RSSCategory: Makeup
Makeup Model : Warm Spring
June 5, 2009
We can’t shop for clothes without wondering “Is this my color?” At the makeup counter, we’re at the mercy of the taste of the salesperson or we just stick to the safe rut we’re in, resulting in 5 of the same shade of lip color rattling around the bottom of our purse. Not only are we not objective about ourselves in any way, but we don’t know what to look for.
The truth is that nobody knows their innate colors. Nobody. Famous and rich people get it wrong all the time. Until they’ve been analyzed, nobody knows their colors. Personal color analysts (PCAs) can’t guess their own seasons till they get draped or see themselves in many different colors (often many shades of the same color, red being particularly telling).
How controlled the lighting and background have to be depends on the analyst, as does the importance of hair and eye color. As with anything, there are many ways of arriving at the answer. With anesthesia, it’s not so much which drug you’re using as how well you know that drug. There is no right or wrong, no best or worst. There is an analogy here in that it’s not so much which color system you choose as how well the PCA knows that system.
Women might say “I wear a lot of white and navy.” Whatever. Navy and white might be better in your kitchen than on your body. Nobody can experiment with sure success till they’ve been color coded. Nobody knows their undertones. They might know their overtones but that’s not really helpful for making buying decisions. So if you don’t know your colors, don’t feel bad. 99% of the world doesn’t either.
Climbing down off my soapbox. I’ve just been at the Clinique counter and I look at the money women put down. As you know, I like MAC and Clinique. They don’t have everything but the price is manageable, the color selection is 6.5 out of 10, the application is 7 out of 10 (Clinique) and 8.8 (MAC) and most women can find these lines.
“Warm Spring” is a Color Me Beautiful label which allows for a flowing of any given season towards another, in this case Spring towards Autumn. This season doesn’t exist in all the color systems. Nonetheless, the 3 Spring seasons’ colors in any system are warmed by yellow and are clear. When I chose the colors below, I was working with Sci\Art’s True Spring swatch book.
If you’re Warm Spring, you have noticeable gold, orange, copper, or strawberry tones in your hair but your skin is still warmed by yellow. You are too fair to move into the golder, hardier-looking skin of an Autumn. Think of Nicole Kidman (notice how dark her eyebrows always are? they are seldom bleached to match her hair; may be deeper coloring than Spring going on here). Delicate skin, almost fragile looking. It’s skin that looks like it’s trying to have freckles but often doesn’t because it’s just so fair.
Your colors are moving towards the browner tones of Autumn. Blush and lip colors are coral and apricot, so stronger than peach and with some brown in them but still bright and lively. Warm Spring can take a lot of color.
Lips: All Springs should know about MAC Lustreglass in Instant Gold to warm and reduce the strength of many lip colors, and add a light yellow-gold shimmer; MAC Prolongwear in Clingpeach if you like this type of product.
Clinique Lipsticks in Golden Brandy, Peach Pop, Poppy Love, and Ripe Raisin.
Blush: NARS Luster or Gilda; NARS makes fantastic blush but demands a light application to look normal. Estee Lauder Pink Kiss might work.
Bobbi Brown PotRouge in Calypso Coral.
Eyeliner: Clinique Roast Coffee.
MAC Industry might work as a slightly warmed grey. Clinique Slate is too sharply grey as is MAC Grey Utility.
Eyeshadow: Clinique Butter Pecan and Copper Canyon. In the singles, Champagne was good. In the creams, Sable Shimmer Touch Tint is nice but awfully shiny.
MAC Camel which they no longer make, darn them, it was a superb color … MAC, bring back Camel!!!!
Eye hilite : Paula’s Choice Cream or Chiffon.
Mascara : Black-Brown.
Bronzer: MAC Golden, a truly good product.
-->We can’t shop for clothes without wondering “Is this my color?” At the makeup counter, we’re at the mercy of the taste of the salesperson.
The truth is that nobody knows their innate colors. Nobody. Famous and rich people get it wrong all the time. Until they’ve been analyzed, nobody knows their colors.
And undertones?? Are you kidding?
Makeup Model : Light Spring
May 16, 2009
This is a big range of women. You’re Ellen and Kate Hudson (or at least, Kate looks like Light Spring. Have you seen Ellen’s pic from high school? Reddish hair. Although the blond hair she wears is beautifully done, sometimes I think it makes her eyes look bloodshot. Ellen, you need to don the gray showercap and draping cape of truth and uncover who you really are). You can be the fairest softest coloring and you can be the blond beach ideal.
In general, Spring looks better in peach than pink. If you think you like both, what you might be liking is the lightness of the two shades. The basis of color analysis is understanding what the colors that flatter you best have in common. So, we’ll have to push the extremes to decide if you’re Light Spring or Light Summer. Take the peach all the way to coral in clothing or makeup – only the Spring will pull it off, while the Summer will be more beautiful in a cooler rose pink color.
