Although Cozmetic Lab professional mineral makeup has a beautiful range of primarily shimmer or frosted eyeshadows, there are not enough matte shadows for my makeup artistry needs. In my view, matte is more subtle, and subtle is more sophisticated. Accordingly I have sourced another range of eyeshadows from Elemental Beauty to supplement my core products.
I spent a very rainy Sunday morning today going through my eyeshadow palette trying to discover which colour combinations work well together. Here are a few suggestions to try:
Matte shadows:
Blues - Elemental Beauty Smoke / Pewter / Midnight
Neutrals - Elemental Beauty Seashell / Sunset / Suede
Elemental Beauty Smoke / Cashmere / Cozmetic Lab Neutral Bay
Apricot & Greens - Elemental Beauty Sunset / Armed Forces / Pea
Plums - Cozmetic Lab Melbourne City / Elemental Beauty Cashmere / Cozmetic Lab Hayman Paradise
Shimmer shadows:
Blue/Green - Elemental Beauty Envy / Cozmetic Lab Blue Mountain Mist / Reef Delight
Neutrals - Elemental Beauty Sunset / Cozmetic Lab Mount Warning Sunrise / Arnham Dreamtime
Elemental Beauty Suede / Cozmetic Lab Up The Yarra / Broken Hill / Cooper Pedy Opal
Earth tones - Elemental Beauty Suede / Armed Forces / Cozmetic Lab Kakadu Discovery
Blues - Cozmetic Lab Daydream (Matte) / Palm Cove / Moreton Sapphire
Having done my homework, I then decided to use the above information i.e. one of the neutral shimmer combos to create a sparkling eye look suitable for a bride as follows:
Highlight - Cozmetic Lab Cooper Pedy Opal - top of browbone & inner corner of eye to halfway across the mobile lid; then wrapped around under lower lashes in classic v- shape. Also, Lavera #2 on the inner corners of the eyes and very top of brow bone to emphasise the eye-opening 'sparkle'
Midtone - Elemental Beauty Suede - from outside corner of eye to the middle of mobile lid to just above the socket line and also along the bottom lashline
Contour - Lavera #2 (Grey/brown) - along upper lashes and marking browbone on outside edge and third of upper lid. Also two thirds across lower lashline
Eye pencil - Lavera Kohl #1 (Black) - marked upper lashes to the middle of the eye, blending inwards
Mascara - I curled my lashes then applied one coat of primer, one coat of Lavera black mascara and one coat of Blinc black mascara to the upper lashes only
Eyebrows - Body Shop Charcoal - lightly brushed colour through eyebrows to define - then Blinc primer to keep them in place
Foundation - Cozmetic Lab foundation in Natural - applied all over face with velour puff then a second layer pressed on after concealer
Concealer - Elemental Beauty 'personalised' concealer mixed with Primavera Hydrating moisturiser and applied prior to foundation under eyes around nostrils, corners of mouth and areas of hyperpigmentation, broken veins etc.
Bronzer - Elemental Beauty Radiance
Finishing powder - Elemental Beauty Matte
Blush - Elemental Beauty Fudge
Lipliner - Cozmetic Lab Blossom
Lipstick - Lavera #15 - light red
The mineral concealer mixed with hydrating cream and applied with a brush and stippled into my skin (with fingers) worked brilliantly well - it glided onto my skin without dragging (especially useful for under my eyes) and concealed more effectively than any other method I've tried. I then rolled and pressed my foundation over the top of the concealer with a velour cosmetic sponge so that it didn't budge. I only needed one application of foundation to achieve a flawless finish.
Today I opted for mineral blush but kept it matte so as not to compete with the eye makeup. I also applied a matte finishing powder and avoided lip gloss for the same reason.
The highlighter I'd chosen is unpredictable in application i.e. it doesn't go on very evenly. This is particularly noticeable under the inner corner of the eye when either too much or too little shimmer looks disjointed and amateurish. First I had to tidy it up by partly removing it with a dampened Q-Tip and then I had to re-emphasise the sparkling effect by applying Lavera highlighter #2 on top. Also, to the arch of the browbone. Cozmetic Lab's Up The Yarra didn't give enough oomph to the look so I ended up substituting Lavera's #2 eyeshadow (dark brown/grey) as the contour shade to create more impact.
For this look it's important that only the 'sparkling' eyes stand out as sparkly i.e. I only want the highlighter to shimmer. This means that In spite of spending the best part of £750 on mineral makeup I still sometimes have to resort to Lavera and Dr Haushka (primarily - though I do use whatever else is in my kit) to get the look I am trying to achieve.
The finished result today is pretty and quite natural for a bride and the sparkle doesn't overpower even for daytime wear, however it still fails to tick all my boxes. I need more colour combinations (i.e. matte shadows) to experiment with for this particular eye makeup. Scores 8/10.