Making Up Reasons

Q&A - Volume I



Although I am not a makeup artist, I am an avid consumer and during my many years of buying/applying/thinking about makeup I seem to have collected some bits of advice.  My friends seem to go to me for beauty-related questions and I think it's helpful to put some of my responses in blog form.  Since I am not a professional, please take my advice with a grain of salt but also see if you can find anything of value to you in these posts. Hopefully you find it as interesting as my closest girl friends at least!

1. What's the point of the grey cast caused by many popular Korean BB creams?

This really is a question that applies to BB creams from Asia and specifically Korea.  It seems most BB creams that can be purchased in American drugstores or the majority of high-end BB creams as well act more as tinted with a stable tint that doesn't adjust as it comes in contact with the skin.  Korean BB creams act differently and many have a definite "grey cast" when they are first applied on the skin.  I can't be certain what the ingredient is that causes this strange color (titanium dioxide is my best guess) but what I do know is that I prefer these types of BB creams so much more than the tinted moisturizer that just have "BB" splashed on their label for marketing reasons.  That in itself could constitute an entire separate blog post but to get to the point of the question, I believe that Korean BB creams do adjust somewhat to skin tone and the greyness has an immediate brightening effect.  The grey kind of makes your face a little scary and stark at first, but then the other brightening effects of BB creams kick in.  As soon as the grey cast goes away (and it will) as the BB cream dries down, the finish becomes dewy and the color adjusts itself to be much more skin-toned.

Bottom line: the grey cast goes away and has an initial brightening effect but will eventually adjust to a color that is skin-like and natural.

2. What kind of neutral eye look should I pair with a bright lip?

I just bought a Rimmel Show Off Lip Lacquer in Stellar and the color is super bright. It's almost a neon coral red color that is so fun for Summer.  I could do a comparison between this and the NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream since they have similar formulas.   In any case, the bright color definitely pairs nicely with a neutral eye.  My choice for wearing this lipstick is actually another new purchase:  the Bareminerals The Epiphany duo from my last post.  I think my preference is to keep the eye look classic, not smoky for daytime.  This means winged liner, not smudged out liner.  For night, you can get away with a lot on your eyes if you're comfortable with that kind of look.  I think the tone of lip color is something to keep in mind as well.

Red: I think gold is an amazing color to make the color red easy to wear.  With a warm red, there's no way a true gold can go wrong.  If you wanted something less "holiday season" than that, try a light champagne-y gold.  It comes off as really classic and old Hollywood.  

Pink:  There's a lot of range with this shade, ranging from a purple-pink to a light bubblegum pink.  I like cool tones with pink shades, a nice taupey brown or a grey eye always seems to suit a pink lip.

Coral:  Strangely, I think coral lips really benefit from a similarly orange-toned eye look.  I think this is one lip where you can get away with a monochromatic look.  A reddish copper or true orange looks fun and fresh, especially for warmer weather.

3. Is there a nude lip liner out there that will suit every lip color?

A bit of a challenging question since I don't really wear lip liner.  Lisa Eldridge's color for the Boots line in Nude is very flattering and works well at perfecting your lips.  However, personally, I think lip liner is only really necessary for darker lip colors.  The whole concept is just too much work to match up every lip color you own.  I think red lips always benefit from having a liner but outside of that I wear lighter colors alone and darker colors usually as a stain.  In my opinion, I haven't found a "universal" lip liner.  

There'll be more posts like this in the future.  I think some questions may deserve their own post, for example a run-down of controversial ingredients in cosmetics, a breakdown of mask types and high/low end recommendations.