Or try the ultimately Springs Only color of yellow-green. Summer would probably refuse to even put the item on and negotiate hard for cool, light turquoise. Spring would be sneaking the yellow-green into her purse.
Light Spring represents that type of coloring that is most prominently Spring (warmed by clear yellow) but has some cool carryover from Summer. Your colors follow suit, with pink-peach instead of pure peach or yellow colors, and tan-brown instead of golden brown in your eyeshadow.
Colors to sample
Lips: Clinique Colour Surge Butter Shine in Pink-a-boo; look at Poppy Love while you’re there. I love these lipsticks, so wearable and comfortable.
Eyeliner: Estee Lauder Softsmudge Brown.
Eyes: MAC BrownDown, Kid, Wedge; Stila Champara, Tolima.
Eye hilite : MAC Wisp, BlancType; Stila Chinois.
I am loving the blog The Next Best Thing To Going Shopping Yourself (TNBTTGSY) for the swatch posts. Follow the link to see the MAC eyeshadows. On the site, you’ll also find all the Stila eyeshadows swatched in a different post. Shop at home thanks to the wonderful woman who does all this work.
Look very attentively at the iris of your eye. Is there a soft yellow in it? Many Spring eyes have a yellow light in their eyes to correspond with the yellow light that their entire body coloring emanates. If you see that color there, emphasize it with a yellowish hilite. Have you looked at Paula’s Choice Chiffon? It is fantastically colored, fantastically matte, and fantastically priced.
Mascara : Dark Brown – be sure it’s darker than your eyeliner or the liner can look too harsh.
Bronzer : This is light skin. It can handle warmer tones but in a gentle dose. MAC Select Sheer Pressed powder goes on well and some of the lighter shades have some peachiness that could work as bronzer for this group. Go easy with the application so you don’t end up with an overly colorful face. That’s just practice.
-->In general, Spring looks better in peach than pink. If you think you like both, what you might be liking is the lightness of the two shades. The basis of color analysis is understanding what the colors that flatter you best have in common.
Read moreGreat Budge-proof Mascara by Estee Lauder
May 9, 2009
I’ll begin by getting the poor review out of the way because I did try it.
Product Review : Revlon 3D Extreme Mascara
Dry and sticky is the first impression. The stickiness makes it easy to push the lashes upwards and they stay there, like they’ve been hairsprayed. You can really work that aspect with more coats. It is very controllable.
The brush is tiny. I prefer that to gigantic for ease of handling but this one is also rather flat, like a little wee spatula. Actually, the bristles are short and unless you clean off all the extra product, not much of the bristle sticks out. Still, it works better than I expected it to. I had to press the product off on the sides of the tube to get the picture.
You expect clumps to form but they don’t. The lashes don’t separate so well either. In fact, they stick together fast! It’s like those hair products that dry and stiffen within 4 seconds from some very volatile chemical or other so you have no time to work with the hair before the product sets (that would be Redken Rough Paste).
It wears moderately well but I still had a few smudges if I put too much on the bottom lashes.
Wash? Terrible. Black smears, with or without makeup remover. Just as bad the next morning. I didn’t do so well with this product.
Never support animal cruelty
I’d love to try Elizabeth Arden’s Ceramide Lash Extending Treatment Mascara because it’s said to leave lashes feeling soft but there’s no freakin’ way. There is too much animal suffering as it is. What kind of pathetic excuses for human beings are we when we support animal testing in an industry where it is not only unnecessary, but also in the minority.
From Vogue Australia Forums, a very comprehensive list of cosmetic companies with info about who tests and who doesn’t. For A to H, for I to Q, and for P to Z. Bookmark those pages, they’re hard to find again.
It was back to Clinique High Impact. It might not be perfection but it’s pretty darn good. I should know better by now than to vex the gods by veering away from it. I want to believe that great cruelty-free mascara can be bought at the drugstore but I can’t find it.
I decide to take my chance with the gods yet again.
Product Review : Estee Lauder Zero-Smudge Lengthening Mascara
I don’t try $25 mascara without a good reason. I read about this one in the Best Beauty Products Of 2008 Report from Paula Begoun and her group. I was attracted by the ease of removal comment.
Mascara is one of the few products where I don’t rely on MUA (Makeup Alley). I have the filters set to show reviews from worst to best and it’s the same for every single mascara. Even the repurchase rate hovers around 60% for every product.
Here are the reasons I love this one:
1. It doesn’t smudge. Doesn’t move, fade, or change over the day. I like to add moisturizer to soften the lines under my eyes during the day and now I can, without black smudges. It really is zero-smudge. I moisturize to my heart’s content and there are NO smears.
2. Doesn’t clump, easy to work with, separate , and add. The job gets done fast.
3. It DOES come off with water. Easily!! Even High Impact didn’t do that!! I don’t even use a separate eye makeup remover. Hallelujah for that alone!!! There may be the odd black fleck the next morning but it removes easily, unlike the tarry smears that take some work. You just splash water on your eyes and rub gently and the stuff comes right off. You might need an eye makeup remover for your shadow or liner but not your mascara. Big selling point here.
