Dramatic Makup

Here's my gorgeous friend Amie, who let me doodle on her face for an assignment. The goal was to pick a color scheme and do the entire face in it. As you might be able to see from the background, I used gold, black and bronze for my colors.

Amie has a lovely, warm complexion. I used Chanel Vitalumiere in 40 on the face, with a MAC NW25 concealer. I brushed her brows but didn't fill them in as I wanted the eyes and lips to be the focus.

On her eyes I used micas I purchased from TKB Trading, over a base of Urban Decay Potion Primer (original). I lined the eye with Clinique gel liner and went over it with Carbon shadow from MAC. The false eye lashes are from Ardene, and I applied L'oreal Voluminous mascara to top and lower lashes.

The cheeks, forehead and sides of the nose were dusted with a bronzer. Then, I used a bit of a black eyeliner on the lips, and followed with a touch of Tarred Lip Tar from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics. Over that I pressed a bit of gold-bronze mica -- just to the center of the lip. Using the Lip Tar thinned down (I didn't shake the tube to disperse pigment) allowed some of her natural lip color to come through, adding a warmth to the lip, and kept it from looking too goth.

The tattoo is a temporary one from Temptu that I applied to the skin and then went over with an eyeliner pen and a little gold mica for added dimension and warmth.

I'm really pleased with how the look turned out!

Making Lipstick

Last week I made 8 lipsticks. Yes, 8. I was like a woman obsessed with blending color. I'm not sure if I'll even wear one of them, but it sure is a pretty color.

Now, you can make lipstick a couple of different ways. You can find a recipe online to make it from scratch, or you can buy a kit. If you're new to the DIY cosmetic thang, or if you don't want to be bothered with the extra work, buy a kit. TKB Trading actually sells a couple of them.

I bought the Melt and Pour Kit which comes with premade colors and base, along with micas and other additives. TKB has a video on their site on how to make lipstick using the kit. You can order pots from them as well. Or, if you're really adventurous, or a makeup nut like I am, you can buy a small lipstick mold so that you have professional looking sticks. And TKB sells tubes to put the lipstick in as well. So does DIY Cosmetics. Both sites sell other bases, and tons of makeup-related items. Don't blame me if you spend a fortune!

To make lipstick, you simply melt your base and color together. Or, you can melt the base and add liquid lip color while it's still warm. Liquid color is colorant suspended in castor oil. Now, if you use these colorants, you might want to add a little extra beeswax to the base as the extra castor oil will make the lipstick softer. Also, only use shimmery mica if you want a shimmer to the color, otherwise, use a matte mica or dye. Be careful with these -- make sure they're lip safe.

I'm not going to describe the whole process in detail. Check out EnKore's how-to videos for a painless demonstration on how it's done.