When first faced with this makeup challenge, I thought, 30 is a daunting number … but I’m a makeup artist and beauty writer; I should be able to do this. Piece of cake, right?
Then I actually started doing it … not so simple.
Now, I had never thought of myself as “stuck in a rut” or obsessed with a signature look. But when I reviewed the past few years of pictures — just to see what makeup looks I had tried already — sure enough, there wasn’t much variety (at least not captured on camera). In fact, I wore the same “safe” makeup shades almost every day: neutral peaches and pinks, nude-ish lips, black liner. I even had the same set of the same makeup products stashed in the glove compartment of my car, just in case I need to do the same look on the go. Bo-ring. So I thought, why not take this challenge and see how creative I can get, even when cramped for time?
Another impetus was my plan to finally chop my long, brown hair into a pixie — a move I had been thinking about for more than a year. I was going to need more makeup, edgier makeup — anything to keep me from looking like a boy.
So began some serious experimentation. Despite some questionable looks (you should have seen some of the stares I got), I eventually started getting up a tad earlier, taking more time to apply and blend my makeup, and letting brightly colored lipstick be a norm versus a once-a-week “night” thing, plus I tried some really fun eye makeup looks too. I feel so much more glamorous now, even just running daily errands. And instead of forcing myself to use the same makeup products every day, I’ve switched to keeping an entire eye shadow palette in the car (so I can always try new eye makeup looks) and several lipsticks and glosses in each purse … just in case I want to mix things up. Read on to see the looks I came up with, and which were surprisingly easy to pull off.
Click here to see the different looks
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