#teal liner

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New Shu Uemura Eye Products (and a Winged Teal Liner Tutorial)

There are some new Shu Uemura eye products out this month;

Tsuya Skin Youth Infusing Eye Concentrate

The s curler

Tokyo Lash Mascara

and I'm giving them a more in-depth and hands-on test-run! Will walk you through the simple tutorial for this look while talking you through each of the items in turn!

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1. Prepping the skin...

Tsuya Skin Youth Infusing Eye Concentrate:

This new fluffy eye cream is designed to work under eye makeup like a primer, so you don't need to worry about it flaking and "pilling" when you apply things over it, or making your shadows streaky and patchy. The best thing is - it works like a primer under the eyes as well, so your concealer goes on smoother and lasts longer. Perfect for lazy girls who don't like applying a separate eye cream and eyeshadow primer.

I'll have to test longer to let you know if it has a noticeable tightening and lash-lifting effect

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2. Undereye concealer...

I applied Shu Uemura's Point Cealer, which is a matte-finish blemish concealer. This is a long-lasting cream-to-powder concealer that I wouldn't normally apply under the eyes because my skin is so dry there anything matte usually refuses to blend or sit well. But Tsuya Eye Concentrate did manage to keep everything smooth and stop the concealer from settling into fine lines. 

(7YR Medium is slightly too dark for my NC25 skin and I had to mix in a dot of paler concealer to lighten it up, so take note if you are referencing my skin color.)

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3. Because this look is all about the liner, I did not apply any shadow. To keep the lids looking fresh, apply a light sweep of translucent powder over it. 

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4. Begin your liner application. I'm using a beautiful teal from Laura Mercier called Canard and a Maybelline gel liner brush. You can use ANY color you own or like although I'd recommend a matte shade for this look.

If there is any gap or unevenness between the 3 lines, just fill it in. 

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5. Curl your lashes well! This dramatic liner look can really obscure the lashes, so you want them pointing really high so they're still visible. 

The "s curler" is the new addition to the Shu family.

While partial curlers are slower to use than regular ones (you have to curl your lashes in sections from outside in), they allow perfectionists to get at those inner and outer corners the way most regular curlers can't.

For false-lash wearers, the s curler is also designed with no side-bars, so you can press your natural and false lashes together without gripping and pulling them off like some curlers will.

But after using it a few times, I would say the people who would get the biggest benefit from this are newbies and people with mono-lids and hooded lids. The specially-constructed lid pad and angled curling blade designed by the Shu Uemura team actually helps to lift and push back your lid so you reach your lashes easily without clipping your skin. Perfect if your lid tends to fold down and get in the way of your lashes!

Tip: Always curl at least twice along your lashes; once at the roots, and once in the center of the length, so you get a nice upward curve ("C shape) and not a weird bend ("V" shape).

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6. Apply mascara!

Tokyo Lash Mascara is a super-black, "lacquer-effect", lengthening one-coat mascara for people who don't want to spend a whole lot of time building and building their lashes. It's also smudge-proof and contains a special ceramide to condition and strengthen lashes against breakage.

The criss-cross "kirenaga" brush is designed to quickly grab and coat even short hairs (great for lower lashes).

Shu Uemura actually doesn't recommend layering Tokyo Lash mascara, and I find if you try to do that, it can give you stumpy tips because the formula thickens and sets quickly.

Tip: If you love applying a few coats of mascara and worry that a single-coat product won't give you the same volme and length, try this. First do zig zags at the base of your lashes to get some volume around the lower portions. Then wielded the wand diagonally, and applied mascara in an upwards stroking motion along the lash lengths for separation and length.

  The finished eye look!

7. [Optional] As a finishing touch, I sprayed the sides of my face with MAC Fix+ (you can use any alcohol-free toner) and patted on transparent blue-green glitter on the cheekbones and brow bones, where you would normally apply highlighter. This is a fun twist on highlighting, and complements the look without detracting from the strong, graphic eye.

