How To Make Brown Eyes Pop

Happy New Year, Ladies! I hope 2009 brings a lot of happiness for you all!

So I've already revealed to you my obsession with Gossip Girl and now I'm a little embarrassed to say that I'm starting to get into The City, a spinoff of The Hills. The one good that has come out of this 1/2 hour waste of time is that I found an amazing way to make brown eyes pop, courtesy of The City star/New York socialite Olivia Palermo. Her makeup, especially eye makeup, is absolutely flawless on the show so I went hunting for some photos to replicate her look.


To make brown eyes pop:

1. Apply a mid-tone taupe (brown-gray color) like MAC Eye Shadow in Omega or MAC Eye Shadow in Patina to the eyelid. Build the intensity of the taupe shadow until your lids appear slightly darker than your normal skin tone.

2. Apply a medium brown shadow like MAC Eye Shadow in Cork lightly in the crease to contour.

3. Apply a shimmery gold shadow like MAC Eye Shadow in Ricepaper under the eyes from inner corner to outer corner.

4. Apply black liquid liner like Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink to the top lashline, winging the liner out just slightly at the outer edges of eyes.

5. Apply a dark brown pencil like MAC Technakohl Liner in Brownborder to the lower waterline of the eyes. To increase the drama, use black pencil.

6. Apply a lengthening and volumizing black mascara to both the top and bottom lashes, making sure to get the tiny inner and outer lashes. A trick to applying mascara to the lower lashes is to place a small piece of kleenex or toilet paper underneath the bottom lashes and apply mascara to the lashes over that.

Steal the Look: Kim Kardashian's Makeup for her 27th Birthday

One of our readers, Princess052091, requested that we do a makeup breakdown for Kim Kardashian on her 27th birthday...the look is from 2007 but in my personal opinion, its a beautiful look to ring in 2009 due to the warm, shimmery metallics on the eyes. Luckily, from her blog, we already know some the favorite products that Kim uses so its not difficult to replicate this look.

To get Kim's look:

Eyes: Even out the eyelids with a cream eyeshadow that matches the natural color of your eyelids. Kim uses MAC Paint Pot in Painterly, a nude beige color. If your skin is more tan, try MAC Paint Pot in Indianwood, a metallic bronze or MAC Paint in Bamboom, a beige brown color.

Line both top and bottom lashlines, including the bottom waterline, with a smudgy black eyeliner - Kim likes Stila Kajal Eye Liner in Onyx. Apply a shimmery gold eyeshadow like MAC Eye Shadow in Goldmine all over the lid up until the crease. Apply a champagne colored eyeshadow like MAC Eye Shadow in Nylon to the browbone. Apply a chocolate brown shadow like MAC Eye Shadow in Tempting in the crease. Drag down the brown eyeshadow to lightly shade underneath the lower lashes and to define and elongate the outer "v" of your eyes. For a little more drama, wet your brush with MAC Mixing Medium and apply a gold pigment like MAC Pigment in Old Gold to the middle of the eyelids.

Outline the eyes again with black eye pencil for definition. Finish with black mascara - Kim likes layering MAC Zoom Mascara in Zoomblack and Lancome Hypnose Mascara in Deep Black. Kim is definitely wearing false eyelashes in these photos so if you're up for it, stack some on!! I like Ardell's false lashes. I also just like using Cover Girl Lash Blast Mascara for fake looking lashes without actually using false lashes.

Cheeks: MAC Blush in Gingerly, which Kim uses, is perfect for the peachy tan look that she has in the photos. For a little more definition or for darker skin tones that need a little more color, apply a bronzer in the hollows of the cheeks and MAC Blush in Gingerly to the apples. Blend the blush and bronzer together.

Lips: For a very soft pink lip like the one in the photos, Kim uses MAC Lipliner in Stripdown, MAC Lipstick in Angel, a light frosty pink, and NARS Lip Gloss in Turkish Delight, a candy pink, on top. For darker skin tones, try MAC Lipstick in Sweetie, a rosy pink, topped with MAC Lip Glass in Pinkarat, soft-toned pink with gold.

Gorgeous Hair Goes Greek

Ancient Greece has inspired fashion looks ranging from column dresses to the one shoulder look...it has also inspired some gorgeous beauty and hair looks, including the one worn by Sanaa Lathan and Jennifer Lopez below. This stunning updo with a braided headband is perfect for those last holiday soirees! Best of all, it need not be perfect.

How to:

1. Brush your hair back and up into a high ponytail at the crown. Secure with a ponytail holder.


2. Take one to two inch pieces from the ponytail and pin the middle of the pieces to the crown, leaving the ends free. Continue until all parts of the ponytail are pinned up. If the ends of the hair that are pinned up look straggly, curl loosely with a curling iron.


