Friday, July 11, 2014

Demystify the Cat Eye

… So, does the cat eye makeup technique leave you scratching your head? If so… don't cry, you are not alone. This is challenging even for many makeup enthusiast. Here is some instruction that will work for most everyone. 

Keep an eye on the eye!
 Believe it or not, this application is as easy as 1 2 3…
Before I give you some of the tricks in my bag… I want to share a tip for a clean liquid liner eye frame. When you apply liquid liner, use the lashes as your guide. Instead of tying to create a perfect line on the lid, place your brush on the lashes and slide along the lash line and you will never get it wrong. This technique can be used for the simplest of eye frames.  
 I know this sounds too simple, But every time I teach it, I get this reaction.  
The technique draws a crowd every time.

 Now, let's build upon this simple eye line at take it to the dramatic cat eye.  
Step 1. With the eyes open (left), mark the intersection where the eyeliner will pass through the crease of the eye. 

Step 2. Mark where you want the eyeliner to end. The diagram on the right is what the points will look like when the eye is closed. Every eye has a different shape so these points will look different on every eye. 
Step 3. The image below shows your final step. Connect the dots and fill in the shape. When the eye is closed there is strange triangular shape, but if the technique was done correctly, you will end up with a perfect cat eye sweep of liner.









Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Simply Beautiful

Makeup and Hair Jacquetta Sorensen 
Photo Marta Elena Vassilakis
First Model Patience
Second Model Karissa



These two simply beautiful looks show the power of focusing on one feature of the face.



Both models skin was prepped with a light moisturizer and primer. I used TIGI Whipped foundation on both models (color #1 applied with the foundation/concealer brush. The one on the far right). The whipped foundation is a cream to powder matt finish. I love this for HD photography. 
I then used a mascara wand to apply TIGI concealer to the brows. Just rub the bristles with the stick of concealer and comb into the brows for this really interesting effect.



For Cheeks I used Haute (top right) on Patience.

On Karissa I used Awaken (bottom left) . I only wanted to apply a wash of color to the cheeks so I used the powder brush (first brush on the left). I loaded the product just slightly to the lower portion of the apple of the cheek. I then transitioned the color back toward the hairline and temple… making sure the color is completely blended away before it hits the hairline. 





 





















For the lips I custom blended colors I do this often because I'm a control freak and I just feel the need to make the color exactly what I want. Patience's lips were the focal point of her makeup. The color was a mix of black lipliner and Passion TIGI lip color.  Karissa's lips were a mix of Splendor, and finesse TIGI lip color and concealer. Both of the custom blends were mixed on a pallet then applied to the lips with a lip brush (4th brush in from the right). 


Patience eyes were a wash of golden bronze shadow and a ton of brown mascara… keepin it simple.

Karissa's eyes were the dramatic focus of her image. The technique for this is simply complex and I will break it down in a post to come. For now, just know I used TIGI black patent eyeliner… I love it for the shine. I didn't use mascara. I like the way her blonde eyelashes are highlighted with the contrasty black background.