on the eyes: rusty red via Estée Lauder Stay-on Shadow Paint

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Right now I am all about burgundies, sepias, rusty reds and burnt oranges, particularly on my eyes (this is going to come up again soon, I suspect more than once). I have the support of basic color theory, too; red enhances green. A true, balanced red or anything on the pink spectrum can be difficult to work with*, but I think rusty colors like this would suit a lot of eye colors and skin tones. This is the color Cosmic, a great ruddy brown. More visible glitter than I was expecting–as a warning–but still lovely.

I’m still trying to find a gorgeous, true sepia. I don’t see many examples of this kind of shade from any brand (though NARS has a new one–Persia– that might do, but $$), especially not in a cream formula. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

*This difficulty is not insurmountable, though, and I don’t think rules [i.e. don’t wear red on the eyes, don’t mix brown with black (I love brown with black)] are particularly helpful in the context of style. In the words of a wise friend, “I do what I want.” [At least, when it is in my power.]

acquisitions: Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate palette

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Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Intensity 01

I really like the way cream products blend naturally into the skin, and have been wanting a cream contour for a while. It’s great to hold off acquiring, so when you do finally go for it you get just what you want, and haven’t wasted your funds on stuff it turns out you don’t like. This also helps [me] to justify selecting an expensive option, as this certainly is.

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Intensity 01
Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Intensity 01

If I’m only going to have one contour cream, I’m glad this is the one. I like to mess around with creating/enhancing/transforming the architecture of my face. I have the palette in Intensity One, the lighter shade, and find it wonderfully natural and subtle. It’s quite transparent, and–great for makeup amateurs–hard to mess up, in a way. The highlight cream is similarly subtle. I do have other highlighters, cream and powder, and none are so finely milled and undetectable as this. When it comes to face products, undetectability is my main priority.

Chic packaging doesn’t hurt, either.

I feel like finding a paintbrush akin to the one designed to go with the palette [prohibitively expensive], and seeing how that applies.

Watch brilliant makeup artist Lisa Eldridge using it here in an androgynous look, which I am so going to try. And here it is being used for a sculpted Kate Moss look.

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