Spring Look - Collaboration with Ross McDyre

Last spring I did a collaborative photo-shoot with Ross McDyre. Ross is a professional photographer specializing in fashion, portraiture, and commercial assignments. He used  to be based in Vancouver but recently got married and moved to Manchester, UK. Congrats Ross! Check out his amazing pictures on Instagram @alelephotography and @livingmanchester

We've been having such unusually cold weather where I live so I decided an early spring makeup look would be perfect to remind us of the warmer weather coming soon...hopefully. Here is a shot from the photo shoot:

If you're interested in finding out how I created this look, keep reading :)

Let’s start with skin. The foundation I used is NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation (in shade Punjab). Wow this foundation great! It glides on so smoothly and you only need a tiny amount to cover your entire face because the coverage is so amazing. This is definitely getting added to my list of favorite foundations. It sells for $59.00 which is above average for a foundation but the quality is so great it is worth a purchase. As you may know, I prefer buying one good quality foundation over a ton of cheaper foundations that don’t really cut it. Don't get me wrong there are many cheaper foundations that work great…but I'll be talking about that in another blog post. Anyways, why do I always get sidetracked? I applied this foundation with a Sigma F84 - Angled Kabuki brush. If I am going to use a foundation brush guys, it's this one. If you haven't tried their brushes before check them out here: http://www.sigmabeauty.com/ They’re amazing and decently priced.

I then used MAC Cosmetics Select Moisturecover in NC20 to conceal under my eyes, and blended it out with, you guessed it, a Sigma concealer brush.

For contouring and highlighting, I used the Smashbox Master Class Palette III – Color & Contour. Unfortunately, they no longer sell this palette; however, they recently came out with the Smashbox Master Class Palette: Lighting Theory which has similar highlight and contouring colors (in cream), plus some. It looks like this:

This palette is beautiful! It sells for $75.00 CDN which I thought was just an awesome deal for what you're getting. It contains all of the following:

-16 x 0.02 oz Photo Op Eye Shadow in Sand (pastel beige matte), Totally Nude (pinky beige matte), Nectar (peach matte), Almond (warm nude matte), Truffle (taupe matte), Light Wave (midtone brown metallic), Sunrise (warm gold metallic), Sunlight (rose gold metallic), Optics (deep gray metallic), Metallic Violet (deep purple metallic), Metallic Bronze (bronze metallic), Metallic Brick (red brown metallic), Nocturnal (navy metallic), Blackout (black matte), Sumatra (dark brown matte), Backlit (black with red pearl metallic) 

- 3 x 0.09 oz Blush in Candlelight (midtone pink), Carnation (midtone pink with gold pearl), Spectrum (midtown brown pink) 

- 4 x 0.04 oz Cream Color Corrector in Lavender (corrects sallowness/yellowness), Green (corrects redness), Peach (corrects dark spots for fair to medium skintones), Orange (corrects dark spots for darker skintones) 

- 3 x 0.16 oz Contouring Cream in Contour (dark brown), Bronze (brown), Highlight (creamy beige) 

- 3 x 0.15 oz Cream Highlighter in Luminous Gold (gold shimmer), Luminous Pink (pink shimmer), Luminous Peach (peach shimmer) 

- 4 x Get the Look insert 

This has become my go to palette and I've been using it even more than my Urban Decay Naked Pallets, which you guys know I adore! I applied the contouring and highlighting color with a MAC angle brush. The contour shade went in the hollows of my cheeks, and the highlighting shade I applied on the highest point of my cheekbones. The blusher I used is the lightest shade of pink in this palette, and I applied that right above the contour shade and below the highlighting shade. Think Neapolitan ice cream haha.

Let’s move on to eyebrows. I've recently changed my eyebrow routine from powder to pomade. Reason being, I tried the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade and fell in love! I use the dark Brown color. It sells for $23.00 CAD. I applied this product with a cheap Essence angle brush and voila, so easy.

On the lips I mixed two MAC Cosmetics Lipsticks in Pink Pigeon and Heroine. I love these colors, and they are so perfect for spring. Here is a picture of what they look like. Each lipstick sells for $21.00 CAD:

Pink Pigeon:

Heroine:

Moving on to the eyes. I applied my Urban Decay eyeshadow primer in Eden first before applying any color. I then used the Smashbox Master Class Palette III – Color & Contour. As I mentioned earlier this palette is no longer being sold :( But, you can use any eyeshadows you have that are similar to the following purple shades: Lavender, Lilac, and Violet (see below).

 Lavender I applied to the inner corner of my eyes; then, in the center of my eyes I used Lilac. Finally, on the outer corner of my eyes I used Violet. I then blended everything together with a blending brush. On my brow bone and my tear duct area I used Oyster, which is a white pearly eyeshadow, to highlight. 

The liquid liner I used is Kat Von D’s Tattoo Liner in Trooper; this has been my go to eyeliner for years now. It's so easy to apply and the black is a true black. It sells at Sephora for $23.00 CAD.

Finally, for mascara I used Makeup Forever Smoky Extravagant Mascara. I received a sample from Sephora a while ago and I really love it. It really does add volume, length, and curl to the lashes as advertised. Also, similar to the KVD liquid eyeliner it's a true black. 

And that's it!! Overall, this was a super easy makeup look to achieve and was so much fun! Hope you enjoyed reading.

Julisse :)