Brown's) and trace out your socket line.

Step 4.Colour in your mobile lid with the damp matte black eyeshadow, right up to the tape. You may have to do two layers of eyeshadow to make sure the eye lid is completely black for a more dramatic effect.

 Step 5.  Here's what your eyes will look like after you've coloured your mobile lids in with black eyeshadow. If you deem it necessary, you can tight line with a black pencil liner. But I find that the fleshy bits on the upper lid is generally covered up after you put on mascara. Fill in and comb through your brows if needed.

Step 6. Line your (lower) waterline with either a nude or white pencil liner. Sophia used a white pencil eyeliner.

Step 7. Apply tonnes of  black mascara! Sophia is blessed with wonderfully long and curly lashes. If you're not so lucky, like me, curl your lashes first before applying mascara. Then apply false lashes if you like.

Step 8. Twiggy's lower lashes were painted on with liquid liner. I thought that for a more modern and wearable look, we'd just stick with putting mascara on the lower lashes. Tip: one method is to use the tip of your mascara wand to paint the product on your lower lashes with small strokes.

Step 9. To bring more life to your eyes, brighten the inner corner of your eyes with either a light eyeshadow or light eye pencil. I got Sophia to draw her inner corners with her white pencil liner and then blend it out with her finger.

Tip: blend makeup products out with your ring (fourth) finger because it is the cleanest finger. Also it is the weakest finger, so it is the gentlest.

Step 10. Apply a pinky nude lip colour to your lips. You may use a lipstick if you like. Here I got Sophia to fill in her lips with a Mirenesse Auto Lip Liner Duet in Naughty Nudes (the light pinky end). It's so creamy that it passes as a lipstick! 

Step 11. You may leave your cheeks blank if you like. After all, the main focus is the eyes. For Sophia, she blended on a bit of rosy pink cream blush onto the apples of her cheeks for a subtle glow.

Step 12. It is my belief that no glamorous look is complete without highlighter. I applied a cream highlighter (Benefit's Watt's Up) with a flat foundation brush onto the tops of Sophia's cheek bones. You may apply some under the arches of your brows as well if you like. I blended the highlighter out even further with my ring finger. Subtlety is key.

Voila! The finished look!

I hope you love the look as much as I do! I also hope that you enjoyed this tutorial.

I would like to thank Sophia, my lovely model and RLD Photos, my wonderful photographer.

What do you think of this makeup look? Isn't Sophia simply gorgeous?!

Triple S: Dramatic Navy Eye Makeup Tutorial

If you've read my post on Beauty on Pinterest, you'd remember how much I love this photo. So much so that it has inspired me to come up with a navy eye makeup look!

Pinterest.com

So here is the look I came up with! I would like to call this Pinspiration Look #1. (P.S. #2 is on its way.)

If you would like to see how I achieved it, just keep reading...

Step 1.  Cut out a strip of magic tape and tape it onto the edge of your eyes at an angle (pointing towards the end of your eyebrows). This will give your eye makeup a nice clean edge. Proceed to filling in your brows if you need to. My brows are horrendously thick and natural-looking, so I didn't fill them in. If I did, it would look horrible.

Step 2. Colour in your lids with a navy eye pencil, stopping just beneath your crease. Make sure you go right up to the edge of the tape. Here I've used my Bobbi Brown's Long Wear Eye Pencil in Black Navy. It is perfect for this look because it's very pigmented and long wearing. It has a slightly creamy consistency so it goes on smoothly. It's a lot easier and faster than slowly packing on lots of powder eyeshadow.

Step 3. Pick up some Naked eyeshadow from the Naked Palette with a fluffy blending brush and blend this into your crease. This will also blend out the top edge of the navy eye pencil to soften up the look.

Step 4. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo for this step. What I did was remove the tape, and using my Bobbi Brown navy eye pencil again, I lined the outer half of my lower lash line with it. I also drew the colour up to join with the top. 

Step 5. With a small flat brush, pat some glittery light sliver eyeshadow onto the centre of your lids. Don't bring it too far up; we don't want any on the crease. The silver glitter will help make the navy colour pop. I used Bobbi Brown's Rockstar Metallic Eyeshadow.

Step 6. Using a black pencil eyeliner, line your top lash line and your top and bottom waterline. It does not have to be perfect, you can just smudge it on with short strokes. Don't make the line on your top lash line too thick. We want the main feature to be the navy colour.

Step 7. Line the (remaining) inner half of your lower lash line with some dark glittery silver eyeshadow. I used Bobbi Brown's Gunmental Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow.

Step 8. Place some of the glittery light sliver eyeshadow onto the inner corners of your eyes to brighten the area. You can also use Virgin from the Naked Palette. I highlighted my brow arch with Virgin as well.

Step 9. Curl your eyelashes. I used my relatively new Shiseido eyelash curler.

Step 10. Load up your lashes with your favourite mascara. I used Rimmel's Scandaleyes mascara in Extreme Black.

Step 11. This step is optional. I put on a set of MAC #32 false eyelashes to make my lashes look as full as possible. They look wonky now because I did not know how to take care of them.

Step 12. Now for the face, put on your favourite foundation/tinted moisturiser. I used my Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturiser.

Step 13. Conceal any blemishes. As you can see, I have tons! My skin is not in its best shape at the moment.

Step 14. Powder your face, especially your T-zone which can get quite oily. I used my Smashbox Translucent Powder.

Step 15. Apply blush to your cheeks lightly. We do not want it to compete with the eye makeup. Choose a more natural browny pink colour. I used my Bobbi Brown Blush in Tawny. First I sculpted my cheeks with it, then I applied some to the apples of my cheeks.

Step 16. Line and fill in your lips with a nude lipliner. You may slick on a matching nude lipstick on top if you like.

Step 17. Apply some pink lipgloss to bring some colour back into your lips, to avoid looking like a corpse!

And there you have it! The completed look.

I also put my hair up into a top bun and wore some silver and navy earrings (to look more like the lady in the picture). I took a lot of photos for this look because I really loved it! It looks really nice in real life. Too bad I don't have a great camera to show its true beauty! But feel free to go through the photo gallery that I've compiled.



What do you think of this look? Love it or hate it?

Triple S: Beauty on Pinterest

Ahh... Pinterest. A site of wonder and enlightment. I can spend hours on that website if I let myself. There are constantly new things on Pinterest, which is what makes it ever so interesting. From recipes, to jokes, to fashion, to DIYs. It's endless!! It's also a huge source of beauty inspiration. Take the hair updo below for example. It looks so simple and beautiful. I have yet to figure out how to replicate this complex style. 

And then there's this gorgeous heavy eyeliner look. It's a Twiggy meets Emma Watson look, except spunkier. I tried this look out and I love it! All you need is black gel/wet eyeshadow eyeliner (use an angled eyeliner brush, much easier) and nude/white pencil eyeliner (to line the lower waterline). Then smack on loads of mascara on both top and bottom lashes. You can pair this with a nude or pink or red lip. It's so versatile!

The last pin on Pinterest that I want to share with you is this beautiful combination of sketch/water painting. The lady in the painting looks so elegant and classy. I think this would look amazing in real life. I think one would need a hair donut, black eyeliner, mascara, false lashes, dark blue eyeshadow. Anyone care to give it a go?

Are you a fan of Pinterest? Have you tried anything beauty related that you found on that site? Comment below!