How to Look Miserable.

I came to a really painful realization today-- burgundy lipstick ages me. I look about three years older in burgundy lipstick than I do in pink lipstick, and I don't like it at all. I've been made aware that when you have a lip color that strong, you have to keep the rest of the face really bare-- but when the sales associate told me to go "bare", I thought he was just telling me skip the eyeshadow and the blush. I didn't think that it meant foregoing everything else. I really want to pull off burgundy lipstick (I really do!), but I'm just having too much fun with eyeshadow and eyeliner, that I feel that I'd be adjusting my make-up routine just to accommodate this lip color.

I feel like burgundy lipstick is too sexy for me, for now at least. I look like a vamp. I've come to realize that if you take a tiny face with a giant forehead, large eyes and chubby cheeks (like features you'd expect to see in a small child), and paint it with really vampy colors, you get a certain look -- a miserable look. If you want to experiment, or if you simply want to force someone into organ donation, let me show you how I managed to color my face up to look miserable.

For a miserable person, I look awfully happy.

I've only recently learned to line my lower lash line. For the longest time, I've only been doing the upper lash line, and it's always been liquid since the day I've decided to give up on gel eyeliner completely. I'm actually really enjoying lining the lower lash line, but for that I'd use a pencil liner. I know it seems rather daunting to have to use two eyeliners for one eye, but that's what works for me.

I haven't been rocking the lower lash lining for very long, and to be honest, I'm still experimenting, but now I've learned that it doesn't look good without eyeshadow. Truth be told, I kind of look like a picture on a coloring book. Goodness, it's so awkward. For a similar look, I think I would just skip lining the bottom lashes.

I forewent blush and highlight. I just used my Maybelline Super BB Cream and then Maybelline Dream Satin Foundation on top, and then that's it! ..but you do know that if my lip color would be more on the fresh and neutral side, I'd totally jazz my cheeks up, riiight?

While we're on the subject of misery and negativity, let me share a few of my mistakes. You know, things I shouldn't do again.

Lipstick is almost always the last thing I put on when I do my make-up, so there shouldn't really be any reason for me to screw up my make-up beginning Step 1, but I guess having a new make-up look hanging over my head made me lose it a bit. I've been trying to improve my make-up technique, but oh well, screw-ups happen.

I don't know if you can see it, but there's this foundation demarcation going off to my hairline. I've recently learned a technique for graceful blending, but I just neglected applying it. Foundation should actually taper off towards the hairline. On a positive note, I've been using make-up sponges more now than ever before-- I used to be a stippling brush kind of girl, but after my friend gave me a Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge, I think I'm a changed woman. 

I've been using the middle shade of the Inglot Freedom System 112R Eyeshadow as a brow powder for quite some time now. I know it's a bit weird that I'm using an eyeshadow as a brow powder, but you know what?-- it actually performs well. My only problem is the technique, because sadly, I have a tendency to overdo, and my oh my, I overdid it today. 

Oh yeah, and I might need to change my brow color as well.

My skin has been exhibiting some red discoloration, possibly because of the heat as well. Having to deal with that, as well as a red-based lipstick calls for brows that are a little bit on the yellow side. My go-to brow color has too much red in it. I should probably rotate first.

Oh well, mistakes happen. Make-up fails happen. I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with make-up looks every now and then, as I feel that doing so helps define my so-called make-up personality. There are so many facets to people, I should say, and one make-up look will never really be enough to define a woman's personality. The Miserable Look was quite fun to explore, but I don't think that it's going to be a look I'll be having on very often. We live, we learn, we put on lipstick, and we learn some more. Okay? Okay!

By the way, if you think that I put on make-up just for a lovely afternoon at home, you'd be incorrect. I was actually getting ready to step out of the house and read a Pharmacology booklet, and if you think that I left the house looking like a vamp, you'd be incorrect as well. I kept the make-up, but put my loser face on.

Still miserable, but at least, a little bit productive.

Damn you, Corine Magenta. <3