Red and Black Week, Day 6: Red and Black Gradient Make Up Tutorial

I can't decide whether I should be appalled with myself or not; a whole year since I last did my two tone red and black make up for last year's R&B Week, and I still haven't purchased red eyeshadow. I'm not sure if it counts as lazy or thrifty, but it's probably the former. So before we start, I would like to clarify that there is probably a reason that they don't market lipsticks for use as eyeshadow, and I wouldn't recommend it for use on a regular basis for health and safety reasons.



As mentioned above, my most successful post of last year was my two-tone make up look on the final day (see here), and I wanted to do another make up look for this year; red lipstick is a classic, but red eye shadow is more difficult to pull off. I don't tend to incorporate red into my club and night time looks, so this was a challenge on that level too, which I relished.

Excuse the frizzy hair. 

I'm overly pleased with this look! To contrast last year's effort, I focused more on gradients as opposed to colour blocking, and in honour of our wonderful host Ms. Kitty I included her signature black-lined red lips. This look can be split up into its components and each part worn on its own, but I've done a brief tutorial for you guys on how to do it for yourself.

Eyebrows

The eyebrows are the easiest part of this look - after putting your foundation and other base products on, start at the beginning of your eyebrows with red eyeshadow (or lipstick, in my case), and shade your eyebrows in until about half way. Do the rest of your eyebrows in black, blending the two in the middle. I actually really like this effect, and might employ these into my daytime collection now.

Eyes

I wanted to use black in the crease of my eyes, as I've seen several good examples of this online. Start with your red eyeshadow (lipstick certainly doesn't work well for this) on your lid, and line your lower lid too. Then fill in the crease with black eyeshadow, blending black into the corner of your lids, and use an angle brush to sweep a thin line of black along your bottom lid. Finally, use liquid liner (or gel if you prefer) along your lash line, before making a cat's eye; you can join the upper and lower lines on the inner corner too - I personally prefer to keep it open as this suits me more. And don't forget mascara. I can't imagine anyone forgetting mascara. Who could do such a thing.

 

Lips

The lips are another, very easy section - mine are a little too wobbly in shape because I wasn't going out and thus got a bit lazy (bad blogger!), and I'll probably upload a better image at some point later. Line your lips with black lip (or eye) liner, focusing on the outside shape of the lines. Fill this in with your red lipstick, then use a lip brush to blend the colours inwards.

E voila! Your look is complete!


It's been an honour to take part in Red and Black Week, and even with the last minute rushes and the bad coincidence of my moving out, I've loved every bit. It's great getting to meet new bloggers and see the community pull together, and it's generated a lot of inspiration for me. I hope some of you stick around to see some of my non-colour themed posts, as I will certainly be following a fair few new blogs myself. Many thanks to Ms. Kitty, and I hope to see you all again next year!

Have you taken part in Red and Black Week? What's been your favorite post of this week? Did you know I have a facebook page? (Shameless plug, I know.) Let me know in the comments!





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