4. The brush is grand. It’s long and skinny and straight. The product doesn’t goop all over it. The corner lashes can be coated without smearing it on the skin. The maneuverability of this brush is terrific, maybe because it goes back to the brushes we all learned with 30 years ago. The big bottle-brush style and the curved designs, never could get used to them.
5. Lashes are not too stiff or crunchy. I really don’t like that at all.
6. I’m wearing mascara on my lower lashes again. I like to wear a little more makeup on the center of my eye because a rounder eye looks a little younger and it draws attention away from the outer corner where not-so-good things are happening. I can use all I like, wherever I like. It will not move.
Clinique High Impact, does apply better. Thicker, smoother, creamier, softer. But it will leave little smears under your eyes.
This formula seems a little stickier, a little drier, than what you may be accustomed to but it gets the job done fine. They sell it as an extraordinarily lengthening mascara. In that respect, it’s fine but not astounding. Estee Lauder also claims that “the lash you see in the morning is the lash you keep all day”. That is true.
Who in the world can look at our lashes and know what mascara we used? Nobody. You never really notice other women’s eyelashes unless they’re at an extreme of underdone, overdone, or oversmeared. Mascara is all about application and removal.
Clinique Lash Power gets similar reviews for ease of removal and it will be a little cheaper, so it’s next up.
Note that this is not for you if you’re after major volume or length. It gives real-looking lashes and that’s all I really want in this world - makeup that looks real.
-->6 reasons why I’m really loving this mascara. Length is not one of them.
Perfect? No. If there were perfect, we’d all be using it. Universal formulas don’t exist.
In several important ways, it is very impressive.
Makeup Model : Deep Winter
May 6, 2009
How do you know if you’re Deep Winter?
Dark eyes and dark hair are common but not a requirement. Your skin can go from Porcelain to Ebony so that’s not helpful.
So, Penelope Cruz is a classic Deep Winter…or at least, she looks like she would be. She can wear black but she has some ability to wear a few warmer colors. Her best spectrum wouldn’t be as cool and sharp as Elizabeth Taylor’s whom you just wouldn’t put in rust.
What about Salma Hayek? If you’re not sure, push the extremes of the 2 possibilities. Deep Winter holds the neutral line with Deep Autumn, where Deep Winter is cooler. You could take a Deep Winter all the way to blue-black hair and red-violet lips and they’d still look pretty good. You could take a Deep Autumn to bronze hair and beyond to orange-brown and it would be wearable. I can see Salma in the black hair and violet lips. I do not see her in orange hair.
Now, this doesn’t work backwards. You can’t assume red hair is automatically Autumn. Not at all. Often they’re Spring or Summer, many times, Winter. Why do books keep showing Autumn with red hair? I don’t know. Maybe because red hair goes well with orange clothing (analogous colors), so the extrapolation says the person must be Autumn. The closer to orange the hair, the more possibility it belongs to an Autumn.
Julia Roberts has dark hair and eyes. Since blue-black hair and purple lips would be ghoulish, but orange-brown hair is good, she’s likely a Deep Autumn.
Keira Knightley? Tricky. Very difficult. I’ve seen people conclude both. I side with Deep Winter but black hair isn’t perfect; neither is orange hair. This auburn here is good, and a Deep Winter can do auburn. It’s creating some odd shadowing around her nose and yellow around her mouth but it may be the makeup or lighting. For me, her eyes are more arresting and her makeup better in pure Winter colors. They might clear the yellow and turn her skin to milk. Maybe she’s neither. This is a woman who probably needs to be draped in person to figure this out.
Jeanne Tripplehoorn? I cannot see her in orange hair.
Jessica Alba? She’s almost surely Deep something but her hair’s been dark and her lips have been cool red lately and I think it looks forced. I see her better in orange, tawnies, copper colors. Likely some sort of Autumn. With the dark neutral brown hair below, her skin looks washed out and the creases from nose to corners of mouth become noticeable.
Sophia Loren? She can have quite lion-colored hair and bronze lips, so she’s Deep, but it’s probably Autumn.
Anne Hathaway? Blacker hair and redder lips work fine. If ever skin had a lack of warmth, that would be it. She is surely Winter, the incarnation of Miss Snow White. Is she Deep Winter, or cooler yet as Clear Winter or Cool Winter? Probably Cool Winter, because I don’t see much compliment from warmed reds, but who knows without drapes.
Katie Holmes? I can see auburn hair or wine hair but not orange hair. She can wear rust and tomato red as well as the cool dark colors, so probably a Deep Winter.
Colors
Lips: NARS Dolce Vita Sheer Lipstick and lipgloss are good cool coral colors; the gloss is gorgeous in texture and durability, as are all NARS glosses.
