Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
That’s why the lady is a vamp
Our jangling nerves have just about survived the thrills and chills of Hallowe’en, now the clocks are set to go back and with it we face nights that are longer and darker.
It’s the perfect time to take a trip to the dark side when it comes to your make up so why not try out an amazing look that is dark and mysterious in equal measure.
This is a fabulously vampy look – think a little bit of Morticia Addams but with a modern twist.
And the great news is it’s quite simple to accomplish so even the most inexperienced make uppers should be able to pull it off with aplomb.
Its a monochromatic look which can be worn more lightly or adapted for a full on glam look that’s great for a night out.
Unusually, I’m encouraging you to go for a full coverage base. But it shouldn’t be too matt as we want a little bit of luminosity to the skin.
My favourite product for this kind of look is Make up Forever stick foundation. It covers but it also glows – it’s amazing.
Set your base with powder to keep it in place. MAC mineralise skin finish powder is great for this job.
Next, using a very cool toned contour shade or bronzer, hollow out those cheeks and make the cheek bones as sculpted as you can.
An angled contour brush is ideal for the job but don’t be tempted to use any highlighter.
Turning our attention to the eyebrows, we want to exaggerate them a little by extending them out and making the arches a little bit higher.
Use a pencil or brush to darken the top row of the brows from the arch to the tail. That will lift them.
After applying your eye shadow base as usual, take a deep pinky toned shadow and really work it into the crease of your eyes using quite a large blending brush.
Start off with little on the brush until you get a feel for the texture of the shadow. Gradually blend it out until there are no hard edges to be seen. It takes patience, but it is totally worth it.
Using a smaller blending brush, use a dark plummy or rich purple shadow to really darken the outer corners of the eyes and across the lids.
It goes over the first colour so blend, blend, blend until it is seamless.
Press the colour into the lids for more of an impact – this is where you can choose how bold you want to go.
The dark purple should fade out into the pink for a delicious, smoky eye which is blended to perfection.
Line the inner water line of your eyes with black kohl and top with black gel for extra oomph and staying power. Also apply it to top lash line. Trace along the bottom lash line with a dark purple and or pink and then add lashings of mascara and lashes.
Finally, using a lipstick as close to the colour of the shadow as you can find, blend it into your darkest lip liner.
If you want to add a bit of pizzazz and sparkle go for it, but I prefer the dark, mysterious vampy look.
This dramatic look is ideally worn with a sleek hair style rather than the typical bouncy blow dry.
It’s a modern, sleek version of the heavy make up looks that are so popular right now.