Because love, right?
After years of writing and talking about makeup pretty much daily, I assumed that my fiancé picked up a few things. He’s chatted with me while I’ve done my makeup enough times to know what’s up, right? As a fun little challenge I had Dave, my fiancé (the one I gave a beard blow out, remember him?) pick my makeup for a day.
To make things even more interesting I put a couple of rules in place.
- I had to use the products as intended (eyeliner had to be used on the eye, etc.)
- All brushes/tools were fair game because honestly I had to have something working in my favor
- He had to pick all the products in five minutes or less
The five minute rule was instituted part of the way in after Dave spent his first full five minutes looking through eyeshadows to find foundation. At this point I said he had five minutes to pick the whole face full of makeup.
My vanity is something like organized chaos. I know where everything is, and its all loosely grouped with like things together but Dave was totally overwhelmed looking at it all.
Product Picks
Tarte Swamp Queen Palette (“Because you’re my swamp queen, babe” cute.), Kevyn Aucoin The Neo Bronzer, MAC Blush in Full Of Joy, NYX Copper Glitter, NYX Luv Out Loud Lipstick in Fearless, Makeup Geek Full Spectrum Liner in Plumeria, Laura Mercier Flawless Fusion Foundation, L’Oreal Lash Paradise Mascara, and MAC pigment in Primary Yellow.
Which is a lot going on. And frankly more cool toned purples than I’ve ever worn in my life. The things I was sorely missing out on were primer and concealer.
How I applied ’em
First I buffed in the Laura Mercier foundation (which is a great foundation for combination skin, by the way). This didn’t end up wearing particularly nicely without a primer underneath or a powder on top. It does have a ton of coverage, praise be, so I ended up using it as concealer too.
An extra glob of foundation worked pretty decently as concealer and eyeshadow primer. I worked this in with my fingers and, unsurprisingly, it meshed perfectly with the concealer.
Dave picked the Kevyn Aucoin The Neo Bronzer, and I honestly don’t know if he knew what it was. It is one of my most favorite cheek palettes, but the red tones didn’t mesh flawlessly with all the purple he picked. I don’t think he even knows where to apply bronzer, but whatever.
MAC Full Of Joy isn’t something I use often because it takes a bit of effort to work up to a visible color. But it worked in my favor because a light sweep gave just a hint of color but a lot of glow that was lacking from the all matte everything look.
Before doing the eyes I applied the lipstick because I knew that it was a LOT of look and I needed to see how it would work before adding eye makeup into the mix.
With the lilac lips on I moved onto the eyes. I started with a wash of a light shimmering shade before adding a little more depth in the crease. Did he want me to wear pumpkin spice makeup? It was hard to tell.
With all the purple going on I had to use the last row in the Tarte Swamp Queen Palette to stay in the theme.
I couldn’t think of anything else to do with the yellow pigment but go for a bold inner corner highlight.
And the same thing could be said for the glitter (glitter eyebrows?). So I paired them up together for the most OTT inner corner highlight my face has ever seen.
Last touches were the eyeliner, I buffed in and blended out and mascara.
This look? Not my favorite. I didn’t love the purple and yellow combination and this lilac lipstick isn’t meant to be.
The Result
Lo and behold, Dave loved the look. Very Mardi Gras cocktails-appropriate.
I should note that Mardi Gras isn’t till February. Guess I’ll just have to tuck this look away till then!
Overall (besides the interesting choices of color) my least favorite part of the look was the lips. It could work if I wore a really simple makeup with maybe just mascara on the eyes but playing with other makeup? Not my jam.
To avoid washing off my whole face in the middle of the day I ended up swapping the lip for a more nude option. It made the whole look much more wearable, even the golden inner corner highlight grew on me.
Tell me, would you ever let your loved ones pick your makeup? How do you think it would go?
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