Now you need a plum-violet color: Mary Kay Berry Kiss is about as blue-pink as you can go, but this is a nice one (bluer, pinker, and brighter than the picture below). If it seems too pink, try Whipped Berries, warmed up just a little but so slightly foggier and darker, for darker women.
Mary Kay Amber Suede appears more orange and it goes on very dark and pigmented. If you blot if well and apply a gloss over top, the color left behind is quite lovely, again for darker women.
L to R, Whipped Berries, Amber Suede, Garnet Frost, Berry Kiss
Are you looking at these thinking “I thought she said she doesn’t like dark lips?”. I am. The thing is, once you find a color of makeup that repeats a color already in your face (a concept we’ll come back to often) or body, it’s amazing how heavily you can apply it. You can literally pack it on and it looks real because you already have the color in you. Maybe I’ve made this point too obviously, but you see, herein lies the strength of color analysis. It will identify the colors that were used to paint YOU.
So what is your “color-within” lip, your neutral, since those above are all pinkish : MAC Slimshine in Scant will be close. It contains some brown, as this season needs since it’s the bridge between Autumn and Winter.
Much as I believe in neutral makeup, I think all 3 women up there look a little flat with lips the same color as their face. I need to come up with a new term. Neutral means neither warm nor cool, a medium tone type of beige or brown or gray. Many would call the lips in those photos neutral. When I say neutral, I extend the definition to include “any color already in your face is your neutral”.
However, I’m realizing that’s confusing and seems contradictory. Nude just means “like you have nothing on”. Maybe the word I need is Natural. That seems to work. I’m thinking as I type so it’s coming out stream-of-consciousness here. I’ll clarify in a separate post because I just thought of it now.OK, shut up, Christine, and get on with it.
If you still think these are dark, mix them with a clear gloss or a lighter lip color like Estee Lauder Elizabeth Pink.
Good ol’ Clinique Black Honey lip gloss that you see in every magazine suits this group nicely.
Body Shop 05 (I believe the color is Strawberry) can work as a bright.
Blush: Your color-within “natural” blush : take a close look at MAC Breath of Plum. If it’s too pink, look at Lancome Aplum, my favorite. It is cool, red-violet as all Winters need, and doesn’t seem too blue or brown. It just fades into the skin, just as a Natural colour will.
If you want to put a little more on it, Clinique Berry Delight is a good cool coral to go with Dolce Vita lipstick or gloss (don’t buy Dolce Vita blush, it’s too dusty red-brown; NARS Amour is a better contender – Winter is a season of color clarity, not dullness).
Another red-violet blush to go with the lips above : Mary Kay Bold Berry ; Clinique Breathless Berry is cooler than Berry Delight but not as cool as Bold Berry.
Eyeliner: Clarins Waterproof eyeliner in 03 Grey, a sparkly dark grey; Annabelle Kohl Eyeliner in 77 Charcoal, terribly smudgy but great color so powder over it.
Winter is the only group that can wear black eyeliner if the depth of their coloring supports it. If not, the darkest grey or black-coffee brown are darker colors that appear less hard.
Eyeshadow: Clinique Totally Neutral ; MaryKay makes Charcoal eye shadow, a lovely matte midtone dove grey for the cooler women. Paula’s Choice Charcoal is also a beautiful matte grey-brown, more brown than the MaryKay, a fantastic shade for those who are close to Deep Autumn but need the coolness of Winter.
Your natural color : Merle Norman Mink.
Eye hilite : Paula’s Choice Beige. ( Note that Paula’s Choice is selling off her eyeshadows for $4 or less. These are great products, perfectly matte, all available as samples. You will never find a better beauty deal anywhere.)
Within each season, there can be great variety of hair, eye, and skin tone so these color suggestions are generalities. I’m a Deep Winter. Once I get my hair color adjusted, I’ll show you how it looks. Just changing the makeup has made a big difference. Good thing I buy my clothes at Value Village or we’d be living on a raft.
-->How do you know if you’re Deep Winter?
Dark eyes and dark hair are common but not a requirement. Your skin can go from Porcelain to Ebony so that’s not helpful.
So, Penelope Cruz is a classic Deep Winter…or at least, she looks like she would be. She can wear black but she has some ability to wear a few warmer colors. Her best spectrum wouldn’t be as cool and sharp as Elizabeth Taylor’s whom you just wouldn’t put in rust.
Composition Of A Color Analysis
April 30, 2009
Hollywood makes you look older, fatter, or sicker by using your wrong colors. Are you doing that to yourself?
The 3 groups that need this most are:
- Teens for the incredible confidence building and power to resist peer and media pressure. By 15 years old, they’ve settled into their color scheme. Colors may deepen but season is unlikely to change. It helps guide them in buying makeup, keeps them away from deep hair mistakes, and allows to feel that they are unique and special.
- Women over 40. This is a time when we need help with our looks and we can use an emotional confidence boost. Once you know your season and can make choices with confidence, you have a new power. You see yourself sharp and in focus on the outside, like the real you just stepped out of the haze you used to live in.
