Hey guys!
So as you may or may not know, from time to time I get some wonderful opportunities to work with awesome companies and create looks for them inspired by various things, which I in turn, share with you all. Well today, I’m participating in a challenge presented to me from Vegas.com, in which I was asked to create a day to night makeup tutorial! Pretty cool, right?
Now personally, I’ve never been to Las Vegas; I’ve never even left the East Coast. But when I think Vegas, I think glitz and glam and drama (not necessarily in a bad way!) and shows and clubs and music and……I could go on and on. But in browsing their amazing hotel package deals page, I found myself immediately drawn to and inspired by one place in particular; The Venetian. There’s just something about warm tones and gold accents that makes this very “Vegas” to me. And it’s good to know that if I ever get the chance to visit, they’ve taken the time to put together a page of some of their best deals and packages for shows, attractions, and more!
So if you want to see my day to night transition, just keep on reading!
DAYTIME MAKEUP LOOK
If nothing else, when I initially think of Vegas, I think hot! I mean, it’s super ridiculously hot there, and although it’s (to my knowledge) dry, desert heat, it’s still hot! So when it’s hot, the last thing I want is a full face of makeup!
All I’ve done for daytime (which is, let’s be real, no different than my usual daytime looks) is fill in my brows with my Salon Perfect Brow Defining Kit, using and angled brush and spoolie, and a mixture of the taupe shade and dark brown shade (taupe for the inner part, dark brown for the tail), and set it in place with my HG Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel. Then, I spot conceal with my MAC Pro Longwear Concealer and a Morphe M173 brush. Since I’m currently very light (for summer), I’m going to set my concealer in place with my Coty Airspun Translucent Loose Powder and an e.l.f. Powder Brush, and then warm up the entire perimeter of the face with the Physician’s Formula Butter Bronzer and a Morphe M527. Next I pop on a little Milani Baked Blush in Luminoso, using a Morphe E4, and some Maybelline Lip Studio Color Jolt in Stripped Down.
You may be thinking ‘what about the eyes?’. Lately I’ve noticed that when it’s super hot out, mascara just bothers my eyes, whether it’s waterproof or not. It’s just not comfortable in extreme heat. Besides, if you happen to be sitting poolside at a swanky hotel and decide to cool off in the water, you won’t have to worry about flakes and raccoon eyes when the cabana boy eyes you toweling off!
NIGHTIME MAKEUP LOOK
Ok, so here’s where we punch up the drama a little bit! I’m not one for loud, crowded clubs, but I do enjoy a nice meal, a frozen margarita, and a great show, so of course I want to look my best!
Anytime I’m doing a super dramatic look, I like to start with the eyes; why? Because as you’re working with smokier, darker shadows, or even glitter, you’re bound to have fallout, and it’s easier to wipe it off clean skin than fix my foundation and concealer! I also like to fill in my brows before starting with shadows, because I feel like the structure of the brow helps to guide where my shadow will go, if that makes sense.
I’m going to first prime my brows with some LORAC Behind the Scenes Eyeshadow Primer, which is a great trick if you find your brows tend to fade on you throughout the day or night. Then I’m going to fill them in pretty dramatically with my NYX Micro Brow Pencil in Brunette. If you want more detailed steps as to how I fill in my brows, you can click here for my blog post, or here for my YouTube video. After my brows are filled in, I’m going to prime my eyes with MAC Pro Longwear Concealer in the shade NW20, and blend that out with a damp beauty blender. I prefer the beauty blender over say, my fingers because I’ve noticed I get a much more even base on my lids, and then while I have the concealer out, I’m going to grab any flat definer brush (I used the Karity E26) to clean up and carve out my brows, making them nice and neat and defined. Then I’ll set the entire area with Coty Airspun Powder and a Real Techniques Setting Brush, to ensure that the shadows I’m using next will blend smoothly.
Now I’m going to grab my Morphe M441 (any long hair blending brush will do) and pick up some Makeup Geek ‘Beaches and Cream’ to use as my transition shade. It’s just slightly darker than my skin tone, and using a shade like this will help any darker shades go on so much more smooth. I’m going to work this all over the crease area, back and forth, blending in circles, making sure there are no harsh lines.
