Nora's Makeover

Hello friends--

I'm gonna take us back a few weeks, to New Years Eve!

On NYE I had a very light work day. 

That said, I put out a text to a few lady friends as I was feeling festive and inspired from my one client earlier that day! 

My good friend Nora immediately jumped on board. She of course brought some pink champagne with rock candy lollipops for an exceptionally fabulous glass of bubbly-- 

and we made her up!

Here is the lovely Nora:

Let me just start by saying that Nora is just stunning without makeup! She has a beautiful face with gorgeous features (umm, how can you not notice those peepers?!), and an even more beautiful heart. She is incredibly real, fun(ny), smart, giving and thoughtful. I am truly grateful to have her in my life.

She is also quite a talent! While she won't own up to it, she is an incredible photographer and has a knack for styling. 

You can check out her blog HERE!

On to the makeup!

The Look
Before and After

Nora takes incredibly good care of herself. 

Seriously. 

I could learn from her. 

Her skin is practically flawless-- a blemish or two-- but overall her skin felt hydrated, supple and was pretty much even in tone. Making my job incredibly easy! 

Whenever I see Nora she usually has a pretty laid back makeup look-- she generally keeps it simple. On occasion I've seen her play up her eyes bit. 

She gave me complete freedom to do what I wanted-- and while I wanted to do something fun for the evening, I also didn't want to stray too far from her personal comfort zone. 

I've played that game before...

X "you can do whatever you want!"

ME "Really? great!"

X "oh, I like it but... "
Sidenote--
While having creative freedom is FABULOUS-- what's even more fabulous is being honest about what you want/like/dislike, so I can do my job :) Don't be shy to tell your artist what you want! 

Back to the look--

Here's what we did...

Skin Prep:

I applied a small amount of an intense moisturizer to her skin. Nora favors to the dry side, and while she felt pretty hydrated, I wanted to make sure her skin felt dewey (as described in my post about skin prep, HERE). 

From there, I prepped her lips with a balm and applied an eye primer from the lash line to the brow. I used Urban Decay's in SIN, which is a champagne shimmer. 

Eyes:
I started out by using MAC's Deep Damsen (a beautiful dark maroon) Matte eyeshadow from her lash line to just below her natural crease. I packed it on with a flat shadow brush. From there, I took a blending brush and softly blended the color into her crease.

I then took MAC's soft shimmer tones Shroom and Naked lunch, and applied them on the inner corner of the eyes.

From there, I took MAC's eye liner in Smolder and applied it on the inner rims of her eyes (both upper and lower lash lines).

I then took a black gel liner with a thin pointed brush and lined the top of her eye-- extremely thin on the inner corner and getting thicker as I move towards the outer corner.

I go over this liner with an angle hair brush coated in MAC's carbon eyeshadow, softly blending the black shadow up into the crease.
Buff the black shadow and the original maroon shadow gently in the crease.

Next, I took Makeup Forever's Flash Palette (which I LOVE!), and took a little of the gold on my finger tip and placed it on the center of her lids.

I added a nice coat of mascara--
Nora has CRAZY amazing lashes so I didn't feel the need to apply falsies. Not to mention-- for NYE she was keeping it low key-- headed to a small gathering with close friends. If she was going to a concert, or a venue with dark lighting-- I would have added them :)

That's pretty much it for the eyes! 

For the rest of her face, I actually airbrushed her. She hadn't experienced the airbrush foundation before, so I figured, why not :)

That said, I cleaned up any fall out and mess from the eyes (that's why I do eyes first :)), re-hydrated where necessary, and then primed her skin.

From there I used concealer to cover what little discoloration she had. Pretty standard places (under eyes, around the nose, chin).
I then took a very dark brown concealer and used it to contour her face. Contouring adds some dimension and helps to enhance features. I did this on her cheekbones, the nose, and around the forehead.

Then I airbrushed the foundation.

I gently filled her brows with a powder.

Set her foundation with a light dusting of Makeup Forever's HD powder.

Applied a soft pink/peachy blush, a soft pink lip liner and some gloss, and she was good to go!!

Yay for Nora letting me post these photos!!

Hope you enjoyed the look!

XOXO JEN