- Men, men, men.
It goes like this
So, here’s what happens when you come to my house for a Color Analysis. Plan on 3 hours. If we get too tired and can’t get it the first day, you may have to come back at no extra cost. Want to stay for hair and makeup? I hope so. Matching women to makeup is what I live for. Count on another hour.
We’ll go into the color studio. Maybe it should be called “color cell” because the only speck of color will be your face. You won’t wear any makeup and neither will I. Our hair and clothes will be covered. We’ll make no assumptions about season from hair or eye color that we can’t prove with the drapes.
Bear with me, I’m about to digress. I’m reading a most fabulous book entitled How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, MD. If you work in any medicine-related field, as a nurse, as a veterinarian, as a psychiatrist, anything, you MUST READ this book. It describes the mental pitfalls in our human thinking patterns that lead us into mistakes in diagnosis and treatment.
Dr. Groopman explains a common situation he calls “diagnosis momentum”, in which you become convinced of something and set about proving it to yourself, ignoring evidence to the contrary. Color analysis is so much like medicine, it’s bizarre. It’s a search based on a process of elimination along a logic tree. As an analyst, it’s too easy to get trapped in a spiral of “season momentum”. You make a decision about a season too soon, feel committed to it, and lose your impartial perspective.
When I enter an examination room to see a puppy with diarrhea, and the last 3 pups I saw had diarrhea because of worms, I might be inclined to rush the process and decide this must be the same thing. I’d miss the fact that this one ate a remote control and a bikini and a used condom and half the old rug that was stored in the shed. So we begin by believing you could be any of the 12 seasons with equal odds.
In the beginning, the process seems to be focused on finding and highlighting your every flaw. You’ll feel like we keep harping on wrinkles or red noses or acne scars or a long face. That’s because wrong color seems to uncover your worst feature and point to it relentlessly. My son warned his father when it was Dad’s turn that “Mommy be’s rude to you”.
Along the way, we’ll discover the absolute worst that color can make you look and the absolute best. Those will be our reference points. We’ll try some things. We’ll be unsure, we’ll go back to the beginning and start all over again. Maybe you’ll be easy and obvious and fast but you probably won’t. You’ll want to leave. You’ll wonder why you’re paying good money to someone to dwell on your faults so repetitively, flaws you didn’t even know you had.
The commentary will begin to shift as we find the colors that make your face look beautifully defined instead of doughy. Your eyes will be clearer and your teeth whiter. You’ll start hearing the word “younger” being used. Once you’re over 40, male or female, that seems to be a pivot point.
We’ll think about what the colors that make you look fabulous have in common. That process of elimination will guide us to your season.
This is not subjective. Very real things will happen that you will see with your own eyes on your own face.
We’ll know we’re done when your skin is calm, you are neither wearing the color and nor is it wearing you. Your eye color will seem 10 times stronger.
If you’re a Winter, your eyes will dance and snap as only Winter eyes can. Repeat that with earrings that move and sparkle.
Autumn’s eyes glow like the embers they were intended to be. Glowing warm makeup repeats the effect.
Spring’s eyes are happy and bright. The color is remarkable in its liveliness and clarity. We’ll look at makeup colors that are clear and lit from within. That is the special radiance of Spring.
Summer eyes appear to have the endless depth of water and sky. The color, often blue, goes on and on. Like Winter, the complexion can often be deceivingly yellow till the right colors clear it. Because the coloring is so delicate, it’s imperative for Summer to get the hair color right. The entire look should flow from color to color, like a June garden.
Every season has a distinctive melody. Your personal color scheme, your eye pattern, your character, they already hear it. Stick to the tune in your decoration and the people around you will be in awe of your personal choreography. Internally, you’ll begin to feel an alignment with who you came here to be.
We’ll talk about your best makeup.
Hair is a piece of clothing you never take off. It can’t clash with your own color scheme or it detracts from the power of the final picture. So, we’ll look at your most perfect hair color.
I’ll give you your swatch booklet because it contains all your clothes/makeup/hair colors. Shopping will be fun and sure and foolproof.
And we’ll be done.
I apologize about the driveway. I just really want to work out of my house.
-->
So, here’s what happens when you come to my house for a Color Analysis. Plan on 3 hours. If we get too tired and can’t get it the first day, you may have to come back at no extra cost. Want to stay for hair and makeup? I hope so. Matching women to makeup is what I live for. Count on another hour.
Read moreMakeup Model : Soft Summer
April 21, 2009
Soft Summer and Soft Autumn can be similar. You could be Jennifer Aniston or Amanda Bynes, respectively (or, these women give the impression of these Seasons). In the wrong colors, you can look blah. Hair is neither light or dark. Skin is neither either. You can get lost in medium-ness. Getting your colors right is what takes you from medium everything to fabulosity.
