16 May 2010

How I come up with my looks

I'm often asked how I come up with my looks and where I draw inspiration from. Honestly, my favorite looks I come up with on the fly by sitting at my vanity table, rummaging through my stash and looking at colors, seeing what would work together. Then I'll sometimes swatch a variety of colors on the back of my hand and see if they blend nicely, what I could combine with them, the varying textures and finishes, and envision them as an entire look.

Sometimes when I have an idea in my head, I'll do a "mock up" on my face, meaning I sloppily apply the basic idea of what I want to do on one eye. In this step it's not about perfection and precision, but achieving the basic outline of what I'm going for, trying to replicate the vision I have in my head.

Here's an example of something I threw together tonight, this took me about 10 minutes.






As you can see this isn't perfect, my lipliner is all over the place and the blending is not precise. I used dirty brushes that I just wiped off on a paper towel, I didn't sharpen my pencils. When I do a practice run, it's not about getting a perfect look, it's just to get an idea going to see if it would work as an entire look. You can see that the cheek doesn't work at all with this, it's actually from the makeup I had on today which I just quickly wiped off beforehand.

So I'm sure I will refine the look a lot before I decide to film a video for it, I might add or change things. But I thought I'd give you a quick look into the thought process that goes into my videos. I don't do this for all my videos, but for ones I'm not so sure about, or when I'm trying something different. I find the looks I do a practice run for, always turn out better in the end, and the additional practice helps to refine my skills.

26 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:18 am

    Could do a tutorial for this look? It looks AMAZING.

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  2. Anonymous2:25 am

    I agree! I love the eyes!

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  3. Anonymous2:27 am

    wow!!! that´s just a test??? It looks great!!! You have great talent! I can see what you mean about the blush..... Just to see if I understand: you need a cooler blush tone????

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  4. it looks stunning even applied roughly, you couldn't tell is a 10min look! everyone welcome to check my new makeup blog! won't disappoint u hehe
    astridbrisson.blogspot.com

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  5. Anonymous2:43 am

    thats exactly what i do

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  6. Anonymous2:45 am

    PLEASE LEASE PLEASE DO A FREAKING VIDEO FOR THIS! IT IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!!!

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  7. Anonymous2:47 am

    Very pretty! I'm always looking for new ways to apply purples although .. a little less dramatic (for me).

    Monica
    San Diego.

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  8. Anonymous3:16 am

    funny u said that.. cuz my first thought before reading was "not that blush, and the blending isn't her best" ..LOL haha then I actually read!!! BTW..love that purple!

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  9. I'd love to see this look finished into a tutorial! It's gorgeous!

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  10. Heiker4:26 am

    Thank you for posting this. It's really considerate of you to share your process with us!

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  11. erica.,4:53 am

    love the eyes and especially the brows!!

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  12. Ashley5:49 am

    I really like this look. I hope you continue with this look and have a video up soon!!! ^_^

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  13. Man, your sloppy look beats my time consuming hard ones without even trying! You really are gifted.

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  14. Anonymous6:45 am

    I do more or less the same. If something pops up in my head,I've got to try the look before I do the "real deal".

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  15. Anonymous7:56 am

    ditto!!!

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  16. very nice colours! love it, even if it is a try out

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  17. Anonymous1:53 pm

    AGREED! I can't wait to see the tutorial on this one....love the colors!!!

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  18. Anonymous7:30 pm

    Love it looks great

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  19. Anonymous8:40 pm

    i still like it looks hot...

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  20. I think it's very honest from you to say that you think about the combination of colors and the textures before you come up with something you like. I appreciate that a guru from Youtube like you can write about it a simple and honest way instead of telling your viewers that you were inspired by "the moon" or something just to have some kind of alibi. The way you do it it's a more clever and complex one, I think, and as a result, you offer better looks.

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  21. MrsElmore876:46 am

    I would really love to see a video of the eye make-up. I love Purple and Pinks.

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  22. Hi there! This is just a "practice"?! Can't believe it, 'cause I'm really astonished by this look! This look is so amamzing! I hope you're going to put up a video tutorial for this one! Really fabulous!

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  23. Anonymous4:53 pm

    I do the same thing too! playing with all the colours but I never get it done perfectly in the end. Merely for the sake of killing the time though. eheh.. btw, u r so fabulous. always wanted to be as good as u r in make up

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  24. Anonymous12:18 pm

    I really hope you do a tutorial on this, it looks like it will be amazing when it is finished :)

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  25. Anonymous1:42 am

    I would like to see a tutorial for this. I love the colors and the cheek actually works on my opinion if you were doing holloween... it gives you a sexy vamp vampire look with the cheek gives you the dead look.

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  26. Anonymous4:35 pm

    I guess the cheek would be working with Soft Purple . . However . . it's absolutely Amazing . .

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