MAC - The Seventh Sphinx

Here’s a peek of the face situation for a look going up later in the week. I wanted to dwell on the lipstick for a moment.

A bold lip is great for autumn/winter, yes, that’s true…but perhaps you’ve noticed how it’s always great, all the time?

I followed the principles of this tutorial by Lisa Eldridge (who we love*), which counsels neutralizing any redness in the face before going for a dark red or bordeaux lip – as any red or purple tones will be highlighted and amplified next to it – then tips for how to approach the task, which can indeed be daunting.

*here is another favorite lip-centric tutorial

I colored in the lips with MAC brick pencil and then went in, straight from the bullet, with MAC Dubonnet lipstick, a beautiful dark claret. Part of the idea of the pencil is to work out the shape of the lips with the more precise tip, which you then follow with the lipstick, coloring inside the lines, as it were. You can do corrections with a pencil – most people’s lips are somewhat wonky, mine definitely so – but I don’t often bother. It’s a lot of work (I find it really hard to figure out which is the part that needs fixing, my face is too familiar), looks even stranger than the actual shape up close, and…these are my lips. They look nice and human this way. Part of wearing bold lipstick is doing your best and then embracing that harmonious state of mind wherein you let these things (and all the other things that can go wrong) go. OR I go for that vague hazy stain approach, where you pat on the lipstick in a cloud of color, blot most of it away and leave the edges fuzzy: much more forgiving, and it has its own charm.

It takes me kind of a long time to do a bright/bold lip color…I am pretty slow anyway, and like to fuss and fiddle with the intensity and the edges (which are still wonky, after all that…). But I ask myself, do I want to wear it or not? I do, I do, I do.

There are two eyeshadow palettes I’m particularly looking forward to using for autumn, I think you’ll immediately see why.

The Sleek Sunset palette has those warm, rusty tones I’ve been banging on about for ages, and a great Mediterranean blue (if you want to try that bold pop of blue under the eyes à la the Marc Jacobs show, which I definitely do*). Nicely priced, too. The Dior Earth Tones palette (discontinued now but there are similar ones) is a lovely example of those muddy olive and burgundy tones I like so predictably every time I come across them. Rather staggeringly priced. Beautiful in application, though, quite a sumptuous formulation, and I’m feeling no pangs about it.

I never get tired of browsing great masses of colors, individually or in combination, and deciding which I like best, which I am drawn to the most. I think I will not disclose how long I spent trying to find the Dior palette once it had been chosen. Or once it chose me, as it so often seems.

*Experimentation is salutary.

If you’re curious, I’ll likely apply them with one or more of these favorite eye brushes.

Top to bottom: Sigma tapered blending brush, MAC 217, bamboo bdellium 785 (best value blender here, and so soft, though the Sigma brushes are well priced, too), Paula Dorf sheer crease brush (current favorite), Sigma E20, essence of Beauty crease brush (from the little drugstore crease duo), e.l.f. contour brush, e.l.f. eye shadow “C” brush (this is such an incredible value*, I think the blush brush is fantastic, too).

*essentially I believe in spending over $10 for a good blending brush (once you use a good one you understand that you aren’t going back to whatever you did before…however you don’t need this many. Only one. Or, for convenience, two, where one stays largely clean throughout the process for additional blending while the other deposits the color. Oh, just go watch Lisa Eldridge, OK?), but not for a flat shading brush.

All kitted out like this, you’d think I’d wear eyeshadow more often.

I intend to work on that.

Tag: MAC

the bold lip

autumn palettes