Return of Sexy Look

Towards the end of October, I treated myself to the Too Faced Return of Sexy palette. I came back from a week-long vacation to a weekend of makeup jobs, followed by another - Halloween. So to prep for the madness, I made a "quick" trip to Sephora for some necessities, and decided to throw in a little something for me (not that I wouldn't eventually use everything else anyway), that had absolutely nothing to do with the makeup jobs. I fell in love with this palette because of the rich, metallic purples that I'd been craving (I love purples). The bronze and gold shades on the left end of the palette also drew me in. I was very intimidated by the greys, however. Greys can look very harsh, especially on olive-toned skin, but I decided that the price ($49) was definitely worth 2/3 of the palette. And the Perfect Eyes eyeliner (which is a really deep jet black, and amazing). And the travel-sized Shadow Insurance.


After wearing purple eyes to work four days in a row (purple can be very neutral, surprisingly), I finally gave the browns their share of face time and have been using both frequently since. I have owned the palette almost a month and had not once touched the greys until I sat down last weekend and forced myself to create a look with this last third of the palette. Greys are so out of my comfort zone, but I can't let any of Too Faced's gorgeous shadows go to waste and I want to be comfortable using shades I'm not used to. I worked for about an hour and ended up with a look I really loved - probably one of my favorites I've ever done on myself to-date. What I think really made it work and made the greys less harsh, was the transition shade I used -- a mixture of Buck from Urban Decay's Naked palette and Innocent from the Return of Sexy palette. The reason I borrowed from the Naked palette is because The Return of Sexy palette doesn't have matte shades, and matte shades are great as transition shades. I applied the combination of those two to my crease and blended with the dark greys which I applied from my crease down to my lash line. Looking back, I think next time I create this look I will use slightly less of the Innocent for a more opaque finish on that transition color. Either way, I went for high drama with this look with winged liner (which I rarely do), and even generously applied the silver (which I'm extra weary of) onto the inner corners of my eyes, which ended up making this a great, festive holiday look. I want to recreate this look with glitter in the inner corner and closer to my lash-line next time and really up the sparkle factor. Details of everything I used below.

FACE:
Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer 
Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse in Light Beige - Medium (applied with a Beauty Blender)
Benefit Lemon-Aid (under eyes, bridge of nose, bottom of forehead in between eyebrows)
Flower Beauty Lighten Up Illuminating Concealer in Shade 2
Too Faced Full Bloom Powder Blush in Sweet Pink (from Everything Nice palette)
Too Faced highlighter in Inner Light (exclusively from Everything Nice palette)
Too Faced Milk Chocolate Soleil (to contour cheekbones, nose and chin)
Flower Beauty Powder Up Loose Powder in L1 

EYES:
Flower Beauty Raise Some 'Brows Defining Brown Pencil in Dark Brown 
Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer (across entire lid and bottom lash line)
Flower Beauty Color Play Creme Eyeshadow in Good as Mari-Gold (as a base across lid)
Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Buck from Naked palette (on crease as transition shade)
Too Faced Eyeshadow in Innocent from Return of Sexy palette (on crease)
Too Faced Eyeshadow in Hollywood from Return of Sexy palette (lash line to crease)
Too Faced Eyeshadow in Beautymark from Return of Sexy palette (bottom  and top lash-line)
Too Faced Eyeshadow in 7 Year Itch from Return of Sexy palette (under eyebrow)
Too Faced Eyeshadow in Bombshell from Return of Sexy palette (inner corner, top/bottom lashline)
Nyx Cosmetics Gel Liner in Betty
Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Intense Black
Too Faced Perfect Eyes Waterproof Eyeliner in Perfect Black 
Nyx Cosmetics Jumbo Eye Pencil in Cottage Cheese (water line)

LIPS:
Too Faced Lip Insurance primer in Nude 
Flower Beauty Kiss Stick High Shine Lip Color in Baby Buttercup