Vintage Glamour

Here is a photo from my latest session with Greyline Creative. This is Gail. She wanted an authentic vintage look. My idea of more authentic look includes more sculptural hair. Her hair was actually longer, but I pin curled the bottom all the way around to give it a Marylin appeal. Gail's porcelain skin and blonde hair also helped. Contact Greyline if you want to set up your own vintage photo shoot.

Product Reviews

I recently purchased several new makeup items. Most of these came from Pixiwoo tutorials that I watched.

I was really excited to apply my makeup this morning because I got to use all of my new products. I'll start by going through the steps that I went through while applying my makeup and talk a little about each product.

Here is the before and after so you can see the results at a quick glance:

Before and After

The first item is Embryolisse moisturizer. It is a concentrated cream that has a light floral smell and goes on smooth. It only takes a little and it makes your skin feel so soft and smooth. I think it's one of the best moisturizers I've used. I put that on and then used Urban Decay Pore Perfecting Primer Potion. I keep going back on forth on the effectiveness of face primers, but I think it's especially helpful during the hot summer months to keep your makeup in place all day. This particular primer is thicker than others that I've used, and it's slightly tinted, but it goes on smooth and does not feel heavy. Between the moisturizer and the primer my face was already feeling flawless.

Embryolisse moisturizer and Urban Decay face primer

Next I applied a new foundation to my face. I used Illamasqa Skin Base Foundation and I used my Real Techniques buffing brush to apply it to my face. The Real Techniques brushes are created and sold by the ladies that brought you Pixiwoo. They are high quality and affordable. The foundation gave a light to medium coverage. It's light weight and goes on smooth and is offered in many shades. I chose a porcelain yellow tone. I think it's important to figure out if your skin tone has a pink or yellow undertone. It makes it much easier to choose a color. The foundation is in a 1 oz bottle. It's pricey for such a small amount, but like many of the more expensive brands, it will last a long time because of the high quality.

Real Techniques Brushes and Illamasqua Foundation

Next I applied Bobby Brown Cream Concealer under my eyes. This concealer gives great coverage. It's thick enough to cover dark circles, but does not settle in the lines under the eyes. It comes with it's own little powder pot to set it. I also bought a MAC blush in buff. It is a great color to use as a contour for the cheekbones. It creates a natural shadow. I also used it in the crease of my eyes to add some dimension.

Bobby Brown Concealer and MAC Buff Blush

At this point I also filled in my brows with Anastasia Brow Wiz in caramel. I've been using this product for a while and love it. You would think that with all of the products I've shown I would look like I'm wearing more makeup, but the idea is to not look like you're wearing makeup and to accentuate your features. You can kind of see the blush contour in the photo below. Also notice the stand up pin curls. This will create the retro hair I do later. The back of my head is in eight large flat pin curls.

The next two products come from the brand Eye of Horus. This is a brand that comes from Australia. I used an eyeliner pen and mascara. I was excited about trying this eyeliner because it's supposed to not make an imprint on the lid. I have that problem a lot. Most of my eyeliners transfer to my upper eyelid throughout the day and I have to constantly wipe it off. At first I wasn't crazy about this because it was a bit difficult to apply. When I applied it, it bled a little into some of the fine line in my eyelid, but the color is such a dark, rich black and after I cleaned it up with a q-tip I thought it looked pretty good. I just might need to practice putting it on. The tip is very similar to a felt tip marker. The mascara was also very dark and has a nice applicator brush. I'm not sure if it's any better than some of the other mascaras that I tried, but it's nice. The eyeliner also stayed put all day.

Eye of Horus Mascara and Eyeliner

I then applied a cream blush by Illamasqua in Brazen. A little goes a long way with this stuff. It is highly pigmented. I applied it to a brush and then wiped most of it off on my hand before applying it to the apples of my cheeks. You can see in the photo below that is melted a bit in transport.

I then lined my lips with my favorite lip liner, Makeup For Ever in nude and applied Lip Tar stained gloss in the color Rhythm Box on top. The Lip Tar comes in a little pouch with it's own applicator brush. The name tar is a little misleading because it isn't very tacky or thick. It is a beautiful color and goes on smooth and lasts a long time. It didn't make it through lunch, but it made it up to that point.

Illamasqua cream blush and Lip tar stained gloss

Here is the final version before the hair. I finished it off with Makeup For Ever HD Powder. Overall, I'm very happy with all of the products that I bought. I think the buff MAC blush is the most versatile. I still have a few eyeshadow palettes in route and will post reviews of those when I get them.

Final makeup look

Mother's Day Shoot

Spent all day yesterday doing hair and makeup and hiking a waterfall and traipsing through fields in the name of beauty. We got some beautiful photos of moms and their kids.

Natural Vintage Makeup and Contouring

Here is a tutorial on my everyday natural vintage makeup look. I also added a section on contouring. I don't do the contouring every day, but I thought it would be a good tip.

If you want to take this and amp it up for night, simply add red lips and some false eyelashes for added drama.

I start by combining my foundation with moisturizer. This helps reduce streaking. I apply it with a flat foundation brush. I use Real Technique brushes. I then buff it in with an expert face brush to create a flawless finish. You can see in the photo below the smooth, even skin tone on the left side of my face. The right side of my face is without makeup.

I then start contouring. I use the lightest color on the darkest palette of a makeup forever concealer palette for the contouring. I applied it to the hollows of my cheeks, my temples and the sides of my nose. I then added a highlight using the lightest color of a makeup forever concealer palette on the brow bone, bridge of my nose, forehead, chin and in a triangle shape under my eyes. You basically put the dark color wherever the shadows would be and the highlight where the sun hits your face. Then blend. You can see on the bottom right image the left side of my face is contoured and the right side is still without makeup so you can see the difference. It's not supposed to be a dramatic difference. The idea of makeup is to accentuate without looking like you're wearing makeup.

I then applied a cheek stain using a stippling brush to the apples of my cheeks. And filled in by brows to make them stronger and defined using Anastasia Brow Wiz pencil. Here is a tutorial I did once on eyebrows.

I also added a gold eyebrow gel to set the brows. I then moved on to the eyes and covered the entire eyelid with matte white eyeshadow. I then used the darkest matte brown from my Naked Palette to contour the eyelid. I only concentrated the brown just above the lid and on the lower lash line. I used the three brushes below to apply the color and blend.

I then applied MakeUp For Ever black liner with a small brush. I made a fairly thick line with a winged end. The shape of the eyeliner you choose is up to you. There are many different looks you can achieve with eyeliner. I finished it with mascara and nude lips. Since I don't have particularly large lips I like to keep the emphasis on the eyes. Each person should play up their best features.

Finish it with powder and here is the final makeup look.

Add a vintage hair style. I rolled my "bangs" to the side and added some victory rolls.

More vintage photo shoots

I promise I will start adding more tutorials soon. I've been busy doing hair and makeup for vintage inspired photo shoots.

More Fashion Show Pics

Here are more photos of my segment of the NWA Fashion Week fashion show, "The Seven Deadly Sins." These wonderful photos were provided by Victor Chalfant Photography.

Katie Terrell as Greed

Abi Moser as Wrath

Lindsay Smith as Sloth

Buffie Merryman as Pride

Jessica Gray as Lust

Katy Jones as Gluttony

Melanie Messina as Envy

Sketches

Now that the show is over I can share my sketches. They turned out pretty close to the final results. The only one I actually water colored was Gluttony. Also check out some photos from the show by Greyline Creative.