Well I meant to get this picture up much earlier, because I think I actually wore this at the beginning of last weekend, but you know how it goes - life never seems to go as you plan. The point of this post is to show off my favorite new purple, MAC's Violet. I know I'm the purple queen (my roommate teases me about it in fact) but I swear each one I have is in actuality different. Maybe not a lot different, but they're all different. 

What's so amazing about this one is as vibrant as it looks in this picture? That's how it looks in real life. It's not a matter of flash or nice angles; Violet is really just that amazing. I tend to use something like NYX's Jumbo Pencil in Purple underneath, just to give it something to stick to, but the color doesn't need the enhancing. It's almost like anything I do still has it look amazing. And since I got it at the CCO at Potomac Mills it's still in the old larger packaging, so I'm going to have this color for a LONG time. Thanks goodness (though for the rest of you out there Violet is a permanent color, so it shouldn't be going anywhere any time soon). 

If I remember correctly I probably used MAC's Soft Brown to soften the line in my crease and then my new shadow Graphology (which is LE) to deepen the outer V. I could have gone quite a bit darker and added in some black, but when I'm going out in the day I try to keep those tendencies under control (smile). Hope you enjoy!

So it all began with 'I heard your roommate does facepaint...."

I'm not going to list all of the products for this ridiculousness here, just because I used whatever I had on hand to enhance the look. The brown around the face was outlined with eyeliner, but then filled in with 3 different NYX Jumbo Pencils - brown, black, and white with a little bit of MAC's Cream Color Base in Bronze thrown in for good measure. The brown was laid down first and sealed by patting a matte brown shadow on top. 

All of the black lines on the face were first drawn in with pencil and then gone back over with e.l.f.'s cream liner in black. After some general finagling of the face and the outline, I took an e.l.f. angled liner brush and made rapid strokes all around the face to give the appearance of 'hair'. 

I've got to say that even though I've never done anything like this it was a wild experience and it actually turned out pretty good!

P.S. - My roommate's friend wants to be a monkey ballerina for Halloween. That's right - a monkey ballerina.

I am totally will to admit that I'm a brow fanatic. I'm very, very, VERY, picky about who does my brows. It's only been through a lot of trial and error that I finally have someone I love here in DC. I'm just of the opinion that how can you NOT care how your brows look? They frame your entire face! No matter how you fill them in or shape them, if you've gotten them whacked off by some hack it's going to look unfortunate.

My brows live by the 'less is more' policy. I don't do a lot to them and what I do do does not happen often. On an everyday basis on this blog what you will see are my threaded brows. No more, no less. About every month or so (it varies) I go see Rana at Eurospa Morgana and with almost no instruction I lay back and let her do her stuff. I met Rana for the first time mostly by accident because I was at Eurospa for a haircut. While we were waiting though we got to talking and I got to know her, her personality, and her own opinions about the importance of brows - and those are big parts of what I take into account when choosing an eyebrow lady. 

Also let me be clear on one thing, I do not by-the-books have my eyebrows done every month. Instead I like to give the hair time to grow back. I'm not saying I don't do some maintenance pluck along the way, but I like to give them a chance to kind of do their stuff; I don't want them threaded or waxed into nothingness. I can't say that I have any kind of scientific proof for this, but it's just my little mantra: If I let them grow now they won't stop growing later.

In the end, I think if I were to counsel anyone on their own brows there are 3 things I'd say:

#2 is the hard one for me, because my own OCD would LOVE for my eyebrows to be twins. The reality is they're different. They're different and that's ok - on me and on every other person who has natural brows. I think it gives the face a more 'real' look, lol. Or at least that's what I tell myself whenever I have an attack of the 'WHY CAN'T YOU BE THE SAME' crazies. 

P.S. - The only real product I've ever used on my brows is this basic Maybelline Brow Gel. It's essentially clear mascara and if you're like me and have hair that likes to move around a bit, then I recommend you try it because it does a great job. (I think I also saw a Boots No. 7 product that's similar to this the last time I was at Target, but I'm not positive)

If you're interested in seeing this for yourself, this picture is from the Yummie Tummie sale that RueLaLa is having today (10/18/10).

I'm not even going to pretend that this look was a short or easy process. It took a while, a lot of products, and a LOT of blending. The basic look consisted of the hot pink in the first 1/3 of the lid, dark purple on the outer 2/3 and using the Violet pigment to blend the line between the two. From there I used Heroic (black) to start shading and deepening the outer corner of the look, but I also continued to use the Grape Pigment to keep it purple in tone. MAC's Soft Brown is a matte skin tone color and shading with that around all the edges of shadow kept everything smooth and blended. After finishing off an extended cat eye with the liner I used silver glitter on the lower lash line and under the wing of the liner. 

PS - In case you were wondering my coworker and I are going to be Roller Derby girls for Halloween. Our costume colors are pink, purple, and black, thus the look below.

Products Used:

Eyes -

~~NYX Eyeshadow Base in ESB03 Skin Tone

~~NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Lilac

~~FaceFront Cosmetics Loose Mineral Eye Pigment in Little Gremlin

~~MAC Pigment in Grape

~~MAC Pigment in Violet

~~FaceFront Cosmetics Loose Mineral Eye Pigment in Heroic

~~Stila Eye Shadow in makalu (matte black)

MAC eyeshadow in Soft Brown

~~MAC eyeshadow for highlight, shimmery vanilla

~~MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack

~~Sephora Kohl Pencil in 01 keep black

~~Sephora Eye Glitter in 07 gold

~~NYX Glitter Mania in Silver + FaceFront Cosmetics Design Gel

~~Rimmel Mascara Combo

~~NYX Fabulous Lashes in 101 Nirvana

Hot Pink Lips -

~~Wet n Wild Megalast Lipstick in 905D

~~NYX Lipliner Pencil in 804 Cabaret

~~NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in American Queen

Burgundy Lips -

~~MAC Lip Pencil in Nightmoth

~~Wet n Wild Megalast Lipstick in 919B

~~L'Oreal Hip Liptstick in Fearless

Nude Lips -

~~Max Factor Lipstick in Ms. Terious

~~NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Sweet Heart

Products Used:

--NYX eyeshadow base in ESB01 White

--MAC Pearlglide Intense Eye Liner in Designer Purple

--UD 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil in Flipside

--UD Alice in Wonderland Palette Underland (purple)

--NYX Single Eyeshadow in Irises

--UD Alice in Wonderland Palette Alice (shimmery light blue)

--MAC Eyeshadow in Idol Eyes

--MAC Eyeshadow in Deep Truth

--MAC Pressed Pigment in some kind of lavender/lilac shimmer purple

--MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack

--Sephora Waterproof Kohl Pencil in 01 keep black

--Rimmel Lycra Lash Extender in 01 Black

--Rimmel Max Volume Flash in 003 Extreme Black
--Lips - 1) NYX Jumbo Lip Pencil in Iced Coffee 2) NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Sweet Heart