The Painted Mask

Photoshoot: Smoky metallic beauty look(#2)

dolcearia — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:35:05 +0000

Here’s another look from the same shoot. I loved seeing all of these images together, since Emily’s appearance changes so drastically with the makeup. I had fun on the hair styling, as well.

Model: Emily Shade MM# 1502910
Photographer: Rudy Joggerst MM# 1534362

Eyes
MAC yellow ochre paintpot
Sugarpill goldilux-lower lid, apply wet.
Sugarpill Stella-crease
La Femme Vanilla-highlight
MAC Tempting-outer corner, pat over goldilux.
False lashes and Buxom mascara

Photoshoot: Bright blue/green beauty look(#3)

dolcearia — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:09:47 +0000

Ah, how long has it been since I shot a bright look? Way too long. Will post a few other looks from this shoot, because I love how different Emily’s features look in all of the images. This was the last look, and the most intense. All makeup and hair is my work.

Model: Emily Shade MM# 1502910
Photographer: Rudy Joggerst MM# 1534362

Eyes
MUFE Aqua cream in Aqua-lower lid up to crease
Sugarpill Absinthe-lower lid, buffing sheerly above crease
Sugarpill royal sugar-apply wet to lashline, winging outwards.
Buxom lashliner in Leatherette-define a wing below the main wing, connecting to lower lashline 1/3 of the way into lashline. Line lower waterline and upper lashline(narrowly)
false lashes, and Buxom mascara

Skin
Graftobian powder foundation and cream concealer
NARS Casino-contour

Lips
MAC Myth

today’s technicolor temper tantrum.

dolcearia — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:47:58 +0000

Because we are in the midst of yet another family crisis. I’m getting tired of this. Since the man wasn’t around to rage with me today, I ended up taking it out on my poor makeup collection. The boyfriend says “I don’t think color expresses anger the way you think it does.” Shows what HE knows!!!

I used Sugarpill eyeshadows in Tako, Dollypop, Buttercupcake, Magentric, Absinthe, Tipsy, and Poison plum, Buxom lashliner in Black, Buxom mascara. Cheeks are colored with Benefit Dandelion, and contoured with NARS Casino. Lips are filled in with a discontinued MUFE lipstick color, and glossed with Illamasqua Petulant intense lip gloss.

Photoshoot: The Sauvie Island Scarecrow

dolcearia — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:54:24 +0000

I’m sure it’s obvious that fall is NOT my favorite time of year, and winter is worse. I spend months rampaging at everyone, the moment someone puts a carol on. The usual cozy imagery of the season just makes me grumpy.

So it’s a bit odd how happy I was with these images. They’re just serene, and happy. These were shot last weekend, in the rain, on location in Sauvie Island, Oregon.

Gabrielle Jones models, in her own clothing. Photography by Mikola Accuardi. I did hair as well as makeup for this.

Eyes

Fill in brows with MUFE Brow Correcter #3
UDPP

La Femme Bisque-highlight

La Femme Taupe-crease/outer lower lid with a FLUFFY brush–this contour should be VERY subtle. Also, edge a bit of it in around the outer lower lashline.

La Femme Brown-outer corner of eye, smudging inwards along lashlines for a slight contour.

Buxom mascara

Buxom lashliner in Leatherette–thinly line upper lashline, and outer lower lashline Wing out at outer corner, and strengthen wing at the outer edge of the eye. Create a swallowtail shape by connecting a second wing, angled slightly down(NOT as steeply curved as the lashline).

Skin

OCC Airbrush makeup—prime skin with OCC Primer, spot conceal with graftobian cream concealer(the greenish one), add highlights with OCC Lustre, and airbrush a mix of y0 and y1 on the skin. Mix Pris and Hush(2:1 ratio) for blush.
Lips

OCC Lip Tars—apply NSFW to the lips, and edge Botanical in blending outward from the lips.

