If I’m honest, I’m actually a Winter person. Partially because it’s my birthday and partially because I don’t like being too hot. It’s much easier to fix being cold (like adding an extra layer) than it is to fix being hot. Let’s just say, I’m not a strong swimmer.
That being said, summer looks are the
best. Warm coppers and golds, bright
colours, highlights for days! Yes, please! So today, I’ve created a step-by-step
tutorial for the look I like to call “Glow to the Gods”. I did this entirely with selfies because
nobody was at home to help me, so please forgive the somewhat mediocre quality
(I say mediocre because I think I take a half decent selfie, thank you very
much!).
I’m a skin first kind of girl, so I
started off with Catrice Prime and Fine Beautifying Primer. I’ve tried this primer with other non-Catrice
foundations and I found that my skin got ultra-oily ultra-quickly, so I don’t
recommend using it with anything else. I
blended some “Girl meets Pearl” from Benefit for some extra glow under my
foundation, just below my eyes (best tip ever from the Benefit guy at Cresta
Red Square) to brighten up the area. For
foundation, I used Catrice Even Skin Tone Beautifying Foundation in 010 “Even
Vanilla”. This is actually one of my
favourite foundations, regardless of whether it’s for during the day or in the
evening. It’s a super lightweight
formula that that doesn’t block my pores at all. I don’t really have large pores so it’s more
difficult for me to judge coverage (although if my mole on left cheek
disappears under it, it’s generally full coverage). I would say this foundation is medium
coverage but it’s definitely buildable.
For concealer, I used Essence Stay All Day concealer, which honestly I
don’t care for. It’s just the only
liquid formula concealer that I have and I thought that it would be better for
a more dewy look. I used it to highlight
under my eyes, down my nose, on my cupid’s bow and my jawline. I think it’s important to note here that I
did not highlight my chin, as is custom with the Insta-girls. I genuinely do not like my face-butt chin, so
I do not highlight it. I think the only
makeup rule that should be allowed is: BLEND!
I admit that using a matte fixing
powder is not wisest when you’re going for a dewy, glowy look, but I decided
that a light coat to set my foundation and concealer was necessary to avoid
smudging. I used Essence All about
Matte! Fixing powder for this. Dusted
loosely on a powder brush was just enough to set my makeup. Then I used Benefit Hoola bronzer and brought
some colour to my pale face (don’t worry, it’s usually that colour). I also did some light contouring on my
cheekbones, down my nose and a little under my bottom lip. Again, you’ll have noticed with concealer I
only highlighted a tiny triangle at the top of my fivehead. I brought my bronzer a little further down to
create shadow and almost hide it.
For blush, I used the peach shade in
the Catrice Blush Artist shading palette in “CorAll I need”. I applied this on the apples of my cheeks
(hence the cheesy grin) and brushed it up my cheekbones. I made sure to concentrate the colour though
on my apples.
Then I moved onto eyebrows. I love the Benefit Soft n Natural Eyebrow
kit, which contains a Goof Proof Pencil, Gimme Brow eyebrow gel and High Brow
highlighting pencil, as well as some stencils with a little holder thingy
(which I don’t use since my brows decided what they’ll do, not me).
Firstly, I am acutely aware that an
appointment with my waxing lady at Sorbet is necessary. Secondly, I have to be honest and say that
I’m not into these feathery brows that are blowing up Instagram. I’m just not.
So when I do my brows, I first brush them up with the spooly on the Goof
Proof pencil and then I tend to start feathering out in the front and on the
tail (I really don’t need that much help in the middle). Then I brush them again with the spooly and
end up adding more in the front so that my brow is fairly dark and less
feathery than how it started. Then I
highlighted the entire underside of my brow and the top of my tails (this is a
glowing look, after all) with the High Brow pencil. I love this pencil for a whole host of other jobs
like lower lash lining and inner corner highlighting too, but it’s quite thick
so make sure you blend it out with your finger gently.
