Coral Sunset

I've been hanging out at my friend Alana's house, catsitting while she's out of town with her family. She has two adorable cats, one of whom is a 4 month old kitten and needs lots of love. Hence why I'm staying at her house instead of just checking in every day or so. Anyways, I was hanging out here, bored, and decided to run back to my house and grab some of my makeup and play a bit! Luckily, I live just a few streets over from her. I felt like playing with some color, since I've been feeling like I've been in a bit of a makeup rut, so I went on Google Images and did a search for some flowers to inspire me. This is the look I came up with, based on the "coral sunset" peony, which looks like this:

For this tutorial, I went to my trusty Coastal Scents 252 Ultimate Palette. I used the warm color palette within the 252 Ultimate Palette, and blended a mix of the taupey gray "crease/blending" colors into my crease and up to my brow bone, in order to make the transition more seamless. With this palette, the shimmery colors are much more opaque and pigmented than the matte colors, which I knew going into this look, so I started my look with the shimmery colors so the dark mattes wouldn't be blended away. I started out with a shimmery peachy "inner third" color, and placed that along the inner third of my lid. On the center of my lid, I took the matte peach "middle lid" shade and blended it with the shimmery peach. I really loved the way these two colors blended together, so I continued going back and forth with both of these colors on the middle lid, to create a richer version of the shimmery peach shade. Then I took the matte true coral "outer third" shade, and patted that on the outer third of my lid with a flat, stiff brush. I then went in with a clean blending brush and blended out any harsh lines.

After blending, the matte coral color began to fade, so I pumped it back up with another layer of the shadow. Then, to deepen it up, I took a combination of the fuchsia "outer V/crease" shades on a stiff domed brush and blended that into the outer V and even a little bit into the crease. This combination was super pigmented, but it did give just a small amount of dimension that really helped to bring the look together. To add another layer of depth, I added a warm chocolate brown in the outer V, only concentrating in the outer corner socket of my eye to deepen up the colors in the outer corner. Finally, I took the pale shimmery yellow shade and dabbed that on the inner corner of my eye to brighten everything up.

As a brow highlight, I used the Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eye Shadow in "Bella White." This shadow is fantastic as a highlight on pale skin like mine and it really helps to clean up a look. On my lower water line, I used the Rimmel Scandaleyes Kohl Kajal in "Nude" to brighten up my eyes. This is an important step since sometimes pinks and orange eyeshadows can make you look ill. On my lower lash line, I used the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in "Voodoo" (which was a gift from Ulta for my birthday and is not available for purchase, but any purple liner will work), and used a pencil brush to smudge out the color and add a bit of smokiness. On my lower lashes, I used the Laura Geller GlamLASH Mascara, which I have found is a phenomenal lower lash mascara, since the wand is so small! I didn't add any mascara to my upper lashes since I planned to add falsies, so I just lined my upper lashline with my Lorac Front of the Line Pro liquid liner, and winged it out.

For my brows, I used my latest and greatest obsession, the NYX Micro Brow Pencil in "Ash Brown," which is a dead-on dupe for the Anastasia Brow Wiz. I love this pencil because it creates such a natural looking brow while still creating a defined look! On my cheeks, I stuck with creams since I wanted a glowy, bronzed look. I used my Sonia Kashuk Undetectable Cream Bronzer where I normally would contour as well as on the high points of the face, blending into the hairline for a more natural look. On the cheeks, I used my NYX Cream Blush in "Tea Rose."

On this lips, I originally wanted to go for a true nude, but then decided to go for more of a plummy nude. To start out, I used Milani Color Statement Lipstick in "Nude Creme," then went in with "Plumrose" to add a deeper, warmer color.

Finally, to top off this fun and colorful look, I added my Ardell Curvy Lashes in #415!

Hope you enjoyed! I'm so happy to be feeling a bit more back to my old self. Color sure is the way to do it! Would you wear this look? Let me know in the comments, as well as if you have anything you would like to see me do!

- D.