These two seasons hold hands to straddle a neutral line very closely. Both have some warmth, but the Autumn season has more. Many Soft Summer women color their brown hair to look warmer when they would look better in a more neutral brown or cooler brown.
If Cool Summer, coolest of all, has enough blue to be look best in lilac-pink,
and Light Summer is so fair that cotton-candy-pink is most appealing,
you’re the next level of warmth.
You are still defined by what is predominantly Summer, so coolness, lightness (but that’s also deepening now), and muted haziness. It’s that color so many companies create in a blush and call it Desert Rose.
Lipstick: Bobbi Brown Italian Rose ; Laura Mercier Gilded Garden collection Hibiscus (English Rose might work too but appears brown enough to be more Soft Autumn), swatched here by the wonderful karlasugar that I’ve introduced before. This woman is saving us time and money, and teaching about color by comparison.
Blush: Dior English Rose ; NARS Deep Throat.
Eyeliner: MAC Technakohl Earthline ; EsteeLauder Automatic Eye Pencil Duo Walnut.
Eyeshadow: Dior Flirty Brown; MAC Malt, Quarry, Copperplate; Just looking for Suede Brown here. Get an idea of the shades from karlasugar’s most amazing MAC eyeshadow swatch post. Vote for her with the Best Blog About Stuff button on her site.
Eye hilite : MAC Vapor, which you can see at MAC’s eyeshadow page or at karlasugar (last box in the MAC eyeshadow article).
-->Soft Summer and Soft Autumn hold hands to straddle a neutral line very closely. Both have some warmth, but the Autumn season has more.
Read moreMakeup Model : Deep Autumn
April 6, 2009
If Autumn is the season of sunset colors, this group is scorched earth and ripe fruit. Deep Autumn makes those colors so warm that they glow, making them seem almost metallic, like copper and bronze and gold. By making use of the right colors, this season can look astounding. Winter does look vivid, but it’s cool drama where this is hot and exciting.
I’m not fond of dark lips or very colorful lips. Colors that already appear in the face are what work in makeup . They have to be comfortable and believable, especially on women who wear little or no makeup. For Deep Autumn, the colors already in the body’s color design are quite deep. Pale washed out lips just flatten the whole affect. A natural mouth on Julia Roberts would be the only thing you would see on Heather Locklear.
I’m also not big on frost on any mature face – but sometimes shimmer is your friend. Autumn needs intensity in makeup to match intensity in coloring. If you don’t use “color intensity” then use “finish intensity” with metallic lipsticks. Nobody has brown lips but a bronzed orange lip color will work well on this season, and go nicely with the allover toasted luminous warmth. Where Spring is sunlit and bright, Autumn is has a brown gleam that metallic meshes with well.
Lora at Pretty Your World writes the best site online to figure out your own colors. Not everyone will be able to do it, only because some people are complicated. If it were easy, why would there be color analysts? At PYW, you’ll see that this season is the Autumn/Winter hybrid. Some Deep Autumns can pull off “warm black” quite well because of that.
Color Ideas
Lips: Revlon Sheer Colorstay Bronze; MAC Honey Flower but while you’re at the MAC counter, try on Coconutty, Strength, Shag, and Touch. The makeup artists are good at choosing the best on you. So are your kids. They might not know why but they know what looks good ; Clinique Bronze Star, one of my favorites.
Find brown alone too flat? In lipstick and in blush, you’re looking for a brown-red-orange blend. Warm Autumn is looking for brown-orange. Soft Autumn is looking for brown-peach. Some Deep Autumn women have quite fair skin though the overall amount of color spice is intense. JLo wears deeper foundation than Julia Roberts but the overall depth and intensity of the color package is less, making JLo a Warm Autumn. Because we’re now moving towards Winter, we’re starting to lose the orange in favor of cooler browns and reds.
Try mixing in Mocha or Jist. Have fun looking at the choices at MAC’s beautiful (and much improved) site and notice that you can choose the finish you like in the boxes above the color checkerboard.
Blush: NARS Lovejoy, Madly, Taos. A good color swatch page is here at NARS, though the colors are stronger IRL (in real life) than on my monitor.
“The Next Best Thing To Going Shopping Yourself” and my new favorite blog is by Karlasugar. NARS themselves don’t do as good a job as she does of showing their products. The professionalism and quality of the job she did in her NARS Blush Recap is a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
MAC Mineralize Duo in Intenso might be good too, but be critical of the amount of shine.
Eyeliner: black/brown, there are many. It needs to still be obviously browner than blacker.
Eyes: Cargo Dark Neutral palette. KarlaSugar yet again, has done an outstanding job of showing the 3 Cargo Neutral palettes. For comparison and learning, this is the best you could ask for.
All Autumns should know that MAC Woodwinked eyeshadow is a perfect antique gold accent for eyes. Because it’s very shiny, you wouldn’t cover your whole eyelid, but a spot of it right above the upper lashline, over the center of the iris, followed by your usual neutrals, adds some great dimension. It also does the very cool trick of picking up the amber colors in your eye. It’s often sold out but a beauty if you can get it.
