Madd Style Cosmetics: An in depth look at pre-MSC preparation

There are two main reasons for this post. First, I've seen some people posting on the Madd Style Cosmetics FB Fanpage with some questions about primers and bases and why they're important and are they really necessary, that kind of stuff. This post will serve to talk about my current favorite way to prepare my eyelids before laying on the Madd Style. Second, I thought I'd be nice to have a post I could refer back to in my future tutorials when I use the same primer/base method (this is the method I seem to be using about 75% of the time)--that way I don't have to photograph it each time and re-explain it each time. Yay for time savers!!

For those of you who have been following me for a while, you know that I ran into a bit of an issue with finding a reliable vegan primer after I discovered that Urban Decay's Primer Potion had been suddenly labeled as non-vegan. I was excited when I received my Sobe Botanicals Primed and Proper primer...and even though it didn't work out so well for me at first, I thought I had managed to come up a reliable way to make it work for me after some trial and error. But truth be told, I have not been able to properly duplicate that success I had with SoBe's product and so my go-to-primer has been the one I received from The All Natural Face (my first package chronicled here).

Thus begins our priming and basing journey!

Primers are extremely important when it comes to mineral pigments. Primers, if they work correctly, help to keep your pigments in their place. There is nothing more sad (in the makeup world) than a pretty look that is only pretty for the first 30 minutes and then it begins to travel into the crease of your eyelid. Primers combat this problem and they also help your colours appear more vibrantly since they make the pigment "stick" to your eyelids. Another bonus is that some primers help to disguise any veins or discolouration you might have on your eyelids--if your primer is more clear, this won't be so, but for my favorite primer it almost doubles as a kind of concealer. As I have said, my favorite primer this moment is the All Natural Face Eyeshadow Primer in "Buff". The selling feature of this stuff is that it's good for "oily" lids. Now, I'm not exactly sure if my lids are what one would call "oily"--but it seems to do what it's suppose to. My primer now looks something like this.

Yeah, it's not the best packaging--as you can see there are some specks of particles stuck to the product. But the fact that this is the primer that works best for me at the moment lets me overlook my distaste for the packaging.

To apply this product, I rub my finger (sometimes my ring finger if I'm thinking clearly--since your ring finger won't allow you to use a much pressure as your index finger (for example) so it's a more delicate touch for your equally delicate eyelids) on the top of the product until I have about this much:


Then I pat it on to the center of my eyelid, like this:


Once it's there, I just blend it out to the rest of my lid, up to my brow bone, down around the inner part of my eye and if I have enough product left--I also run some along my lower lash line. When it's all blended out, it looks a bit like this:


With the primer all blended out, this *could* potentially be your last step before starting to apply your Madd Style Pigments. If you're going for a more toned down look, putting your pigments straight on to primer is a totally fine thing to do. I like my colours to be very vibrant and opaque and to achieve this most successfully, I use a base after the primer and before applying any pigments to my lid. A base is something that can come in different colours--a black base will help deepen/darken the look of the pigment you put on top of it. A purple base under a purple pigment can help intensify that purple-ness! A base that has sparkle or pearl can add a pearlyness to a pigment that would otherwise not be quite so pearly! Typically I just use a pure white base as a white base gives a nice bright even background for the pigments and helps them to become even brighter themselves. It's like magic, people! Very similar to the set up of my primer, my chosen base is NYX's Eyeshadow Base in white. The other benefit of applying a base is that its stickiness will help you to avoid fallout (pigment or glitter falling on to your cheeks!). Bases do all KINDS of good things!


Similarly to the issue I have with the pot of primer (as you can see) my NYX base likes to collect little specks of stuff. Not a big deal. It still works! And my method for application is identical to what I do with my primer. I rub my finger on the top.


And then I apply it to the center of my eyelid. You want to be careful not to apply too much base. If you layer on too much it can cause creasing--and as I said, creasing is bad. You want to avoid that. :)


Lastly I blend it out to the rest of the lid, up to my crease/brow bone, into the inner part of my eye, and down on my lower lash line.

And voila! Now you have a primed and based eyelid!


Therein lays the in depth look at/explanation of my pre-Madd Style preparation. I hope you've found it helpful and if you have any questions, let me know!