A few mini reviews.

dolcearia — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:57:40 +0000

Yes, I know I’ve been VERY flaky lately. Had one curve ball after another, and even though I’ve had a few new products pass through my hands, I haven’t been able to document my play with them. I wanted to pass on a few mini-reviews for products that have caught my interest lately…

Favorite eyeshadow(bright)—-Sugarpill, hands down. While I love many other indie companies eyeshadows(Fyrinnae, Hi Fi, Dark Heart), I love the matte finish of Sugarpill palettes, and their metallic pigments. 99% of the time, on shoots that need bright looks, these are the colors I use. Beats out Urban Decay(too frosty), Fyrinnae(my favorite shades are too complex for photography work), Hi Fi(Beautiful complex shades, but they are the MOST stunning in person, not in photos).

Favorite eyeshadow(neutral)—La Femme Bisque, Taupe, Dark Brown. I’ve used this combination on several models, with varying features and skin tones, and it’s the perfect utilitarian, cheap, combination. Come to think of it, I should do a picture comparison at some point in the future, since I’ve found this combination being reused over and over again for photogenic barely-there makeup looks.

Favorite Eyeliner pencils—LOVING the Urban Decay ’11 Holiday sets. I purchased the neutral and bright eyeliner pencils, and the cream eyeshadow pencils. All of them are GREAT, and Perversion(matte black), and Demolition(matte cool-toned brown) are worth the price, alone! It takes you FOREVER to use UD eyeliner pencils, and there’s a nice variety of colors in these. I will be sad, though, if UD doesn’t eventually start selling Perversion and Demolition separately.

New Eyeshadow Primer Notes: I hated the wear on Benefit Stay Don’t Stray, since it creased, and didn’t seem to keep the vibrancy of my colors, the way Too Faced Shadow Insurance, and Urban Decay Primer Potions do. Original UDPP is still my favorite—but lately I’ve been mixing it with teeny amounts of their other primer shades, Eden, Sin, and Greed. I LOVE that all of these shades are now available in squeeze-tubes, that are more sanitary, and keep the product fresh longer. Though I would say that at least a little bit of the issue with the primer drying out seems to be more of a chemical issue than I had originally thought, since even in a mostly airtight tube, it has gotten thicker WAY too fast. I don’t care for Greed, Eden, and Sin on their own—Eden is too yellow to look natural on all but the most sallow of skin tones, Greed is a bit too dark and yellow for me to like it on most fair or cool skin tones, and Sin is a bit too dark for fairer skin tones, and too shimmery for me to like, as primer.

Favorite Blush–Benefit Dandelion is PERFECT for pale, cool skin. I absolutely love it! Cool blushes look better on me, to my eyes, than warm tones, so Dandelion officially beats out MAC Gentle Mineralize Blush for my most-used powder blush. Dandelion is perfect for very subtle shadings, and looks lovely layered over MAC Brit Wit cream blush, my all-time favorite neutral/cool blush.

Favorite Lipstick– Well, not really a lipstick, but lately, I’ve gotten a LOT of use out of OCC Lip Tars, mixing them for shoots. I’ve had them a while, and they NEVER lose their usefulness. You can do anything from crazy, experimental lips with them, to custom mixing shades for ANY color(Trust me— My last shoot, I used NSFW applied straight to the lips, with Botanical edged into the corners, and blended, for a contoured pouty retro lip, the shoot before THAT, I did three different looks with it– NSFW and Botanical blended to burgundy, then mixed with white, for a deep raspberry shade, then blotted to a fuchsia stain, with a hint of MUFE 916 star powder in the center of the lip, and the top of the cupids bow, for subtle highlights, and then Anime and Traffic blended to a pinky-coral.

Hair Tool I Can’t Live Without–Conair waving curling iron. I don’t recall the exact name, but it has two narrow-barreled irons, attached at the barrel with a squeeze grip, so you can wrap the hair in figure 8s between them for natural looking waves, rather than the usual contrived barrel curls. Heats really well, has a lot of temperature control settings, and the resulting curls are exquisite.

Current Nail Polish— Sally Hansen HD nail polish, in Laser(Dark blue with aqua and purple shimmer), DVD(Medium periwinkle with aqua and blue shimmer), and Byte(Hot Pink with Aqua and fuchsia shimmer). These colors have a bit of a duo-chrome look, and are PHENOMENAL when layered with each other. I’m wearing 1 coat of bye, and 1 coat of DVD, for a magenta with STRONG aqua tones on most of my fingers, with 1 coat of Laser, and 1 coat of Byte on my ring finger, for a midnight purple, with strong metallic pink shimmer. The boyfriend picks out the color on my ring finger, since jewelry isn’t generally conducive to my lifestyle, and I rarely get to wear the rings he’s given me. This way, I have a reminder of how happy I am to get back home to our family, when I’m out and about.