3. Slide a metallic braided headband on. Go for colors that will complement everything in your wardrobe like, gold or silver. Try this cute gold headband on Ebay. Go for one or two or three headbands to achieve Sanaa's look and hold in place with pins. For Lopez's look, use a braided headband made from synthetic hair like this headband made by Braidies. Then, slide a simple headband in any color next to the synthetic braided headband.

Coral Makeup for Winter

Coral is typically a hue that makeup artists tout for spring and summer, but this winter, a number of celebrities have shown up at events wearing coral colored lips and cheeks. Coral looks especially beautiful on all varieties of tan skin tones. The current Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza, Deepika Padukone and Bipasha Basu all decided to go for the flattering color at recent events.

The key to wearing coral in the winter is to go for a very rich hue, mixed with brown or bronze, as shown by Dayana above and Deepika below. The brighter coral hue that Bipasha wears works as well, although its slightly more suited to spring and summer.

How to wear it:

Mix coral with golds and bronze like Dayana to make your face glow.

1. Apply a gold shadow all over the eyelids. Apply a bronze shadow in the crease. Apply a dark brown or black eyeliner to line eyes and finish with black mascara.

2. Apply either a coral blush or bronzer to the cheeks (see product recommendations below). Apply a slight bit of gold highlighter to the cheekbones.

3. Apply a neutral colored lipliner to the lips. Fill in the lips with a coral hued lipstick or lip gloss (see product recommendations below).

Product Recommendations

1. Lips - NARS Lipstick in Casablanca (bright coral), NARS Lipstick in Beautiful Liar (coral mixed with bronze shimmer), NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Sierra (burnt coral), Lancome Rouge Absolu Lipstick in Saffron Silk (spiced coral), MAC Lipstick in Vegas Volt (bright coral), MAC Lipstick in Charismatic (bronzed coral), MAC Plushglass in Big Kiss (coral with a bit of pink)

**For bronzy coral shades, look for shades that have a combination of the orange and brown that may be described as terracotta or burnt sienna, for example.

2. Cheeks - NARS Blush in Gilda (muted coral), NARS Blush in Torrid (bright coral with shimmer)

Pumpkin Pecan Facial Mask and Scrub

Pumpkins and pecans...these foods evoke images of autumn and Thanksgiving, which is when I came up with this DIY idea that acts both as a yummy face scrub AND a face mask! Pumpkin is rich in vitamins A and C, contains zinc and is extremely moisturizing. Pecans contain vitamins A, B and C and act as a natural exfoliant on the skin.

Pumpkin Pecan Facial Mask and Scrub

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of pumpkin puree (I used canned pumpkin puree - you can puree fresh pumpkin if you want)

1/2 tablespoon of plain yogurt (I used full-fat Fage Greek Yogurt which makes the mask super creamy)

1 tablespoon of ground pecans (I started off with small pecan chips and further ground the pecans with a mortar and pestle)

How to:

Mix the pumpkin puree with the yogurt until throughly combined. Mix the ground pecans into the pumpkin puree and yogurt combination. The mixture will be somewhat thick.

Depending on whether you want the mixture to be a mask or a scrub or both, you may want to vary the amount of pecans you add. If you want just a mask, leave out the ground pecans. For a scrub, add a tablespoon (or more) of the pecans to your desired texture. Remember to grind the pecans finely if you use the mixture as a scrub to prevent scratching your face.

As I opted for both a mask and a scrub, I first spread the pumpkin, yogurt and pecan mixture on my face and neck and scrubbed my face. When I was done exfoliating, I left the mixture on my face for a couple minutes to act as a mask. After a few minutes, I rinsed off the mask.

There's no reason why this DIY treat should be meant only for your face. Use it as a body mask! I ended up making more than I planned so I spread the mixture on to my arms and legs as well. Enjoy!

Enhancing Eye Makeup for Small Eyes

Ladies with small eyes need not fret...the key to applying makeup to small eyes is understanding principles of color and depth. Remember that having small eyes isn't a negative - its likely that small eyes gives you a very sharp look! There are many gorgeous celebrities with smaller eyes that know how to use makeup to enhance them, although some make common mistakes.

Case in point, Emmanuelle Chriqui has beautiful features - however, she makes her small eyes look even smaller by applying charcoal eyeshadow all over her lids. The dark color all over her lids makes her eyes recede and appear even smaller than they are normally.

On the other hand, you'll rarely see Gisele Bundchen, another beauty with small eyes, with tons of dark shadow on her eyes. In an Elle magazine interview (month unknown), Gisele gave the following advice on eye makeup, "If you're wearing smoky eye makeup, a little beige or gold pencil on the inner eye corners will open up the area, but you only want to do it if the shadow is really dark. Otherwise, light pencil makes your eyes look too far apart, like a fish. And I put black mascara on my top and bottom lashes because I have tiny little hamster eyes. With mascara, they seem larger."