Eye hilite : MAC Shroom or Brule. Although I avoid animal-test companies, I have to say that Elizabeth Arden Sungold eyeshadow is a gorgeous hilite for Warm Autumn and Deep Autumn. It doesn’t go on too yellow or too shiny but lights up Autumn eyes and skin perfectly.
Don’t buy what you can’t try.
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If Autumn is the season of sunset colors, this group is scorched earth and ripe fruit. Deep Autumn makes those colors so warm that they glow, making them seem almost metallic, like copper and bronze and gold. By making use of the right colors, this season can look astounding. Winter does look vivid, but it’s cool drama rather than hot and exciting.
Read moreProduct Review : MAC Studio Sculpt Foundation
April 3, 2009
…officially takes over the No. 1 spot as Favorite Foundation.
… is a gel, not a cream, so it is easy to disperse a minute amount over a whole face.
… can easily build to more-than-medium coverage. Adding another layer or two over sun spots and veins can cover them nicely without needing to hunt down a suitable concealer in a different shade than you’d wear under your eyes or around your nose.
… lasts. And lasts. And lasts. It doesn’t look tired after 8 hours the way a lot of makeup can.
… makes skin look very smooth ( not even-colored, but even-surfaced with no bumps or craters). My kids noticed which is saying a lot because they’ve seen much makeup over the years.
… comes in MAC’s usual very good colors, but never settle for less than a perfect match. I wear NW 20. The colors seem a little deeper than usual if you’re used to MAC’s skin color schemes.
… is a great choice if you notice and object to the “weight” of foundation. Studio Sculpt really has none. Don’t buy Studio Fix by accident or you’ll think I’ve lost my mind.
… is a great choice if you’re thinking about trying foundation but don’t want a masky look and if concealer just seems too fussy. Use this as a fusion, only where you have shadows or discolorations. It gives you good time to blend and is light enough to get the job done with fingers.
… greatly reduces the tendency of foundation to be too heavy and so accentuate the age of the skin around the eyes. Who needs that? This is the strongest positive point for me. So many foundations look horrible on the skin under the eye, and worse if you use a concealer as well, that you can hardly put any product here. I’d almost buy it for this alone.
… dries fairly matte but not completely. Still need a little powder but fewer powder touchups.
… comes in a soft plastic gravity-fed tube which I so prefer over bottles. I wish they’d made the plastic opaque. I’d have a better feeling about the color staying true.
… really can disappear into skin if the color is right. I keep reading reviews where the woman is showing pictures of it on her hand, which is funny-peculiar till you’ve tried it yourself. What fascinates everyone is that you really can’t see where the makeup begins and ends. It absolutely looks more like skin than any foundation I’ve seen.
This foundation is good at its job, which is to even skin tone and color. If you’re not used to the effect, you’ll think all your features just disappeared. That’s because they used to stand out to you by the contrast of the shadows around them.
If you’re hoping to wear anything more than the sheerest tinted moisturizer and wear no other makeup, it’s not going to work. Your face will be too uni-color without a little lip gloss, an eyeliner, and a bit of blush or bronzer. Not complicated. Not especially time-consuming. Big looks payoff. Just need to go into it with realistic expectations. If you don’t want to wear any other makeup, just something to smooth your skin, this is not it. The coverage is too good.
Of all the good and great things that foundation does, I had yet to meet the one that I could say made skin look younger. This is the closest so far.
-->The closest that foundation has come to making skin look younger.
Read moreMakeup Model : Light Summer
March 31, 2009
The palest pinkest women. A friend of mine sees a dermatologist who refers to her coloring as “you pasty white chicks”. That’s got to be Light Summer.
Remember Cool Summer’s gray-silver-ash brown hair? This season is light blond to white blond. The blond is not overly golden and certainly not red. The hair could also be light brown. As with Cool Summer, the keyword is ash. That’s means greyish-brown, kind of like the taupe of hair color. A Light Summer in warm brown hair is killing off what little color she has in her complexion.
But NOT platinum, like on Christina Aguilera. Platinum is too harsh, almost metallic in its lightness, though a few thin streaks could work among other light blond colors. All-platinum might work on some Winters but Summer wouldn’t go beyond a very pale blond. A child would might be flaxen or almost white, but not silvery/metallic.
This is an easy season to makeup. Just stay pink and light.
Reese looks great, better than the too-yellow-gold hair she often wears. She looks young and shines with an inner energy and light. Her eyes don’t look pale or faded. Her lipcolor is dark for the softness of her color scheme so my eye is continuously distracted by it. There is often a tendency for these women to wear vibrant colors because they feel it might bring color to the face, or the marketing industry told them a “pop” of color was in, but their coloring is easily overwhelmed.
