Makeup for Darker Skin Model

My chosen model.

This model has beautifully warm, dark skin so I wanted to use gold metallic colours to reflect her golden skin tone. My model has very full and defined lips so I wanted to make these the central point of the makeup look. I was inspired by Prada's 2016 spring/summer makeup look at Fashion Week with the gold metallic lips. The lips definitely made a statement as they are not commonly worn by the general public so the fact that they are not usually seen drew attention. The rest of the makeup was kept very simple to emphasise the gold metallic lips. I didn't think that the gold lips were very flattering as they were almost a yellow colour so I would use a warmer tone on my model. I wanted to use a more bronzy gold or a more orange toned gold to bring out the warmth in my model's darker skin as I thought it would be more flattering. I wanted the lips to be the main feature so I want to keep the rest of the natural quite natural and understated. 

Face Chart 1

SS16 Prada Model
MARCH, B., 2015. Spring/Summer 2016 hair and makeup trends [viewed 1st February 2016].
Available from: http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/beauty-hair/beauty-trends/g4142/spring-summer-2016-hair-makeup-trends/?slide=18

In this face chart I decided to use Mac's pigment in Copper Sparkle all over the lips because it is a very warm, metallic bronze colour that I think reflects the warmth in her skin perfectly. I love how the pigment has subtle glitter in it because I think it will make her lips stand out and sparkle in the studio lights. I wanted to add definition around the lips so I added a dark brown lip liner around the lips and blended into the lips to create an ombre effect. I really like how bold the lips look and how the lip liner makes them look very full and plump. I want the skin to be very dewy, with no powder and a cream highlight on the high points of the face to reflect the 2016 spring/summer trend of dewy skin and I want her skin to look very healthy and fresh looking. I want her eye brows to very very sleek and sharp looking to frame the eyes, especially as the eyes are being kept very neutral. I wanted to add some black kohl eye liner to the water line to give my model a more sexy, seductive look. I then wanted to blend some black eye shadow along the lower lash line to give a smokey look and to diffuse the waterline colour. I then wanted to add some spiky fake eye lashes to give the top lash line more drama.

Face Chart 2 (Chosen Look)

CROSSET, P., 2014. African Women [viewed 24th March 2016]. 
Available from: https://africa.quora.com/African-Women

I was then inspired by the image above with the very glossy looking eye lids. I have never done anything like this before and I thought it looked so beautiful so I wanted to try it! I wanted the skin to be very dewy to make the model's skin look very healthy and fresh and also because it is a popular SS16 trend. I thought the shiny eye lids would compliment the glossy finish of the skin and would emphasise the SS16 trend on metallics. I wanted to use a warmer, more bronzy eye shadow colour to reflect my model's very warm and golden skin tone so I decided to use Mac's Copper Sparkle pigment. I will research what technique to use to get this effect as I love the way it catches the light. I want the eye brows to be very defined to frame her face and because I think it is flattering on people with darker skin tones to have a sharper brow. I will give my model a light contour and I will apply a cream highlighter to the tops of her cheek bones to give her skin a natural glow. I will add a lip gloss to the lips to continue the glossy theme and dab some of the copper pigment I applied on her eyes, on her lips to tie the look together. I may add some brown lip liner to the lips first, depending on my model's natural lip colour; however I didn't want to apply a bright lip colour or anything that looks too unnatural as I wanted the eyes to be the main focus. I finished the look off with a very light coat of mascara as I didn't want the eye lashes to distract from the wet-look eye shadow.

Testing out the Makeup

I had never done a glossy eyed look so I decided to do some research on YouTube to find out a technique that I liked! I found Jordan Liberty on YouTube and found a technique where you mix Vaseline and clear lip gloss to create the shiny product. You first do the eye shadow look how you want it and then simply pat the mixture over the top and the more mixture you apply, the more wet the eye shadow will look. 

LIBERTY, J., 2011. Dark Glossy Eyes: HD Makeup Tutorial [viewed 24th March 2016]. 

Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN7jYoCX22w

My Experiments with Glossy Eyes

1. I first tried applying the pigment to the eye lids first by patting it all over the eye lids and then blending it out with a clean blending brush. I then made a mixture of lip gloss and vaseline and dabbed it all over the eye. I found that this completely disturbed the pigment under neath and took off certain sections of the pigment. This made the end result look very patchy and uneven which was not the seamless look I was going for. After this first experiment I thought that the vaseline might be the cause of the pigment moving around so much as it has oil in which rejects makeup; I will therefore just use clear lip gloss in my later experiments. 

2. I next experimented with mixing the lip gloss and pigment together and then applying that mixture to the eye lids. I found that this created a beautiful, glossy paste that smoothly applied to the eye lids. I was planning on blending the pigment out onto the skin by blended it with my fingers; however the pigment did not blend evenly, it instead started to go very patchy. It was very difficult to blend so I decided I needed to apply eye shadow before hand.