Then I’ll take a Morphe M433 (which is just a smaller, shorter hair blending brush) and picking up some Makeup Geek ‘Cupcake’, start working that into the crease just a little lower than the transition shade. Same motions, back and forth, just keep it a little lower. You want to be careful when you’re working with pink shades, because you can end up looking sick or like you have pink eye if you get too crazy; the next step will help us avoid that!
Next, on a tapered blending brush (I used the Morphe M330), I’m going to pick up some Makeup Geek ‘Frappe’, which is a nice warm, medium toned brown shade that will create a beautiful shadow or contour to the eye. I’m going to focus that more on the outer third of the eye, and once I don’t have as much product on my brush, I’m going to begin to swoop it into the crease, but no further than about the middle of the eyebrow. Then I’ll go back with my M433 and use whatever is left of ‘Cupcake’ on that to blend out any harsh edges (don’t add additional shadow to the brush for this step, just blend!).
Now for the fun part – I’m going to first apply some NYX Glitter Primer to my lid, but only the inner half, and here’s why; I don’t want it all the way to the outer corner because after we apply this next shadow, and then sort of ombre them together, using a matte shadow on a blending brush over a tacky glitter primer will just make your shadow patchy and impossible to blend.
So rather than use my finger, I’m going to use a tiny little flat, synthetic haired eyeshadow brush from ULTA (it came in a ‘gift with purchase’) and apply my primer from the very inner corner, following along my natural crease, and sort of start to feather it across the lid as there is less and less on my brush; so you want the most product on the inner corner, then less and less as you move across the lid.
Then, using a Morphe M167 brush (or any flat packing brush), I’m going to apply L’Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in Amber Rush pretty generously on that inner corner, and lighter towards the center, kind of feathering it out. Once you have every tacky, primered area covered, you can go back with that ‘Frappe’ color we used on the outer corner, and gently blend it together with the ‘Amber Rush’.
I felt like this look called for a pretty dramatic winged liner, so using my absolute favorite Maybelline Eyestudio Gel Liner in Blackest Black, and a Karity E22 brush, I’m going to create the most perfect, razor sharp wing I think I’ve EVER done on myself in one try! If you want to see a winged liner tutorial, I’ll link that blog post here.
Moving on to the skin, finally! I’m going to start by using two different primers, for two different reasons; I get oily in my t-zone, so for that I love the Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer. Everywhere else on my face has gotten very dry lately (I blame my turning 30 two days ago!), so to add some luminosity, I’ll use the L’Oreal Magic Lumi Light Infusing Primer everywhere else. Once my primer has a chance to sink in, I’m going in with the L’Oreal True Match makeup in N3, and after dotting it all over my face (lightly; you can always add more!), I’m going to begin blending it out with a flat top kabuki, like a Sigma F80, first in stippling motions, then buffing, and then I’ll pounce over everything with a very damp beauty blender to make sure I’m picking up any excess foundation that might make me look cakey.
Now to conceal and highlight, I’m using my absolute HG concealer, the Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Complete Coverage Concealer in Light Warm, and blending it out with a, you guessed it, damp beauty blender (this thing does it all for me!).
Once my concealer is all blended, I’m going to use that same damp sponge to pick up my It Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores Loose powder and bake under the eyes, my chin, my upper lip, and from the center of my forehead, down the bridge of my nose. To set the rest of my foundation, I’ll apply the same powder using an e.l.f. Powder Brush.
After a few minutes, I dust away the excess powder from baking, and grabbing a large angled contour brush from Walgreens (it’s old but it’s amazeballs!) I’m going to apply my Benefit Hoola Bronzer to my forehead, the cheeks, and my jawline and neck, just to bring some color back to my face.
To contour, I’m going to use one of my faves, the NYX HD Blush in Taupe, on a NARS Ita brush, and take that to the hollows of my cheeks, my temples, jawline, and down the sides of my nose.
Still feeling pretty pale, I grabbed my trusty Morphe E4 and my favorite “drugstore” blush, the ULTA Cheek Color in Sunkissed. This even has a little bit of a sheen to it, making it a beautiful color for any occasion, but you know me, I wanna glow to the heavens!
