Tips & Tricks: New Year's Eve Masquerade Ball

2014 has been the most exciting adventure for the UnitWise Heroes. So much has happened and we are so thankful to have had you along for the ride. I'm telling you, this year has flown by so fast, it's enough to make your head spin. You know, we couldn't end this year with any ol'thing. The Heroes wanted to do something spectacular, extravagant, larger that life that would end this amazing year with the greatest celebration ever - with a little extra fancy thrown in.

So my dear reader, you are cordially invited to a very special edition of Tips & Tricks....please join me for a make up look to end 2014...The New Year's Eve Masquerade Ball!

I could hardly contain my excitement when planning out this makeup look. I got to incorporate glitter, and rhinestones, and bright beautiful colors to create a Masquerade mask for Hero Brittany. Before starting this look, I searched for a few reference photos. Then I sketched out where I was going to put the black lines and where certain designs were going to go. Now it's time to get the lovely Hero Brittany ready for her New Year's Eve Masquerade Ball.

Prep:
To prep the face, I applied an oil-control moisturizer followed by a mattefying primer in her T-Zone. Then I applied lip balm to her lips. Once her face was prepped, it was time for foundation.

Face:
I applied a yellow concealer under her eyes before I went in with foundation.

Trick: Applying yellow concealer before the foundation is a technique that really helps to cancel out dark circles under the eyes.

Next, I evened out her skin tone with a light layer of foundation. For any other spots she had, I went in with some concealer. Then, I lightly dusted her face with setting powder.



Eyes:
Once I applied an eye shadow primer, I went in with a transition color in Brittany's crease.

Tip: A transition color is a shadow that is close to your skin color. It helps with blending out shadows as you build up your color so you have no harsh lines. 

Brittany's favorite color is purple, so that was my inspiration for the colors I used. I went in with a dark purple in her crease, and extended out all the way to her temples. It will look a little funky at first, but remember this is going to be a mask. For her lid, I used a silver shade. I will be going over it in glitter, so i just wanted something light.




Next up was eye liner. I smudged a black liner on her upper and lower lash line. I didn't want to go too extreme with the liner, because we will be going over with black eye shadow and smoking it out. This look will have a lot going on, so I didn't want to have crazy eye liner going on too.












After the liner was on, I took the same purple shade and started creating a few designs for her lower lash line. To give more definition to the eyes, I went in with black eye shadow and an angle brush and started creating a smokey line that would resemble where eyes holes would be in a mask. I extended them towards the center of the nose for more drama. Then I started building up different colors and blending everything out. I used different shades of purples, blues and greens to create the coloring for the mask.








The Mask
To create the mask, I used a few reference photos to map out the lines. I tried a pencil liner to create the lines, but it didn't work very well. So, I used a small angle brush and black eye shadow. When the lines were mapped out, I went in with corlor to create the mask.


Trick: I would always blend out each color application before going on to the next for a color changing effect.

Before moving on to the glitterizing segment of this tutorial, I applied a few layers of mascara.

The Sparkle
This was Brittany's favorite part. You should have seen her face light up when I pulled out all the glitter and rhinestones, it was magical. Now, I didn't mention this before, but I didn't let Brittany hold a mirror this time, so she doesn't know what anything looks like. I have some great reaction shots that will be at the end of this blog, she was just precious.


You might not think this, but adding sparkle is an art. You don't want too much in one area. I applied the rhinestones to the end of lines and in the center of a few of the swirls. Then I went in with glitter to highlight. I added an extra fine glitter on her eye lids to create a subtle yet beautiful sparkle every time she would turn her head, or blink.

It just can't get over how amazing this look came out. Brittany is picture perfect for the Heroe's Masquerade Ball. Happy New Year from all of us here at UnitWise and we are so excited to start a new year with you and a whole new year of Tips & Tricks!

A Little Something Special To End The Last Tips & Tricks Blog for 2014
I mentioned before that Brittany wasn't allowed to see the makeup look until the very end. Since this look was more special and something I don't get to always do, I wanted to catch her reaction on film....