Fifty shades of me
When it comes to makeup, it’s possible to do more with less – you just have to know how to bend the rules, and where to draw the line. Rachel Lopez writes...
If, like me, you’re someone who likes wearing a full face every day (eye shadow, blush, mascara, lip colour, even brow powder), you’ll doubtless have people saying strange things to your face and thinking worse things behind your back. But one of the most comments that have come my way is, "Gosh you must have a ton of makeup!" Sometimes, there’s envy in this remark. But most often, it’s a judgment call on how much money (my own, not theirs, FYI) I’ve spent on cosmetics.
The truth of the matter is that my stash isn’t large at all. Everything I own fills a shoebox and still leaves 1/3rd of the space free. If you’re a canny consumer, you’ll learn how to choose, when to give in, what not to fall for and whom to trust. You’ll know how to do more with less and turn a bad investment around. If you’re not there yet, here are a few shortcuts:- Mix it up. For months, I didn't know what to do with two expensive presents in my stash - a brown MAC lipstick so light, it made me look like an undead extra on Twilight; and a colourless Dior lipgloss with a blue, hologram-like sheen. Until one day I decided to layer them with some dark lipsticks. Turns out, the light brown makes a fantastic base to turn fuchsia into bubblegum pink, to weaken burgundy gloss into a raspberry sorbet, and to amp up coral lipstick into a neon orange so fierce, I could team it with ’80s leotards and ‘pump up the jam’. As for the gloss, it shines up matte red lipstick and glams up my everyday browns. So many new colours without spending a penny! Oh, I also went crazy recently, looking for a matte navy eyeliner, till I realized that patting black shadow over my cheap cobalt liner gave me exactly what the stores couldn’t.
- Multitask. Lipstick on the cheeks as creme blush, mascara to comb and darken brows, shimmery gold eye shadow on the cheekbones as a highlighter, hand cream as eye cream, eyeliner as a whole eye shadow, powder blush as light eye shadow, and a layer of vaseline to sheer out a bold lip colour for a day look. And a little pot of fine gold/silver shimmer to take your existing day make up into night. It all works. Just steer clear of products that are marketed as "for cheeks and lips". They rarely work as they should and you'll be stuck with a multi-use product that you can't find a single good use for.
- Palettes are pleasing. They work out cheaper, let you use colours, textures and products you'd never considered before and they give you a nice idea about the kind of quality to expect in the rest of the range. The Body Shop's Shimmercubes are excellent for eye shadows, most international brands save their best palette collections for the Christmas and holiday season, air port duty free zones have super-priced sets that never make it to the malls, and MAC and Inglot let you pick and choose your own combinations.


