10 Minute Summer Makeup

So sorry for the neglect! I started this post 3 weeks ago! Makeup Blog Fail!

It's summer! It's hot and the days are long and the last thing I want to do is be in front of the mirror for half an hour with the hot lights shining down on me and messing with my face.  In the summer I like to save time wherever I can- I don't know why since the days seem to never end, but I still like to save time with my makeup and make it as simple and hassle free as possible.  So I find myself using this makeup look very often.


I start with my primers as usual- It Cosmetics Feel the Moment Primer plus my Maybelline Masterprime Blur.  If I'm feeling a little splotchy or red I throw on my tried and true Olay BB Cream.  Then I cover my under eyes with Benefit's Erase Paste- amazingly in the summer I only need one concealer.  Then hit the lids with primer and move onto my brows.  I go back and forth between my NYX Brow Pencil or my NYX Brow Powder.

But the real time saver comes when we hit the eyes!

I learned a magical trick at the end of spring that if your cream eye shadow (or Maybelline Color Tattoo) dries out you can just stir that bad boy up and it's good as new. So at the beginning of summer I did just that and my almost used up Bad to the Bronze was perfect again.

I apply my Color Tattoo or the ELF Dupe in Cruisin' Chic all over the lid and up to the crease.  I just put a pretty thin layer on, if I wore the cream shadow by itself it would give a very natural bronzy look. I've been using my Real Technique's domed eye shader brush for the ELF cream shadow because it's hard to get into the pot, but with the Color Tat I can just use my fingers. Then I hit my brown bone with a cream eye shadow I'm loving this single Max Factor pan my sister gave me from a kit- it doesn't have a name. Or I'll use one of the cream colors from my Tartelette palette. Then what really does the trick and makes it look like you put in some effort is the bronze eye shadow over the top of the cream. I'm again using one of the Max Factor color's my sis gave me and it's gorgeous. I tried over and over again to make the L'Oreal Infallible in Bronze Taupe work but it came off very silvery and looked almost grey not cute.  This bronze however is perfect and has the right amount of gold shimmer in it and it's perfect for summer.  If I'm being fancy after I apply it with a flat brush I'll take the fluffy side of a dual ended Tarte brush and kinda wisp it out into the cream.

To finish the eye look I've been using my Tarte Smolder Eyes in Sunset Bronze and smudge it out on the top and bottom.  Then I just hit the lashes with whatever mascara I want and I'm done! Normally my eye makeup can take anywhere from 15-20 minutes if I'm taking my time and using a million shades of brown, but for this look it takes no time at all and I like it enough to wear to work and out on the weekends.

To finish up the face I do my usual bronzer, blush and highlight routine nothing new there.  I take NYC's Sunny as a bronzer and contour all over the perimeter of my face. I go back and forth between ALL my blushes for a blush.  Then I pick usually out of two highlighters to highlight with.  Spray my face with a setting spray, pop on some tinted lip balm and I'm out the door.

I need to time my full face makeup routine because it really does take a long time. With this makeup routine I've noticed I have more time to relax before I head off to work in the mornings, I can make a second cup of coffee, watch some YouTube or even read a little. It's been delightful. I'm 100% convinced cream eye shadows were made for just this purpose.

Prom Makeup 2015!

So my good friend HR Liz asked me to do her daughter's makeup for prom.  I am not a makeup artist and I haven't done another person's makeup since like...ever. I've never done another person's makeup. In high school I used to ask my mom or sister to do my makeup for special occasions, this whole makeup obsession is literally barely a toddler. So I was super flatter and terrified to be asked.

Her daughter is 15, a freshman, and was asked to PROM! I was never asked to prom. My junior year I went with a girlfriend and my senior year I wasn't asked so I didn't go...sad day. Her daughter and I do not share any similar coloring. She's fair with freckles, dark brown close to black hair and has greenish hazel ambery eyes (very pretty). Besides the dark hair we have nothing physically in common. She's wearing a beautiful black and white gown that is very sophisticated and classically beautiful. So I went to youtube for the answer.

My favorite YouTube Beauty Guru is EmilyNoel83 and a few years ago or two she did a deep and sultry look that I'm going to try to replicate.  Here are the tools I'll be using...

