Ransom Smokey Eye

Before I get into this blogpost I just need to say I am a makeup enthusiast .. All my makeup knowledge is from watching YouTube videos for the past 3+ years and I've grown a good collection of makeup for the average girl.  It's nothing too crazy, really but once you get to the point of having a few different foundations you wear depending on the look you want .. it's a collection.  I have a few Mac foundations and a few MaryKay and I like each of them but again, I wear each one depending on how I'm doing the rest of my makeup.

Also .. these photos were taken with my phone so they're not as great as if I were to have a professional camera and although when I look at the photos today I'm pleased but I remember being disappointed when I initially took the photos - the makeup looked better in person.  I do have another camera I could potentially try out next time.  Plus I wish I went outside instead of just being next to a window.  It would've been the perfect day/time to take photos outside.

 

Anyways here is a before and after of the makeup I did last weekend.  I didn't have anywhere to go, in fact I was home all weekend with a sick baby but when she was taking a bath I thought it would be fun to experiment with  my makeup - if it turned out totally awful at least I didn't have to redo my makeup before leaving the house.  I was quite pleased with how it turned out, however I already know how to make it better for next time.

I really can't say I can think of a photo of myself posted anywhere without any makeup at all.  So that's what I look like in case you were wondering. Ha.  On a day to day basis I try to do my makeup not so cray cray and more with browns and tans for my eyeshadow.  And even though my foundation might vary the bronzer/blush typically stays the same.  I have a few different highlighters and concealers but mostly stick with what I'll share in this post.

 

I knew that I wanted to a smokey eye and this is a very similar look I did for Courtney's bachelorette party (I posted it on my Instagram back in September & that look was brighter on the inner corners and I used a teal blue as the transition).  Below I'm going to list the products I used and how I created this look and at the end of the post will be close ups of my eyeballs.

 

I first filled in my eyebrows with my Anastasia Beverly Hills Go Brow Kit (in medium brown).  I like this kit because it's simple and I really just started filling in my eyebrows this past year.  Plus it's small and I wanted to try it out before committing to buying things for my eyebrows.  I was never really a fan before of filling them in but if you're going to go all out on your makeup for a look like this, your eyebrows need to be done.  Especially since mine are already so light. (With that said, the photos make it appear like I didn't touch them .. for photos I should fill them in darker to have a better balance but when I did it .. didn't look so great.  Good thing I took enough photos before messing them up!)

 

I then primed my eyes with Urban Decay's Primer Potion sometimes I use my concealer for this step and it's *mostly* random what product I use for that.  I did use my Mac Prolong Wear Concealer to carve out the bottom portion of my brow.  I knew I wanted to put a very light color for my highlight so that's why I wanted to use my concealer, I feel like it shows lighter colors better.

 

My eyeshadows for this look came from Urban Decay's Deluxe Shadow Box (I see this at Nordstrom Rack all the time and it's a great price!!) and the first Naked Palette.  Refer back to these photos to see the shadows I used.

 

Urban Decay Deluxe Shadow Box

Urban Decay Naked Palette

Eye Makeup Steps:

1. Applied "Virgin" (Far left shadow from the Naked Palette) to my brow bone for my highlight.
2. Applied "Naked" (Third from left from the Naked Palette) with a big fluffy brush above my crease and slightly blended into my brow bone.
3. Applied "Ransom" (Top right corner of the Deluxe Shadow Box) with a fluffy brush into my crease.
4. Applied "Zero" (Center of Deluxe Shadow Box) with a flat shadow brush and packed that on all over my lid NOT going into my crease.  Because of my eye shape, next time I would stop Zero sooner because when I blended it out into Ransom it was darker than I had intended.
5. Using a blending brush I blended Zero into Ransom and in my opinion, blending is the most important thing when doing any eye look. 
6. I lined my waterline and tight line with Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in "Zero".
7. I put Ransom on a small brush and blended that on my bottom lash line and then I put my Zero eyeshadow closer to my lash line and blended that all out.
8. I used my E.L.F. black liquid liner to line my top eyelid but I did not wing it out.  I love the way that it looks winged out but..I feel like there are some YouTubers that I watch that do it every single time and .. no.  Let's mix it up. 
9. I applied a coat of mascara to my lashes and place my Ardell "Wispies" on top.  I seriously love these lashes.  
10. The last thing I did was add more Virgin to the inner corners of my eyes to help brighten them up.

This photo is with my eyes *mostly* completed (no false lashes yet).  I also have my foundation on but nothing else.  In my first step below I describe cleaning up the edges of my eyeshadow so take a look at my bottom eyeshadow and see how as it goes up and meets my eyeshadow on top, well, it's straight instead of "blown out".  Hopefully this photo helps with my description below.

 

Face Makeup Steps:

1. I first used some makeup remover on a Q-Tip to remove any fall out from my eyeshadow and to create a solid line on the outer edges of my eyeshadow.  Cora (from YouTube) gave a great tip in a video recently and that was to start the Q-Tip at the top and bring it down.  It really makes a difference compared to going in the upward motion.  I don't always make the edges of my eye shadow straight like this.  Most of the time I leave it "blown out" depending on the look I'm going for.  
2. Since I have such a dramatic, night eye look going on I typically prefer a matte foundation - I save the dewey look for my lighter eye looks or for during the day - I used my MaryKay TimeWise Matte-Wear Liquid Foundation. I blended that all over my face with a stippling brush.
3. I used my Mac Prolong Wear Concealer again for underneath my eyes and here's a tip that Christian (from the Bridgeport Mac store) told me about concealing my dark circles: only add concealer on the dark parts of what you're concealing, blend it and build as needed.  I have a few dark lines that almost frame my bags so I spend some time on that when I really want to hide them.
4. I set my under eye make up with my Bare Minerals Veil.  I mostly use this since I don't have anything else, it is shimmery but since most of my eyeshadows I own are I feel like it's okay .. haha. Jacklyn Hill (from YouTube) used Mac Pro's "Emphasize" and I really like that and would love to get myself one but with it being fall and winter now I would want something not to white.  I do want to get something else to use for when I want a really matte look and not so glittery.  I did initially buy this for a highlighter but I ended up using it this way.  I also placed a little bit of this powder on my cupid's bow .. another tip I learned from Jacklyn.
5. I bronze up my face by adding Mac's Bronzing Powder to the hallow of my cheeks and around my hairline.  I don't really "contour" my face but I do give it more dimension by adding the bronzer.
6. When it comes to blushes I normally use one blush for a few months and then switch it up.  I bought Mac's "Blush All Day" back in September and I totally love it.  I told Christian exactly what I was looking for in a new blush and he handed me this one and I seriously love it so much.  All summer I've been using a bright pink so it's a nice change to still have pink cheeks but something better for fall. (In the past I've also used "Dame" and "Springsheen" from Mac as well.)
7. I then powder the rest of my face with the Mac Mineralize Foundation/Loose.

After adding some bronzer and blush.

For my lips I used the Kardashian Nude Lip S"et "Au Naturel.  And that is it.  My look for staying at home all night long haha.  Next time I do a look like this I want to use "Fishnet" (Top left corner from the Urban Decay Deluxe) and take it more easy on the Zero.  

Again, here is the final look and then some close ups of the eyes.  I was experimenting taking photos and yeah .. not super happy about how they turned out but..whatever.