Current Makeup Obsession—OCC Airbrush Makeup. I’m still learning the technique, but loving it. I’ve brought it on two shoots, just to hone my skills a bit more, and it has worked beautifully on both. So much to learn! I’m happy to report than my initial frustration at their blush offerings happened mostly because the pale blush, bronzer, and mixing medium were on back-order, so I only had warm, dark colors to blend from.

Current Favorite Makeup Trend—LOVING the seasons graphic eyeliner. I always love double wings, reverse-cateyes(when the wing is extended below the inner corner of the eye, rather than extending above the outer corner. This look doesn’t look on my already almond, round eyes, and I’ve yet to have the opportunity to use it on a model. It’s my favorite, though!) Bright lipstick is always a hit with me, but there’s something so delightfully high-maintenance about this look that it instantly makes me feel confident.

Brands I Want To Try Next—Inglot eyeshadows, Temptu SB Airbrush Foundation, more Fyrinnae eyeshadows, Sugarpills new eyeshadows(Although I don’t know when they’ll be released) and Magnetic nail polish.

Anyways, that’s some of the cosmetics-related stuff that has passed through my head lately! I’ll try to get up some full reviews, when I can.

Photoshoot: Underwater!

dolcearia — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:54:17 +0000

So, I designed the entire look for this day around the idea that we were going to be dipping it in the pool later, and any powders used might be cakey, or wash out or off underwater. Plus, the bluish tone of pool water can have odd effects of the skin tone, so I compensated with a touch more bronzey color, to keep her skin at its natural color. This is the first photoshoot I used my airbrush at! Having tested it on myself, and even tested crying in it, I loved how it held up and barely moved. It was a good choice, and did the same here.

This features the lovely Olivia Long, at Option Model Management, photographed by Mikola Accuardi.

Olivia Underwater, photographed by Mikola Accuardi

Eyes
Sephora 04 Beige cream eyeshadow-entire lid

UD 24/7 cream eyeshadow in Rehab-outer corner of lid, for contour.

UD 24/7 liner in Demolition(Holiday ’11) outer lashline, for both upper, and lower lashline.

Maybelline Great Lashes waterproof mascara, in dark brown(I think?)

Trim and apply false lash singles, and clumps to outer lashline, trimming to be a slight bit longer than the natural lashes.

Skin

OCC Airbrush Primer

OCC Airbrush Foundation–mix of y1 and y0(y1 dominating).

OCC Airbrush Lustre-highlights

Blush is an airbrushed mix of OCC Hush, y1, and a half drop of Primary Green.

Lips

For this look, I mixed OCC Lip Tars in Anime, Traffic(I think that’s the yellow one?), for a pinky-coral, that appears darker underwater.

Olivia Underwater, photographed by Mikola Accuardi

Halloween: Poison Ivy

dolcearia — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:28:59 +0000

Just toying around, since I’m not likely to have plans for Halloween, but I haven’t done crazy makeup for it this year. Sorry for the bad lighting–it’s early and DIM here, and my camera hates it. I have a few pet peeves with this look-mainly with the leaves. I’d like to color in my own next time, so it will be easier to cut tiny ones, and so that I can use more yellow-greens in the veining. The brows in this feel too dark and heavy to me. Lighter leaves would help.

Eyes
UDPP in Greed
Sugarpill Tipsy-outer lower lid, and crease, following to inner brow bone.
Sugarpill Absinthe-middle of lower lid
Sugarpill Goldilux-inner corner
Sugarpill Midori-outer corner adn lower lashline
Sugarpill Junebug-crease
Sugarpill Tako-highlight
MUFE Aqua cream in Emerald-fill in eyebrows
Buxom mascara
UD Junkie 24/7 eyeliner-waterline and outer edge of upper lashline
Use lash glue to fix small fake leaves to inner edges of eyebrow–I cut mine down from fabric leaves, you can also color your own in. I want to do this next time, so that they are paler, and there’s more contrast in the veining. Ah, well.

