Last-Minute Halloween Costume - Bird Makeup

Last-Minute Halloween Costume - Bird Makeup

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cruelty free, Halloween Makeup, Makeup Tutorial, Tips

We've all been here- you have no Halloween plans and didn't think of a costume, then someone up and invites you to a Halloween party that night! What do you do?

Well funny enough I didn't plan on doing a makeup tutorial this year like I did the last 2 years (see my Cruella and Spider Lady makeups) becuase life's just been crazy. But due to many requests I tried to come up with something simple that I could do with the makeup I already have. And here's what I came up with!

Bird Makeup

This is an easy Halloween makeup that's versatile and you should own all the products you need to do it. Score! What I like about this is you can change the colors to fit your asthetic and you can be whatever kind of bird you want. 

I really wanted to use my Colourpop Yes Please palette because it's just a little too much for me to use daily but the colors are amazing... so here's my solution a fun red/yellow bird done in about 30 minutes. I call that a last-minute Halloween costume miracle.

What You'll Need 

• Base products (primer, foundation, concealer, etc...)
• Eyeshadows or a palette in your desired colors
• Liquid Eyeliner
• Mascara
• Lipstick
• Setting Spray
• Glue Stick
• Brushes

Getting Started

• Prep your skin as normal... moisturizer, primer, and eyelid primer
• Glue down your eyebrowss - take a glue stick (make sure it's washable and non-toxic) and paste your brows up and out so they lay flat - this makes drawing over your eyebrows easier
• Put on your foundation - be sure to put some over the ends of your brows and your mouth
• Add concealer where neccessary and powder it down - this is a great time to bake so your makeup will last all night!

Building Your Bird

• Pick a dark shade in your palette (I used a dark red-brown) and with an angled brush:
• Draw a line from under the front of you brow to the middle, flick up and out at the arch
• Extend front of brow down the nose to a point at the tip of your nose - fill in the brows
• Use your eyeliner to draw a long and fairly thick cat-eye wing, extend past your inner corner
• I used my post-it trick for the wing (see here)
• Use a medium-dark color (mine is red) to put in the crease and draw to mimic your brow lines
• Fill in the space on your lid and below brows - I used a sparkly orangeish color
• Blend some shadow on your lower lash line to define

Finishing Touches

• Fill in space in your nose "beak area"
• Add some lines to "feather" out your brows, under the eyes, around the nose, etc...
• Add highlight and sparkle to the edges of your forehead, tip of nose, and cheekbones  (I might have forgot the last 2 oops!)
• Contour with some darker shades from your chosen palette - I used a lighter orange-brown and a red-brown
• Focus under the cheekbones but higher up, towards the outer edges of your face
• Mascara and falsies, I didn't use falsies here but I think they would add some nice flutter to your eyes
• Spray with a setting spray! Let Dry
• Add your lip - draw on a shape that's small and rounder than your normal lips
• Add feathers!

This makeup only took me about 30 minutes, so you could definitely do this on short notice. This was my first take of doing as well because I wanted to see how hard it would really be. Also, the feathers in my hair are actually from my cats' toys! So if you have time to practice you can make it look even better. 

I hope you all have a Happy Halloween and would love to know what you're dressing as this year. Comment below!

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2 Exciting Cruelty-free Drugstore Foudations

2 Exciting Cruelty-free Drugstore Foudations

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cruelty free, Halloween Makeup, Haul

I've been on the search for an amazing foundation, as I'm sure we all have at one time or another. I'm looking for one with light-to-medium coverage, that's a natural finish, and for all-that-is-holy doesn't look cakey. And damnit everything seems to look cakey on me. I'd spent hours in Sephora swatching my hand and found nothing that seemes interesting. It wasn't until I was at Ulta with my mom that I found 2 options that caught my eye.

On a whim I bought them both and I'm so glad I did! These 2 foundations have impressed so much more than the dozen I tested from high-end brands. 

Okay no more gushing, here are my 2 new favorite foundations!

The Everyday Foundation

Physicians Formula - Mineral Wear Talc-Free All-in-1 ABC Cushion Foundation

This is an extremely lightweight foundation that evens out my skintone and provides just enough coverage to make me do a happy dance. Also great pluses; it contains SPF 50 (which is awesome!) and it doesn't look cakey! Also, it seems to last a good 6-8 hours on my skin, which is a rarity indeed. Score! For only around $11, I think this stuff is awesome for everyday wear. 

