Michelle Phan Makeup Challenge

Alex, 19, they/them. This blog is dedicated to a challenge that I created where I do a tutorial of Michelle Phan's and review it. I post Monday/Wednesday/Friday with a new update each time. Hope you enjoy it! 💋

[michellephanmakeupchallenge]

Day 41

Hi Darlings! Back again today to review the Double Wing Eyeliner look.I had a couple of conflicted feelings about this, but that really only came from the video itself. In the video she doesn’t really give a step-by-step tutorial of how it’s done, she just kind of glosses over everything with a generalized “just do it” that makes it just as easy to follow along with as looking at a single picture of it. That’s not really an issue for someone who already knows how to do a perfect cat eye with ease, but considering almost no one who isn’t a makeup artist or obsessed with cosmetics can do that, I thought it was really a wasted opportunity to just film herself doing it instead of actually teaching people tricks for an even cat eye so they can really follow along too. All of that aside, I think it’s a super cute look; I would say if you have the experience and can do wings with ease then definitely try it out, but if you’re a novice to the makeup scene then this might not be the best tutorial for you. That’s all for today, I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I’ll see you on Monday!

xoxo -Alex

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Day 40

 Hello lovelies! New year, new hair for me 😜 I’ve actually had this color for a little under a month now, but since it’s been so long since I’ve posted this is its first debut! I absolutely adore it, but that enough about me, onto today’s look. Today I tried the Purple Hazy Look. Through probably 3/4 of the tutorial, I kept looking in the mirror and thinking this is gonna turn out looking like absolute garbage, but in the end it actually turned out not bad at all. My colors definitely turned out far more muted than hers, but I honestly preferred that to how strong hers came out. I didn’t end up really being a big fan of this look honestly, I felt like it really only just turned out okay and didn’t have much to offer. Maybe it’s because my colors weren’t that bright? Whatever the reason, it’s a good look for if you’re semi-casual and wearing a purple outfit, but I felt like she could’ve added more tones in to give the look more depth. That’s my two cents for today, I hope to see y’all back on Friday!

xoxo -Alex

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Day 39

Heeeeeello darlings, and Happy New Year! Today’s video is Stretch Your Shoes With Ice, and although she says in the video that you need a pair of leather or faux leather shoes, but I’ve seen this hack all over Pinterest saying you can use almost any type of shoe. Thankfully, my sister who wears shoes a half-size smaller than me gave me some faux leather flats she no longer wanted, so that’s what I decided to use for this tutorial. Overall, it didn’t work the best on my shoes, potentially because they were just a tad too small for me to begin with, but I did notice a slight difference in how tight they were around the sides of my feet. I feel like if you have shoes of a material that had a bit more give to them than mine did then it would work better, so I don’t know quite how well this works for leather, but either way it definitely does make an improvement. I wouldn’t recommend buying shoes too small for you and banking on this to work though, it helps to break shoes in but it does not perform miracles.  That’s all I’ve got for today, I’ll see you soon!

-xoxo Alex

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Day 38

[EDIT: I made this post a few months back, but before I could publish it my computer died and I’ve only recently gotten it working again! so excuse the outdated-ness of it, but here it is! Hope you enjoy😊]

Hi lovelies, today is the Summer Lush Makeup Tutorial, because even though it’s mid-October, it’s still hot enough in the south to still basically be summer. This look was, to be quite frank, not at all a fave of mine, almost entirely because of how much I loathe using eyeshadow as eye liner. It fades quickly, is much harder to apply, and barely shows up. If you want something less intense than gel or liquid then just use a pencil and maaaayyybe feather it out with some eyeshadow to give it a smudged, smokey look, I can think of 0 situations where I would ever recommend to anyone to use only eyeshadow as an eye liner. Just don’t do it, save yourself the time and heartache. That being said, I really liked the color palette for this look, I decided to change the lip color to a dark purple to make it work better with my outfit and I think it definitely added a lot of contrast to the look. That’s it for today, I’ll see you in a few days!

