Leona Love!

So I was quite inspired by this lovely pic of leona Lewis in the December 2009 issue of In Style magazine. The segment, entitled, "All that Glitters" features richly saturated colors that involve a lot of shimmer and shine! What I love about all three looks, however, is that while having gorgeous metallic & shimmery satin looks- none are over the top sparkly. They feature gorgeous sheen on the eyes, glowing skin, & a plump, moist, nude/light toned lip. (Kudos to the makeup artist Mariel Barrera.)

all three looks are going to swim around in my brain for quite some time & eventually be translated into looks of my own I'm sure (that is the way these things work -I'm inspired by others, & hopefully I inspire in return)

But, I also had an immediate response. The silvery eyeshadow above made me sit up and take notice. The colors used here are the Dior 5 color iridescent eye shadow in Smoky Crystal ($56 Sephora.com) And they are gorgeous! what inspired me most was the main lid color in that metallic silver - and I just had to experiment with making one of my own (you know I did, it's kind of a sickness) anyway, I already have a beautiful matte black for lining, A color called Sterling a deeper black/sliver contouring in the crease or my matte charcoal if I want to tone the shimmer a bit, a color called Mysterious, that shifts from silvery to purple that would add that touch of purple-ish on Leona's brow, but I didn't yet have that truly silvery- molten metal color for all over the lid. So to my mad scientist lab-o-ra-tory I went. A little of this & a little of that later My first incarnation was born- I've named it Elemental- and it's pretty good- for a start. Check it out- I think it still needs a little tweaking to be perfect, but I'm on my way........

So here's my version- I wish I took better pictures, but I really don't. anyway.

I used blackest to line my eyes- including the waterline. Then I layered some charcoal into he crease and up onto the brow bone. Then Mysterious went over the middle of lid & up to meet the charcoal at the brow bone as well as under the lower lashes-over the black. The newbie- Elemental went on the inner corner & up over all just to under the arch and under the inner third of lower lid. Lastly I took some black Raspberry for that purply hue right at the arch and to the inner corner of eye both upper & lower lash line. Lastly I used Maybelline Great Lash (waterproof)& curled my lashes.

I didn't use the Sterling and I think I need to add more to the Elemental to get it truly Molten, but It looks much better in person than in the pic. Also wetting the brush & foiling the shadow intensifies the sheen- which I did last using my Aloe & green Tea moisture spray to spray my brus & boy did it ever up the molten effect! .