To use: I use mostly the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush (which I wrote about here), I just dip it in the cushion and away I go! 

The Custom Coverage Foundation

NYX - Total Control Drop Foundation

A few years ago I wrote about the Cover FX Cusom Cover Drops which I really liked but I found it hard to justify buying the foundation plus a good medium to mix it with... talk about pricey! So I was very excited to learn that NYX just launched a similar product for around $14 - which is a little expensive for the drugstore. But it's worth it, trust me. 

You can customize your coverage by using more or less drops. It blends and spreads out pretty damn amazingly across your face and provides a nice natural/satin finish. The staying power on this is about the same as the Physician's Formula, though I do find that I get a little extra shiny while wearing this. Nothing some powder can't fix. 

To use: I would suggest a Beauty Blender or Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge (That's what I have been using) for a flawless finish. I dot the drops right on the sponge and then dab it all over my face before I blend it in. I use 3 drops for a medium coverage and 4-5 for high coverage. 

Half of me wants to say shit, I wasted my time with all these other products and testing! But the other half of me says yay! If I hadn't tested all those other foundations I wouldn't have recognized the gold on face!

I hope you all find your dream foundations too! And I'd love to hear what you're loving currently in the comments below. 

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Halloween Makeup: Spider Lady

Halloween Makeup: Spider Lady

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cruelty free, Halloween Makeup, Makeup Tutorial

It's that time again, Halloween! I love this time of year, I get so excited for the start of the holidays (yes I include Halloween in this). But the real fun of Halloween is picking your costume. You get to decide who you want to be for the night; something sexy, something scary, creative, store-bought, homemade, makeup, etc... Choices!

After Halloween last year (see last year's makeup here) I found an amazing spider necklace and decided I would be some sort of spider queen. Unfortunately, my crown became more of a hat, so I call this the Spider Lady or Lady of the Spiders...whichever you prefer. You def need flexibility in costume creation!

This is a great look for a last minute costume as you can really do it with just makeup- and maybe the hat. It's an easy costume that's super dramatic and fun. So sit tight and see the magic unfold:

Face

I used a light foundation as a base with light concealer under my eyes and around my nose. I then powdered with a white highligher to bring the color even lighter. I contoured using some grey-brown and grey eyeshadow. This took a while with a lot of blending but I think it adds a gothic feel to the look. Then I added a bit more of the highligher on the high points of my face.

Eyes

A gray smokey eye look that's great for hooded eyes! I used the sticky note technique to get a sharp line like I did here. I went in with a fluffy brush and the same gray-brown eyeshadow from contouring, then darkened it with a medium gray eyeshadow and a smaller fluffy brush. 

I then took a small brush, mine is a lip brush and I love it for detail eye work. I took a dark gray and drew a cut crease right above my crease. Then I made sure that everything was blended up. To make the cut crease stand out and brighten up my eyes, I packed a white shade with a flat brush on my lid. I was careful to bring it right to the cut crease line to clean up that area. 

I finished off the eyes with a black winged eyeliner, and black liner in the water line and tight line. I smoked out the bottom with gray eyeshadow and cleaned everything up. 

Lips

Wow, these are some lips for a lady who never wears lipstick, but I absolutely love how it turned out. First, I lined and filled in my lips with liner. Then I used the liquid lipstick to darken the color. I had to do a few coats though - to be honest, I wasn't thrilled with the quality of this lipstick, it never went quite opaque. Then to  add depth to the lips I used a black eyeliner to liner to line and fill in the corners of my mouth. I think it turned out so cool.

Spiders

I used black liquid eyeliner to draw in the web and spider. I definitely suggest practicing this first. Spider tip: 3 pairs of legs come out of their middle and then 2 come out of the front. I could have done more, but the makeup took so long I didn't want to chance making a mistake!

Finishing Touches

When I was going to be a Spider Queen I knew I would need a crown. Unfortunately, when I looked for one all I could find was a black fascinator (hat with headband attached). So I thought,"What the hell, I'll get creative!" 

I bought some fake spiders and went to town with the glue gun. I also trimmed the lace on the hat. I didn't want to cover the awesome makeup.

Then voila! I was a Spider Lady!

Makeup I Used

Below is the makeup I used for this look:

What's your favorite part of Halloween?

What are you going to be this year?

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