-xoxo Alex

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Day 37

Happy hump day bitches! Today I’m gonna be talking about the Egg Mask Facial, so let’s get cooking! If you tend to get a little scrambled when it comes to diy masks, then no worries, because this combo of pore-tightening/moisturizing masks is incredibly easy to do, and really does leave your skin feeling refreshed and silky smooth. I like that it’s a 2-part facial, because if you don’t want to use the egg yolk as a moisturizing mask/don’t have the time you can always just supplement in your usual daily moisturizer. With both the masks, you can definitely feel when the mask is done because you legitimately cannot move your face, it’s such a weird feeling. After the egg white mask, the egg yolk mask, and an anti-aging serum worth more than I am that I bummed from a friend, my face felt seriously luxurious. I definitely recommend this mask for anyone with a spare egg and a face to put it on, it’s egg-ceptionally worth it. And you know what they say, you can’t get perfect skin without cracking a few eggs. See you all in a few days!

-xoxo Alex

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Day 36

Heeelllllo everyone, I’m back from the grave! Today’s tutorial is a Guy Makeup Tutorial and features my resident in-house Guy™ friend, John. I figured it would be best to do it on someone else since that’s what she does, but there’s nothing distinctly “guy” about it, so I’d consider it to be more of a natural look. Honestly, neither of us were really a big fan of this look, mainly just because for some reason she doesn’t cover the entire T zone of the face, so there’s a noticeable contrast between the forehead and the rest of the face as far as coverage. I personally think that it would be better if there was some foundation added instead of entirely just concealer. That’s all I’ve got for today, see you on Wednesday!!!

-xoxo Alex

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Day 34

Happy hump day you guys! The Lady GaGa Poker Face Tutorial is what we're gonna be talking about today. With Halloween just a month away and everyone struggling to lock down costume ideas, I can definitely advise you to look to a different video for guidance. Aside from the fact that "The Fame" era Lady Gaga is rather outdated by this point, the tutorial doesn't really do much to give off an instantly recognizable visage of Gaga, relying almost entirely on the wig and lightning bolt to convey who it's supposed to be. I didn't have any materials to make a lightning bolt so I stuck with her classic hair bow, but without the lightning bolt it just looks like any other person. She also says in the video, you can wear the look sans accessories as a club look too, and I would second that opinion, going so far as to say that that's the only time you should do this and to not bother trying it as a costume. That's all I've got for now, so I'll see you in a few days!

-xoxo Alex

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Day 35

Hi dolls! Today I’ll be reviewing the Airplane Makeup Tutorial 3 Hours Flight from the backseat of my car during a road trip. For this look, there honestly isn’t really much to it, it’s really pretty basic and straightforward. I really was not at all a fan of just using eyeshadow as an eyeliner, it smudged throughout the day and it just wasn’t really noticeable after a couple of hours. I would much rather have used a pencil than eyeshadow, and anyone who knows me knows I hate using eyeliner pencils with a passion. Michelle Phan says in the video that the reasoning behind it is because liquids aren’t allowed, but there’s no reason why you can’t just bring an eyeliner pencil on a flight with you. That’s all I’ve got for today, I’ll see you guys next week!

-xoxo Alex

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Day 33

Hi dolls! Today's video is the Mysterious Masquerade Look, which would still be pretty cute even without a mask in my opinion. I really liked the look, the combination of the smokey eyes with the white tight lining gives it a really seductive yet doll-like quality that definitely works well for the prom-type events she envisioned for it when she made it. Definitely a bit much for wearing out during the day though; even though I think arbitrary rules for "night looks" and "day looks" are typically pretty silly, I still felt a bit overdone in this makeup while going about my day. It's definitely really intense makeup, but if you're going to a dance or something of that ilk then I totally recommend this look, I felt like an old-time Hollywood superstar in it. That's all for today, see you in a few days!

