Makeup blogs to follow?

[afuna]

Errrrr so I've fallen into the abyss which is makeup stuff online. Anyone have any recs for sites to watch / blogs to follow?

A great example of what I'm hoping to find more of is Brightest Bulb in the Box: funny, geeky (her beauty bullshit posts often contain images of the chemical structure of the molecules :D also statistics :DD), some meta, and some product reviews. I'd love to find something more like that out there, I just don't know where to start.

What I'm craving: anything that talks about makeup as... something to geek out over, without necessarily going for the buy/not-buy (individual products) angle. Less videos more photos/text; videos take too much time and my attention wanders (which unfortunately means I tend to skip most look tutorials).

I also appreciate pointers to blogs that focus on product reviews, but I tend to be very careful and picky. I adore posts which include like whether something might work okay in hot weather or with oily skin or the like -- context so I know if the results might apply to me or not! Brightest Bulb in the Box does a fantastic job of that :D (I ummm really wish I could find a blog exactly like that, written by someone with my skin coloring though, then when there are swatches I can just go :DDDD)

I've been trying to look, but googling makeup just brings you to people who are trying to sell you stuff. So here I am hoping/asking for recs :D


ETA: AHEM also also in sort of related... thing. Eye makeup that tells a story. There's a whole bunch of things there: some are inspired by fairy tales (I adore the Cinderella one -- wee shoe right at the edge of the eye!). Some are cute (black cat with a ball of yarn \o/). Some are just... weird (Heisenberg from Breaking Bad :x). They're all pretty cool though.

Note: makeup on the eyelids features a lot of open eyes, in case eye contact is an issue for you -- I'm not sure if the fact that the eye is surrounded by a picture is enough to make a difference to context.

Comments

[nou]

That eye makeup link is amazing!

[momijizukamori]

Oooh, that blog looks interesting! I don't have any recs, unfortunately, but I'll keep an eye out - I've been trying to learn how to do this make-up thing (you know, ten years after most of my other white middle-class American peers did), mostly as it pertains to costuming - the sorts of visual tricks you can do with different eye make-up, etc.

[afuna]

Oh neat! Stage / Cosplay makeup yeah? As far as I can tell it's a different discipline lots of other considerations.


It sounds fun. I wish you luck :)

[momijizukamori]

Well, stage make-up ends up being different than cosplay make-up, even - stage stuff has to be really exagerated to be noticeable from off-stage, and it's usually not worn all day so some of the products don't last as long/tend to cause acne and stuff.

[afuna]

Oh! Interesting, I can see now how those are two totally different things.

Also that's a very useful tip, I'll have to be careful when looking at stage makeup brands (which occasionally are mentioned in regular everyday makeup blogs G)

[momijizukamori]

Yeah - some of them can be fine for everyday wear, but some are more oily and stuff. Cosplay make-up is like... trying to pull of stage make-up tricks in an everyday make-up look, basically. I should look around for places with good tutorials....

(particularly for eye make-up because EYELINER HOW DOES IT WORK)

[afuna]

Oh man eyeliner :| (Granted I ADORE eyeliner, it does for my eyes what everyone else swears mascara does for theirs but I can't quite seem to get anything in dramatic effect, just really really discreet ahha)

[momijizukamori]

Right now I'm happy if I can get a mostly straight line and don't poke myself in the face - I'm seen lots of cosplay tutorials for using eyeliner to simulate different eye shapes but most of them are by Asian girls and I have basically the polar opposite type of eyelid - instead of no fold, mine are 'hooded' aka if my eyes are open almost no eyelid is visible.

[afuna]

....oh man. You just totally explained why so many makeup tutorials out there that I've run into make no sense to me. Tutorial: "brush color onto your x" Me: "but that... what is an x, I can't find my x ;_;"

[momijizukamori]

Yeah there's sort of a continuum of eye-socket/eyelid shapes and I think the majority of tutorials are written for 'average western eyes', ie, slight crease but not really deeply set. On either end you have the typical 'Asian' eyes (which I realize not all people of Asian decent have) where the eyes aren't deeply set at all and don't have a crease, to me where they're very deeply set.

I'm not sure I've seen many tutorials on 'regular' make-up looks for Asian eyes but there are a loooot of cosplay-related tutorials, and some of them are for natural-looking make-up for cosplay, which might help? I found a great one on changing eye shape and then realize NOPE NOT GOING TO WORK FOR ME because I cannot do liner like that on my eyes.

[alexbayleaf]

A while ago commodorified put me onto a beauty writer called Sali Hughes who's pretty good. Not geeky in quite the way you're looking for, but pretty common-sense and doesn't push my "ugh" buttons for whatever that's worth. She writes for the Guardian and maybe other places, and also has her own site.

[afuna]

Thank you, that's a great rec.

Re: explicit geekiness, that was always a bit of a bonus (though I realize rereading my entry it doesn't come off that way!). What I've been craving for is a down-to-earth practical mindset, skeptical enough that it's not just about chasing the latest beauty trends, but not so skeptical that all the fun is leeched away.

So far this has been pretty much right up my alley. I'm devouring the articles she has up :)

[alexbayleaf]

Oh good! It sent me on a backread, too. Which is funny because I'm in a soap-and-water phase right now, but maybe tomorrow I'll crack out the eyeliner or something.

[ephemera]

That story-telling eye make up is *incredible*