I'm doing Prom Makeup for a friend's daughter tonight, tested it on myself and these are the tools it requires. #prom #spring2015 #ohtobeyoungagain

A photo posted by Tyler Archer (@tyleralyse) on May 9, 2015 at 6:11am PDT

Because we don't have the same coloring I decided to utilize the BB Cream/Foundation she already uses.  This girl is advanced y'all she's using BB Cream from theBalm! I didn't even know about theBalm till like a year ago, it's good stuff. So not wanting to cover her gorgeous freckles too much I put on a very light layer of this.  Since she said she has kinda dry skin we also didn't use a primer.  Her skin is beautiful baby high schooler skin so she didn't need too much base at all.

For her eyes I took just a little bit of peach Pixi concealer to hide some of the blue under her eyes, not much we're talking about 15 year old dark circles which I wouldn't even bother to cover if I had them, but alas I have 30 year old dark circles, they're here to party.  Anyways back to the pretty girl- next I used an ELF eye primer on her and spread all over from lash to brow.  I tried to explain things as I went along about why I was doing certain things and Celeste tried not to seem too bored with my explanations ;)

I usually like to do something else while eye primer sets so we moved onto her face for a minute. I took the beautiful Park Ave Princess Palette from Tarte to warm up her face.  Because she has such pretty freckles in the center of her face we really only needed to bronze up her hairline and a little around her ears and neck.  I explained it all along the way and even tried to explain contouring before I realized it really didn't matter- this girl needed no contouring.  Then I went in with the pale pink blush in the palette showing Celeste how pretty it looked with her skin.  Then just a little champagne highlight from the palette on the tops of her cheeks and down her nose.

Next I broke into the eye shadow. I used my giant ELF palette with a million and one colors and my small Wet N Wild trio in Walking on Eggshells. I used the trio first with the pearly cream color under her brow and the shimmery pink all over the moving part of her lid.  Then I moved on to the ELF Palette monster. I found a medium shimmery taupe that wasn't too brown or too grey (definition of taupe anyone?) and added that on top of the pink over 1/3 of her lid starting from the outer corner. I was really trying to leave the inner and center corner bright. I put a pretty even layer of this color then decided we needed a dark shimmery brown for the outer v. I put just a touch of that shimmery brown in the outer corner and smudged some on the lower lash line as well.  At this point I stressed to Celeste the importance of blending out the eye shadow, blend, blend blend, I probably said a hundred times. Lots of back and forth from eye to eye to get it right.  When I was satisfied with the outer corner I took a little more shimmery pink to the inner lid and center to make sure it was sparklie enough!

At this point I commented on how still she was being and that she was being so good with keeping her eyes still and everything and she said she'd had a lot of practice being the guinea pig for her little sister.  Her little sister loves makeup too!

Then it came time to do the eye liner. Since I knew she was going to be dancing the night away we decided liquid eyeliner was probably going to be the best choice. I am not normally a liquid eye liner person and felt incredibly nervous doing her eye liner but she put her trust in me and I just went really slow and made it work.  After the first layer my beautiful subject did share that she usually wore a pretty thick eye liner which is a drastic contrast to what I normally do, which is an eyeliner you can barely tell is there.  So I went back in and thickened it back up.  For mascara I was definitely not going to try that on my own so I just had her apply her own mascara and come back to me for the rest.

She asked me to fill in her brows a little, and they didn't need much. She had recently had them waxed so the shape was perfect, but I added a little wax to hold them in place and then filled in a few sparse places. The final step was lips. I brought two shades for her to chose from and she went with the deep red NARS sample I got for my birthday.  It looked gorgeous on her, perfect choice.  Once her lips were applied I sprayed her down with some NYX Setting Spray and she was ready for the ball!

Before starting I asked Celeste a little about what she usually wears and she said maybe eye liner and mascara but that's about it, sometimes a BB Cream, but she seemed to have a pretty low maintenance makeup thing going on.  So while working on her I tried to keep that in mind so as not to go too overboard.

This was such a fun and scary and exciting project for me. It was fun to research prom looks and to help a little girl transform into a woman.  I should have taken a before picture, but one of my friends said I made her look 25...so I'm going to call it a success.  She looked gorgeous and was happy with the look which is the most important thing. I don't think I'll run out and start my own makeup artist business anytime soon, but if any of my friends want me to do their makeup now, I am way less likely to say no.