My go to fall makeup.

Once upon a time I only had one go to makeup. The makeup I wore everyday, didn't edit and change with my outfits, or the season or the weather. I wore the same eye shadows, blush and concealer everyday.  Now all those things change...pretty much daily.  But this fall I've been using the same color range over and over.  I like a bronzey gold eye with a dusty rose cheek.  Unfortunately I have too many options for products to achieve this.  And require about 6 individual eye brushes to achieve just the eye shadow look.  But it's always fun, always new and always makes me be creative first thing in the morning.

Here's the process-

1. Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream in Light to Medium.  It's the perfect base it offers beautiful coverage without being drying or looking like heavy makeup.
2. Under Eye Concealer- either my Pixi Color Corrector or my IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Undereye.  Both are super hydrating but the IT Cosmetics is a little light and I usually have to set it, so I only use that when the bags are really unruly. 
3. Fergie Wet 'n Wild Eyeshadow Prime. I love this stuff! It's cheap and it works great.  It's very tacky though so I need to let it dry for at least 2-3 minutes before I pack on the eyeshadow.  
4. NYX Eyebrow Powder and Wax Pencil. While waiting for my primer to set I use the wax eyebrow pencil to place my brows, then I use the powder to fill in the gaps.  The wax helps the powder stay in place and the brows. To apply my brow powder I use my Real Techniques Small Detail brush. 
5. Oh the eyeshadow process so many steps
1. Cream color all over the lid up to the brow- I use either L'Oreal Infallible in Endless Pearl or  White Chocolate from the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette- I use a flat Real Techniques brush for this 
2. Next I use a matte warm pale brown to warm up the crease like Salted Caramel from the Chocolate Bar Palette- I use a Maybelline brush I've had for years that doesn't have a name 
3. Then I layer a darker brown in the crease too but pull it down a little in my Chocolate Bar Palette I'll use Milk Chocolate and Semi-Sweet to build up different shades with the medium shade in the middle and the darker towards the outer v all while staying in the crease- I've been recently using the Up and Up eyes brush duo for this step
4. Next I decide if I want to just go smokey brown or burgundy and pick a satin finished brown or burgundy for the outer third of the lid and the lower part of the crease- I use the other Up and Up brush or a real techniques blending brush
5. Then I use a shimmery gold for the inner 3rd of the eye like Creme Brulee- I use a classic Sephora pencil brush 
6. Next I use eyeliner. Depending on how I feel I'll tightline with a brown khol pencil and then use brown gel liner from NYX for the top lash line, if lining the bottom lash line I'll use just a medium brown shadow with a smudger brush 
7. Next I move on to bronzer and use either my Tarte After Dark bronzer or NYC Bronzer in Sunny with a Real Techniques precision face brush
8. Then Blush from either Tarte After Dark or NYX Dusty Rose with an ELF small tappered brush
9. Then I highlight with my Tarte After Dark highlighter with an ELF small tappered brush as well
10. Next I add mascara. I've been loving my Urban Decay Subversion primer and Perversion mascara. I do mascara after bronzing and highlighting in case a get a little crazy and hit my lashes.
11. Then I finish up with lips, depending on how I feel I'll either just throw on a chapstick and call it a day or I love love love my Revlon Matte Balms or Kate Moss Rimmel pink nudes. They have good lasting power and don't stray too much.

Once everything is done I let it sit for a few minutes before topping it off with a setting spray. I have the NYX Dewey Setting spray or a homemade one from water and glycerin. I don't feel like either makes my makeup last any longer but it gets rid of any powdery look and add a touch of hydration on top.  And then I'm out the door. 

A quick history of my life with makeup.

I'm obsessed with makeup.  Of course I am, I'm so obsessed I started a blog about makeup.  In the last 8 months specifically my makeup obsession has grown to outrageous proportions. It's grown so much that strangers have started commenting on my makeup and friends/family ask me for makeup advice.

So how did it all start...I guess you can say it's my mom's fault (love you mom!).  Growing up we weren't allowed to wear "makeup" till we were in middle school.  And right before 6th grade my mom took me (and years before my sister) to the Clinique counter at Dillards or Foley's in the mall to get our first makeup.  I was so excited for my "makeover".  Clinique declared me and countless other teenagers in the 90s as "Tawny" I remember the blush, the eyeshadow duo in a sparkly orange bronze and a matte cream, and the black honey lipstick.  I also got all set up with their face care products, their standard face bar soap, the toner for dry skin and the regular yellow grandma smelling lotion.  This makeup routine carried me throughout middle school but as I slowly had to start supplying my own makeup I downgraded to a little more affordable items and also a little more nontraditional items like purple mascara and all the glitter. Anyone remember those True Color kiosks in the mall? They were loose pigment shadows before we called them that.

