Madd Style Cosmetics: My Signature Look!

Hi Everyone!

This month's Madd Style Cosmetics model monthly theme was brought to us by the ever lovely, Jalackie (one of MSC's newest Madd Models)! Jalackie's idea was that we all do a tutorial for our "signature" look. Deciding what I was going to do was pretty easy--as my signature look kind of became it by default (I suppose that might be how it usually works!). About a year ago I started doing looks that faded to black--either a gradient of any colour and then to black, or a progression across part of the colour wheel...and then to black. I figured this would be a good tutorial to do as I know black can be a scary thing to work with--and using black can easily get out of hand. But hopefully after reading this tutorial you'll be inspired to test out one of your black pigments and not be too scared of the results!! :)

If you want to follow me to find out how I achieved this look:


Then please--keep on keepin' on with the reading! :)

First, gather all of the supplies!

(Top to bottom, left to right: NYX Eyeshadow Base in "White"; Barry M 3 in 1 Intense Mascara; Too Faced Shadow Insurance; Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Pencils in "Zero" (Black) and "Yeyo" (White); Madd Style Cosmetics "Awesome Sauce"; Madd Style Cosmetics pigments (clockwise from the lightest blue): Brad (from the Rocky Horror Picture collection); Sapphire (from the Dark Crystal collection); Poison Berry (from the Birthday Collection); Sparkle Motion; Matte Black (from the Up in Smoke collection); Birfday Suit (the matte nude); Time Warp (the left-most black); Flat Shader Brush; Domed Crease Brush; Liner Brush; Angled Liner Brush; Slanted Shadow Brush.)

*whew!* That's a lot of supplies!!

As always--start with a squeaky clean eye!

Then you want to start priming! Primers are necessary to keep your pigments in their place (ie: this stops them from crawling into your creases throughout the day). My chosen primer is Too Faced Shadow Insurance. On the right, you can see that this is how much I use for both eyes. After putting the amount I want on one finger, I rub it together with the same finger (on the other hand) and then dab/spread it on to my whole eyelid, around the duct area, and lastly along the lower lash line.

After priming, you will want to put a nice two colour base on your lids. For this look, since I'm using black on the outer corner--I chose to use white on the inner lid and 2/3rds of the rest of the lid and then black for the outer most 1/3rd of the lid. Begin by applying the NYX Eyeshadow Base (in "White") to the inside part of the lid. Apply this down around the duct and blend it out to most of the lid (leaving that outer most part naked, for now!). Be sure to blend the white "up" towards the brow a little too--this will help with blending later on!


For the black part of the base, use a black eyeliner pencil. I like to use the Urban Decay pencils as bases because I find them quite soft and easy to blend (as will be happening soon!). Starting at the outer-most corner of your lid, fill in a little black triangle. While you have the pencil out, also line the outer 1/3rd o your lower lash line with the same black pencil.


At this point, you'll have something like the picture on the left. Then, with your finger (or a brush), blend that black base (on the lid) toward the white and up toward the brow (at the outer corner). Don't take this colour into the whole crease (toward the inner eye, I mean)--you're just focusing on blurring it so it's a soft black spot on the outer corner of your lid. Because my lids are semi-hooded, I also angle the black so that the black itself is less than a 90 degree angle (if you think of the line that meets between the white and the black). You want something more like a...70 degree angle? (I might have just totally made up that number...!) Basically, what I'm saying, is by fanning the shape out this way it will have the effect of opening up your eyes a bit! Once you're satisfied with the blending of the black, move on to the next step.


Awesome Sauce! Awesome Sauce is Madd Style Cosmetic's version of a foiling medium. Essentially what it will do is help to make your pigments appear "wet" and a bit more opaque than if you were just applying them straight on to a base. If you click on this picture to make it a bit bigger--and then look really closely at the right side--you can see that that is how much of this product I use for BOTH of my lids. Like I did with the primer, I smoosh my fingers together and then dab this product all over my eyelid. With things like this less is seriously more. Don't go overboard or you could just be inviting a creasing party to your eyelids. After you've applied the teeniest amount of this to your lids, sit for a few minutes to let it get dry and kind of tacky.


Hooray, now we can get on to playing with some colour! First, using a flat shader brush, take a light blue colour and apply it to the first 1/3rd of your eyelid. Here I am using the wonderful "Brad" (a colour that was part of a collection that is no longer available)--but you can use any light blue that you have...as long as it's "blue" blue and not greenish in any way. Pat this colour on to your lid and really get the colour nice and opaque (the Awesome Sauce will help make this step SUPER easy).


