(Celebrity) Look Of The Week- Katy Perry

I fell in love with this picture (Katy Perry and the Biebs!) the second I saw it because of:

1)the adorableness of the facial expressions/ awkwardly inappropriate proximity of closeness to one another

2) Katy Perry's amazing makeup

The look Katy's wearing here was seen at the 2010 American Music Awards afterparty, hosted by Rolling Stone. It is an amazing bronze smokey eye with full false lashes, a contoured cheek with peach blush and nude pinky lips, and flawless skin(but that's sort of a given).

Katy Perry is an incredibly beautiful entertainer and she pulls out all the stops with her makeup. Therefore I knew I had to challenge myself and attempt to recreate her look. We have very different facial features and bone structure, so even if I knew exactly what products were used on her, the look would come out differently. I think a lot of people can wear this look though. It's sexy, fun, and versatile.

My Take On It:

 

Like I said, different features. But it was an admirable try. 

What I would change about it next time: For the most part, I am pretty happy with the way this look came out. The eye makeup is pretty accurate. There are a few differences makeup wise between the two pictures though. Katy has a much thicker set of lashes on then I do. MUCH thicker. She also isn't wearing black liner on her bottom lashes. She seems to have on a gold/warm brown color smudged under her lash line and into her waterline. I don't have an excuse for why my makeup doesn't have that element, because I have two liners from my Urban Decay 24/7 set that would be perfect for it. Kind of kicking myself in the butt for not pulling those bad boys out! Final difference is that her blush is way stronger then mine, although in my defense I was wearing blush but the flash washed me out. She has strong contouring, and her lips are more of a dark rosy neutral pink whereas mine are pretty pure pink. 

Products used:

Face:

• Maybelline Mineral Power Natural Perfecting Foundation
• MAC Earth To Earth Mineralize Blush
• MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural

Eyes:

• MAC Goldstone Pigment
• 2 MAC Pigments I mixed together to make a pigment that resembles MAC Coco Beach (Good luck trying to find the real thing, they don't make it any more)
• MAC Bronze Eyeshadow
• Urban Decay Naked Palette- Creep
• Urban Decay Eyeliner in Perversion
• Urban Decay Eyeliners in Baked and Bourbon as eyeshadow bases
• ELF Dramatic False Lashes (Only $1!)

Lips:

• Wet N Wild lipstick in Bare It All

A WEARABLE Smokey Eye Tutorial

My biggest challenge when I began to try out makeup was learning to work with my eye shape. I had watched countless YouTube videos, figured out all the main brushes I would need, seen tons of different application methods, techniques, and styles, and I was ready to start. I wanted to achieve a smokey eye! I was determined. I was excited to start recreating everything I had seen. I had watched tutorials on just about every look under the sun. I had seen bridal makeup, prom makeup, everyday makeup, arabic-inspired smokey eyes, glittery smokey eyes, cut-crease eye tutorials, and everything in between.

Unfortunately once I began trying, I realized that something had gone wrong. Even though I would follow the gurus step for step, I would just end up with a mess on my hands- or my face rather. I had no idea it would be so difficult.

Many YouTube makeup gurus have a standard eye shape, and are blessed with a lot of lid space with which to work. Lid space is important because from lid to brow bone is where you're applying all the shadow, liner, etc., and the more you have the easier of a time you'll have. With more lid space you can do bigger sweeping motions. With me, everything is detail work. Since figuring out what works for me, it has been a walk in the park. I'm going to share my own personal tips and methods for achieving a smokey eye. I think this is important because there aren't many YouTube gurus who have an eye like mine. I have a hooded eye shape, and it is extremely hooded. When I do a line of eyeliner and look up, pretty much all you see is liner. That thin line will take up my entire section of lid. My crease is not clearly visible, so I do what a lot of asians do, and shade in the socket bone area. This is where your crease would normally be, and it is the deepest part of your eyelid, so that's the part you really want to add dimension to.

Smokey eyes are not all alike, and there are tons of methods in achieving stunning looks that can be dramatic, subtle, neutral, colorful, shimmery, or matte. There are different ways to apply, and different ways to achieve dimension and depth. Typically on a day-to-day basis, I go for extremely simple. I'll throw on a main lid color, and smudge a darker color into the crease and outer V and boom, Smokey eye is complete with some mascara and liner. However, for this post's purposes I used a lid color, a crease color, an Outer V color, and a highlight. The effect is a nice neutral smokey eye, not too loud, not too crazy.

With that said, this is how I do a neutral, office and school- appropriate smokey eye:

1) I prep the lid with a primer to make the eyeshadow last and keep its vibrancy all throughout the day. Urban Decay Primer Potion is notoriously the best, and Too Faced Shadow Insurance is also a great option. Many Gurus use a base instead of, or sometimes with a primer, to enhance the color of their shadows. NYX jumbo eye pencils are popular, as well as MAC paint pots. In this look, I used Urban Decay Primer Potion.



2) I then go ahead and put on a main lid color.

The starred shadow is my lid color (Toasted, Urban Decay Naked Palette)

This is the primary color in my look, which I smoke out with other colors. I usually apply this on my lid and into my crease. After generally applying all over the lid I sort of push the brush into my socket area and move from the middle of my lid to the outer part. The key during all these steps is to make sure you're not being heavy handed, or else you'll get a blotchy result.



3) After this, I add depth with a crease color. The circle on the shadow in the above picture (Hustle) is what I used. I smudge this starting from the outer portion of my eye into my socket area. I use a very light hand because it can quickly look too dark or not well blended.






3) Finally, I added a little black (triangle above) to the outer V and shaded slightly inward




4) I added Naked (the shadow with the square over it) as my highlight color, underneath the brow bone

5) I threw on some mascara and smudged a little of Hustle and Creep underneath my lower lashline, and just a bit of eyeliner on the outer third of my bottom waterline. Look complete!



























Voila! Your basic, simple, wearable smokey eye :)