Hi girls, long time no posties! I still come around very daily to look at all your beautiful FOTDs. Well I hope I'm posting this in the right forum. I'm not sure where to start, so bear with me here, I might end up writing a book . I thought about what I might want to say in bed last night, but now I'm just drawing a blank

I remember asking for eyeshadow recs when I joined 4-5 years ago, but I'd say my looks have slightly changed so recs may have very well changed, as well. I have various samples in mostly neutral-ish tones (if you want I can name them all later, I don't have tooo many) but when I look at them all laid out, I get overwhelmed and just grab a nude color for lid, light brown for crease and a brown eyeliner pencil. I haven't really played with my samples very much, so those colors I pick are usually non-AL. I'm not creative, not in the least, so it's hard for me to come up with pretty combinations. Especially when I look at all your FOTDs and they end up being over 3 colors, oof-da! I don't know how you guys do it! I can say, so far I haven't found a blue I've looked good in. I tend to just wear neutral browns or green or purple if i'm feeling daring . But also, I've never really gotten them to look nice or neat ON me. I have very veiny eyelids, large blue veins running from under my eyebrows by my nose down to my dark dark purpley circles. So far with concealer I'm just settling, I wear a Covermark mixture of bisque and pale beige and I don't think it quite matches, plus it tends to look cakey because I need a lot.

As for blush, I wish I could wear it, but I get rosacea flare-ups almost nightly (it always seems to show up at night, unless it's very hot outside) so I'm not sure if I can ever wear it. Unless there's some blush AL has that tones down redness?

Lips, well, I usually never wear anything on my lips except Vaseline. I do have a full-size of Darling, but I think it might be a bit too cool or too purplish on me. I don't like really dark or red colors, I like to stick to MLBB shades.

I did just place an order this weekend (all samples except Tea Rose PH as my freehue) for the Carolina Summer matte collection, Jasmine, Bamboo and Ginger Opulents, pink and light beige concealers, and Gossamer and Crush.

So anyway, here's a picture for reference. I think my hair (that's the natural color, it's blah hehe) is actually a bit lighter in person, as is my eyes (which are mostly green, liiiittle bit blue, around the pupil is a bit of brownish yellow?). I think I lean toward warm undertones, with pink overtones because of my rosacea. My skin is calm though here, and I do have makeup on except foundation. I actually wear a liquid foundation, I don't think my skin reacts very well with mmu

I like to believe that there are no rules when it comes to colors. It's not always about what colors you "should" wear, but more about what makes you feel good!

Why not take those neutral browns, add them to the crease, then give your lid a bright splash of color? From your picture it seems that some of your lid shows when your eyes are open. I think with a little liner, it helps the lid color tone down some if it seems to bright for you.

I found a particularly nice combination of Cypress OL on lid, Solange BN and Coco Bean PH in the crease. I think that may look somewhat nice on you. Tea Rose PH is one of my favorite colors paired with any shade of green. It reminds me of flowers. Or perhaps a warm purple like Arielle? A nice light, sparkly blue like Cielo that starts on the inner eye and darken it with Sapphire (another fav) or Peacoat with a dash of Ebony or Umber (super blended) in the crease. I think your eye shape could hold a darker crease quite nicely. Aloe as a green could look super pretty on you also.

I'm not very good at offering color suggestions. I myself, almost never wear the same combination twice unless I really like it. And the colors I mentioned above are what I picked based on if I were going to do your eyes myself.

HTH

Hi Ashley!

First off, you are very pretty For eyeshadow choices, I think warmish pastels would be a good place to start. Tea rose is a great choice! You've got a really nice, high brow and lots of space b/w your crease and your brow bone, so you have the option of keeping a darker crease shadow just in the crease, or bringing it upwards towards your brow for a more dramatic effect. (I've got deep set eyes with a relatively low brow, so I always bring my crease shade up a bit). For the redness, both yellow and green (first choice) concealers would work. Green is for more heavy-duty redness covering. I see that you said you can't wear mmu on as a foundation. Have you tried the new glissade? It is coated with silicone which protects your skin from the ingredients in mmu. It is for women with dry and/or sensitive skin. Also, I have read great things a/b Nocturne for rosacae prone and dry skin. Plus, it is on sale until tomorrow!

I can see how purpleish lippies wouldn't look natural on you (although I sometimes go for a not natural look ) Any of the warmer toned color creams should be fine b/c their color is very subtle. A/b blush, even when my skin is getting red in the cheek area, I can put green cream concealer on first, then foundation, and then blush, and the final result is a more "even" blush. I actually like wildflower rouge for this purpose, b.c. for some reason the purple color seams to help tone down redness too as opposed to a straight up pink or red blush. (you could sample that, those rocks! blush samples will last you many months). Hope this helps and you enjoy your samples! Feel free to post pics!