Cheeks
NYX Mauve blush
LORAC Perfectly lit-highlight

Lips
OCC Lip Tar in NSFW, with Botanical edged in corner of lip and blended into the red.

Experimental Lip Graffiti part 2.

dolcearia — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:43:40 +0000

Still toying with ideas for an upcoming shoot…. Overall, I like the first batch better—I think I may try using MUFE Flash Creams rather than OCC Lip Tars to do the larger paint-splatter/polka-dot effect(And I should DEFINITELY mix them more–my yellow is a teeny bit separated, so those dots look a bit runny and sheer). You can already see these starting to bleed, if you look closely, so it won’t bode well for my poor model. The boyfriend teased me because the pink and green look looks like we could pose it with a toy dinosaur.

I am having ENTIRELY too much fun having an excuse to do these.

more bits and bobs.

dolcearia — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 23:24:53 +0000

Yeah, I haven’t worn much makeup lately. On top of that, my computer is painfully problematic, so I haven’t been able to edit images until now, or even type up posts. Ugh.

I’m testing the Urban Decay cream eyeshadow pencils now, and did this look to test other colors over top. Thats MAC Reflects Red, and Sugarpill Hysteric, Decora, Lumi, and Tako. Line eyes with MAC Waveline fluitlind, at outer edge of upper lashline.

Lips are OCC Lip Tars in Hoochie, and Anime.

Where have I been?

dolcearia — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 18:34:17 +0000

Apologies for spending so long without updates. It has been a fairly rough couple of months…. Started off with family illness, ended with other family issues, tossed in some photoshoots, assisting gigs, LOTS of day-job drama, and mood swings.

Unfortunately, all of that had the result of wearing me down into a state of near-permanent hysteria and depression. I generally avoid talking about personal issues on the blog, since the last time anyone should hear about my convoluted life is when they’re looking for inspiration or product recommendations. But the two tie in together, in this case.

I dare you to find a beauty nerd who hasn’t had to justify her love of the makeup to someone who just chalks it up to vanity, or insecurity. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has asked myself whether the confidence coming from great makeup is a crutch, perfecting the exterior, while letting the problems inside fester.

So what is my makeup, to me? It really IS my artistic side, and I love its ability to make me remember an emotion that isn’t in the forefront of my mind, or let others know I’m feeling especially aggressive, or try out a different way of perceiving myself, as well as the obvious joy of colors, textures, composition…. But it only works for me when my bottom line is ALREADY happy and confident. When I’m genuinely scared, depressed, or dealing with a bad bout of mental illness, the very idea of wearing makeup feeds it, making me feel even MORE insecure, and amplifying the bad emotions. It just feels… dishonest….like I’m trying to completely redo myself, rather than enhance what’s already there.

I LOVE applying makeup for its creative aspects, but I’m a temperamental canvas, at best. I’m much happier focusing myself on painting other people. I’ve still been researching, and living with makeup 24/7, but I’ve directed most of it AWAY from the blog. I’m reluctant to wear makeup, photograph my face(Well, full face anyways.), and force my makeup love in a direction that is overall unhealthy for me.

So I guess I’ll try to do a lot more eye and lip macros, reviews, product breakdowns from photoshoots, etc. but there definitely WILL be a revision in the direction of thepaintedmask. I’m sure you guys can understand. Thanks for your patience, while I continue to figure out how to tie the beauty blogging in with my outside life!
We’ll see what the next few months bring!

The Painted Mask

Photoshoot: Smoky metallic beauty look(#2)

Photoshoot: Bright blue/green beauty look(#3)

Model: Emily Shade MM# 1502910 Photographer: Rudy Joggerst MM# 1534362

today’s technicolor temper tantrum.

Photoshoot: The Sauvie Island Scarecrow

A few mini reviews.

Photoshoot: Underwater!

Halloween: Poison Ivy

Experimental Lip Graffiti part 2.

more bits and bobs.

Where have I been?

Model: Emily Shade MM# 1502910
Photographer: Rudy Joggerst MM# 1534362