Then, using the same brush (but the other side of it), dip into a more medium dark blue. For this look I am using "Sapphire" from the Dark Crystal collection--another collection that isn't available anymore (sadly!). Pat this colour on next to your light blue. To blend this colour in with Brad, all you have to do is lightly touch the seam (between the light and darker blue) with the light and dark side of your brush! It's like magic, I tell you! (On the right you see how the two colours look once they have been blended.)


Now, take an even darker blue! Here I am using Poison Berry--a colour from the Birthday Collection. A collection that is currently still available! Like you did with the blue before this, pat it next to Sapphire and blend it like you did with the Brad/Sapphire.


Because, at this point, you've just been focusing on getting the colours nice and strong on the lid area--you'll want to blend these colours out to the crease area before getting involved in the black/darkest parts. Switch to a fluffy domed crease brush (a brush like this will really do most of the work for you--because its bristles are less dense than the shader brush you were using before, it will apply the colours much more lightly and will help them fade from the lid to the crease in a nice way).


Go back to your blues in the same order (lightest to darkest) and apply them on the edge of the harsh line you've created between your lid and the crease.

(Brad, then Sapphire, and then Poison Berry!)

At this point, you'll have something like this:

(See how the colours fade out a bit toward the crease? That's what you're going for!)

Now, dip that same domed crease brush into Time Warp (a lovely matte black with very pretty blue glitter). Touch this colour to the outside of your eyelid, concentrating on angling it from the lid toward the end of your eyebrow (and not just straight up an down). On the right you'll see--that is the colour just as I've placed it--before any blending. With blacks you'll want to start with a small amount--you can always add more later--but it's harder to take some away, trust me!! :)


Using the same magic domed crease brush, you're going to blend the black in toward the Poison Berry. You don't want to take this into the crease, really--because you want the blue gradient to stay lightest in the inner eye and then to fade all the way to black. So keep this black at the outside of your eye.


At this point, move on to your lower lash line. First, take a white eyeliner pencil (I am using my Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On pencil in "Yeyo") and line from your inner duct area all along your lower lash line to where the black liner begins.


Like you did when you blended out the blues on the lid, apply them in the same order to your lower lash line--but this time use a smaller brush! This is me applying the Brad and then the Sapphire. As you move from one blue to the next--gently blend the seam so the gradient is seamless.


And here I am doing the Poison Berry and then, finally, Time Warp. When you get to that black colour, be sure to join it up with the black on your outer lid. Because you have so much dark going on at the other lid, I find I don't need to line my upper lid with black eyeliner--but you can (at this point), if you're addicted to black eyeliner! ;)


This next part is relatively optional...When I do these looks with black as a pretty dominant colour, I like to line my waterline with black. Here you can see I have already lined it with my black UD pencil in "Zero" (on the right side of the waterline) and on the left I am "setting" that black liner with a matte black pigment (I used the Up in Smoke collection's Matte Black--but Mo is offering a matte black in her new "Shade Short Stack"!). By setting the liner with a black pigment you are helping it to not fade away--as your waterline is a pretty...watery...place! Using a very small angled liner brush, I pressed the black pigment all the way along the waterline.


For your duct--use a sparkly white. Here I am using Sparkle Motion, a very sparkly white.


I'm not sure why I left my brow highlight to last with this look, but I did. Using MSC's Birfday Suit (a nude (for white people!) matte), I applied it to a slanted angled brush and then put this colour all along my brow bone. I also concentrated on marrying this colour with the lid colours to further help them fade out to the crease.


Now. If your duct colour got a little out of hand (as mine apparently did!)--here's a secret: QTips are your friend. Take some makeup remover (one that is NOT oil based) on the QTip. Starting at the inner part of your eye, where you want to do the clean up, "roll" the QTip from that part and all the way along your lower lash line. If you don't want your lines to be too "crisp" you can just use it to clean up around the duct--but if your blues down at the lower lash line got a bit lower than you wanted them to, you can use this QTip to fix that. You could also use it to sharpen up the edge of the black at your outer lid, if you so choose. I like to keep my black pretty soft and fade-y--but sharp edges look fun, too!


Apply some mascara, and you're done!


I do hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial! As I said, I have done this same technique a number of times using different kinds of colours. It always works out and always looks pretty bad-ass, if I must say so myself. :)

And now to continue with the: "Interesting fact you didn't know about me" section: This summer I had a goal to run my very first 10km run! Not only did I accomplish my goal, but I think I ran it about 6 or 7 times!! YAY! I am by no means a "fast" runner, but I was pretty darn proud of myself for doing something that I never thought I'd be able to do. Back in elementary school I had a gym teacher yell at me and tell me that a snail could run faster than me...ever since then I've had a pretty big complex about my running style. But. Did I ever show him! Sure, I didn't run it "fast", but I did it and I did it because I wanted to!