Vanity: Stella J

Vanity: Lipsticking Vicariously Through Others

Stella J, Carer

I've always been attracted to the transformative and creative aspects of makeup. When I was a child, I found a magazine of my mother's, and it showed how to recreate classic Hollywood looks. I got a bit obsessed with that magazine! I put it in a folder, tried all the looks over and over, and went to school for pretty much a whole year made up like Louise Brooks. I liked the way I could use makeup to take any feeling or mood I was experiencing and put it on the outside for others to see.

 I can spend a long time on makeup, but that's because I find it relaxing and want to enjoy doing it. It balances out, though, because I'm a complete fool when it comes to hair and clothes, and keep those really quick and simple!

Great makeup starts with healthy skin, so most of my holy grail products are skincare. In particular, I love Nufountain Vitamin C Lightening Serum, which worked wonders on taming my roasacea and breakouts; I also use Mandom Barrier Repair Serum for easing dryness and being soothing. I also use SPF50 daily.  I really enjoy my skincare. The second I get through the door, I head to the bathroom to take my makeup off. I oil cleanse with baby oil to remove my makeup, follow with Avene cleanser, put on the vitamin c serum and moisturizer, make a cup of tea, have a nap. Naps are an essential part of a beauty routine, in my opinion!

Makeup-wise, I'm a huge fan of Shiseido eyeshadow--the texture is just completely unique and the colour combinations are playful yet stylish. I'm totally addicted to eyeshadow! Basically, I want every colour I might ever need to create any look I can imagine.  Makeup really is art to me, and colour is the basic unit of creativity. I'm constantly on the hunt for the perfect deep, dark, vampy blood red, too. My favourite foundation is MAC Face and Body. It looks like perfect skin, not perfect foundation, and I can't be without it. (I've made it through an entire bottle!) In my teen years, I went though a couple of tubes of Boots No. 7 Plum Beautiful lipstick, and I've bought, used, and replaced many tubes of Max Factor Masterpiece Max mascara. I've never finished a blush, and frankly, I don't believe anyone else ever has either, despite what they claim...

As I try more products, I'm harder to please. Honestly, most of my favourite things are high end, but I have drugstore favourites, too. Catrice eyeshadows are some of my most-used products because they have such great colours and textures. I don't feel guilty about spending on high end, though. Why should I? I deserve occasional treats!

My personal philosophy is pretty simple: face first, always. Makeup needs to work for the individual face it's on--one size does NOT fit all--and the face should be what you notice first, not the makeup. I don't like flashy for the sake of flashy. Something can be both dramatic or interesting AND flattering. I love colour and unusual combinations, but I try to make them wearable. I love history and am fascinated by historical makeup. I have a particular love for the 20s and 30s, for the moody, dark glamour of that age, and I collect jewellery from that era, too. The natural world is a constant inspiration, too; I've done makeup looks based on everything from fruit and flowers to gemstones and storm clouds. Nature never gets the colour combinations wrong, so I try to take my lead from her.

I could read till my eyes fall out, and I've usually got dozens of books on the go at a time (I'm convinced my Kindle will bankrupt me). And I have a not-so-secret love of ugly and weird animals. Cute animals are well-represented, so I collect pics of the stupid and odd-looking ones. They need love, too!

This project is greatly indebted to the Top Shelf section of IntoTheGloss.com, which was my inspiration, and to every beautiful person who participates. This article has been slightly modified for clarity and length.

$20 New York City-Inspired FOTD

A recent post on MakeupAlley about the makeup you noticed in different cities really got me thinking: haven't I read about looks that are supposedly "truly such-and-such-a-city," and haven't I noticed that sometimes, certain trends truly pervade one city more than another? So I decided to do another $20 face, and one that was inspired by a look that is supposedly "truly New York City": a super-minimalist look with a pop of lipstick. I noticed this on a lot of ladies from sites like IntoTheGloss, and it really struck me: they were apparently wearing nothing but brow pencil and lipstick, and wow, it shouldn't have worked for me, but...it did. The textures of the skin, the bareness of the eyes, the simple hair...just amazing. This isn't a look I'd wear every day--it's a little TOO unmade-up for me--but I think I'll keep it in my emergency bag for the foreseeable future.

I didn't do a tutorial for this look because there isn't a whole lot to it. I used the NYC Smooth Skin Liquid Makeup ($2) in 676 Ivory as both a foundation and a concealer. It's not a product I would highly recommend: it's so thick you have to spatula it out of the bottle, it provides hardly any coverage, and it oxidized almost 2 shades darker after about 30 minutes. But it's cheap and provides the barely-there coverage I needed for this look, so I went with it. Then I filled in my brows with the La Femme brow pencil ($1.50) in Taupe and applied the TINIEST (and I mean TINIEST) amount of Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing mascara ($3.50) to my upper lashes in quick, feathery strokes. I wanted to add a bit of glow to my skin, since natural-but-healthy skin seems to be the NYC look, so I used Boots No 7 High Lights ($10) on my cheeks and under the arch of my brow. Finally, I decided to fill my lips in with a NYX Long lip pencil ($1.50) in Plush Red, since they're smooth and pigmented without being hyper-drying, but still give a matte look on their own. You can skip this step if you want a look more like the uber-minimalist one in the left picture (where I was clearly testing how Plush Red would photograph.

The changes I'll make for my emergency bag are that I'll carry some Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer ($42) instead of the NYC foundation, I'll probably take a more travel-friendly highlighter or pump out a sample of the Boots one, and I'll switch out the pencil to have some variety.