Oh so Pretty

As always, we’ve continued to have our eye on gems ever since the Annabelle-inspired beauty tutorial a few months back. Since March’s birthstone is the beautiful blue/green aquamarine (one of my personal favourite stones) we decided it made sense to try channeling it into a beauty look as well.

Bold colours can be hard to translate into the world of beauty without accidentally giving yourself a blue “bruised” eye look (don’t even get me started on the pink eye challenge), so we kept things simple with a few key products and a lot of blending. You can find the step by step below!

Scroll down for the full tutorial

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What we used from Annabelle //

Blue Hue Trio eyeshadow palette
Pearl Twist-up eyeshadow crayon
Self-Sharpening eye pencil in Ocean & Midnight
Big Show Waterproof mascara
Lipsies Diamond Lip Balm in Marshmallow

How we did it //

Start with a fresh clean palette, we recommend a thin layer of primer, covering the eye lids as well, we used Laura Mercier’s Foundation Primer. Use a light pressed powder like Charlotte Tilbury’s Airbrush Flawless Finish to even out complexion and get rid of shine as needed.

Our go-to eye illuminator is Charlotte Tilbury’s Miracle Eye Wand.

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Using Annabelle’s trio eye shadow palette, Sweep the lightest shade across the whole lid and up toward the brow bone.

Follow up with the medium shade in the crease of the lid making sure to blend, use the darkest shade in the very outer corners of the eye.

Use the Pearl eyeshadow crayon to highlight the inner corners of the eyes as well as the bottom outer corner. You can also apply it to the brow bone and cheeks as an illuminator.

With the self-sharpening eye liner draw a cat eye along the lash line and underneath the eye, we used a combination of Ocean and Midnight. Add some extra glittery-touches with Urban decay’s Heavy Metal Glitter liner in Distortion.

Apply a light dusting of an iridescent loose glitter powder, we used Limited Edition Shu Uemura’s Shupette Glitter Collection but try out Make up forever’s in Diamond

We recommend finishing the look off with some Big Show Mascara and Lipsies Lip Balm in Marshmallow.

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Oh so Pretty

So I have a confession to make: I’m not very good at painting my nails. I’m horribly impatient, and a total perfectionist, which makes nail painting of any sort nearly impossible for me, especially when it comes to nail art. Something about painting tiny shapes on my hands while simultaneously not being able to use said hands just doesn’t quite work out for me, and I always end up with smudged polish and a feeling of total disappointment when I try.

A couple months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Rita Remark backstage at the last World MasterCard Fashion Week, and she gave me a quick tutorial for the camo-inspired nails she created for Hayley Elsaesser‘s Fall 2015 collection. Using only the brush that comes in the nail bottle, she carefully dabbed on two different colours, and I instantly had a fun pattern on my nails! Inspired, and frankly very excited that I’d found nail art I might actually be able to do, I decided to play around and create my own pastel paintbox look using the same application technique.

Somewhere between globs of melting ice cream and abstract watercolour flowers, this mani is perfect for Spring, and oh so simple. Seriously, if I can do it, so can you!

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Pastel Paintbox Mani DIY //

1. Paint your nails a simple base colour, preferably a crisp white with good coverage (I used Misslyn “Snow White”). Make sure the base is completely dry before adding any extra colour on top!

2. Using the brush that comes with your polishes, start dabbing little blobs of colour on your nails in whatever formation you prefer. I recommend sticking to 3 pastel colours so your paws don’t end up looking too busy, but it’s really up to you! I used Essie “Bikini So Teeny”, L’Oreal “Butterfly Kisses”, and Revlon “Socialite”.

3. Once you’re happy with the pattern you’ve created, use a topcoat to seal the colour in and protect your work. I used Sally Hansen’s Double Duty base and top coat, and every couple of days I added another coat to keep the mani going for as long as possible.

That’s it! I told you it was foolproof.

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Get your hands on the latest nail looks at Shoppers Drug Mart. Plus, from May 23 – June 19, get 15x the Shoppers Optimum Points when you spend $15 or more on participating nail products. shoppersdrugmart.ca/nailthelook

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Disclosure: This post was brought to you by Shoppers Drug Mart via Mode Media Canada. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Shoppers Drug Mart.