-xoxo Alex

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Day 32

Happy Friday! So, for today we've got some Champagne Skin Care to talk about, and let me tell you I loved the materials list for this 😍 Rest assured, absolutely no champagne was left to waste by the end of the day, my sister and I decided to use up the rest with a mimosa night. As far as the effectiveness of using champagne as a toner goes, I thought it worked just fine, but it wasn't spectacular enough for me to go out and buy champagne just for the purpose of cleansing and toning my face. If you happen to have a bottle of champagne and about a spare tablespoon of it then definitely go for it, it has a cool, light, and bubbly feeling on the skin - not to mention how luxe it feels to be rubbing champagne on your face. If, however, you're like most normal people and don't just casually have champagne lying around, don't worry: you're not missing much. That's all for today, have a great weekend you guys!

-xoxo Alex

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Day 31

Hello dolls! Today we’re gonna be talking about 3 different products from the On The Go Review Foundation: Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 videos. The first one is Revlon’s ColorStay Foundation for Normal/Dry skin in Porcelain, and I found this to be a really versatile foundation: it applied semi-sheer but has a really buildable formula that allows it to provide a lot of coverage if you need it. It’s a great Swiss Army Knife foundation to keep if you do a variety of looks but don’t want more than one foundation bottle cluttering up your bag. The second one is L’Oreals’s True Match Super Blendable Makeup in Neutral Classic Ivory, and this one is a perfect sheer foundation for those who want a no-makeup makeup look that’s very lightweight. It washes off super easily, so definitely not the one for you if you lead a very active lifestyle, but if you need a minimal-coverage foundation to even your complexion I’d definitely recommend it. Lastly, we have Maybelline’s Fit Me Foundation Dewy + Smooth for Normal to Dry skin in Porcelain, and dang were they not lying when they said dewy, I felt like my face was glowing! This definitely on the medium/heavy coverage side, so if you need a lot of coverage and want radiant skin I cannot recommend this enough! I loved it, definitely my favorite of the three. Okay, that’s all folks! See you on Friday 💖

-xoxo Alex

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Day 30

Happy Monday! Back again today with the Glamorous Birthday Look to show you all. Initially, I really was not looking forward to this because I felt like it was way too over-the-top, and honestly I still felt like that for the first 30 minutes of wearing it, but once I got used to the extreme lashes I actually really loved the look a lot! I felt like a fairy princess the whole day. It definitely was not my birthday, but no joke this makeup look made me feel just as special. one thing I really didn’t gel with was putting the fake eyelashes on using a cotton swab, I always use tweezers to push them into place instead and find that to be a much more accurate way to line it up with your lash line. Overall such a cute look, somewhat time-consuming but for those special days I’d definitely recommend it! All righty, that’s it for today (I know, so brief! I might be finally getting good at condensing :p) I’ll catch up with you all on Wednesday!

-xoxo Alex

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Day 29

Happy Friday! Today I’m reviewing the Smokey Royal Blue With Glasses look for you guys, so let’s get started! I really like how intense this eye makeup is and yet how the glasses tone it down a notch and make it less dramatic. This look is definitely not something I’d recommend for a daily look since it takes a fair amount of time and requires a lot of eyeshadow layers, but if you have extra time in your day and want I nice statement look this I’d definitely recommend it. Unfortunately, since there’s a lot of eyeshadow, I experienced a lot of fallout on my cheeks, so while she doesn’t say it in the video I’d recommend going over under your eyes with a clean brush to sweep up the extra pigments and then touching up with a bit more concealer. One last thing that I’ll say about it honestly doesn’t even have to do with the look itself, but the video. She was totally scatterbrained throughout the whole thing and lumped many steps together that would usually be separate, so if you do want to follow this tutorial I would recommend watching it completely through first to make sure you don’t miss anything. Okay, that’s it for today, I’ll be back next week!