Welcome back Ashley!

Blush - I have rosacea and always shied away from blush, fearing it would make me redder, and I never found a blush I liked. But after switching to Aromaleigh, my rosacea has been much better behaved. There are some days I'm a little redder (certain foods trigger my rosacea), those days I just skip blush and the natural redness makes it look like I've got it on anyway. But don't discount it, you should definitely order a couple of samples. You never know when you'll find something you love! You can use either the regular blushes/rouges, the perle powders (which are nice & light and will give you a bit of shimmer....I just adore Lux for a highlight!), or even some of the Pure Hue multi purpose powders.

As far as shadow colors, we do tend to stick with the colors that we feel most comfortable in. The neutral shades must look gorgeous on your eyes. If you want to start to experiment, take small steps. While many FOTD posts use lots of colors, there's also many that only use 2 or 3. Quite frankly, you're a beautiful girl, and you're be hard pressed to convince me there's anything you couldn't wear and look fantastic in.

Use the Shop By Color feature - take a look at shades you normally wear and pick something else in that same color family, but something a bit bolder, brighter, or more shimmery than you'd normally wear. If you normally reach for "Shell" why not try a sample of Teddy Wisp or Entangle? Doing it this way will help you slowly venture out of your safe zone, and soon you'll realize you CAN wear loads of colors. You'll start sampling bolder colors - before you know it you'll be wondering how you lived without vivid color.

As far as the foundation, what kind of reaction do you have? Do you feel it just doesn't give you the right amount of coverage? If it's been a while, maybe sample it again. Glissade is now paraben free, and of course both Glissade and Viole are bismuth free. We can all give you lots of tips on foundation and application, if you do decide you want to give it another try.

I hope you do start to post looks, whether they be neutral or not. Most of the ladies here do wear a neutral look most of the time, so it's always great to see. And feel free to jump into the Weekly Challenges - they're a great way to start trying colors you might not have otherwise tried.

Hi Ashley,

You've received some great advice here. I don't really have anything to add other than I agree with Cindy that you should join in on the weekly makeup challenge. It's a coincidence that right before I read your post, I posted the new colors for the challenge. They happen to be "pair any color with brown." This would give you the perfect opportunity to try one of your samples that you've been shying away from. Put the new color on your lid, brown in the crease and a lighter neutral (a vanilla or light beige tone) on your brow bone. There you've got it - 3 colors! Add your brown pencil right above your lashes and you're all set.

Thank you, ALL of you! You girls have really helped a lot, I just have to wait awhile till I place another order

FH: I like your idea of the browns with the brighter color! And the combinations you listed sound very pretty I'll have to try them.

HL: Thanks! I have tried both G and V, I always seemed to get bumpies. I also tended to use a lot, it didn't really look like a lot on me, but I sure used up the samples fast. I also tried Nocturne and got pretty dry, it wasn't for me . And maybe for blush, I could try the fiber optic brush, maybe that would help.

Cin: I would have never thought you had rosacea! I'll def. get a FO blush brush and some samples for my next order. Shop by color is a nice feature, I think i'll have to turn to it more often. With the foundation it seemed like I got more clogged pores, but I suppose I can't pin it directly on the fdtn, it could've been any number of things, really.

Robyn: The weekly challenge would be a great way to start out, indeed! I'm at my parents and they just took a 2 week vacation with the camera, so I won't be able to join in just yet, but I might also need to get some issues with it sorted out first. Taking a close-up of my eyes with macro on and flash off is still bright but also very blurry, even with a steady hand. Macro on and flash on is just bright


edited to add: What are some good eyeshadow/liner brushes?

hi Ashley, and welcome back to AL! you're a beautiful girl, and I'd never have guessed that you have any kind of problems w/your skin at all...

the other ladies have given you some wonderful advice, so I don't have much to add, other than to suggest maybe checking the "quick combos" thread for some easy e/s combos, as many of them are simple, 2-colour looks (but w/o pix incl'd, which is part of the "quick" factor) -- hth!

*MWAH!*
Tanya

Thank you, Tanya! Yeah, most of it creeps up in the evening, I'm usually okay during the day. And thank you for this link, this will be very helpful!

Aww, sorry to hear that you have tried both nocturne and glissade with no luck. Actually, Staci recently posted that she might be allergic to the silicones in glissade. here So sometimes you just can't win Well, hope to see some FOTDs from you!