Sunday, October 23, 2011

Day 23 of The Great Makeup Challenge






Day 23 of 365 of The Great Makeup Challenge: Halloween Angel!  Over the last week, almost everyone I've spoken with has mentioned that they will be attending a Halloween party.  Additionally, most of them have asked if I'm going to be doing any Halloween makeup on my blog.  Initially, I wasn't going to, but then I started thinking.  It seems that everyone debates and plans carefully for their perfect Halloween costume, but how good is the costume without makeup?  Without coordinating makeup, the costume can look disjointed or incomplete.  So, starting today through Halloween (October 31st), I will do different Halloween makeup ideas based on some of the most popular costumes.  With this challenge, however, I definitely need some help from you, my followers!  If you have a costume that you'll be wearing and want me to create a coordinating makeup look, write to me via reply post, ask via my Submit page above or Email Me!

For my first day of my Halloween challenge, I decided to start with an angelic look.  The angel costume is a traditional favorite, whether its the super sexy or demure version.  Regardless of the style of angel, most angelic costumes involve two  main elements: (1) the color white; and (2) something shimmery or glittery.  Using these two elements as my guidelines, I created my version of an angelic makeup look.


What you will need:
Instructions:
First and foremost, no matter what makeup you will be wearing this year for Halloween, one of the most important things you need to do is getting your skin ready.  With such heavy applications of makeup that coincide with Halloween costumes, the last thing you need is to have it flake, peel, crack, etc.  To prevent this, I first recommend exfoliating your skin and lips a day or two prior to your event.  Second, the day of your event, I recommend opting for slightly heavier moisturizer to help prevent your skin flaking or drying out from the makeup.  Third, and I think most importantly, I recommend applying a really good face primer!  For today, I followed all of these recommendations.  For my primer, I opted to use Sephora Perfecting Ultra-Smoothing Primer, a clear primer that glides on and smooths out your entire skins surface.  I've used it many times in the past, and I know that it helps makeup to go on smoothly, prevents creasing and flaking, and it helps the makeup to stay put all day!  I applied the primer to my entire face and neck.  I applied it to the neck because a lot of costume makeup does need to extend to the neck area so that it doesn't look like you're floating head.

Now, when I think of what an angelic face should look like, I think of skin that is pale and glowing.  Accordingly, I knew that my base for today would be very important.  To start, I recommend that you apply a foundation that is one to two shades lighter than your natural skin tone, unless you already have pale skin.  For me, I didn't have any light foundations on hand, so I improvised.  I actually used a light concealer that I owned and didn't use anymore (due to the fact that I discovered the amazing power of Benefit Erase Paste).  I applied the concealer over my entire face and neck, including an application over my eyebrows and lips.  The entire goal was to create a 'white-out,' nullifying any color on my face and neck so that it was all one tone.  Since the concealer was a lighter shade, it helped to immediately lighten my entire skin tone, covering the pale element of the angelic look.

For the glowing element of the look, I began by applying Sephora's highlighting Base Sublimatrice Primer to the entire face and neck area.  I topped this with a dusting of the lighter shades in the  Wet 'n' Wild MegaGlo Illuminating Powder in Catwalk Pink palette.  Essentially, I applied this as if it was my powder, adding to the overall glow and also setting the base.  For my cheeks, I dabbed on a healthy dose of cream highlighter to the apples of the cheeks and along the cheekbones.  I then added an extremely light dusting of a shimmery peach blush to just the apples of the cheeks.  After all, I'm sure even angels blush.

When considering how I would design the makeup for an angelic look, I decided that the eyes should be the focal point of the look.  My vision was to create a 'mask' using white shadow.  Essentially, the goal was to apply eyeshadow in a shape à la the Zorro mask.  I began by lining the inner rims of my eyes with a  white eyeliner.  I then applied the white eyeliner to my eyebrows as if it was a brown liner.  My eyebrows are dark, so I had to apply the white eyeliner heavily.  The shade of your eyebrows will dictate how much or how little white eyeliner you actually have to apply to them.  The goal is to get them as white as possible.  I then finished up using the white eyeliner by applying it to my lips as if it were also a lip liner.

Next came the important part: the eyeshadow.  Using a shimmery white color, I swiped the eyeshadow across the entire eye area, from the inner corners across the lid and to and over the brow.  I then swept the eyeshadow under the eye, from the inner corner all the way out to the temple, forming one side of my 'mask.'  Next, I applied the eyeshadow across the bridge of the nose to the other eye, and repeated the look on the opposite side to complete the 'mask.'  I kept applying the eyeshadow until I reached the shape and color saturation that I was looking for.  Once I was satisfied, I applied a clear loose glitter eyeshadow over the entire 'mask' area.  Additionally, I dusted a light amount of the glitter eyeshadow over the rest of my face, down my neck, and on the top of my chest.  Don't be afraid to use the glitter!  After all, this is Halloween is just about the only day of the year that you are given a free pass to go makeup crazy without people thinking you've actually gone crazy!  To complete the eye look, I decided to add two coats of mascara to the top lashes only.  I found that this allowed my eyes to stand out a bit.  Of course, you can opt not to apply mascara, or even to apply a white mascara.  The choice is yours!

To finish my angelic look, I applied a light coat of shimmery gold lip gloss to white lined lips.  On a note, I used Philosophy Lip Shine in Vanilla Birthday Cake, which not only gave the  soft glow I was looking for, but it also really did taste like birthday cake!

Overall, I was quite happy with the end results of my angelic look.  Throw on a set of angel wings, and you're set!

Stay tuned for tomorrow, when I'm going to go in the opposite direction of today and take on some devilish make up.  In the interim, if you have a costume or Halloween theme idea that you want me to try out this week, write to me via reply post, ask via my Submit page above or Email Me!   I welcome the challenge!

Don't forget to share your Halloween makeup photos and tips, ask any questions you may have, or share any ideas you want me to try out via reply post, my Submit page above. or Email Me!
See you tomorrow for Day 24 of The Great Makeup Challenge!

Note: All products I recommended above are available from Sephora, Ulta, your local department store, your local drug store, or through Amazon.com.

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