3. This time I applied some orange eye shadow all round the eyes as a transition colour in the crease with a big blending brush. I then applied more orange eye shadow into the crease and under the lash line with a smaller blending brush to build some colour. I then applied the mixture of lipgloss and copper pigment to the eye lid, making sure to pat on the colour and not swipe I found out before that this makes it look patchy. After applying this to the lid, I then applied some clear lip gloss over the eye shadow on the lower lash line and on the orange eye shadow on the eye to make the whole eye look glossy. I am really happy with how well the eye shadow blended and how shiny and glossy the finish is. 

Equipment:

-Clean & Clear Duo Action Moisturiser

-Nivea Men Shave Balm

-Beauty Blender

-Mac Studio Fix Foundation in NC45/NC50

-Pro LA Girl Concealer in Fawn

-Mac Cream Colour Base in Hush

-Mac Mineralise Skin Finish in Soft & Gentle

-Laura Mercier Translucent Setting Powder

-Zoeva 105 Luxe Highlight Brush

-Rimmel London Eyebrow Pencil in Black Brown

-Zoeva 233 Cream Shader Eye Brush

-Urban Decay Primer Potion Original

-Laura Mercier Blending Brush

-Mac Eye Shadow in Red Brick

-Mac 217 Brush

-Mac Pigment in Copper Sparkle

-Rimmel Oh My Gloss! Lip Gloss in Crystal Clear

-Zoeva 230 Luxe Pencil Brush

-Mac Eye Shadow in Nylon

-True Brown lip liner by Kylie Jenner

-Mac Lipstick in Taupe

Step by step:

1. I first applied Clean & Clear Duo Action Moisturiser all over the face to hydrate the skin.

2. I next applied a primer, Nivea Men Shave Balm, to fill in any pores to give an even skin texture ready for makeup application.

3. I applied a mixture of Mac Studio Fix Foundation in NC45 and NC50 all over the face and neck with the Beauty Blender to get an even and flawless coverage. I also applied this over the eye lids and ears to make sure everything was one colour. 

4. I applied some Pro LA Girl Concealer in Fawn under her eyes to conceal her dark circles, however I didn't particularly want to highlight the face as I wanted the skin to look very even. I blended this in with my fingers.

5. I applied Mac Cream Colour Base in Hush to the high points of her face to give her skin a dewy finish.

6. I lightly dusted some Laura Mercier Translucent Setting Powder all over her face with the Zoeva 105 Luxe Highlight Brush, concentrating it on the t-zone, to set the makeup. 

7. I applied some Mac Mineralise Skin Finish in Soft & Gentle to the tops of the cheek bones, down the centre of the nose and the cupids bow; however I kept this very natural as I wanted to focus to be on the glossy eyes. 

8. I used the Rimmel London Eyebrow Pencil in Black Brown to draw over her eye brows. My model didn't have many eye brow hairs so I had to make sure to draw them on quite heavily and made them as even as possible. I drew a line along the bottom of the eye brow and a line on top of her eye brow to get the shape I wanted. I then filled the eye brows in to complete the eye brow, making sure to not add too much product. 

9. I used some Pro LA Girl Concealer in Fawn to clean up the underneath part of the eye brow to give it a very crisp look. I used the Zoeva 233 Cream Shader Eye Brush to do this. 

10. I applied some Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original all over the eye lids as preparation for the eye shadow and then set it with Laura Mercier Translucent Setting Powder and the Zoeva 105 Luxe Highlight Brush to make it easier to blend the eye shadow on top. 

11. I applied Mac Eye Shadow in Red Brick into the crease with the Laura Mercier Blending Brush and I made sure that it was all blended perfectly. 

12. I then used the Mac 217 Brush, which is a slightly more dense blending brush, with the same Red Brick eye shadow and put it into the crease to add more dimension. 

13. I applied some of the same Red Brick eye shadow along the lower lash line with a smaller blending brush, Zoeva 230 Luxe Pencil Brush.

14. I applied some Mac Eye Shadow in Nylon, which is a white shimmery eye shadow, in the inner corner and blended it into the orange to brighten the inner corner.

15. I mixed some Mac Copper Sparkle pigment with some Rimmel Oh My Gloss! Lip Gloss in Crystal Clear on the back of my hand and applied it to both eye lids up until the crease colour. 

16. I applied some Rimmel Scandal Eyes Mascara lightly to the top and bottom eye lashes.

17. I dabbed some Rimmel Oh My Gloss! Lip Gloss in Crystal Clear onto the rest of the eye shadow to make it all look glossy, including along the lower lash line. 

18. I lined the lips with True Brown lip liner by Kylie Jenner to give the lips definition. 

19. I applied some Taupe lipstick by Mac all over the lips to fill them in and blend the lip liner. 

20. I finally mixed some Copper Sparkle pigment and clear lipgloss and applied it to the centre of the lips and blended it out with my finger. 

I am so happy with how the makeup turned out! I love how glossy with eye shadow looks with the lip gloss added on top because it really catches the light and gives the eye dimension and a wet-look finish. I like how defined the eye brows are because it gives structure back to the face, as the eyes and lips aren't very defined. I really like how I used the same Copper Sparkle pigment on the eyes and the lips because they tie in together and I like that they are both glossy because they compliment each other. I like how flawless the skin looks; however if I had to change one thing about the look, it would be that the cheeks look slightly flat. I think I could have added an orange toned blush to the cheeks to give them more dimension and shape.