Using Colourpop Super Shock Cheek Highlight in Wisp, which is a beautiful golden shade, I’m going to apply that with my fingers (the best way for this formula, I think!) to the top of my cheekbones, down the center of my nose as well as on the very tip, and my cupids bow.
With my powder and concealer and basically the rest of my face done, it’s time to move onto the lower lash line. Grabbing another (clean) flat definer brush like the Morphe M432, I’m going to pick up some black eyeshadow (I used a Morphe single eyeshadow in the shade Coal), and I’m going to really work that as tight as possible against my lower lash line, and bring it tight into the outer corner to meet that wing. I also want to bring it towards the inner corner (which I rarely do) to get that super squinty, smokey look. Then taking a Morphe M431 (any pencil brush works fine) I’m going to pick up a little more Makeup Geek ‘Frappe’ and use that to smoke out that black shadow. Just run it over the black line that you created on your lower lash line, back and forth; don’t be afraid to really smoke it out – that’s what makes this eye look so dramatic and fun! Then I lined my upper and lower waterline with Rimmel Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Eyeliner in Black, and rather than use falsies (because not everyone is comfortable with them) I really loaded on the Maybelline The Falsies Mascara to both my top and bottom lashes, after priming my lashes with Tarte Opening Act Lash Primer.
And finally, since my eyes are so bold, I really wanted to keep a neutral lip, so I lined and filled in my lips with NYX Slim Lip Pencil in Peekaboo Neutral, and then topped it off with Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Creme Brûlée. After a quick blast of your favorite setting spray, you’re ready to take on Vegas!!
I hope you guys enjoyed this makeup look! If you recreate it, be sure to tag me on Twitter or Instagram!
What are some of your favorite products for getting glam?! Leave me a comment and let me know!
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LOTS OF LOVE!!
I actually love every single one of their eyeshadows, but I find myself reaching for this shade a lot lately for a soft highlight under the brow, or better yet, as sort of a magic eraser when your smokey eye gets away from you, which is probably what I use this most for. All you do is lightly dust a little over everything from your crease to your brow, and it diffuses the look just enough so it looks like your blending skills are pro-status!
I feel like it’s too soon to put this in a monthly favorites because I haven’t even had it an entire month yet, but I am so in love with this powder! I just picked this up a couple weeks ago on the first day of ULTA’s ’21 Days of Beauty Steals’, which means I only paid $12 for it, and let me tell you, I would absolutely pay full price for this product. It’s amazeballs!! It’s a very finely milled setting powder that contains a host of anti-aging ingredients and blurs fine lines and pores. I’ve worn this over a full face of makeup, and today I wore it over a tiny bit of concealer and nothing else, and either way, it makes my skin look incredible! I highly, highly recommend this product!!
I finally replaced my old, dried up one! When I de-cluttered my mascaras (click here to read that post) I mentioned keeping the old tube of basically nothing to remind me to buy a new one because I love it so much. Then I caught it on sale, and bought two! What I really love about this mascara is not only the length and volume it gives to my lashes, but the regular, washable, non-waterproof formula has the staying power of a waterproof formula! It doesn’t flake, and it doesn’t smudge under my bottom lashes like most mascaras do to me. But for something so solid, when I get it all over my eyes (like we all can tend to do) because well, the brush is gigantic and I can’t apply mascara like a grown woman, it’s super easy to flake off with a Q-tip once it’s dry! You’d never know it was there!
I think this was my very first Makeup Geek purchase; actually, almost as soon as they launched I was committing my credit card to them – and I’ve hardly used anything else to contour with since! There are eight shades, broken into warm and cool skin tones, ranging from porcelain to deep, and they are without a doubt amazing!!! Creamy, pigmented, insanely blendable; ya know, all the qualities of a great product, and what you’d expect from Makeup Geek as a brand. I have two of the eight shades; Infidelity and Breakup (cool porcelain and cool fair) because I prefer a cool-toned contour shade, however I plan to add more to my collection for the purposes of freelancing. They’re even sold in a bundle of all eight shades for $65, which is a steal!
I filled in my brows using the 
Affordable Gorgeous 