Other Products Shown

Cheeks: Peri Pera blush #3, a pastel poppy pink

Nail Color: Etude House PPP503, pastel blue creme with gold and blue multi-glitter

Lip suggestion: a soft beige-pink would work great with this look.

[maybelline]

Heavy on the lids.

[ladyrayxoxo-blog-blog]

[makeupbox]

Metallic Striped Liner (Inspired by pixiwoo)

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Sam was introducing Make Up For Ever's new Aqua Liners, and did a very simple, colorful, duo-toned liner look. I liked how the darker liner toned down the look and provided some definition to the eye area, unlike when you just apply a light metallic liner on its own.

If you don't have many colorful liquid liners or find liquid liners hard to use, here's a slight re-interpretation using a pencil and an eye shadow.

You can use any color groups you want (e.g. pale pink and fuschia, gold and brown, pale blue and navy...), but the key is to use a paler metallic shade as the main color block, and a darker shade as outline. A word of caution: If you use two contrasting shades (green and purple for example) for this particular look, it will turn out muddy from a distance as you will not be able to see either color very well, so that's not recommended. 

Products used:

Bourjois Contour Clubbing Liner #44 Golden Grey Session (it's actually a pale minty gold-lime)

POP Beauty Smoky Eyes palette (only teal green shadow in the clutch)

L'oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara

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Step 1: Apply a thick swatch of colorful liner on the upper lash line, extending beyond the outer corners into a subtle wing. I chose a pencil because you don't need to worry about precision at this point (pencils don't tend to give very clean outlines). Only the outline color needs precise application.

If you need to run it over your lash line 2 or 3 times to get full intensity, do so.

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Step 2: This is the slightly harder step. I suggest using an angled liner brush, rather than a thin pointy one (aka liquid liner brushes) or flat square brushes. Note that the bristles need to be really flat, so an angled brow brush will NOT work. Sephora has a really good one.

Apply a strip of darker metallic color OVER the pencil liner. *I mixed my powder shadow with eye drops.

Tip: It's easier to get precise control at the outer ends, if you work your way INWARDS after placing the brush exactly where you want the flick to end.

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Step 3: Instead of outlining the pale liner and keeping things only on the upper lid, I did a bit of a double-wing and brought the deeper color downwards to the outer 1/3 of the lower lash line.

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Step 4: Apply mascara to finish off.

[makeupbox]

"Black Siren" Double Reverse-Lined Eye

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This is a fun way to use a metallic liner without losing any definition or detracting from a smoky look.  It's also really simple to do.

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Step 1: Apply  a dark base onto the lid area just to have something for a matte black shadow to cling to. I used black gel liner (Maybelline) mixed with just a little petroleum jelly to spread it out. 

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Step 2: Apply a black shadow over the base. Then retrace the upper lash line with black gel liner again just to define it a bit more.

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Step 3: Now for the lower lids. Apply a tick, solid line of black along the water line. Then at the outer corners, trace backwards with more black liner to thicken the line.

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Step 5: Taking a metallic blue-green eyeshadow and eye drop, I mixed my own metallic sea-green liner using a flat synthetic brush, and then traced the liner along the outer rim of the black lower liner.

As the black is thicker on the outer halves and thinner on the inside, the aqua should be reversed, being thick on the inside and thin on the outer.

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Final Look: Then apply black mascara to finish!

[makeupbox]

Colorful Liner 101 (According to Allure Magazine)

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I decided to try out some tips for wearing colorful liner in the June 2011 issue of ALLURE magazine. 

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Step 1: Instead of having totally bare lids, apply a soft matte or satin grey shade over the lids for some depth without taking attention away from the colorful liner.

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Step 2: Apply bright liner all around the eyes. I decided to do reverse lining (extend lower liner outwards at the ends).

***BEST TIP: To keep things more defined at the lash line, apply black liner along the water line first.

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Step 3: Apply false lashes or mascara.

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And that's all there is!

Other Products Used:

Super Quick Eye Liner * EX

L.A. Splash Underwater Cave (soft matte-grey) pigment