The most difficult makeup choice this group has to make is with bronzer/contour. You can struggle at the makeup counter with all the too-yellow-for-you bronzers, and that includes the light and golden ones most of the time.
Or you can go the drugstore, look at Almay and Revlon, or any other non-animal-tested choices, and pick a powder a little darker than your skin. Beige. Not peach. Just the next shade deeper than what would be a match. Call it a day.
Oh, no wait. They’ve packaged their powders so that you can’t see them. How clever. Is this why we all end up at MAC and Sephora eventually?
MAC always has some of the best options for recreating skin’s real life colors, at a decent price point, with colors you can test. Their Select Sheer Pressed Powder is nice to use for its sheerness. Many of the shades have a peachiness that can work well as a bronzer for many seasons. This group, who just can’t take very yellow pigments, and certainly not orange, don’t want to end up with an overly colorful face. You should stick with pressed powders that are skin-tone beige. Remember though that this group also represents the Summer/Spring fusion with Summer coolness predominant. A slight hint of peach may be worth trying on those of you who can wear a few of Spring’s yellower shades.
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish/Natural offers some terrific choices. It’s still sheer, not sparkly, and comes in good skin colors. These products can be a tad glowy ( which is the last thing you want from the contour that’s supposed to recede things not make them more noticeable), but it’s not so extreme as to get in the way. For light skin tones, the Mediums to Medium-Dark and beyond are brilliant.
Not sure of your season? Pretty Your World is loaded with information and tips to help you.
Look at these shades
Lipstick : Clinique Glosswear Kissy Fit ; Bobbi Brown Bright Pink gloss; Revlon MineralGlaze Gloss in Continuous Pink and Eternal Blossom (Infinite Rose ? Nope, that’s for Cool Summer)
Blush: Clinique Iced Lotus; NARS Mata Hari
Eyeliner: Clarins Waterproof Gris/Grey 03 ; MAC Technakohl Earthline
Eyes: Bobbi Brown Tan ; MAC Omega ; you need a grey and a brown that look like this,
Eye hilite : Bobbi Brown Ivory or Shell ; MAC Yogurt
These are guidelines to get your eye looking at the right colors. They won’t be different next year even if the ad campaigns say they will. Try the products first to hit your own bull’s eye.
-->The palest pinkest women. A friend of mine sees a dermatologist who refers to her coloring as “you pasty white chicks”. That’s got to be Light Summer.
The most difficult makeup choice this group has to make is with bronzer/contour. You can struggle at the makeup counter with all the too-yellow-for-you bronzers, and that includes the light and golden ones most of the time.
Makeup Model : Soft Autumn
March 28, 2009
Autumn colors are deeper than Spring to be sure. But they’re not darkened by adding gray(as Summer is) or black (because that’s Winter).
These are browner colors. They toasty and golden, coppered, and bronzed. The degree depends on which Autumn. If you could distill Autumn down to one color, it would be brown, which would include the variations of gold and orange.
Soft Autumn is not as deep and warm as the other 2 Autumns. They’re quietly warm like in the picture above. Their toned-down richness makes them closer to neutral. This means that they’re easily confused with Soft Summer, who also have a subdued strength in their coloring. Soft Summer is neutral too but is more cool than warm.
This season is so soft, in fact, that it approaches neutral but just lingers on the warm side of the line. Like who? Drew Barrymore. She can be a cool blonde but she looks better warmed up a little more. Lindsay Lohan, on the other hand, cannot be blonde nearly as well as red because her coloring is too committed to Autumn’s warmth.
Can you see how good it can be when you get it right? There’s no contest. Color Analysis works.
Lips: Clinique LongLast Glosswear Sunset ; Almay Ideal Gloss in Bronze Shimmer; Clinique Glow Bronze lipstick.
Blush: MAC Trace Gold. Don’t just fluff this color on. Apply it with feeling (meaning a firm stroke of the brush) to really get the color, not just the shimmer.
All Autumns should know that they can transform their many too-pink blush mistakes to a great burnished shade with Trace Gold. It works best for the Soft Autumns who wear warm pink better than the other Autumns.
Eyeliner: Clinique Chocolate Lustre.
Eyes: Cargo Warm Neutral Palette ; MAC Era.
Cargo Warm Neutral palette.
Eye hilite : MAC Shroom. This is an all-purpose under brow eye color. It would suit all the seasons, certainly all the warm ones. Paula’s Choice Beige is another completely versatile under brow hiliter for all the seasons, at a fraction of the price, and is really perfect because it has no shine.
The disclaimer : Don’t buy it if you don’t try it. These are color guidelines to give you a sense of what you should be looking at.
The colors are getting warmer now, but there’s some heat on the way and things are going to get a whole lot hotter.
-->Soft Autumn is not as deep and warm as the other 2 Autumns. They’re quietly warm. Their toned-down richness makes them closer to neutral. This means that they’re easily confused with Soft Summer, who also have a subdued strength in their coloring. Soft Summer is neutral too but is more cool than warm.
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