For as long as I can remember I've loved watching people apply makeup.  I used to love watching my mom put on her makeup.  I thought it was so cool how she blended her eye shadows together and used the dark brown as shadow and eyeliner. I learned how to apply mascara by watching her too- she'd start at the base of her brows, wiggle the brush and pull up. She wore cream blush  that looked super red till she blended it out and always put lipstick on then blotted it with a tissue.  These are things I remember.

Growing up my sister was the one who was better at makeup than me.  She used to rim her eyes with black liquid eyeliner and it made her look like she had rabbit eyes.  I thought it was so cool and pretty but could never recreate it- to this day I still suck at liquid eyeliner.  I loved watching Haley apply eye makeup too.  She wore a lot of greys where as my mom wore a lot of natural colors, so of course I stared wearing more greys, silvers and blues with black eyeliner.

In high school I still experimented with makeup a lot and at the same time not.  For a couple years every spring for Lent I'd give up wearing makeup.  But I also did musical theatre in high school so there was lots of experimenting with what stage makeup could do for you.  Whenever there was something fancy or formal to go to in high school I'd ask my mom or sister to do my makeup, I just always felt like they did it so much better than me.

It wasn't until college and after that my makeup use and abuse sort of leveled off.  I started just wearing pretty neutral colors, browns on the eyes, mauve-y cheeks and no lipstick.  Still at any chance I had I'd let someone else do my makeup though. I just always felt if I tried to do something out of my usual I'd mess it up and look like a clown.  There are numerous times where friends would tell me I had a little excess blush on.  I went through tons of different brands of makeup, for a while I was obsessed with Victoria Secret's Very Sexy makeup line, I still have tons of their quads and palettes. I tried Bare Minerals for a while but I was too clumsy for loose pigments. I used Glo Mineral Makeup for sometime and loved it, but not the price. Those brands got me pretty much through my early and mid 20s.

It really wasn't until 8 months ago that I started becoming obsessed with makeup, I was content wearing my natural looks.  Immediately prior to 8 months ago I was wearing very little makeup, some Too Faced natural eyes, Lancome Terra-cotta blush, brown eyeliner by whoever and black Maybelline mascara. I never wore foundation and my skin has always been too dry for allover powder.  Then 8 months ago I was cast in Little Women as Amy- a character 16 years younger than myself but more importantly Blonde.  Instead of doing the logical thing and just wearing I wig I volunteered to dye my hair Blonde. Not just Blonde, but platinum blonde. I went from dark dark brown hair to white blonde hair in about 5 hours. It completely changed the color of my face! Or at least my perception of the color of my face.  I felt washed out all the time and started applying more blush (always a mistake) and so I took to the internet to figure out what makeup works best for blondes.

And then I fell into the rabbit hole...

Down and down I went.  Starting first with Beauty Bloggers. There was so much great information out there! Bronzer, I needed bronzer! All over bronzers like Wet 'n Wild's Ticket to Brazil it was perfect for all over color, just enough to make me look less dead. Then I needed highlighter, just on the tops of cheekbones, brow bones and cupid's bow. I needed to put blush above the apple's of my cheeks and back towards my temple.  It was also painfully obvious I needed to start filling in my eyebrows, how had no one ever recommended it to me before! How dare a blonde have light eyebrows, they must be darkened up! Then one day a beauty blogger reference her favorite Beauty Vlogger.  YouTube.  I fell into YouTube. So many videos, so many product recommendations. Have you heard about this contouring thing? Matte lipsticks? Where have you been all my life!  I spent hours watching YouTube videos and making my lists of products I needed.

8 months later I haven't stopped. I dyed my hair back after 6 months, 6 months of being an unnatural blonde was plenty- fun- but I'd had enough. Going back to brunette I worried all my new makeup knowledge wouldn't be needed anymore, but luckily that proved not to be true. If anything it's gotten a little worse. As a brunette I feel like there are so many new colors available to me. I still have a classic natural look I like to throw on when I'm in a hurry, but life's too short not to have fun with  makeup! Time in the morning is often frequently too short to play with makeup too long. I've found myself rushing more than usual with the rest of my morning routine because I spend so much time playing with my makeup.

So I guess while I can blame my mom for my initial introduction into makeup, I can also blame the theatre, the internet and especially YouTube.  I haven't asked anyone else to do my makeup in quite sometime, but I still love watching other people do their makeup and love hearing about products other people are using. So this is going to be my makeup outlet, where I can share what I've learned, what I've discovered and what I'm trying and sometimes failing at.