-xoxo Alex

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Day 28

Howdy guys! I’m back today with a DIY: Tomato Scrub review, and overall I thought this tutorial was really useful. I absolutely loved how she cut the top of the tomato off to use as a cleansing pad, I personally hate tomatoes and by holding it by the stem I was able to keep my hands tomato juice-free. When I was patting the sugar onto the tomato pad, I accidentally spilled a lot of tomato juice onto the dish from the rest of the cut tomato, which made the sugar less granulated and, in turn, made for a much gentler sugar scrub than I was anticipating, which my sensitive skin much appreciated. The one downside to that, however, was after just 3 minutes of it sitting on my face my skin felt stickier than a flytrap, and for those first three minutes of letting it dry more to my face it was fairly runny. Despite those downsides though, I really liked this scrub and I felt like it really made my skin smoother and refreshed my face. That’s all I have for today you guys, I hope you have a great day and I’ll see you on Friday!

-xoxo Alex

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Day 27

 Hi guys! So today’s video is Fresh 5 Minutes Makeup. It’s a really quick and simple makeup look that definitely falls under the “no-makeup makeup” category, and is perfect for those days where you’re running 10 minutes behind schedule and want to put something on your face. Honestly, I would really wear this look if I had more than a few minutes to get ready, simply because I’m extra af and love to have a complete full face of makeup, but I totally see myself using this when I accidentally hit snooze one too many times (which let’s be real, is more often than not) and I’m strapped for time.If you have patchy skin or need to conceal a bit more, I’d probably recommend using lightweight liquid foundation along with the concealing, since just using powder foundation and concealer is a rather sheer combination, especially if your concealer is fairly sheer too. Not really much else to say on this look, so I’ll sign off for the day now! See you soooon!

--xoxo Alex

[michellephanmakeupchallenge]

Day 26

Hiiiiiiiiii! So jumping right in, today’s video was Makeup For Glasses, although I took a couple of pictures without the glasses so you could see the look better. I really like this look, like the school look I did a couple of weeks back it’s fairly minimal with just a bit of color for a pop. While my problem with that look was how dark the eyeshadow color I used came out, my issue with this one was that my eyeshadow color was too light and could barely be seen underneath my lashes. I ended up layering a salmon color on top of my bright orange to make it more visible, but in the future I’d probably either find something more pigmented to use for this look or try a slightly darker color. For people with a sparser lash line, this might not be as big of an issue, but if you have thick, dark lashes already and plan on using the fake lashes too then I would definitely recommend not using super light colors or, if you do, layering up with multiple shades. As far as the false lashes go, if you can find some half lashes I would recommend getting those. I ended up cutting my full lashes in half and using the inner corners because when I tested out the full lashes it gave me total crazy eyes, they looked super spidery and was just wayyyy too much. All in all I think this is a super cute, fairly easy look to do, I definitely recommend it. That’s all for now! See you next week :)

-xoxo Alex

[michellephanmakeupchallenge]

Day 25

Goooooood morning! Today’s video up for review is DIY: Homemade Lip Color, and honestly I think it would be more appropriately titled “DIY: Homemade Lip Tint” instead. I decided to make 2 different tints from an old eyeshadow palette: one of them a simple, rose gold color, and the other one à la the unicorn trends of late as a silvery base with rainbow flecks (what can I say, I’m a basic bitch💁). Unfortunately, despite my heavy pigment usage, they came out as sheer tints that hardly show up unless you use a lip primer and a lip brush for application. However, since it’s just Vaseline and pigments, it’s VERY moisturizing and can also be used in other ways, such as being used as a highlighter or for the glossy eyes trend. Eve though the color payoff wasn’t there, I still really liked these glosses (especially the unicorn one as a highlighter, talk about a highlight you can see from space!) and if you don’t expect to be getting a new set of lipsticks from it it’s definitely worth the 15 minutes it takes to completely make these. One last tip I would say is maybe consider ditching the plate and tape down some wax paper to a table or a small cutting board, when I tried using a plate I felt like I just couldn’t get all of the pigments mixed in properly, so I switched to wax paper and it was soooo much smoother. That’s it for today, I’ll see you back Friday!

-xoxo Alex