Test-Driving Spring Beauty Trends

I scoured the beauty section of Spring 2011 Fashion Week for the best beauty trends on the runways. These are the looks that stood out to me, as well as my take on them all!

Bright Eyes

Instead of all over bright color (because I'm not a drag queen), I went with a wash of light grey on the lid, with a swipe of electric blue (MAC Freshwater, to be exact) on the lower lashline. A pearly chartreuse would be really pretty, too! This is a great way to experiment with off-the-wall colors without looking like a HTM (hot tranny mess).

Neon Mouth

In all honesty, I never do a bold lip. Ever. I'm a super boring nude-lip-girl and I literally never change it up. I was really surprised when I slapped on this neon pink (I think it's MAC Chatterbox, but I melt all my lipsticks into a palette, so I could be wrong) and actually liked it. A lot. One note with this look (and all bold lip colors in general): you must use a lip brush. I cannot stress this enough.

Grey Smokey

It's a grey smokey eye, you really can't go wrong. For this look, I used (order is lightest to darkest) White Frost, Scene, Smut, and Carbon, which are all MAC shadows. To learn the smokey eye technique, follow the directions for "Look Two" in this tutorial!

Burgundy Lips

Don't be scurred, this is a multi-step process. You know I would not go out in public looking like this. First, line your lips with a dark brown or burgundy liner, I used brown. And yes, with dark lip colors you need a liner. And a lip brush.

With your lip brush, blend the edges of the liner until all the harsh (read: chola) lines are gone.

Then, using your brush fill your lips in with a rich burgundy lipstick and top it off with a little gloss on the center of your bottom lip. Only putting gloss on the bottom center will prevent the dark color from moving around on your lips. Dark lipstick plus a ton of glass equals a HTM, emphasis on the mess.

Cornered

This look is interesting, but a wee bit creepy, no? I made it a little more wearable by using a bright white instead of pale blue, and keeping the color confined to the inner corner of the eye, as opposed to having it diffuse out to the nose. Not bad, but a little alien-esque for everyday wear. (And yes, I know, I have a lot of freckles!)

Metallic Eyes

 You generally have two choices with this look, a sparkly metallic shadow, or full on glitter. If you choose to use glitter, make sure you're using cosmetic grade glitter, not regular old craft store glitter, or else it will tear up your eyeballs. You have been warned.

For this look, I used a lid primer then patted on a sparkly shadow (MAC Honey Lust). Make sure to pat on the color. If you swipe, you'll just wipe previous layers off and you won't get the saturation of the sparkle.

I then added a loose bronze glitter on top of the shadow, again, patting it on. Adding the glitter definitely amps up the sparkle. It's a little much (okay, a lot much) for day-to-day wear, but I could definitely see wearing this look for a fun night out. The grey smokey eye (above) would look amazing with some grey glitter patted on top!

Would you wear any of these Spring beauty trends in real life?