For eyes, I started with my Nyx
eyeshadow base in “white pearl”. This is
best applied with a brush and then blended out with your fingers (I learnt the
hard way). To set it, I applied the
white shade of the Essence All about Bronze eyeshadow palette. I also smudged the eyeshadow base under my
eyes a little and also set that with the same eyeshadow.
It was at this stage that I discovered
that I probably should have tested this look out first before I did a full-on
tutorial. The colour I used first for my
crease, third from left in the top row, was a lot more pigmented and darker on
my skin tone than I expected. I tried to
rescue it with the colour on the left of it, second from left in the top row,
which worked moderately well. Looking at
the photos now, I actually can’t believe I even thought that colour was a good
transition shade. Anyway, I was in too
deep at that stage, so I just carried on like I meant to do it. I blended the two colours into my crease and
my outer V. I planned on adding the dark
shade at the end of the top row, but changed my mind at the last minute and
left it out. I’d done enough damage
already. I also smudged the darker shade
under my lower lash line.
For the finishing touch, I used the
pinky-gold shade, first from the left in the top row, and tapped it onto my
entire lid with my ring finger. I
brought it right down to my inner corner too.
I used the same blending brush to blend out any sharp edges between the
darker colours and the pink colour.
For liner, I used a white pencil
(Essence Winter Wonderland eye pencil, Cold as Eyes) for my lower waterline and
a black pencil (Essence Long lasting eye pencil, Black Fever) for my upper
waterline. I used Essence Liquid Ink
liquid eyeliner to line my lashes on my lid, but purely so my lashes wouldn’t
look so stark. I didn’t make a wing or
anything. Honestly, I should have used
the pencil for this step. The liquid
liner is fairly easy to apply, but I’ve had horrific experiences with it where
it cracks and crumbles after a few hours and wipes off like nothing, despite
its waterproof claim.
For my lashes, I curled my lashes and
applied a coat of Clinique High Definition mascara. The face is because I absolutely hate curling
my lashes. The right ones are fine but
the left always hurt, for some bizarre reason.
The lashes I used are Eylure No. 101 Volume. For a daytime look, I absolutely love these
shorter length lashes. They add the
right amount of glam to a casual outfit.
I literally wore these last Saturday with a vest, jeans and a messy bun,
and they didn’t look out of place. I’m
not going to talk about how I got them on, because I’m so bad at applying
lashes. My process, basically, is hold
with tweezers in the middle of the lashes, apply glue, blow, stick to the
centre of your eye and hope for the best.
I often have to apply the same lash twice on each eye.
For lips, I first dabbed my lips with
a drop of Bio-Oil and then applied Essence Long lasting lip liner in “In the
Nude” all over my lips. I also overlined
my lips slightly, because, well, I don’t really have any. I then let that dry a few minutes before
applying an Essence lipstick called “Wearing only a Smile”. I generally prefer lighter nude or pink
shades on my lips, especially colours like this, because they almost match my
skin tone, so firstly, not that much attention is drawn to my lips, and secondly,
if you do look at them, you can’t be quite certain where the lip starts and
ends. It’s kind of a like a magic
trick.
For highlighter, I used Catrice High
Glow Mineral Highlighting powder. This
highlighter is ultra-pigmented and if I could bathe in it (or, realistically,
set my foundation with it), I probably would.
I applied this all along the tops of my cheekbones, under my eyebrow
(over High Brow), down my nose and on my cupid’s bow. I also used my finger and dabbed it on my
lips for some sparkle.
And this is the result: Glow to the
Gods. Warm copper and bronze tones on
the eyes with gorgeous dewy skin. I
think I’m a little in love with this look.
There’s a strong possibility I’ll be wearing it heaps this summer.
This past week has seen an upturn in
my numbers since I gathered the confidence to share my page on my Facebook
page. I’d just like to say that I am so
grateful for each and every one of my friends and family who have supported me,
and even the people from school who didn’t really know me because I was the
wallflower.
Wishing each one of you all the love
and light in the universe ♡♡♡