True to her Elle interview, Gisele often keeps her eyes totally natural or if she does have eye makeup on, she applies light metallic shadows with tons of mascara. In the photo above, for example, Gisele has on a light gold shadow, black liquid liner on the upper lids only, a bit of brown liner on the bottom lids and black mascara.

Product Recommendations:

Eyeshadows: Stick with light colored, shimmery shadows that light up your eyes and bring your eyes forward rather than causing them to recede. Cream (MAC Shadow in Shore Leave), champagne (MAC Shadestick in Shimmersand) and gold (Bobbi Brown Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow in Gold) colored shadows are great neutrals to use for work or for going out. To add some color, peach (Bobbi Brown Metallic Eye Shadow in Golden Peach), light pink (NARS Shimmer Eye Shadow in Fathom), and lilac (NARS Eye Shadow in Night Fairy) colored shadows help break out of the neutral territory.

Eye Liner: Try using dark brown, gray or navy blue liner (try Bobbi Brown's Gel Eyeliner in Chocolate Shimmer Ink, Granite Ink or Cobalt Ink, for example) instead of black, as black tends to be a harsh color and surrounding the eyes in the black liner makes them look smaller. If you must use black liner, follow Gisele's lead and apply black liner on the upper lashline only and apply a dark brown pencil liner to the lower lashline.

Mascara: Any mascara that opens up the eyes works. Go with a formula that suits your lash needs, whether its lengthening, volumizing, or curling. Make sure to comb out your lashes to keep away any clumps and to open up your eyes.

Vitamin E Oil as a Dry Skin Cure

Over Thanksgiving, the flight home and changing climates wreaked havoc on my skin. Literally as soon as I stepped off the plane, I suddenly developed two extremely dry patches of skin on either side of my chin! My regular moisturizer wasn't doing much to help the dry patches so I turned to a product that I have successfully used in the past for extremely chapped lips - Vitamin E Oil.

Vitamin E Oil is an extremely concentrated oil that can be applied directly onto skin to quickly moisturize and heal chapped skin. The oil is used in tons of moisturizers and lotions that are on the market today - just check out the ingredients lists on these products and you'll see it!

Vitamin E Oil is thick and has no offensive smell. I simply dabbed the oil on the dry patches of my skin and blended into the skin. After using the oil once, the patches looked and felt significantly better. After using the oil for about three days, the dry patches were practically gone!

For extremely dry body skin, one can mix a little bit of the oil with regular body lotion and rub on for an extra moisturizing treat!

Vitamin E Oil is quite easy to find and can be purchased at numerous places online or at health food stores.

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2008 Makeup

**Ladies, I've updated this blog post on the VS 2008 fashion show makeup by adding a great makeup video from Charlotte Tilbury, the head makeup artist of the show, which is at the end of the post. There are some great makeup tips in the video, especially on how she does the models' eye makeup!**

I've pretty much given up on the fact that I will ever get a body as perfect as the Victoria's Secret models now that the gym is a mere thought rather than a reality. However, that doesn't stop my fascination with the VS models' makeup. I scrutinize close-ups of the models' photos, hoping that their beauty secrets will pop out and reveal themselves...

Well, luckily, blogger friend Phyllis at Makeup For Life has the scoop on the makeup used at the Victoria's Secret fashion show for 2008 that took place a few weeks ago (the show will be aired the first week in December):

"Lead makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury created this year's super sexy glamorous look with products from Victoria's Secret Very Sexy Makeup line. The overall look is a "doe-eyed Bambi. It is a little bit dreamy; like a chic silhouette. There is an innocence to it," said Tilbury.

"The models' eyes were drenched in shimmery gold and brown eyeshadows like Silky Eyeshadow in Chills, Mystified, Behind the Sheets, and Champagne and lined with Eyeliner in Dark Chocolate." Per the video below, Starry Eyed Silky Eyeshadow was used all over the lid. "High Definition Mascara in Blackest Black was applied to both top and bottom to give the most luscious lashes."

"To play up the cheekbones, Tilbury highlighted and contoured them with Mosaic Bronzer in Goddess, Mosaic Blush in Love Life and Heidi Klum Collection Blush in Jewels." Lips were line with the Lip Liner in Ginger Spice. Then, "apply a peachy color (Perfect Lipstick in Whisper) was applied and topped with a pale pink gloss (Lip Gloss in Intimate) and a nude brown (Heidi Klum Collection Lip Gloss in Cupcake), to complete the deliciously seductive look."

"The Victoria’s Secret Bare Bronze collection was also used all over to give models a radiant, bronzed glow." Thanks to Phyllis at Makeup for Life for the VS scoop!

I love the models' look, especially with the gold highlighted eyes and glowing cheeks. And, as you can see from the pics, the stunning brown models can rock the look just as well as non-brownies. Best of all, the look isn't difficult - no smoky eye with layered shadows to deal with. I can't wait to try this look out myself over the holidays!!

And now check out this video on how to get the Victoria's Secret makeup look!