Collaboration: Three Ways to Wear It: Magenta Lips

One of the best things about blogging is the lovely people you get to meet.

Other girls who share my total addiction to all things beauty and can spend hours debating the merits of a palette or comparing lipgloss shades! 

Two of my favourite bloggers, Sonya from Once Upon A Glam and Kerry from KerryJustBeauty helped me out with some advice recently. 

We got talking on Twitter about what to pair magenta lipstick with - and we decided that each of us would do a neon pink lip look, styled up our own way and post the results.

 So, here is my post - you can read Kerry's here and Sonya's here.

I decided to go for a nude cat eye and dewy skin to bring out the fun, youthful vibe of a bright magenta lip.

Skin

To keep the base dewy, its all in the prep. After cleansing, I applied a thick layer of Weleda Skin Food and let it sink in.

Once it was all soaked up, I popped on some Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation using the Real Techniques Buffing Brush. 

This foundation is truly amazing and well worth the splurge - take a look at my in-depth review here.The coverage is enough to hide all your skin problems, but its still fresh and natural-looking. Its my holy grail foundation!

Time for a little contouring. My favourite thing at the moment (because I'm lazy) is the Urban Decay Naked Flushed palette, which contains a bronzer, a blush and a highlighter in one. I swept some of this on with the faithful Mac 168 brush.

 

To bring more light to the face, I highlighted using the No7 Instant Radiance stick. My obsession with anything in a crayon format continues....this is really nice, flattering shade as well. Its not too shimmery, but it just brings a really great illumination. I swiped it on and used my fingers to blend.

The whole thing was set with a quick spritz of Mac Fix Plus.

Eyes

To balance out such a punchy shade on the lips, I wanted my eyes to have impact, but anything too dark on the lids runs the risk of looking overdone.

I decided to go for a very natural cat-eye, using shades from the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette.

 

First, I primed my lids and browbones using Dainty Doll Eyeshadow base, to give a blank canvas and help the lighter shades show up better.

 

This can just be patted on with a fingertip for seamless blending. It will also help the shadows to last longer, which is good news.

Next up, the brows.  A strong brow works well with a bright, punchy lip as it helps to balance the face out.I've been practicising with my Anastasia Beverley Hills Dipbrow Pomade lately to get my arches the way I like them.

I used the Anastasia brush - one end has a spoolie for combing and shaping your brows, and then the blunt-cut synthetic brush helps you to apply the creamy product.

This stuff can come on waaaay dark and heavy, so I find its best to start with a very small amount of product on the brush and then build it up really gradually.

(Apologies these process pictures are poor quality. For convenience, I took them using the front camera of my iPhone, so they're all blurry! Next time, I'll allow longer so I can use my proper camera, but I was in a rush to get ready.)

 

Next, taking some of the shade 'Tease', a medium nude, on a densely packed shadow brush - this one is from Teez Cosmetics and came in a Glossybox. This shadow is a great neutral to use with pink tones on the lips, because it has pink undertones itself.

 

 

I applied this shade to the crease and outer corners to provide a subtle definition to the shape of the eyes.

 

Next, taking some of the shade 'Bootycall', I swept over the lids and inner corners, blending the lighter shade into the 'Tease' I'd already applied. This colour is a wonderful peach nude that brings lots of light into the eye.

 

Finally, to give the shadow some extra 'pop', I used some of the Baked Mono Shadow in 'Heavenly' from Makeup Revolution. These eyeshadows are gorgeous quality and they're priced insanely - just £1 each! They easily stand up to the UD shadows I'm using.

 

I tapped some of the gorgeous, shimmery champagne onto the very centres of my lids. This gives the eyes a 'wide awake' look and a glow, but is very subtle at the same time.

Eyeliner time! I grabbed my favourite 'felt-tip' liner, this is the Eyeko Skinny Mini liner. It's great for getting a precise shape, is super-black and the colour really lasts as well. A great choice for party make-up. 

 

This liner helped me to create a bold, graphic 'cat-eye' flick at the outer edges and get a wonderful shape. Its so easy to use! If you find eyeliner hard to get right, I thouroughly recommend it.

Back to some shadows, to finish the look off...

 

Some 'Blackout' on an angled liner brush helps to set the liquid liner and keep it firmly in place. It also adds a more diffused look to the cat-eye shape.

 

Then, using a normal liner brush, I ran some of the shade 'Snakebite' under my lower lash line. This is a great choice for adding more dimension, without being as harsh as black or giving the visual effect of smaller eyes that black can give. The brown shade is just dark enough, while the hit of shimmer gives more light to the eyes.

 

Lashes were curled using the magical Shu Uemura lash curlers (the best in the business, especially for pin-straight lashes like mine!), two coats of Mac In Extreme Dimension mascara and, of course, a pair of Eyelure lashes -style no 080, which are full and fluttery but not too dense.

As the final step, I applied under-eye concealer (doing it last means you can get rid of any shadow fallout without rubbing your concealer off!).

My choice is Benefit Erase Paste, here in shade 02.

 

I apply the concealer in a 'piece of pie' shape under my eye - this helps to visually draw down the shadows under the eye and lighten them. Make sure you blend well! 

Lips

For lips with electro impact, I've been reliably informed that Maybelline are the best of the drugstore brands. If you want bright lips on a budget, definitely check out their new selection of 'ColorSensational Vivids'.

After prepping my lips with DuWop Prime Venom, I used the Emite lip brush to apply a nice even coat of Maybelline's ColorSensational Vivids in 'Fushcia Flash'. A bit more of NYX The Wonder Pencil around my cupid's bow amped up the look.

The Final Result

And Voila! My take on magenta lips is fresh, funky and with a little bit of attitude!


Here is Kerry's look, using Revlon's 'Sultry Samba' as her magenta lip:

 

Check Kerry and Sonya's takes on the look- they're so beautiful, just like the ladies themselves! I've really enjoyed this little collaboration post and think we should do it again soon - what should we tackle next?